**George Raileanu** (0:00 - 0:08)
That's why I think it's important for anybody in this field, if you accomplish anything, just share your story, because someone wants to hear you.

**Kyser Clark** (0:08 - 0:28)
I agree, like there's going to be somebody out there, and I think that kind of helps your imposter syndrome too. You kind of talk to that individual and they're like, you know what, that really helped me. And it's like, okay, okay, like, I'm actually helping people. That's, that's amazing. That's great. Like you're not an imposter. Pay it forward. It helps you. It helps the community. It's great for everyone.

**Kyser Clark** (0:28 - 2:20)
Hi, I'm Kyser Clark, and welcome to The Hacker's Cache, the show that decrypts the secrets of offensive security one byte at a time. Every week I invite you into the world of ethical hacking by interviewing leading offensive security practitioners. If you are a penetration tester, bug bounty hunter, red teamer, or blue teamer who wants to better understand the modern hacker mindset, whether you are new or experienced, this show is for you.

Hello. Hello. Welcome to The Hacker's Cache.

My name is Kyser Clark, the host of the show. If you don't know who I am, I have been in the field for six years now. I currently work as a full-time penetration tester.

I have 12 certifications and a degree in cybersecurity, and I'm currently working on a master's degree in cybersecurity. Today, I have George Raileanu, who is going to be talking about how to navigate the InfoSec professional career. And I'm super excited to have him on the show.

So a little bit of background about George. He was active duty army. So thank you for your service, George, to this country.

I really appreciate that. He was a course manager slash instructor slash writer for three years, senior cybersecurity engineer for a year, content developer for just over two years, and is currently a managing security consultant where he does threat and attack simulation. Been doing that for two years.

Education. George has a bachelor's degree in information technology and network security. And for certifications, George has OSCP, the GAC certified incident handler, that's the GCIH, GPEN, the GAC certified intrusion analyst, GCIA, Microsoft certified Azure administrator associate, CEH, Network+, and Security+.

So George, go ahead and unpack your experience and give us a little more background on your journey into cybersecurity and introduce yourself to the audience.

**George Raileanu** (2:21 - 3:02)
Hey, how's it going? My name is George. Very humbled to be here and part of the show.

Yeah, I mean, background wise, over 10 years of experience doing a lot of different things, I find my path to be quite unique in the sense that I've done blue team, I've done red team. I've done a lot of like kind of academic-like things where I've written courses, taught. So yeah, I don't know, I feel like I've been all over the place. And because of that, it's just kind of allowed me to just experience, you know, different roles. And yeah, it's been fun.

**Kyser Clark** (3:03 - 3:15)
Nice. Yeah. So yeah, you definitely, you hit on like a few different areas in InfoSec. So can you can you dive into like what you're doing day to day right now? Like what's a day? Like what is your daily job look like right now?

**George Raileanu** (3:16 - 3:51)
So right now, primarily, is managing a group of consultants where they'll do red team, whether it's pentesting, external, internal, red team assessment, social engineering. So just kind of facilitating those assessments, whether it's jumping on client calls, or assisting with infrastructure or, you know, reviewing reports. But yeah, just just supporting this, the consultants is my primary job there.

**Kyser Clark** (3:51 - 4:01)
Thank you for being on the show. I really do appreciate you taking the time and having this discussion with me. Let's go ahead and start up the rapid fire round. Are you are you ready for this?

**George Raileanu** (4:01 - 4:02)
Let's do it. I'm prepared.

**Kyser Clark** (4:03 - 5:12)
Okay, so just for the new listeners, the way this works is George is going to have 30 seconds to answer five questions. And if he answers all five questions in 30 seconds, he's going to get a bonus sixth question that is not related to cybersecurity. George, answer these as fast as you can and try to provide the least actually don't provide any explanation of these at all. You will get the chance to explain one of your answers after we're done. Okay, let me pull out my stopwatch here. And yeah, these are these are no pressure at all. These are just these are some actually one of these is one of these is kind of hard. One of these is kind of hard. So if you want to pass and come back to it later, feel free to do that. But try to try to just say the first thing that comes to your mind. Okay. Okay. Are you ready? Yes. Your time will start when I stop asking the first question. Here we go. Are cybersecurity boot camps worth it? No. Most useful certification for offensive security professionals?

