Breaking Into Cybersecurity
Hosted by Christophe Foulon & Renee Small
Short career-transition interviews: how real people got their first security job, step by step.
- Level
- Beginner, no security background needed
- Status
- Active, last episode
- Who's behind it
- Independent, Christophe Foulon and Renee Small sourceThe show's site also promotes the hosts' coaching and recruiting work.
- Last verified
Listed underCISO and leadership
Editorial take
The most focused career-switcher podcast in the directory. Nearly every episode asks one guest the same useful questions: what they did before, how they got the first security role, how they stay current, and what they would tell someone starting now. Christophe Foulon (also a CISO Tradecraft co-host) and recruiter Renee Small have run it since 2019, and the archive of 500+ episodes covers pivots from teaching, sales, hospitality, the military and law enforcement. For a student or switcher, the value is pattern-matching: find a guest whose background looks like yours. The limitations: production is plain, guest quality varies, and the cadence has dropped to one or two episodes a month in 2025 and 2026.
Last hand-checked 2026-09-30, Cadence slowed: 18 episodes in 2026 so far, down from more than 100 a year in 2020 to 2022.
Listen if you …
- are changing careers into security and want stories from people with your background
- are a student deciding between SOC, GRC, threat intel or pentesting roles
- hire junior security staff and want to hear how candidates think about the path
Skip if you …
- you already work in security, there is little technical content
- you want polished production, episodes are plain recorded calls
Start with these 3 episodes
- 01
From History Teacher to Cybersecurity Director: John Murrow's Unique Career Journey
· 29 min · Beginner
A history teacher who became a security director; the template story for career switchers.
- 02
· 21 min · Beginner
A non-technical route from sales into threat intelligence, told in about 20 minutes.
- 03
Breaking into Cybersecurity with Philip Wiley: From Sysadmin to Ethical Hacking Expert
· 30 min · Beginner
Phillip Wylie on moving from sysadmin to pentester; useful if offensive roles are your goal.
About the show
Breaking Into Cybersecurity is hosted by Christophe Foulon, a security consultant and career coach, and Renee Small, a cybersecurity recruiter and author of Magnetic Hiring. The show is published through breakingintocybersecurity.org, which also runs a newsletter for each episode.
Episodes are 20 to 40 minute interviews with practitioners and leaders about how they entered the field. The show started in May 2019, published more than 100 episodes a year from 2020 to 2022, and now releases irregularly. Some episodes speak to small-business leaders about developing security talent.
Notable guests
- M.K. Palmore
- Gavin Reid
- Phillip Wylie
- Robert Siciliano
- Brian Carbaugh
Pairs with
If Breaking Into Cybersecurity works for you, these likely will too.
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