I have been a member of ISACA for over 10 years, and it has touched my life in many ways. When I first acquired the CISA certification in 2012, an avalanche of job offers followed! I was literally spoiled for choice. I took the one that suited me best and there has been no looking back ever since.
I have also spoken at ISACA conferences, participated in chapter events, and mingled with members of our organization. All these interactions made me grateful, and I wanted to pay back the ISACA community in whatever little way possible.
This is what made me explore the Engage online community at ISACA, and I was thrilled to discover such a large platform of learned professionals with such impressive credentials.
Through Engage I also learned about the ISACA Mentorship Program and promptly signed up. We received some very useful guidelines from ISACA on what to expect and how to conduct the mentoring sessions. Orientation sessions helped us put together a plan for the coming six months. Above all, we got to network with peers from the industry – other experienced experts who had joined us in this generous cause.
I was excited about the opportunity to counsel a young, ambitious lady from Uganda. We instantly hit it off from our first meeting, and most of the credit goes to her for being such a vivacious personality. After a few meetings I realized that she was far more knowledgeable than I had been at her age, given the exposure to social media and this age of ever-changing technology. The learning has been both ways – I counsel her on the roadmap to strengthen her career in infosec, and, in the process, I get to learn about the creative perspective with which someone from the younger generation approaches her challenges. I must say, it’s been rather refreshing!
We meet up virtually every Sunday, and we really look forward to those sessions. In addition to our career conversations, we discuss all kinds of other topics – like music, sports and culture. It’s funny how much people have in common despite living continents apart. We also provide regular feedback to ISACA on the progress made via meetups and surveys.
My participation in the ISACA mentorship program has been such a rewarding journey that I would really advise all members to get involved. If you have an hour to spare in a week, that’s all it takes to go through this wonderful experience and make valuable connections with like-minded people.
Editor’s note: ISACA will be launching a new global mentorship platform in 2022. Look for more information in your member communications or visit https://engage.isaca.org/mentorship.