**George Raileanu** (5:16 - 5:18)
The TCM.

**Kyser Clark** (5:19 - 5:21)
Most exciting part of your job?

**George Raileanu** (5:22 - 5:23)
The people.

**Kyser Clark** (5:24 - 5:26)
Greatest hacker of all time?

**George Raileanu** (5:28 - 5:29)
Zero cool.

**Kyser Clark** (5:30 - 5:32)
Most underrated cybersecurity tool?

**George Raileanu** (5:36 - 5:36)
Nessus.

**Kyser Clark** (5:38 - 6:11)
That was exactly 30 seconds. It was 30.5. But we're over the internet. So with latency, I'm going to give it to you. So you're actually the second person to do it. So congratulations. And let's go ahead and let's do the bonus question. For this, you can provide a light explanation, if you want, or no explanation. It's up to you. But yeah, this is the unrelated cybersecurity. So here it is. Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?

**George Raileanu** (6:14 - 6:23)
Let's see. One horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses? One horse-sized duck.

**Kyser Clark** (6:27 - 6:34)
Okay. Yeah, this is, this one's a hard one for me. I don't know what I would do, but I'm not the guest so I don't have to answer.

**George Raileanu** (6:36 - 6:51)
I feel like 1v1 is a little bit easier to focus my, I'm pretty big into like strategy. So I feel like if I can, plus I'm a gamer. So if I can kind of like dodge enough attacks and understand the mechanics, I can probably beat them a little easier.

**Kyser Clark** (6:52 - 7:34)
I love that. Gamer, I can just dodge attacks and strategize. Nice.

So let's go ahead. I think your most interesting answer is the most underrated cybersecurity tool. You said Nessus, and I'm not even kidding when I say this today, I was actually complaining about Nessus today in my day job.

So the reason why I was complaining is because Nessus to me, sure, it finds a lot of low hanging fruit, but it has a lot of false positives. And it also tells me things like that are concerns that really aren't concerns. So I'm curious on why you say that Nessus is the most underrated cybersecurity tool.

**George Raileanu** (7:36 - 7:44)
So I think I maybe have misunderstood that question the other way.

**Kyser Clark** (7:46 - 7:50)
Oh, so you're saying Nessus is the most overrated cybersecurity tool?

**George Raileanu** (7:50 - 7:51)
Correct.

**Kyser Clark** (7:51 - 7:57)
Oh, that's perfect. That just aligns with my opinion. So let's just talk about that then.

**George Raileanu** (7:57 - 8:49)
Yeah, no, I mean, like you said, I think it's good in the sense that it definitely can provide some visibility. But I think it definitely can't go further than that. And I think I've been in plenty of classes or just training courses, I've seen training courses where I feel like that's the first thing that they bring forth.

And it's a good introductory tool. But I think to fresh minds, there should be a big caveat of like, hey, this is a good commercial tool or whatever. But it's not like the end all be all.

Like eventually, you will have to go much deeper than just Nessus.

**Kyser Clark** (8:50 - 9:06)
Right. Yeah, totally agree. Like I said, it, it has a lot of false positives.

So everything

 it tells you, you have to confirm it. Like, like, do not take Nessus's word as gospel. Like do not do that.

That is that is setting yourself up for failure, in my opinion.

**George Raileanu** (9:07 - 9:32)
Yeah, I think underrated wise is Bloodhound. I think even though it has gotten its popularity, specifically in the red team, I think it's underrated on the blue side, I feel like more blue teamers SOCs, you know, should really leverage it because it that's what red teamers use. And it's how to know the visibility, the usability, it's just on point.

