I wanna share six remote work secrets that will better prepare you for IT and cybersecurity
jobs, and how you can better prepare for this trend in a post-pandemic world.
Over the past couple of months, we’ve seen lockdowns, shopping panics, massive unemployment,
and financial turmoil.
The constant bombardment of fear and doubt across news media doesn’t help at all.
You’ve probably got friends and family constantly hoping for that blissful moment where they
wake up from this wild dream for a “return to normalcy”.
I don't think that’s gonna happen soon.
We’re in a new reality of incredible change, with winners and losers on each side of this
transition period.
Before the turn of recent events, remote work was the exception for most people, who are
used to a nine-to-five routine of commuting to and from work.
It’s typically been the realm of privileged minorities
like digital nomads or special employees.
But with social distancing and self-isolation, we’ve been forced to accept remote work
as the new normal and embrace technologies
like video conferencing and real-time collaboration tools.
This isn't just a passing fad, but rather a fundamental, cultural shift
that’s here to stay.
Keep watching, and you'll learn how to adapt your lifestyle and workflow to take advantage
of what's going on.
Stay tuned.
The biggest development driving the coming boom
in IT and cybersecurity is the rise of remote work.
I’m gonna first show you six ways that can boost your success working remotely whether
you're an engineer, manager, business analyst, or support staff.
I’m then gonna discuss some of the factors driving this trend and huge opportunities ahead.
So how should you be preparing for a general shift to remote work in IT and cybersecurity?
Well aside from the obvious like leveling up your digital skills, the most important
thing you can can do is to invest in your audio and video gear.
While you can spend all of your time communicating by email or chat, they can’t replace the
high-definition bandwidth and fidelity of video conferencing during high-stakes meetings
like an incident response brief or performance review.
Fortunately, over the past decade, all the video game livestreamers and beauty vloggers
who've perfected their setups can teach us a thing or two
about getting good sound and visuals.
The first tip for your remote work setup is to improve your lighting.
Camera sensors tend to introduce a ton of digital noise in dim conditions with dark shadows.
Video codecs can’t efficiently compress all these extra bits of data and introduce weird
video artifacts.
Combined with a low-resolution, low-bitrate stream, your image will look elated, fuzzy,
and disengaging.
Most light sources like your overhead lights sit at too high or low of an angle and’ll
cast hard shadows on your face, giving you raccoon eyes or other unflattering looks.
The easiest, practically free way to fix lighting issues is to sit by a window when you hold
video calls.
Sunlight is pure white, with the sky and clouds acting like a giant diffuser to cast soft
light on your face, filling in shadows, wrinkles, and blemishes.
If it’s nighttime or your workspace doesn’t have access to a window, purchase a ring light
or portable LED, and a stand.
These things are usually a hundred bucks and make a huge difference in your video quality.
You should place them at a 45 degree angle downwards at your face and consider covering
them with a white sheet to further soften the light.
This is primary light often called a "key light” in videography circles.
If you’re really motivated, you may even wanna buy a couple more lights and stands
for a two, or three-point lighting setup.
The second light you can place at a high-angle behind you to illuminate your hair and shoulders
to make your silhouette pop out of the screen.
This is usually called a back light or rim light.
Notice how without a back light my first image is more blended into the background.
The third light you can place on the other side of your face, that's next to the key light.
This is known as a "fill light", and can remove any leftover shadows for a bright, news anchor look.
If you have a mirror or reflector panel, it can substitute as a great fill light as well.
Moving on, is to improve your camera.
Most webcams that are built into phones and laptops have cheap sensors and lenses.
Even a perfect three-point lighting setup isn’t gonna produce that crystal clear picture
of you for the others in a video call if your camera's weak.
You need a good lens and camera that captures as high of a resolution and bitrate as possible.
This way it increases sharpness when downscaled to lower resolutions like 720p and loses less
quality from video chat compression that just crushes everything.
The Logitech BRIO 4K is a high-end webcam on the market right now
for an out-of-the-box solution.
If you want the absolute best quality though, Elgato’s Cam Link 4K lets you use a DSLR
or mirrorless camera’s HDMI output feed as a webcam.
You’ll need a wide angle lens, something less than 35mm so the view isn’t super cramped
at close distances.
Both these options are a bit pricey, so you could try using your phone as a webcam instead.
For iOS, there's an app called NDI HX Camera
made by NewTek that lets you stream your phone’s camera feed to your computer
over the same wifi network.
Installing NewTek's NDI Tools gives your computer the right drivers to use NDI as a webcam with
videoconferencing tools.
For Android, there's apps like DroidCam, EpocCam, and iVCam as well,
with their respective Desktop clients.
Keep in mind that streaming from a phone drains battery very quickly and you'll need to keep
it charged for longer video calls.
I personally use a 4K Cam Link, since it has so much better quality, especially when compared
the laptop webcam.
When you’re positioning the camera, it’s best to frame yourself at a neutral, face-level
position, since too high of an angle makes you look small
and too low of an angle looks domineering.
