Ray DeMeo on Cybersecurity Investing, AI Risk, and Building Resilient Teams

Thomas chats with Ray, managing director at Pulse Drive Group with a background in senior roles across tech and venture advising, about current cybersecurity market dynamics and investing.

Ray notes recent acquisitions focused on cyber AI and protecting AI applications and data, highlighting the need to reduce risk and address SOC alert overload. They discuss the Gartner Hype Cycle moving faster, hiring shifts toward broader, architecture-aware talent, and the possibility that top security individual contributors will become highly compensated as AI increases productivity.

Ray contrasts slow government procurement with urgent geopolitical pressures, citing Ukraine’s drone-driven innovation. He shares career lessons from early customer-facing work, startup discipline, mentorship in large companies, and the responsibility of layoffs. Ray argues most security spending is post-deployment, urging stronger pre-deployment secure coding.

Book recommendations include Nicole Perlroth’s “This Is How the World Ends,” plus “Team of Teams,” and Steve Martin’s “Born Standing Up.”

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

01:52 Ray’s Mission in Cybersecurity

04:03 Market Pulse and Investor Sentiment

04:25 AI Security and M&A Trends

07:09 Hype Cycle and Skills Shift

10:16 Government Pace and Ukraine Lessons

12:34 Career Lessons and Early Hustle

14:16 Startup Discipline and Customer Focus

16:56 Founder High and Building Momentum

18:23 Why Startups Hook You

19:41 Client Facing Skills

20:39 Caddying Lessons

21:47 Building People Skills

23:10 Big Company Mentors

25:48 Hard Leadership Calls

27:33 Secure Code Gap

32:36 AI and Code Quality

34:24 Books and Mindset

36:28 Advisory Work Network

37:51 Closing Thanks

CMMC Readiness, Compliance Consulting, and Career Lessons with Joe Schofield

In this episode of the Cybersecurity Recruiter Podcast, Tom speaks with Joe Scholefield, a former sysadmin/network engineer and ex-Dell cybersecurity manager, now serving as Director of Compliance at Deafcert, about helping defense contractors meet CMMC (based on NIST requirements) and preparing for DoD third-party assessments. Joe explains CMMC readiness commonly takes 12–18 months, with faster progress driven by aligned stakeholders, minimal internal resistance, and strong cross-department project management.

They discuss CMMC as both a cost and revenue differentiator, increasing supply-chain pressure from primes like Lockheed and RTX, and a looming assessor bottleneck given the number of companies needing certification versus C3PAOs. Joe shares career advice on knowing when to move roles, the impact of earning a bachelor’s degree over 17 years to avoid HR filtering, the importance of soft skills in consulting, and recommends the “CUI Center of Excellence” Discord community.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

01:03 What Joe Does Now

02:52 Helping Clients Succeed

03:36 Racing Through CMMC

05:24 CMMC as Revenue Driver

06:36 Supply Chain Pressure

07:46 Bottleneck and Assessors

08:50 Rollout Timeline Debate

11:39 Why CMMC Exists

13:08 Career Growth Lessons

16:27 Hiring and Soft Skills

19:19 Restaurant Skills for Consulting

20:29 Career Growth and Timing Moves

20:43 Finishing a Degree Late

22:37 Degrees and HR Filters

23:51 Certs and Hiring Signals

24:34 Job Search Fatigue Tips

26:31 Small Teams Hiring Stakes

27:17 Finding Community Resources

29:01 Mentors and Giving Back

31:26 Making Time for Growth

32:31 Work Life Balance Advice

33:08 Golf and Disconnecting

33:55 Wrap Up and Thanks

Jim Miller on Talent Acquisition: Career Growth, Remote Hiring, and Today’s Employer Market

On the Cyber Security Recruiter podcast, Thomas chats with Jim Miller, a talent acquisition leader with 25 years’ experience, including early recruitment at Allegis, a decade at Google (rising to global head of inbound talent), VP of Talent Acquisition at FullStory, and now VP of People and Talent at Ashby, where the company is fully remote across 27 countries.

Jim shares career lessons: teach and share expertise, explicitly ask for roles you want, and prioritize quality over quantity. They discuss today’s market dynamics: layoffs, heavy competition for remote roles, niche hard-to-fill roles, and intentional application “friction”,plus concerns about overusing AI in applications.

Jim advises tailoring CVs to show what you did, how, and the impact and magnitude of your actions, and recommends Ashby’s “Offer Accepted” podcast.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

01:51 Life and Remote Work

03:04 Team Retreats and Remote Culture

04:07 Career Growth Lessons

08:13 Quality Over Quantity

10:06 Intentional Applications

12:19 Hiring Market Imbalance

16:47 AI Use and Integrity

19:33 Resume Impact and Magnitude

22:40 Resume Bullet Formula

22:53 ATS Myths And Evidence

24:05 AI Criteria Matching

25:26 Speed And Transparency

25:41 High Volume Review Hacks

26:37 Accent Banter Break

27:08 Handling Setbacks Adaptably

29:23 Inbound Versus Sourcing

32:33 Early Google Scaling Story

34:41 Choosing Product Market Fit

36:28 Building Google's ATS

39:50 Offer Accepted Podcast

41:03 Learning From Coworkers

43:03 Closing Thoughts