And I feel like it's underrated.

**Kyser Clark** (9:33 - 10:04)
That's a good point. Yeah, I mean, I never considered I mean, I'm not a blue teamer, but I never considered it using it as a blue team tool. But it makes sense to use it as a blue team tool.

So yeah, in essence, it does make sense that that's underrated, for sure. So yeah, thanks for thanks for highlighting that.

Prior to the recording, you said you wanted to talk about a few different areas. So the first area I want to get into is the importance of mentoring. So what advice would you give to someone looking to find a mentor in this field?

**George Raileanu** (10:04 - 12:05)
So I feel like mentoring is a major stepping stone, not even a stepping stone, like you, you know, you like cross it, but it's I feel like it's the foundation into the career, regardless of what level you're, you're at, whether you're a person that's just starting, or, you know, you've been in the field 10, 15, 20 years, I feel like there's always somebody there, you know, with more experience, more insight, you know, just different perspective, it doesn't even have to be more, you know, even different perspective, you know, an individual that's just done something different can really be a mentor. But to me, it's a they can help provide clarity, help provide direction support. You know, I feel like sometimes you kind of, you know, your head down, you're working on things.

And, you know, you might, you might move forward and solve some kind of, you know, problem or, you know, coding problem or find a bug or whatever. But, you know, internally, you sometimes I feel like you just kind of like, overlook it in this not overlook it in the sense of like, there isn't enough recognition. And I feel like with a mentor, one of those things is like, they can bring a lot of positivity and in addition to everything else, you know, you kind of talk to them and be like, yeah, you know, I've done this and this and they can really bring to light and be like, Oh, hold on, you did what now?

And it's like, I've done this. And it's like, yeah, in the, you know, grand scheme of things, it may not be, you know, you, you maybe didn't find a CV, but for where you're at, it's a big deal. And you don't have that kind of like, understanding, you know what I mean?

You don't have that level of like wisdom, but for for a mentor that it's like, Hey, man, this is a big deal for where you're at, like, you know, you should be really proud of, you know, what you've done. So I think that's a really big piece on top of, you know, like identifying, you know, the path that you want to take.

**Kyser Clark** (12:06 - 12:18)
How would someone who is brand new to the field, or even someone who's been in the field for a little bit of time, who doesn't have a mentor who's who's looking for one? How do you find? How do you go about finding a mentor?

**George Raileanu** (12:20 - 13:38)
So it's difficult, because I feel like a lot of people in our field are introverts, you know, so by nature, to find that mentor, you have to talk to people being an introvert, you don't want to talk to people. But you'd be surprised, you know, just maybe attending, you know, your local cybersecurity or coding, you know, conference, you find like-minded people, you know, like, you'll go there, and it'll be like five nerds that don't want to talk to each other. And next thing you know, somebody mentioned, you know, mentioned Zelda or World of Warcraft, or whatever.

And now you have, you know, you know, you have that level of like, hey, you know, we can relate. And then from there on, you just start a conversation. But um, yeah, I mean, just just get involved in your local community.

If you're somewhere where there isn't something globally, Discord is a great way. There's a lot of great social media platforms, not just Discord, but Slack, LinkedIn, there's just a lot of resources out there where you can kind of like, again, jump into like that like-minded community, find something relatable. And from there, just, you know, start a conversation, build that relationship.

I think just putting yourself out there is important.

**Kyser Clark** (13:40 - 14:11)
Right? Yeah, I totally agree. I really, I mean, I there's a lot of people that I'm connected with that I will reach out to for advice.

But I wouldn't say that I have like, like one mentor, I guess. So yeah, I just think it's kind of hard to like, have like, you know, like, Oh, this is my de facto, like, mentor, you know, that's something I struggle with myself, too. And I probably should probably just start finding more mentors for myself.

Quick question, do you so are you mentoring people now or have mentored people in the past? You don't have to mention their names.

