Part B

I am an engineering graduate who was into Cybersecurity and was fortunate enough to get into Ernst and Young straight out of college, so I didn't have to struggle to go looking for jobs after I got out of college. I was part of a great team – in Identity and Access Management, who were very supportive and helpful to the newcomer that was me. Then after a year, I was made the first point of contact for one of the tools in the project I was working on. Initially, it was all fun – learning every day, exploring and experimenting what I read, addressing issues that came up. But then we received a Priority 1 incident, being a newcomer and never having come across a P1 incident I was unfamiliar with the exact proceedings and noticing the severity shook me, then I got to work bringing in all the stakeholders and looking into the incident. The entire system for my technology was down, and the communications were not going through, I went through the entire manual to resolve the issue and since the incident came pretty late in the night, there was limited help that I could ask for among peers as well. Then the support that my manager gave me and what he said is something that I can still remember – ‘Calm down, even if you get all jumpy the problem won't resolve, so take a deep breath and when you have calmed down enough look into the issue again'. The incident got resolved after about 3 hours we received it from but the experience at that time – explaining the situation to everyone on the call, trying to figure out the solution were one of the longest 3 hours of my life and I realized the importance of a calm mind and the effect it can have on other people. Since then this is what I have tried to adhere to in my life and address every curve ball that life has thrown at me with a cool head, and this has helped me at various stages of my life – both personal and professional, to resolve and diffuse the situation.