Tagline
Every person needs a mentor for personal and career growth.
Bio for Liz Jaluague
Liz Jaluague is a Toronto-based cybersecurity engineer and army reservist. She earned a BSc in Biochemistry and a postgraduate certificate in Computer Security and Digital Forensics and has been a non-profit leader in seven different organizations since the age of 19, currently volunteering with a NFP cybersecurity organization.
A firm believer in the power of mentorship from her own experiences, Liz consistently commits her time to guiding others along their professional paths. Liz believes volunteering taught her leadership skills and ignited her sense of purpose. Her curiosity led her to travel to over 15 different countries and multiple destinations across North America, and recently re-ignited her passion for figure skating as she perfects the moves Olympic skaters seem to do so effortlessly.
Episode highlight
On today’s episode, we delve into the captivating story of Liz Jaluague. From navigating cultural experiences to challenging conventional career paths, Liz shares her journey of resilience, determination, and growth. She shares insights into the ethical implications of cybersecurity, the power of mentorship, and the impact of cultural influences on leadership. Liz’s story has valuable lessons we all can take home. Listen and get inspired.
Links
Quotes
- “When you’re constantly learning different skills, you kind of remember that everybody is a different level, and it’s a humbling experience.”
Takeaways
Childhood Memories:
Liz grew up in a Filipino family in Toronto. She had a great understanding of both English and Tagalog. In Tagalog, there are suffixes that one uses when addressing people older than them to show respect. At some point, Liz started questioning why she wasn’t accorded the same respect as a young person. She dropped the suffixes, and it caused her issues with her parents. A year or two down the line, the dust settled, and her parents came to terms with it. Later, Liz also learned the importance of respect and of showing that respect to elders.
As a teen, Liz was exploring the schools she wanted to join. She stumbled on two, one that had math and science and the other that majored in arts. Liz’s interest was in the school that focused on arts but her parents wanted her to do math and science. When Liz took an exam for the math and science school, she failed on purpose and she ended up going to the art school.
Cultural Influences:
Growing up, Liz had a desire to learn new things and really valued a culture of learning. She was able to grasp a lot of new things easily, but later realized there were things she needed to struggle with too, which she found humbling.
Liz’s parents had her much later in life which she viewed as an opportunity to learn from her older cousins.
Influential Groups:
After university, Liz volunteered in several organizations: science non-profit, then political non-profit, and now with a cybersecurity non-profit. These organizations got her started in leadership. Looking back at her journey, Liz realized that all the people she associated with had a sense of purpose, and in every job, she connected with the mission and vision of the organization.
Liz vividly remembers a time when she was in Vegas for a conference. She recognized one of the sponsors who was surrounded by a crowd. She walked up to him and thanked him for giving her the opportunity to make friends working in that organization. The simple act of being grateful gave Liz a mentor.
Personality and Temperaments:
Liz describes herself as a pessimistic optimist. By nature, she looked at things as a “glass half empty”. Growing up, their family didn’t have a car, they had to do a lot of planning around the bus which was frequently late. On the flip side, Liz learned that things won’t always be perfect, one can adapt, and in the end, they always work out. Hence the pessimistic optimism!
Cultural Epiphanies:
After visiting Belgium and the Netherlands, Liz realized that the glass of water one gets while looking at the menu in Canada does not happen everywhere. In the Netherlands and Belgium, you must ask for it. This opened her eyes to other day-to-day cultural differences she may otherwise have missed such as AirBNBs that automatically lock when you close the door, rather than with a key or a manual code.
What brings out the best in Liz?
Liz loves working with people who are authentically themselves. She is not a fan of hierarchy.
Soapbox Moment:
Do you have a question about cybersecurity? Liz invites you to send her a message on LinkedIn, and she will be more than willing to answer the question.
Extro:
It was a pleasure to speak with Liz Jaluague about her life and career choices and to hear about how her Filipino cultural influences and personal drive to question and challenge came together later in life. I enjoyed her ability to succinctly respond to my questions without feeling the need to fill up space, and her fresh outlook towards everything learnable from math to flute, cybersecurity, travel, and figure skating – for Liz, everything is interesting, and she pursues her interests with passion! Here are some culture and leadership tips I picked up from Liz’s interview:
- Drive and determination combined with insight will help you forge your path forward no matter how young you are.
- It is possible to come full circle from a belief in equal access to respect, to a desire to respect traditional values without compromising who you are.
- Sincere appreciation can be an unexpected route to mentorship and career opportunities.