When you're doing a video call, try to look straight at the lens as much as possible to
maintain good eye-contact with others.
This might feel strange at first, but it becomes second nature over time.
Many people tend to look down at their screen when talking to others, but this doesn't look
natural and doesn’t engage people very well.
My third tip for your setup is to have a consistent, professional backdrop.
A proper backdrop frames your face and helps your silhouette
stand out on a two-dimensional screen.
It also communicates to others what type of environment you’re working out of, whether
it’s clean and polished, or dark and ratched.
What you don’t want is to be showing doors, people walking around, a messy room, or other
distracting elements behind you.
At a minimum, hang up a curtain or thick sheet to provide some contrast and mask out the
rest of the room.
Believe it or not, this right here is actually a big red blanket.
Some video conferencing tools offer virtual backgrounds to do the same thing.
Putting a giant TV behind you is another great option.
I personally don't use virtual backgrounds since they tend to look artificial, flat,
and require a green screen, which might create color spilling on the edges of your body.
For a really nice backdrop, use a well-lit wall with textured material like wood panels
or bricks.
Adding lamps, plants, and other simple knick-knacks can further create visual interest and sophistication.
While most people can handle poor video, it’s really hard to tolerate bad audio.
Half of what you see is what you hear, after all.
The fourth secret for remote work is to improve your audio quality by WEARING HEADPHONES!
If you’ve ever heard screeching, glitches, or echos, it’s almost ALWAYS because one
of the participants isn’t using headphones.
The sound from their external speakers feeds back into the microphone and create a recursive
sound loop for everyone.
You should recommend everyone on the call to wear headphones, or at a minimum mute themselves
when not speaking.
Conferencing software like Skype or Zoom provide echo cancellation and other “audio-enhancing”
features, but they won’t give nearly as good of a result
as each person simply using headphones.
The fifth tip is to use a dedicated microphone,
and never the one built into your laptop.
External microphones on a laptop are often cheap and low quality, picking up all kinds
of background noise from the room.
At a minimum, you should use the microphones on a headset, which are portable on-the-move,
and cheap enough for most people to buy.
Now some high-end devices like MacBook Pros have multiple mic arrays with signal processing
algorithms that cancel out background noise from fans, keystrokes, echos, and even what’s
playing on your speakers.
Even with these features though, you’re gonna want a dedicated external mic to really
stand out on a call.
Whether it’s a lavalier, shotgun, dynamic, or condenser, these microphones have pickup
patterns and hardware equalization designed for human speech that'll capture much more
nuance and clarity than any headset.
This where you need to decide between a USB or XLR microphone.
USB microphones are plug’n play and directly into your computer.
You might need to install a driver for it, but otherwise it’s mostly hassle-free and
doesn’t require much tinkering, since the preamplifier and signal conversion interface
are built-in.
Now USB mics don’t give you more modular setups with dedicated preamps and access to
nice microphones like the Shure SM7B, which many podcasters use.
These higher-end microphones use an XLR cable, and need some kind of a USB preamp to connect
it to your computer.
Whichever option you end up going with, using a dedicated microphone will drastically boost
your call quality.The sixth best way to boost your remote work setup
is to get the right acoustics.
Besides eliminating ambient noises, you’ve also got to have good room acoustics.
Most rooms are not designed or optimized for audio,
so sounds get reflected and bounced around the walls.
This is called reverb, which creates an echo-y, hollow-sounding tone.
When you’re speaking with a lot of reverb, the voice quality deteriorates even more when
compressed and sent across the Internet.
The simplest way to reduce this is to hold calls inside a small room, which limits how
far echos can propagate before bouncing back.
You don’t wanna be in a large kitchen or living room with wood, glass, and stone, which
only intensify reverb.
If it’s just a voice call, you can use a walk-in storage closet with lots of clothes
hanging on the racks.
The many layers of fabric absorb sound bouncing around.
If you’re set up in an office, consider buying acoustic foam panels to mount on the
side walls, bass traps for the corners, and carpet or rugs to help
dampen sound bouncing off the floor.
If you don’t think it’s worth the effort to invest in your gear and setup,
think about this:
have you ever seen a news anchor or radio host invite a guest on the show?
If the guest dials in over phone or Skype and the discussion gets heated, it's rarely
a fair debate.
The host always has good lighting and an authoritative, professional voice while the guest's speech
is jittery, with his face half-pixelated.
Even if the guest has a solid argument, he often comes across as weak and unpersuasive
to viewers.
During an in-person discussion, it's the one with physical charisma and presence who’s
looked upon with respect.
Over the months and years, this reputation bears fruit in the form of career advancement
and unique opportunities.
In a virtual world, that same x-factor comes in the form of having superior audio and video.
If you truly wanna set yourself apart from the competition in a remote work environment,
absolutely invest in a setup that presents yourself in the best way possible.
Now If you're a traditionalist, like myself, you might’ve always thought that face-to-face
interactions could never be replaced by a just virtual representation of the other person.
