Cecelia Schartiger

About Cecelia

• Growing up, my family moved around a lot and there wasn’t a lot of consistency—I moved in with my grandmother in the sixth grade.
• Attended Frostburg State University, where I earned my bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and teaching.
• After graduating, I struggled to find consistent work as a teacher and even substituted for about a year—but with a family to support, I made the decision to find something more stable.
• I was able to translate the behavioral skills I’d learned as a teacher into a job as a project staffing professional at IBM’s center in Rocket Center, West Virginia.
• As I learned more about the technology industry while working at IBM, I began to notice the buzz surrounding cybersecurity and it piqued my interest.
• I started taking cybersecurity classes at our local community college in order to learn the basic skills.
• I reached out to the manager of IBM’s local cybersecurity team to express my interest and to find out about potential career paths in that field.
• In 2016, I got a job as a compliance officer for IBM’s highly secured cloud environment for U.S. government clients—I continue to build my skills both in the classroom and through on-the-job training.