Sandy Hawke
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Sandy is responsible for amplifying Cisco’s zero trust message, sharing the value Cisco delivers in secure access for users, devices, networks, apps, and clouds. Sandy brings more than 25 years of experience in cybersecurity to Cisco, starting out as a firewall tech support engineer for AOL and later running global product marketing teams for Blue Coat, BigFix, and AlienVault.
Sandy’s Career Stories
How did you pick your career? Did you know all along?
I got my start in cybersecurity at a tiny subsidiary owned by the Facebook or Google of the 1990s – a little company called AOL or America Online. It was how everyday people accessed the internet over the phone lines. Yes, a long time ago. I was a fish out of water back then, and still am in a lot of ways. I didn't study computer science, but just happened to know someone who gave me a shot and I learned everything on the job. I needed full-time employment in order to have health insurance to cover a pre-existing condition. It was stressful, but I did it and I remained in the industry, and after a few years migrated over to my true skillset which is product marketing. What I really enjoyed about being a technical support engineer was that every day there was a new problem to solve, a new mystery to unravel, and customers were so appreciative whenever I found these solutions it gave me a lot of confidence. Product marketing is similar in that the role offers the chance to solve lots of interesting challenges in creative ways. Over the years, I’ve led global product marketing teams for a number of companies and now I enjoy being in an individual contributor role for Cisco Secure.