**George Raileanu** (14:11 - 14:59)
But yeah, no, definitely. And I think sometimes people see mentoring as like, oh, this person, you know, is, you know, 50 or 60 years old and has been in the field for, you know, 40 years. And it's like, that's not always the case.

You know, like, you can find, you know, like, I mentor, you know, people that are older than me, or, you know, may or that have been in the field, but maybe like doing something different, you know, maybe they're new to red team or, you know, pentesting or offensive security, but you know, in their previous job, they've done something different so that they have like, you know, life skills, but they don't necessarily know how to navigate, you know, the offensive security field.

**Kyser Clark** (14:59 - 15:09)
Yeah, the reason why I asked that question is because I was gonna have you share a story, a memorable experience where you mentored someone and saw them grow. Do you have a story you'd like to share in that area?

**George Raileanu** (15:10 - 16:31)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So actually, there's a specific individual that comes to mind. I've actually, you know, consider him my friend, but also a mentor, because we worked together in the army.

We left the army at a similar time. And then we kind of like, again, worked together in another job. So it, my mentorship came in different areas.

There was a time when he was kind of like, hey, I've done, you know, a lot of different things. So he had breadth. He was like, I really don't know how to move forward from here.

You know, I've got some ideas. So we had a conversation back and forth. Again, it's providing that level of like, clarity.

Sometimes it takes kind of like another person to be like, ask the right questions. You know what I mean? Like, hey, where do you want to go?

You know, what are your ambitions? You know, what makes you happy? Just like ask the right questions.

So for me, providing that level of mentorship was helpful to him. Sometimes it was in providing connections like, oh, hey, you want to do this? Let me connect you with this person.

And that's kind of, I think those two big things is how I've mentored this individual that comes to mind.

**Kyser Clark** (16:32 - 16:49)
So you mentioned networking when you talked about finding a mentor, and there's definitely a ton of ways to network. Where should someone focus their efforts? What are some effective strategies for building a strong network in cybersecurity?

**George Raileanu** (16:52 - 18:23)
I think just being genuine, just reaching out. And just being like, hey, look, I noticed that, you know, you've got some or, you know, you do this that I like, for example, like, maybe you're into IoT, you know, and you find an individual that you really look up to, or, you know, physical pentesting or whatever. And you find that individual, and you're like, man, I really look up to this person, just reach out to them.

And you'd be surprised, you know, just let them know like, hey, you know, I really saw this, I was impressed, you know, I'd really like to learn more, you know, can I pick your brain or whatever? And you'd be surprised by how effective that is a lot of

, you know, I mean, sometimes it doesn't work, right? You know, people are different, but I would say more so than not, they will, you know, reach back out and, you know, just have a conversation.

They've been there once more than likely. So they, you know, again, it's like that relatable thing. It's like, hey, I want to get to where you're at.

Chances are where they're at, they didn't get there by themselves. I'm not saying they're, you know, people aren't hard working. But you know, I feel like people that are successful, they had help at some point.

So to me, most people want to kind of like, you know, they've received help. So they kind of like want to help others.

**Kyser Clark** (18:25 - 19:34)
Right? Yeah, that's that's my mentality, too. Because, you know, I started with nothing.

And that's one of the reasons why I'm doing this podcast is why I make the content that I do is because I just want to take the information I have and disseminate it out there in the world and help other people. And people hit me up on LinkedIn all the time for advice. And you know, I'll throw in my two sentences.

So for me, like the people that I really like helping are people that come to me like, hey, I watch your YouTube video about this topic, or I read your blog post about this topic, and they want to dive deeper about something because like, my YouTube content, my blogs is more generalized, I can like, cover everybody. And then like, you know, if someone's like, look at my content, and then they need like Taylor device, that's like the best way to ask for help. One of the worst ways is to like, just straight up be like, Hey, can you help me find a job that is the absolute worst thing you can say, in my opinion, like, that annoys me so much.

