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Three Ways to Keep the Dream Alive

Career getting too predictable? We profile three security execs who found ways to keep their jobs exciting and their careers moving forward.

Baines says he does value a technical security education, but he believes more professionals would have fulfilling careers if they put that technical training in a broader context. Happiness in a job, he says, comes from being numerate, literate and articulate. Not about security, specifically, but about the world in which security exists.

Put plainly, Baines says, "My great-grandmother used to say, â¬ÜGet as many strings on your bow as you can.'"

Project Maven
Jennie Clinton, senior manager, business continuity management, T-Mobile

Career Path: security posts in five industries, business continuity recovery leader at AT&T Wireless

Dream aspects of her job: Freedom to build a department from the ground up

Jennie Clinton's career strategy follows a simple philosophy: "I'd rather be a clock maker than a clock-watcher."

That is, Clinton likes the process of building more than the process of managing. For her, keeping the trains running on time isn't nearly as interesting as having a major project to tackle. So imagine how happy she was when, about a year ago, T-Mobile offered her the opportunity to build a business continuity group from scratch. "This is the kind of thing that gets me excited to come to work," says Clinton, who is T-Mobile's senior manager of business continuity management. "For me, building something gives you that immediate sense of making a difference. It's much more rewarding."

At T-Mobile, Clinton is part of a broader security reorganization (see "Reinvention in Progress,"), but she has been given broad sway over business continuity. While she doesn't regret the choice to come to T-Mobile, she says the "dreaminess" of the job was tested early and often. Her first year was one of the worst hurricane seasons in history. "I had only been here a few months, and I was coming from an organization with 30 people. Here we were two. So we're trying to implement a smooth system while also having to deal with hurricane after hurricane. By Hurricane Wilma, the passion wasn't always there."

Hurricane season ended and, eventually, a renewed vigor on Clinton's part followed. Her organization has grown to four full-timers and three contractors and she's again relishing her project focus.

Before T-Mobile, Clinton won industry recognition for building AT&T Wireless's business continuity and disaster recovery functions. To keep that job fresh for the eight years she worked there, Clinton kept conjuring up new projects to take on.

"We'd get something running smoothly, and then go find something else to invent," she says. "At one point we were working on product development projects. At first you might think, What does that have to do with business continuity? But it worked. Typically, business continuity would come after the products were developed. Instead, we were able to help mitigate risks way up front and that was rewarding."