Lights, camera, action!

In partnership with Missouri Career Pathways and local award-winning Stellar Image Studios, we were recently honored to host a visit to Fishtech Group for 7-9th grade educators, giving them a virtual tour of our facilities, including employee interviews to produce a video to teach about career paths, skill sets, and jobs in the cybersecurity industry.

 

 

It’s well known that there’s a talent shortage in the cybersecurity industry. Studies show that there just aren’t enough skilled tech force workers to fill the jobs available now, much less to meet the increasing demand of the years to come. In fact, (ISC)2 estimates the cyber workforce needs to increase by 62% to meet demand as businesses invest in technology and cyber threats become more sophisticated. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the industry as a whole will experience job growth of 31% between 2019 and 2029.

Getting young people interested in cybersecurity is important to us at Fishtech, both for our company’s mission and the industry overall. Until the pandemic, we often toured school groups through our headquarters and Cyber Defense Center and held Q&A panels with our staff for students and teachers. Since those initiatives have halted, we’ve missed the interaction and opportunity to inspire and be inspired by those visits.

We were thrilled to work with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and its Missouri Career Pathways Program on a recent project involving a very important audience: teachers. Career education is more important now than ever. The first step for educators is to see, experience, and feel the culture of businesses across sectors.

Led by Office Manager Kristy Meyers, the tour included brief interviews with several Fishtech Group employees, all from different parts of our organization. Each was asked to describe the work they do, how their career path led them to Fishtech, what training and education helped them be successful today, and how AI or Machine Learning impacts their work. These interviewees included:

  • Chuck Crawford, Chief Strategy Officer
  • Ryan Couch, Chief Marketing Officer
  • Jennie Hanna, Communications and PR Manager
  • Jeremy Hehl, VP CYDERES Business Development
  • Todd Bertholf, Contracts Attorney
  • Matt Skeen, Director of Information Technology
  • Andy Jones, Director of Digital Technologies
  • Brandon Ramsey, Senior Software Architect
  • Alex Harder, Principal Engineer

During their interviews, you’ll hear that although certifications and specialized training are great, what truly makes a candidate stand out is often more nuanced traits, such as:

  • Passion and how to apply it to real-world problems
  • Curiosity and how to pursue lifelong learning
  • Creativity and collaboration
  • Ability to troubleshoot

About Career Pathways: For seven years, Career Pathways has collaborated with Kansas City and NW Missouri region businesses to provide short externship, in-person experiences across a variety of sectors. During Covid times, the department pivoted to a virtual experience.

The theme of this externship is the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in each of the various career pathways, and what it means for the workforce. And the first step to educating the students is making teachers aware so they can ultimately be a resource for their students when it comes to tech and AI-related careers. Fishtech and its security as a service division CYDERES was a successful real-world example for teachers to become more familiar with the footprint of artificial intelligence.

Thank you for this opportunity to reach out to educators and students and tell the story of Fishtech Group:

  • Samantha Cole, Northwest Region Career Advisor and Career Pathways Consultant, affiliated with the Northwest Regional Professional Development Center
  • Dr. Ann Starlin-Horner, Kansas City Region Career Pathways Director
  • Stellar Image Studios for video creation and creative storytelling capability

We work hard, but we play hard too. Watch closely to see Pepper the robot, the nap pod, and the “Golden Bell” Masters Replica Par 3 golf hole and frisbee golf course.