Cecily Joseph

 

Symantec Corporation, a global leader in cybersecurity, operates one of the world’s largest cyber intelligence networks to help companies, governments, and individuals secure their most important data wherever it lives. Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, Symantec has offices in 200 sites across 50 countries.

 

Cecily Joseph is vice president of corporate responsibility and chief diversity officer for Symantec. She oversees Symantec’s global corporate responsibility efforts, which encompass environmental, social, and governance program development as well as diversity and inclusion, integration, and alignment. Joseph drives the implementation of community investment efforts, including the Symantec Foundation; leads the company’s environmental management system; guides management on building an inclusive workforce; and oversees the communication of the company’s corporate responsibility strategy and activities to a broad variety of stakeholder groups.

 

AFRICAN-AMERICAN CAREER WORLD: What diversity and inclusion initiatives does Symantec have in place to hire and promote a diverse workforce?

 

CECILY JOSEPH:We are trying to attract the best talent to produce the best products and services. If we are going to win within our field, we need a diverse workforce that we leverage in an inclusive work environment.

 

To start, we’ve published our diversity data publicly and set a goal to increase the diversity of our workforce across all levels by 15 percent by 2020. Our efforts are focused on traditional programs to help increase diversity, as well as programs that are not as traditional. In many of our efforts, we are trying to bring diversity and philanthropy together.

 

For example, when you look at the number of women in technology, and then specifically black women in technology, the number gets smaller and smaller. We are pursuing the opportunity to bring more people of color into the technology field, partnering with Net Impact (https://netimpact.org/) an organization that works with college and graduate students across the USA who are interested in careers with a purpose and driving transformational change in the workplace and the world.

 

We started partnering with Net Impact three years ago, helping to make the organization more inclusive. We helped create Net Impact chapters at historically black colleges (HBCUs). Net Impact now has chapters at 20 HBCUs.

 

We also host HBCU students at Net Impact’s annual conference. In addition to attending career-focused workshops, the students participate in the full conference. We are also funding an initiative with Levi’s to bring the conversation around race equity and social justice to college students, empowering students to have those conversations and helping guide them on how to have those conversations.

 

We are looking to connect with students from HBCUs in a meaningful way. We want these students to see us as an employer of choice.

 

From a more traditional hiring perspective, we are looking at all opportunities, partnering with diverse organizations and schools that have these diverse organizations.

 

In 2014, we started the Symantec Cyber Career Connection (SC3 for short) to bring in more underserved and underrepresented young adults into the cybersecurity field. We know the percentage of African-Americans working in cybersecurity is very low, even as there are tons of jobs that need cyber professionals - an estimated 500,000 to 1 million jobs remain unfilled in the U.S. alone. This gap is expected to grow to a staggering 1.5 million by 2020. These are not just government jobs, but all companies – from retail to financial services companies – need cyber professionals. Research has showed us that 20 percent of the jobs can come from people without a college degree.

 

The year-long program, which is a collaborative effort with our partners NPower, YearUp and Per Scholas, gives these young adults extensive training followed by internships with leading companies, such as eBay, Bank of America, The New York Times, J.P.Morgan, and even Symantec. We focus on job placement. The majority of our graduates are students of color, and more than 35 percent are women. We are definitely seeing this as an opportunity to bring diverse candidates into the workforce.

 

This program is creating shared value: it’s good for our business, for our customers, and for society.

 

To learn more about SC3, visit the following website: go.symantec.com/cyber-career-connection/

 

AFRICAN-AMERICAN CAREER WORLD: Do you have Employee Resource Groups or other networking/mentoring initiatives in place?

 

CECILY JOSEPH:We have five very active ERGs focused on women, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and we just launched one for veterans. Right now we are trying to reposition our ERGs. Some have been around for as long as 10 years, and we are now thinking about them more strategically and how we can partner with them in other ways. In addition to being networking groups, we are looking to tie leadership development to these groups. AFRICAN-AMERICAN CAREER WORLD: Please describe Symantec's company culture, and why it's a great place to work.

 

CECILY JOSEPH: Over the last year and a half, our new leadership has provided a refresh of our values, transforming our business focus. We are now solely focused on security. This new initiative also includes a commitment to our values and tenets, with diversity very much integrated throughout.

 

Our values are centered on leadership, innovation, and growth. Leadership includes accountability; innovation includes embracing diverse points of view. As we look to innovate, diversity’s importance becomes critical. Central to growing is being open and collaborating, and understanding that not one of us is as good as all of us as a team.

 

We are building an inclusive culture that is more than just a part of our values. Diversity is more than a value; it’s a practice that the whole organization looks to leverage. We are looking at diversity holistically, not just in talent acquisition, but also throughout the entire organization. We know that teams that think differently, that are diverse, are more innovative.

 

Our development teams are primarily male. We found that our patents tend to be filed by male or teams that are made up of mostly males. If our goal is to be more innovative, we need to start to encourage women and people of color to participate more in the patent process.

 

We are working with our marketing team to ensure that our employee brand reflects a place that people of diverse backgrounds feel comfortable and welcome. We ask ourselves: how do we show up on LinkedIn and Facebook, on our website? What images of our company are we projecting? It’s important that our external image reflects our company values for diversity and inclusion. AFRICAN-AMERICAN CAREER WORLD:What was the best career advice you ever received?

 

CECILY JOSEPH: The best career advice I ever received was from my dad, who told me not to give up and to keep pushing. I think that advice served me well in two ways.

 

In my own career, after completing my undergraduate work, I went to law school and became a corporate attorney. But there was always the desire to do something that contributed to societal good. I found my calling by becoming involved with corporate responsibility and diversity.

 

I also depend on that advice to keep pushing to ensure that as a company and as an industry we are constantly making strides. Areas like diversity are difficult; you can talk about it, but if it was easy to implement, every company would have a dynamic diversity program.

 

AFRICAN-AMERICAN CAREER WORLD: What advice can you give to young professionals looking to work at Symantec or move ahead in the organization? What qualities do you look for in your new hires?

 

CECILY JOSEPH: Speak up! One of our goals of our university hiring is that we are looking for students to bring in new ideas and collaboration into our organization. We want our new hires to make a difference and show how they can deliver results.

 

It’s also important to understand our organization’s priorities – learn what the company’s priorities and initiatives are, and how they apply to your work.

 

We deliver innovative solutions for our customers around the world, so we are looking for curious people. Ask questions, challenge the status quo.

 

We are looking for students who want to make the world better, who want to make the world safe. AFRICAN-AMERICAN CAREER WORLD:What types of jobs are you looking to fill?

 

CECILY JOSEPH: Primarily, we are looking to fill technical roles in engineering, IT, cybersecurity, and software development. But we have jobs in all areas for both new hires and for internship opportunities—in marketing, sales, finance, and HR.

 

AFRICAN-AMERICAN CAREER WORLD: How can our readers post resume online for a job with your company? CECILY JOSEPH: Please visit the following website: www.symantec.com/about/careers. We are always posting new jobs. I encourage any student interested in job opportunities with Symantec to connect with us on LinkedIn and to also connect with me personally on LinkedIn.