I'm like, I'm not even a hiring manager. I don't know what you need to do. Anyways, um, so speaking of networking, do you think it's more important to have a wide network?

Or do you think it's more important to have deep connections with a smaller network?

**George Raileanu** (19:37 - 22:03)
I think they're both they both have their place in the world. I think as you continue in your career, you'll kind of identify what works best with your lifestyle with your personality. But I think you should spend a little bit of time in both.

I, I don't, I don't think you need to choose one or the other. I do think you need to choose one or the other in terms of like, you know, which one you want to spend more of your time and what level that is, again, comes down to like your personality. I think the benefits to having those deep relationships is, I mean, it just comes down to having other people in the field that you can kind of lean on, you know, whether it's for just general support, or like, for example, I reached out to a good friend of mine from the army, I was working on a technical problem.

And I, you know, I asked my, my peers at work, I asked Reddit, you know, like, I did all sorts of things. And I was like, wait a minute, I know a guy that has over 20 years of experience, I've worked with him. And I just reached out to him, and he was able to get me in touch with somebody else that was able to assist me in, you know, in this technical problem.

You know, it's not always about that, that's just kind of an example. But that was that's kind of the pro behind having, you know, that deep connection, where you can reach out to somebody out of the blue, and they'll be like, yeah, you know, I, let's, let's figure it out, you know, like, I know you, you know, me. And then the pro behind having kind of like the breadth, like a wide network is, is kind of like being able to, you know, reach out in at different times.

For example, maybe it is something that, you know, kind of like, sprung up in your career right now, you're like, let's say, for example, you've done offensive security, but you want to move more toward app sec. Or let's, let's take it even further back, let's say you want to move into more of a managerial spot, right? You've surrounded yourself by a group of offensive security technicians, but now you know, it's time to move on.

If you've never kind of built that connection with like, people that have been in, you know, in managerial positions, you know, that might be a little bit difficult to lean on the current network that you have.

**Kyser Clark** (22:06 - 22:24)
Okay. Yeah, that's, that's definitely good advice. So I'm gonna shift gears a little bit, I'm gonna talk about learning and career progression.

So with over 400 certifications, what is your approach to continuous learning in InfoSec?

**George Raileanu** (22:25 - 25:00)
Yeah, so this is very near and dear to my heart. Like I said, I've been in the academic world, created content, created classes I've taught. And it's crazy, man.

I've counted those certificates myself, because I was kind of curious, I was like, how many? Yeah, so 400 certificates, you know, it's, it's, it's insane. And I think before I touch on that, I want to kind of go back to the whole mentoring networking.

This is kind of where that piece can help play a role. You know, if you're new into the field, or even if you're not, if you're kind of maneuvering into other parts of the of the InfoSec space, having those other individuals to be like, listen, there's like, a ton of certificates, I, you know, I don't know where to go, you can kind of ask around. But really, it comes down to several things.

I think it comes down to your personality in terms of like, your learning style, you know, are you the type of person that likes a little more structure, in terms of like being in a classroom environment, or, you know, taking a course that, you know, just just has a little more like, instruction, or are you the type of person that just just kind of likes to, you know, go to YouTube or hands on on your, you know, on your own time. So I think your learning style is big.

The other thing that I would say is to, and these are questions to ask yourself, is your, your, your flexibility. So like your lifestyle, you know, are you at a point where you can, you know, just kind of spend eight hours a day learning, that might be a little bit different versus like, you know, you've got a nine to five job, you've got a family, so you, you know, you can't just like go into a, you know, a class, it might be a little more difficult for you. So, you know, at that point, you know, you want to explore options where there's a little more flexibility, like platforms out there where you can just kind of like, you know, click through kind of yourself or YouTube or something along those lines.

So I think those two factors you kind of have to ask yourself. And the third one, I think would be, you know, what are your goals? Where is it that you're trying to get?

