Janani R. (she/her) is a Team Leader of Application Security in our Information Technology (IT) department. She holds bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications engineering from Pondicherry University in India and a master’s degree in computer science from University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).
Janani shares that she first learned about Paycom at a career fair at UTSA, where benefits like $1 health insurance grabbed her attention. A few short months later, she received an offer to intern in information security. After the internship, she came to work full-time at Paycom and has been here four years.
Her main focus is performing security testing for Paycom’s application on different modules to provide the best and safest experience for our clients. Since being promoted to a team lead last year, her role has evolved to include facilitating team members and ensuring progress toward a department goal by engaging the right subject matter experts.
Janani’s career journey has been full of growth and continuous learning, including internal conferences like PiX/L, which features ongoing training, career insight and technology topics. Her promotion to team leader has provided the opportunity to help develop her own team and truly foster her leadership skills.
We caught up with Janani to learn more about the Application Security role at Paycom.
What does a day in the life of an Application Security Analyst look like?
We perform targeted security testing (penetration tests), work with software developers to provide trainings and ensure that we adhere to best practices for secure code. In addition, we complete daily tasks and in-house project resolution based on SLAs and keeping uptime of the application.
What classes and experiences prepared you for this role?
Cybersecurity electives at school helped secure my internship at Paycom. At the end of the summer internship, I had a full-time offer. The internship truly helped me get the experience I needed to succeed in my role today.
Now we have many resources for gaining technical knowledge online. There is only so much you can learn from school and courses. Search for ways you can upskill and continuously learn.
What is something you wish you had learned before getting to Paycom that would’ve better prepared you?
I really wish we had more resources back then regarding security. After the pandemic, there was a boom in awareness in all fields of cybersecurity and more online resources were created. I encourage others looking for a role to take advantage of these new resources.
What advice do you have for someone going into this role?
Cybersecurity is a domain that is not taught much in schools. To get started in this field, you must leverage the wealth of resources we have on the web. Earning an entry-level certificate is a great way to show what you’ve learned to help break into this field.
Janani’s commitment to continuous learning is a perfect fit with Paycom’s culture. Learning is part of our company’s values, and we provide training to help employees excel in their field and strengthen their leadership skills.
Interested in a technology career? Learn more about a tech role at Paycom.