We'll often misquote psychology professor Albert Mehrabian’s research on how communication
is 7% verbal, 38% tone of voice, and 55% body language.
These figures, according to Dr. Mehrabian himself, are actually only applicable when
describing feelings or attitudes for liking and disliking something.
The reality is that we've developed and grown-up with sophisticated social norms and etiquette
to govern in-person communication, such as making eye-contact and using non-verbal cues.
Investing in the right type of gear and setup for remote work, along with proper video conferencing
etiquette can do a lot to help eliminate interruptions and approximate the face-to-face experience.
Now, if all this feels a bit overwhelming,
don’t worry about trying to implement it all at once!
Here's how you can slowly upgrade your audio and video in stages!
Let’s say you’re just starting out right now.
Using window light, a clean backdrop, and a headset is a quick and easy upgrade.
Over time, you can make small investments to your setup
until it’s near-professional quality!
Now let's talk about why I think we’re gonna see a boom in remote
work for IT and Cyber professionals.
The three primary groups that are gonna perpetuate this trend are individuals, their children,
and companies.
For the first time in years, I’m seeing multi-generational families going for strolls
together in the neighborhoods.
Parents are outside together, doing yard work, or playing with their kids, who are basically
homeschooling themselves, with public schools being shut down indefinitely.
Brick-and-mortar shops are closing or trying to go online, while big corporations are shifting
to decentralized business operations.This massive timeout is absolutely gonna affect
the lifestyle calculus for many people.
Deciding whether to commute an extra two hours everyday fighting traffic versus
exercising or spending more time with your kids is a very real choice.
The latter saves money on gas, insurance, and car maintenance
and can be much healthier for you.
For the most part, people are behind a computer working on emails, checking dashboards, and
making phones calls anyways.
It’s a matter of choosing between which desk to sit:
the one at home or the one far away.
The same is true for kids, who've had to commute by school bus to a building somewhere to sit
listening for hours every day from a teacher who might be less-than-engaging.
But with schools closed, enrolling in the University of YouTube or the hundreds of free
online courses from places like Harvard, Stanford, and MIT presents an interesting alternative
to those same teachers just starting to learn how to livestream.
Kids are already digital natives, many who grew up with smartphones, iPads, social media,
and video games ever since the diaper days.
Digital homeschooling through remote education is gonna be a long-term alternative to public
schools for many families down the road.
As for companies, they've got a business case for adopting remote work as well.
Having fewer people in the same facility saves money on rent, furniture, office supplies,
equipment, and other overhead costs.
It also gives businesses access to a wider talent pool, independent of geography.
Remote interviews, hiring people, and even remote firing are starting to become commonplace.
These shifts are happening across almost all industries, from banking, retail, to healthcare.
So what does this mean for IT and cybersecurity?
For one, we're gonna see a dramatic surge in telecommunications volume and server-side
infrastructure load.
From voice, video, to web traffic, people are spending much more time on their devices.
Verizon posted that its networks handled more than 218 Petabytes of data on a single Monday
in March this year.
Remote work creates cybersecurity challenges for companies as well, whose employees are
working from home, with personal and work activities mixed on the same device.
According to Cybersecurity Ventures, there’s gonna be a shortage of 3.5 million unfilled
cybersecurity jobs by 2021 in the US alone.
This number is up from 1 million in 2014 and enough to fill 50 NFL stadiums.
Throw in all the IT and support staff and the number is even bigger.
When you combine this shortage with a worldwide increase
in demand for carrier services, application resources,
and content from ISPs, companies, and individuals alike, it's the perfect storm.
We're talking opportunities for software engineers, system administrators, network architects,
cyber defenders, penetration testers, security analysts...the list goes on!
IT and cybersecurity jobs are a natural fit for remote work, since you spend a lot of
time interacting with servers, researching online, and tinkering with technology.
This gives you a ton of flexibility for geo-arbitrage, where you can increase your purchasing power
by choosing to live in a less urban location while commanding a more urban-level salary.
The money saved on costs like inflated rents, food prices, parking can be used to re-invest
in your own skills and education.
Geo-arbitrage becomes even more pronounced when you live in another country where your
costs are in a weaker currency but your earnings are in a stronger one.
One person name in the cyber world, who you should following by the way, is a security
researcher called “The Gruq”.
He lives in Thailand, which I can say from experience, is a great place to maintain a
high quality-of-life on the cheap.
By investing in your remote work gear and setup, you're primed to take advantage of
these opportunities. So that’s it for the all for the tips I’ve got in this video.
Remember, there’s some incredible changes happening in the world now that are gonna
to be a huge boom for the IT and Cybersecurity world.
Stay on the forefront by preparing your gear
and know-how right now to fully take advantage of it.
If you found this information valuable, hit that like button and share it with someone
you think will find it helpful too.
Subscribe for more episodes, and let me know which changes you’re gonna make to your
remote work setup!
Thanks so much for watching, and if you have any questions, please let me know.
See you soon!