Because that will also eliminate some paths too. If you can ask yourself and those, those kind of questions and kind of identify what works best for you, I think you can kind of narrow, you know, what path you want to take in terms of like learning.

**Kyser Clark** (25:04 - 25:28)
Okay. So like, let's say there's someone out there who they know they want to be an InfoSec, but they don't know what career path they want to take. Like they're, you know, they're thinking about blue team.

They're thinking about red team. They don't know if they want to be a security engineer, security analyst. They don't know if they want to be a pentester, a bug bounty hunter.

How, what kind of advice could you give them to like help them kind of figure out like where their end goal might be?

**George Raileanu** (25:30 - 26:54)
So my biggest advice, and I hate to be like a broken record is, is to reach out to those people that are in the field and just ask, talk to them and be like, what do you do on your day-to-day, you know, reach out to an appsec person, reach out to, you know, a GRC, reach out to an offsec, you know, offensive or, you know, pentesting or whatever, a SOC analyst, you know, at different levels, whether they're junior or senior and, and just have a conversation with them and get an idea of their day-to-day.

Because I think that insight right there can really help you determine like, oh, you know, you stare at alerts all day. That does not sound fun. Or maybe it does sound fun.

Or like, oh, you get to, you know, reverse engineer and, you know, code and you, you know, you, you look at code all day. It's like, great. That, that's for you.

You know what I mean? So I think, because otherwise I feel like, you know, you're running the risk of kind of like wasting some time and there is, you know

, benefits in, you know, learning mistakes, you know, like, like yourself, like learning from your own mistakes, you know what I mean? But I just think there's, there's so much out there that you really want to leverage, you know, that experience and that insight from other people and have that conversation with them.

So that would be my biggest advice.

**Kyser Clark** (26:56 - 27:32)
Okay, that's, that's really good advice. And I'm smiling because I'm thinking about like how I chose the path that I went into, which is pentesting slash ethical hacking. And let me know if this is good or bad advice, but this is how I chose like what I was getting it into.

And it really came down to one thing, it really came down to like, ethical hacker, like they just sound like a sexy title. And I'm like, that's where I'm going to go. And that's really what it came down to.

Is that good advice or bad advice to just like, go into a position like that?

**George Raileanu** (27:32 - 28:12)
Um, I mean, I will say that some people, they know what kind of like what they want to do, you know what I mean? Like, I, I don't want to say it's like good advice or bad advice, because everyone's journey is different. Um, I will say to give you like, the best level of success.

It's cool that it's working out for you. I'm definitely happy. But I think if everyone kind of followed that mentality, you know, they might, you know, not always, you know, like, they might be like, Oh, man, that sounded sexy, but it's, it's not for me.

You know what I mean?

**Kyser Clark** (28:12 - 28:13)
Right, right. Yeah.

**George Raileanu** (28:15 - 30:06)
But yeah, no, I think there's definitely some level of like, knowing yourself. So for me, I've always had this mentality of like, breaking things. And before offensive security was a thing, you know, I've just kind of tinkered with it myself.

And then somebody kind of introduced me like, to the world of offensive security. And I was like, holy moly, I don't care about anything else. I ended up doing incident response, because I was in the army, which is kind of ironic, but, um, and I, you know, and I had a good time, but but I knew that my heart was in offensive security, you know, is taking things apart, breaking them.

But for, I feel like for many people, maybe you're not in that, you know, maybe you just don't know, or maybe you have an idea, but you're not, you know, 100% sure, for example, you maybe you do like, you know, you're the type of person that likes to like, be the detective, right? So this is kind of getting into that incident response, you know, you're trying to identify where the bad guy is, incident response is very stressful, you know, you, you may not know that, you know, you have to have kind of like, the lifestyle to sometimes support that, you know, you need to be on call, you know, 24 seven, or, you know, whatever the shift may be. And you need to be ready to just, you know, jump at the gun.

