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My growth path: two years at Toreon
Starting as a trainee
In September 2024, I started my traineeship at Toreon. It was a challenging training path, but one that really kickstarted my career. I followed a wide range of training courses to develop both my hard skills and my soft skills. Since I already had a technological foundation from my Master’s degree in Business Administration: Management & IT, I could dive straight into security. But knowing the theory is one thing.
The deep dives into network infrastructure helped me to understand how large OT infrastructures can be safely segmented, which has a significant impact on attack surfaces. The addition of courses on current legislation, such as GDPR and NIS2, helped me to understand the different scopes and priorities of industries. This gave me the grounding I needed to start my career as a security consultant.
Alongside these courses, I was provided with on-the-job learning opportunities, shadowing our senior colleagues on their projects within Toreon. They gave me valuable insights into the security field and helped turn my “knowing” into “doing.”
After my first six months at Toreon, I was officially promoted to junior, or as we call it, Associate Consultant.
The change to junior
I like to call this part of my journey my ‘exponential growth path’. Once I was promoted to junior, I was given responsibility for my own clients while supporting our senior consultants full time.
It taught me how to manage my projects, and that context-switching isn’t always easy when you’re juggling five clients with five different infrastructures all at the same time. However it also taught me that security looks different in every company, and that you can genuinely make an impact by helping a client find what fits them best.
My water wings were fully off, and I got to make decisions on my own. One extra challenge was the NIS2 Directive, which really took off right around the time I started flying solo. Keeping up with all the challenges along the way was no small feat, but the internal support I received made all the difference.
Not only did I take on a client-facing role, but I also stepped up as co-organizer of our 30u30 events. There, I try to be a thought partner to my fellow younger colleagues. We brainstorm on how to keep improving Toreon and stay connected, even when we’re working on different projects and don’t see each other regularly.
Then came the chance to grow even further: the ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Implementer course. After working across different clients and sectors, the certification came more easily than I expected since I’d already put much of the theory into practice.
That course turned out to be the last step before my next promotion to medior, or as we call it: Consultant.
Going to medior consultant
I really did experience exponential growth, which led to my promotion to medior consultant after only one and a half years, an achievement I do not take for granted. Consultancy is a very fast-paced environment, and I had the opportunity to learn a great deal during that one and a half years thanks to Toreon. Working with different clients and sectors gave me more insight into the current state of security and how growth looks different for everyone.
I’m proud of everything I’ve achieved, the connections I’ve made, and the opportunities I’ve been given along the way. Attending conferences and eventually giving a talk myself were some of the true highlights of this stretch.
The road ahead
Looking back at these two years, what stands out most isn’t a single certification or promotion; it’s how much the definition of “expert” has shifted for me. In September 2024, I thought becoming good at security meant knowing the frameworks inside out. Today, I know it’s just as much about listening, adapting, and helping people navigate change. Whether that’s a client rethinking their security posture, or a colleague finding their footing the way I once did.
There’s still plenty of work ahead: deepening my expertise, taking on more complex and varied projects, and continuing to invest in the people around me, both clients and colleagues. If this journey has taught me one thing, it’s that growth rarely happens in a straight line. It happens in training courses and on-the-job moments, in challenges and quiet wins, in the people who show you the ropes and the ones you eventually get to guide yourself.
Two years in, I’m genuinely curious to see where the next two will take me.