A Day in the Life of a Chief Compliance Officer

For over 20 years, Daniel Barzman has taken senior-level roles in compliance at many large healthcare companies. With the increased threat of cyber attacks on major companies in the last decade, Daniel realized the importance of cybersecurity professionals and sought a cybersecurity bootcamp to understand the foundation. Find out what it’s like to work as a Chief Compliance Officer, and how the beginner-friendly Cybersecurity Bootcamp from 4Geeks Academy is helping Daniel further elevate his career.

What inspired you to start a career in compliance in the 1990s?

I graduated with a master's of science in public health, and after graduate school, I was hired by a startup health plan and promoted quickly! My role became all about regulation, privacy, and government relations. Since healthcare is a heavily regulated industry, my career eventually turned to cybersecurity. National companies can't afford to make mistakes that would compromise their patients.

In my career in compliance, I moved from Director roles to Vice President. At one point, I had 160 people reporting to me in all areas of compliance, including legal regulations, government relations, contracts, and federal and state government. Over the course of my career, I encountered cybersecurity through the beginnings of breaches, penetration incidents, hacking, and malware, and saw how it affected hospitals, physician's practices, and more. It became clear that cybersecurity professionals were in high demand! Company personnel started to come to compliance more frequently, asking about regulations, requirements, and public information related to cybersecurity and breaches.

This experience granted me an interesting perspective on system management and stakeholder management of cybersecurity incidents, especially regarding compliance, insurance, public relations, customer service, and legal regulation. In my last job as Chief Compliance Officer, I was head of the cybersecurity department. In that role, I realized I needed to understand cybersecurity from the ground up.

What does a Chief Compliance Officer do? 

Overall, my role includes preparing and securing the organization with cybersecurity, as well as responding in moments of attack. The role is split in two:

• As the head of cybersecurity, I rely on the technical specialist in cybersecurity. My company could come to me and ask to get a policy approved by the board or implemented, or they could request a new piece of software to protect ourselves or a new vendor. I review and approve the strategic moves of our cybersecurity plan.
• As the chief compliance officer, I communicate with the board and CEO, and I assess how an incident could affect the whole company, revenue, and so forth. As a chief compliance officer, I look beyond the cybersecurity issues. Since I'm the head of the incident response team, I explain to the CEO where we need to focus our resources and policies. How do we report when we get the first sign of a malware or ransomware attack? Who reports it to whom? What do we do? Who do we need to alert? Insurance, lawyers, public relations, marketing, customer service: which executives of the company need to be informed right away? Thus, I create an early warning strategic workgroup so we have a policy on how to respond.

What level of education is usually required for a Chief Compliance Officer? 

You don't need a college degree, but you do need hands-on experience, which a bootcamp and a bit of experience can offer. 

What’s the most important soft skill that you use as a Chief Compliance Officer?

Two main skills are necessary to be a successful Chief Compliance Officer: 

1. Technical Knowledge. You need to have a technical understanding of what's going on. It's helpful to have some coding knowledge so you can communicate with other tech professionals. 
2. Communication is imperative. Interpersonal skills, like teamwork, communication, and the ability to articulate the issue to other stakeholders, such as colleagues, executives, and other experts, are equally important. If you've had some leadership experience as a coach or public speaker, those skills will prepare you for this position. I think it can be helpful to take a communications class to practice! 

Since you’re at a senior level in your career, why did you decide to go to a cybersecurity bootcamp now? 

There is a bootcamp at MIT for executives like myself with no coding, only the strategic level of cybersecurity. I could have gone there, but I thought I had enough experience with the high level and I really wanted to know how cybersecurity worked on the baseline.

The main reason I chose a cybersecurity bootcamp was to get updated on the modern language, communication, and technologies that are being used. The companies I worked for wanted to get very expensive technology, but I couldn’t understand what it was for so I couldn’t understand the strategy of using it. 

