Window Snyder
Fastly
San Francisco, CA USA
"First of all, do you love it? Are you sure? Because if you don’t, [it can be] hard and discouraging. [But] it’s not hard to keep doing things you love."
Career Roadmap
Window's work combines: Science, Technology, and Problem Solving
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Ask yourself, do I love this? If you don't, you should probably think of something else to do. Cybersecurity is really hard and it can sometimes be discouraging. The only time people talk about security is when it fails, so there are not a lot of kuddos in this job. You have to really love it.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Mathematics and Computer Science
Boston College
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
The daughter of software engineers, tech has always been in her orbit, but she wasn’t very excited about it as a child.
2.
Began gravitating towards programming in high school, but didn’t study it because it was intimidating; with no women in sight, it felt like an exclusive club.
3.
It wasn't until she started taking math and CS classes in college—and actually got to actually start problem-solving—that she realized her passion.
4.
As technology evolved—and the concept of hacking along with it—one question began to drive her: what’s keeping people’s data safe?
5.
Called to solve this question, she developed threat-modelling: a process of protecting data that became part of Microsoft’s best practices.
6.
Keeping data out of the wrong hands would carry her into a stint at Apple, where she ensured not even Apple could access people’s data.
7.
Her greatest triumph? Giving users control of their data. With personal lives increasingly stored online, she wants users—not 3rd parties—to have the reigns.
8.
Admits tech has hurdles; it can be exclusionary of minorities and women. It’s also just hard work—but it’s less hard when you love it.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Myself:
I don't belong here.
How I responded:
In high school, I felt like programming and computer science was an exclusive club that I wasn't invited to because I was a woman of color. I delayed studying computer science because of this. It's a hard thing to overcome, but I love doing it, so I pushed through that. It's exciting to work on things you are passionate about no matter the challenges.