Charlotte Anderson ’08

As a Chemical Engineering major, throughout college I interned at various engineering companies, including a respiratory diagnostic disease startup and a toilet paper manufacturing plant (you’d be amazed the effort that goes into making 2 ply – I’ll never look at it the same way again!). But I didn't love the feeling of working in a lab or a plant around machinery all day—I wanted to interact more with people—so I took a job at Deloitte as a cyber risk consultant.

I was brand new to the cyber field, which is why I would say to anyone looking to get into cyber security—we need you, and don't be intimidated by lack of experience. A curious mind and a willingness to be humble and work hard will get you far!

Deloitte gave me a great foundation for my next role, building cyber risk models for the insurance industry at a fast-paced tech startup called CyberCube, based in downtown San Francisco. I loved the challenge of building new products and working with smart and fun people in our brick building with all the startup vibes of bean bag chairs, office cornhole tournaments, and hackathons. It was a creative and exciting time, traveling to London to meet with customers. I reveled in the opportunity to bring new ideas to the insurance industry around how to model financial risk for cyber catastrophes like electrical grid outages and  ransomware attacks, and predicting probabilities that companies would succumb to the targeting of a rapidly growing cohort of cyber criminals, real issues that companies around the globe are grappling with every day. After a few years, I became lead of product development for cyber risk modeling and got my first experience managing a team of five full-time employees and four amazing interns.

As Covid hit, our small company experienced financial road bumps and I decided to take on an exciting opportunity to work at the premiere cyber security firm – widely considered the Apple or Google of the cyber industry – a rocket ship company called CrowdStrike.

In my role, I am a Sales Engineer for our West Enterprise customers - I work with cyber security and IT teams at medium to large-sized companies across the West Coast to help them solve technical and organizational challenges with CrowdStrike's 28+ products with the common goal of stopping breaches.

My favorite part of my job is that I get to use the left and right sides of my brain every day - meeting with people and building meaningful relationships, as well as solving technical challenges. Switching between the two keeps it interesting!

As for challenges, learning the ins and outs of new products is always a fun challenge, especially as CrowdStrike is constantly developing and integrating new features - it's a lot to keep up with! I also know that trust is earned, not given, and I relish the challenge of demonstrating to prospects that we can solve technical and financial problems they have been struggling with for years. It's a great feeling when a previously skeptical customer finds value in what we offer and trusts us to start a new journey.

If you had asked me as an 8th grader at MJS what cybersecurity or engineering was, I would have had no clue! But the strong social and study skills (thank you, Ms. Frazee!) that I developed at MJS have been essential as I switch my brain all day between "technical" and "people" tasks. As a woman in tech, the
fundamental self-confidence that I developed at Mayfield has helped me in daily situations where I am often the only woman in the room! Most of all, MJS taught me that love, connection, gratitude, and grace sustain a fulfilling and meaningful life.

Charlotte spoke to middle school students about online security during our Digital Citizenship Week.