The Cyber Security Recruiter talks to Alise Barron, Senior Customer Success Manager, ReversingLabs

From Bartending to COO: Hospitality Skills, Remote Work, and Critical Thinking in CybersecurityThe host welcomes Alise Barron to the Cybersecurity Recruiter podcast and introduces her career path from hospitality and internet marketing into recruiting leadership roles at Experis Finance, Cylance, and Blackberry, and then multiple promotions at Cyvatar to COO.Elise describes a typical remote-work day balancing family routines, early email catch-up due to time zones, constant meetings, and handling unexpected escalations in cybersecurity operations. They discuss why hospitality backgrounds can drive rapid advancement: strong work ethic, quick critical thinking, customer and stakeholder management, resilience, and learning to set boundaries without adopting a victim mindset. Elise connects these skills to project management, noting she later recognized she had been applying PMP-style practices.They also discuss productivity tradeoffs between remote and office work, the value of networking, and how incident response requires structure, patience, and calm communication.00:00 Welcome and Catch Up00:42 Small World in Security01:47 Elise Career Intro02:59 COO Daily Routine04:58 Remote Work Realities08:44 From Bartender to COO13:39 Hospitality Skills in Corporate18:02 Boundaries and Ownership19:24 Project Management Mindset25:12 Hiring Through Networking26:59 AI and Recruiting Filters29:20 Closing Thoughts and Wrap