But there's another path, you know, there's forensics, you know what I mean? So similar to kind of like detective like skills, but if you don't know that if you don't have that level of like insight, you may have chosen incident response when it's like, you know, then that may be too much for me. But I like the whole like forensic, you know, like detective like and forensics is the better kind of like, I'm not saying forensics isn't stressful.

But you know what I mean? There's, right? Yeah.

**Kyser Clark** (30:09 - 30:31)
Okay, so we're starting to get out of time. And I want to make sure we hit on this last topic that you are very fond of, which is mental health and personal satisfaction. So I want to kind of wrap up two questions in one here.

So what are some strategies to deal with imposter syndrome and burnout?

**George Raileanu** (30:32 - 33:07)
Um, so I think they're two a little bit different things. Burnout, I really think you need to find some hobbies that are away from technology. And gaming does not count.

I that hurts me. Because I'm a gamer. I do game a little bit, but, you know, go spend time with your family, go read, go outside.

You know, whatever it may be, even if you're, you know, like the tinkering kind of person, maybe you, I don't know, you you go play with some kind of like, you know, hardware, you know, or 3d printer, you know what I mean? Whatever, just just kind of like, find something that you can kind of, I don't know, de stress that is that is a little bit different for, for, from tech. To me, that's my biggest advice to kind of like, burnout that the second big piece of that is I didn't like, check in, check into yourself, you know, at least once a week, and just kind of ask yourself, Hey, you know, how am I feeling?

Where am I at? Maybe this week was a busy week. So you really need to like take this weekend to really unload and unstressed because I think what happens for many of us specifically in this profession is that we're so passionate, we will literally work to through 12 hours without eating, because we like love what we do.

So we will easily get burned out. And if you go through a day like that, that's why it's important to check in with yourself and be like, Okay, how has today been? How has this week been in terms of imposter syndrome?

That's tough, man. I mean, even sometimes even myself, sometimes I deal with that. But I think really, that's, that's where the mentorship comes in.

I've done, I particularly do my best, because I realized that this is a problem to recognize individuals, whether it's people working for me, or within my team, or other people that I talked to, I mentor, you know, I identify, you know, whatever they've done. And really, I pull that out there. And I say, like, I pointed out and say, like, hey, this is great work, like don't downplay what you've done.

It doesn't help me. But you know, I do talk to other people. And sometimes, you know, they kind of inadvertently kind of, you know, like, bring that to light, like, hey, man, you've done a really great job.

It's like, you know what, that was pretty cool, you know, and that kind of helps me get out of that, that imposter syndrome sometimes.

**Kyser Clark** (33:09 - 33:42)
Yeah, so when I was early in the field, like, I was like, imposter syndrome, like, what, what is that? Like, I feel confident, like, I, you know, I got this certification, that certification. And as time goes on, I realized that there's a lot of stuff I still don't know.

And I've started, so I have experienced imposter syndrome myself. And I'm starting to realize, at least this is my opinion, and you can disagree with it. I'd like to, like to talk about it, though.

Is having a little bit of imposter syndrome is at least a little bit? Is that kind of healthy? Do you think?

**George Raileanu** (33:43 - 35:01)
Um, I think it, yeah, you don't want to be the type of person where and I have encountered these individuals, where they think they know everything, right? You know, they've been in the business for long enough. And it's like, everything is below them.

So yeah, I think a little bit of humility is important. A little bit of like, hey, I'm, I'm the type of person that is going to continually learn. But know that you are not an imposter.

Right. So I think I don't want to say that a little bit of imposter syndrome is good. I want to say that a little bit of humility is good.

Because you're not, you're not an imposter. You, there's always going to be somebody better. I think you want to be very careful with comparing yourself to other people.

You should have role models, but compare yourself to where you were a year ago. You know, to compare yourself to where you were a month ago. Because I think that's a better comparison.

Seeing that progress kind of brings to light that you're not an imposter in this field where you're at. You, you are where you need to be. Or maybe you're not 100% where you need to be.

