Catherine Dawson Associate Solutions Engineer at Cloudflare
L
ike so many Australians Catherine Dawson
FROM SALES TO CYBERSECURITY
lost her job as a result of the COVID
Starting in what was primarily a sales role, Dawson
pandemic. However, her redundancy turned
was soon drawn to the technology behind what she
out to be a blessing in disguise, enabling
was selling. “It wasn’t until I was exposed to the
her to pursue an interest in cybersecurity
presales engineering profession first-hand that I found
that had lain dormant since her undergraduate
myself wanting to learn more about the underlying
days studying for a degree in criminology and
technology: computer networking, web application
criminal justice.
security, and cybersecurity frameworks,” she says.
“There was a unit of work that covered fraud and
After that her transformation into a cybersecurity
cybercrime which exposed me to the patterns of
specialist was rapid. To better develop her technical
offending and cybercrime victimology,” she says.
knowledge Dawson gained a postgraduate
“Whilst the course focused on the broader societal
qualification in networking and cybersecurity and
impact of cybercrime rather than the underlying
at the same time was successful in applying for
technology, it marked the start of my introduction to
Cloudflare’s Associate Solutions Engineering program:
the industry.”
a year-long intensive training program that developed her understanding of Cloudflare’s product portfolio.
So, jobless, Dawson dived straight into cybersecurity,
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securing a business development role at
“When I first started my position in business
cybersecurity and Internet infrastructure company,
development, I did not think it would be possible
Cloudflare. “The role was the perfect entry point,
to transition to a solutions engineer role given my
because it gave me an opportunity to learn about
non-technical background,” she says. “The technical
industry trends, develop fundamental skills in
knowledge required to architect security solutions
cybersecurity technology and work strategically with
for customers seemed like an impossible aspiration.
customers,” she says.
It wasn’t until a position in the Associate Program
W O M E N I N S E C U R I T Y M A G A Z I N E
J A N U A RY • F E B R U A RY 2023
