Building up the Talent Pipeline in Cybersecurity

It’s no secret; the pandemic kicked off the great resignation. Organizations in all industries scramble for talent to fill open positions. One sector of vital importance in dire need of skilled workers to fill a talent pipeline in cybersecurity. A 2022 Cybersecurity Workforce Study concluded that the global cybersecurity workforce gap has increased by 26.2% compared to 2021, leaving a void of 3.4 million jobs.

The threats to global infrastructures and organizational networks are never-ending, and without a fully stocked cyber workforce, those threats create untold damage.

The question on Ron J Stefanski’s mind: is there a talent pool waiting in the wings to answer the call, and what are today’s disruptors doing to find this talent and bring them into the cybersecurity space? Two disruptors answered the call and joined Stefanski on DisruptED to talk about talent and to get the right people onto the bus.

Mark Jaster, Founder & CEO of FOUR18 Intelligence Corp, and Marlena Sessions, CEO of NOVAworks, spoke with Stefanski about the situation.

“The problem we are faced with today is there are way too many cyberattacks for our resources and our ability to defend them,” Jaster said. “We don’t have enough people, we don’t have enough knowledge about what’s happening, and it’s happening in real-time, incentivized by the payoff that the attackers have when they succeed.”

Stefanski, Jaster, and Sessions discuss the following:

  • Developing talent to match job seekers
  • How to create skills to increase the talent pipeline in cybersecurity
  • Finding people who may not be thinking of a cybersecurity role but who could be great candidates

“At NOVA works, we are stewards of our taxpayer dollars,” Sessions said. “We don’t say ‘no’ to any job seeker. Anybody can come in. I could find myself out of work or a laid-off mid-level career professional, but we do focus on certain areas of folks who might have been historically excluded.”

Mark Jaster is a growth strategist and innovator with a deep skill set and unique methods for solving the most complex problems of innovation strategy and product adoption in complex markets such as information systems, medical devices, biotechnology, and enterprise risk management. Jaster holds an MSE in Engineering Design & Management from Stanford University and a BSE in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University.

Marlena Sessions has over two decades of experience working to change lives. Before her role with NOVAworks, Sessions was the Executive Director for San Bernardino County Workforce Development Board, worked in leadership roles for Grant Associates, and led the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County as the COO and CEO for seventeen years. She holds her BA in History/Political Science from Whitworth University and her MA in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

community
Bringing Community into the Transformation of K-12 Schools: The Impact of Mentors, Local Voices, and Student Entrepreneurs
July 24, 2025

As K-12 schools across the U.S. struggle to recover from the learning loss and emotional fallout of the pandemic, a deeper reckoning is underway—one that challenges the very foundation of who’s responsible for educating our children. Despite billions in federal relief, a third of U.S. students are not even reading at a basic level…

Read More
9 Proven User-Generated Content Strategies That Actually Work
July 24, 2025

User-generated content has become the backbone of modern marketing—but most advice focuses on theory rather than execution. We asked nine marketing leaders who’ve built successful UGC programs to share exactly how they do it, what works, and what doesn’t. Here’s what we learned from their real-world experience. Start With Direct Customer Outreach Kyle Bernard, who…

Read More
Blending Intuition and Metrics to Elevate Sterile Processing
Smarter Sterile Processing Starts with Data—Boosting Efficiency, Cutting Costs, and Improving Patient Care
July 24, 2025

In a healthcare ecosystem increasingly driven by data, sterile processing departments (SPDs) find themselves at a crossroads—balancing precision and pace, safety and speed. As hospitals look to reduce inefficiencies and protect patient safety, analytics tools are transforming sterile processing from an often overlooked backroom function into a vital, data-enhanced frontline of care. Research shows…

Read More
college success
Freshman Year Survival Guide: How Overlooked High School Lessons Lead to College Success
July 24, 2025

Nobody warns you that college success isn’t just about brains — it’s about balance, too. In this refreshingly honest episode of Professional Quotient: Conversations that Build Equity, hosted by Jason Winningham, high school teacher Jacob Mutchler reunites with two of his former students, Lilly Salcedo and Oscar Davila, to reflect on what really mattered…

Read More