And that's okay. You know, you've made some progress. Just, just keep at it.

**Kyser Clark** (35:03 - 35:33)
That's really good advice. And I'll just throw in like what I do to, with my imposter syndrome, because I'm pretty new in my current role. And one thing that I, you know, keep telling myself is I didn't lie on my resume.

I didn't lie in any of the interviews. They hired me for a reason. They believe in me and I got to believe in myself.

And that's, that gets me over the hump sometimes. So that, that's what I use. I

 don't know if that's, you know, good for everybody, but that's, that's something that I do.

**George Raileanu** (35:33 - 35:34)
100%.

**Kyser Clark** (35:36 - 35:43)
Okay. So final question. I mean, I can't believe it's, I always say this every, every podcast, I'm like, man, I can't believe it's already been a half hour.

**George Raileanu** (35:44 - 35:46)
Yeah, we're already done. I feel like we just started.

**Kyser Clark** (35:46 - 35:59)
Yeah, man. It's, it goes quick, man. It goes quick.

Cause it's, it's, these are conversations that are so fun. So final question, do you have any final additional cybersecurity hot takes or hidden wisdom you would like to share?

**George Raileanu** (36:00 - 37:18)
So my hidden wisdom, which isn't really hidden or wise, but I think it's very, very important. And I think it's something that happens more often in our community compared, I don't think, actually, I don't think it happens in any other profession, but that's paying it forward. The fact that there are so many kind of like open source, you know, you know, like things out there where you can, I feel like there's just so many people that just like create things to help other people is encouraging and infectious.

And I think you really want to take that with you, no matter at what level you are, you're going to get somewhere with the help of others. So pay it forward. You know, don't just hold onto that knowledge.

You know what I mean? Help others like others have helped you. So to me, like, that's the biggest advice is, you know, a year later, let's say you just started a year later, find that person that just started, you know, you were there a year ago and just encourage them, you know, whatever it is be like, hey, this is what I learned this year.

I'm passing, you know, this information onto you.

**Kyser Clark** (37:20 - 38:01)
Right. Yeah. And that's, that's really good advice because one thing that I always say is like, you know, the field is constantly changing.

So the people who just did that thing, their advice is the most relevant in my opinion. So for example, like we can take like passing a certification, for example, if you ask someone that passes certification 10 years ago versus someone who just passed it, you know, two months ago, you're going to get way more, you're gonna get better advice from the person who just passed it two months ago. And that's why I think it's important for anybody in this field.

You know, if you accomplish anything, just share your story because someone wants to hear you.

**George Raileanu** (38:02 - 38:32)
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

I agree. Like there's going to be somebody out there, you know, that is going to have some kind of similarity enough to where, and I think that kind of helps your imposter syndrome too. Yeah.

You know what I mean? You're, you kind of talk to that individual and they're like, you know what, that really helped me. And it's like, okay, okay.

Like I'm actually helping people. That's, that's amazing. That's great.

You know what I mean? Like, you're not an imposter, pay it forward. It helps you.

It helps the community. It just, it's great for everyone.

**Kyser Clark** (38:33 - 38:39)
Right. All right, George, where can the audience connect with you if they want to connect with you?

**George Raileanu** (38:39 - 38:56)
A hundred percent, please connect with me on LinkedIn. I will, I'm very responsive on there. Like I said, I love to help people.

I'm a busy person. So sometimes, you know, I may not respond immediately, but LinkedIn, that's the best way to connect with me.

**Kyser Clark** (38:58 - 39:22)
And LinkedIn is also the best way to connect with me for the audience. And you can also check out my website, kyserclark.com and yeah, go ahead and drop some feedback for this episode. Let me know what you want to hear in future episodes.

And I hope I see you in the next episode. So until then, this is Kyser signing off and thank you so much for your valuable input, George. And thanks for taking your time and doing this recording with me.

**George Raileanu** (39:23 - 39:24)
Thanks for having me. Love it.