Trust and Safety Analyst

What is your current role?

I currently work in trust and safety within Google. Everyone signs up to Google's terms and conditions to use our products and services. We investigate bad activity happening on our network and anyone who does activity outside that, to assess what actions can be taken.

Tell us a bit about your career journey

I graduated with a BSc Business Studies Technology and joined the Metropolitan Police. It was the most interesting world that I could have ever imagined in terms of the things that I was exposed to and the opportunities I got. I spent a long time working within child safety, online investigations, counter-terrorism and cybersecurity. I then worked for the National Crime Agency on secondment, where I started to learn a lot more about cybersecurity.

I decided to join the private sector and began working for the Vodafone cyber defence team, where we looked at cyber threats targeting our customers and our network. I later joined Barclays, where I did more investigations around fraud activity as well as investigations into actors looking to target the network and customers.

My next role at Aviva involved threat intelligence. So there I looked at bad actors, bad motivations behind campaigns and vulnerabilities on the network, how they could be exploited and ways we could remediate those kinds of things. I would tell teams about threats that we were seeing at other banks and institutions or in other countries and try to strengthen our network based on the signals that we saw externally. That led me to join Google, working in cyber threat intelligence.

One thing I’d to add is that I'm not very technical. Many people think you have to be very technical to work in banks or organisations like Google, but you can do it by having a different skill set.

If you could, would you change or do anything differently?

I would have spent more of my spare time on professional development. One thing I’ve realised about this field is a lot of people dedicate a lot of time outside work harnessing and refining their skill set and knowledge.

What do you think are the secrets behind getting to where you are today?

Hard work and being open to trying opportunities that I was scared of. There have been many times when I didn't want to take a course because my colleagues had failed. Take all opportunities that come your way, and look at everything as an advantage.

What do you love the most about your job?

I like the impact I’m able to make. One of the benefits of working for a big organisation is that when you do something really small it has a massive impact, sometimes even globally, because of the scale that you're working at. That's quite unique. It feels like you are making a real difference.

What has a failure/disappointment looked like in your career journey – and how did you bounce back?

I took a really tough professional course and I failed the first time by 10%. The course was £9,000 and I was unsure if I should take it again. I was really disappointed but I retook it and passed. Sometimes it's about facing your fears of failing and making sure that you plug the gaps to ensure that you don't fail again.

Are you currently listening to any or reading any books or audiobooks for personal development? And why?

The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett. He and the guests are amazing! You can learn a lot, not just about life, but how you can survive in the business world and what it takes to be successful.

Who or what inspires you? 

My mum because of the difficulties that she faced when she first came over from the Caribbean to England. Also generations before her that experienced a lot of racism and discrimination but still made a life for themselves. That's inspirational!

What advice would you give to a young person starting out?

Try and find something you really enjoy and are passionate about and try to find a job linked to that. So for example, if you’re passionate about your football team, maybe go and work behind the scenes with them, because that will really inspire you. You're going to want to be part of that and want to achieve a lot for the brand. Try to find an industry or sector that you really like, and everything else will fall into place.

Take a look at our list of websites to find work experience opportunties.