The other thing I was considering was that I needed a certification of some sort to prove my credibility. I would like to take CompTIA, CISSP, and other certification exams. The cybersecurity bootcamp at 4Geeks Academy is like 35 years of IT development concentrated into 16 weeks!

There are so many online cybersecurity bootcamps now — Why did you choose 4Geeks Academy?

I mostly chose 4Geeks Academy because it was beginner-friendly. I first eliminated those that were not beginner-friendly, those that required a lot of coding experience, or those that said that they were beginner-friendly, but realized the curriculum was too steep a dive. 4Geeks Academy stood out because they had excellent reviews and high placement rates, and have been in the business for a while. I wanted a bootcamp that had withstood the test of time and tribulations.

I also chose 4Geeks Academy because I want an international job in the European Union and 4Geeks started in Spain and has a network all over Europe, South America, and North America! That was ideal for me because I was going to leverage their contacts in the European Union. 

So far, what have you been learning at 4Geeks Academy?

I've learned so much that my head is spinning! So far, I’ve learned these three main pillars:

1. Confidence in the foundations of cybersecurity. Everything starts with the fundamentals. You can't get into the sophisticated aspects of cybersecurity until you understand the foundational elements of a network and I'm so glad I decided to learn the foundations of cybersecurity from a bootcamp!
2. Overcoming imposter syndrome. I wish I knew more basic coding, like Python. The flexibility and dexterity to go with the flow in coding is easier for someone with experience in it. I had to get over the intimidation factor of never having dealt with code.
3. Patience. One has to be extremely patient with oneself and with the learning process because it's a very meticulous process that requires a patient eye for detail. 

What is the teaching style like at 4Geeks Academy?

The instructors are all cybersecurity professionals in the field. In a three-hour course that meets three times a week, we would have 1-2 hours of theory followed by 1-2 hours of hands-on lab where the students work together to solve and present a solution to a problem. The labs mirror real-world scenarios that apply to what we’d see on the job. 

Which skills or tools are you expecting to use on the job?

If I want to start an information security consulting firm, I now have the skills to screen myself and know what to screen for to determine someone's authenticity or legitimacy. 

I'm also identifying the areas of vulnerability in information systems where there's going to be a need for the service. It's an important skill to be able to identify the problem, especially the higher you are as an executive. This is when your experience, knowledge, and skill in understanding the processes come in. I'm bringing my industry experience to the bootcamp but the bootcamp is teaching me how to use it!

As someone who has so much valuable experience as a high-level executive, what has it been like working with your cohort?

Just like everyone else in my cohort, I too am having trouble remembering, understanding, leveraging, and putting in motion the details. I'm having to listen to others and find camaraderie in that we're all struggling together. Everyone's 30 years younger than I am, so some of them can understand these systems faster and with more ease. No matter what, though, we are all learning and growing together.

As someone who typically works in C-suite, can you see yourself hiring bootcamp grads or recommending organizations hire bootcamp grads? 

Yes! It’s not like they’re going to graduate from a bootcamp and become a chief compliance officer, there’s a latency period — but bootcamp graduates are the ideal candidate for entry-level tech jobs because they understand the fundamentals and are not starting from scratch. All they need is direction and the application of their knowledge to that company. 

What is your advice to other professionals considering the cybersecurity bootcamp at 4Geeks Academy? Anything you wish you knew before day one of the bootcamp?

The only thing I would suggest is to take an online class on the fundamentals of coding or networking. Not knowing anything about coding or networking before starting the bootcamp is a bit like somebody boarding a ship to be a sailor, but has never been on a boat before and suddenly realizes that they get very seasick, the boat is smaller than they thought, and the sea is rougher. Take an introductory course to make sure this is something you want to do.

Find out more and read 4Geeks Academy reviews on Course Report. This article was produced by the Course Report team in partnership with 4Geeks Academy. 4Geeks Academy is a coding bootcamp based in Miami, FL, training in Full Stack Software Development, Data Science and Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, and Applied AI. With 10 locations across the US, they offer part time, online, programs as well as hybrid and in person programs.