For this installment of “On the RISE,” SIA spoke with Avalon Ramirez, project specialist at Milestone Technologies. Responses have been edited for clarity and style.
Security Industry Association: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your career path.
Avalon Ramirez: I am 30 years old. After an initial internship within Milestone Technologies, I was reached back out to and hired, right out of college, after receiving my English literature degree, and I started as a content specialist/technical writer.
I found that I was able to adapt to whatever environment I was placed in, and within two years I found myself working within the security field with one of our clients.
While my job title has changed to fit the parameters of projects, I mainly work within a mix of project management, customer and vendor relations, technical writing and training coordination.
SIA: What first got you interested in security and safety as a career choice?
Ramirez: I initially fell into the security world based on our client’s need for a project coordinator within one of their security branches — and that is where I learned just how incredible and far-reaching the security industry is.
I discovered that security is like a nesting doll — while on the outside I initially thought security was in guards and proper password protection, I learned just how complex each aspect of protection was for people and products. Through that fascination and complexity, I found myself really enjoying learning just what can be done to protect people.
SIA: Who has influenced or mentored you — either within the security field or outside?
Ramirez: The community of people within the security industry as a whole has been inspirational to me. I have become friends with veterans who have served together and are now on the same teams still working to keep people safe and fellow LGBTQ+ members who work to ensure we are kept safe as we exist as ourselves.
And, of course, the fellow women in my industry — especially the ones who are not afraid to be loud about gaps we see and deal with on a daily basis.
From a literary background, I have read the stories of people who overcame hardships and persecution over who they simply were, people who wrote out poems concerning their pain and desire to be loved and accepted into a world that can be hostile.
I like to think that working in security allows me to help our current, and future, writers to feel safe in speaking their truths and not hide behind locked-away letters, especially in the social media realm.
SIA: What’s something most people don’t know about you?
Ramirez: I am extremely introverted! My job requires me to interact with many different people and groups and match everyone’s specific tone. People always seem taken aback when I mention my weekend plans include making candles and painting at home while watching my favorite streamers play games on Twitch or YouTube. It’s how I recharge!
Also, I am very wildlife-oriented with a passion for bird watching and caring for feral cats, raccoons, squirrels, skunks and possums in my own backyard.
SIA: What are some challenges and advantages of being a young professional in security?
Ramirez: The duality of gaining knowledge from experienced members in the field while having a kind of pressure to be the existing subject matter expert for new technologies. Young professionals are people who still need to learn the ins and outs of a field, but now we have a pressure to also understand all these artificial intelligence (AI) programs, modern social media interactions and the like.
I feel that, in this current climate, technology is moving so fast that it is going to take two or three generations to find new members who inherently have the knowledge about the newest tech, while also knowing they still have a lot of industry practices to learn.
But there is an advantage in knowing how fast tech moves now. I feel that we help provide a lot of reality checks when it comes to deadlines these days — and while some people may see it as being too lax, I feel we are able to provide a reasonable workflow that avoids doing extra work in the future. In a way, we help save overall time by slowing projects down.
SIA: What advice do you have for young professionals just starting out in the industry?
Ramirez: Don’t be afraid to experience humility and to do it fast. I entered this industry as a perfectionist, and I would have saved myself a lot of grief if I took my mistakes (which were many) in stride. Some errors are more severe than others, but when it comes to security, timing is everything.
If you own up to a problem faster than you caused it, you may quickly find a solution that saves you, and the people you are keeping safe, a lot of grief.
SIA: What do you enjoy most about being at your company — and in the security industry?
Ramirez: The people. We have people located within different companies, and we all get to share the important lessons we learn in the environments we get placed in. We also have communities built around veterans, women, disabilities, ethnicity and queer spaces alike.
I find a lot of joy in knowing I am helping my fellow people by accommodating their needs into new projects and ideas. Taking what a coworker mentioned about their struggles, such as their difficulty in navigating a security barrier when they’re in a wheelchair, to the table can cause a ripple effect of improvements.
SIA: How do you define success?
Ramirez: Success is in the results you see around you over a period of time, no matter how small it may be. It’s like shifting a plant to a little to the left to get more sunshine during the day. It may be small, and it may take months to see it grow, but when you notice that the plant is suddenly a foot taller, you know you’ve done right.
SIA: How do you think the SIA RISE community can help foster the careers of young people in the industry? What does the program offer that is most important to you/your company?
Ramirez: I think SIA RISE is helping open people’s minds up to what security really entails. It is not just cameras and guards, but it is complex systems, big and small, that require all kinds of different minds to build and strengthen.
I feel that RISE provides that refreshing look at the security industry that makes it appealing, and less intimidating, for young minds to enter. With the various voices who come through and share their input, people will be able to see themselves in the security world.
It is not just with my company, but also with my close friends, where I feel that I am able to take RISE’s community and share all the possibilities that are available. It feels empowering to be able to show someone something amazing within security and to go “you can do this too, you know.”
SIA: What are some key components of your role with Milestone Technologies — and in your current role within Meta?
Ramirez: A large component of my work is making sure I communicate information effectively between a large number of groups who all have their own goals and projects they want to work on. There are many times I have had one group tell me they want to work on “A” and spread the “A” agenda, and then I go to the next group, and they tell me they hate “A” and never want to see it in their life.
So, while “A” may be a controversial topic, I have developed the skills to make everyone be able to work with “A” in their own approved way. My communication and collaboration skills have increased tenfold in this position, as I always need to make sure we are not stepping on anyone’s toes, but are making sure projects get done and people manage their expectations.
SIA: What key challenges, opportunities and/or trends do you see as most important to the industry — or more specifically to end users like the companies you work with?
Ramirez: Keeping up with technology trends and updates has been a large facet of my career — and I do not see that aspect slowing down anytime soon. You have new technology emerging like AI that everyone wants to try out, but you have security, and legal, risks still present.
At the same time, you have legacy technology that just discovered a serious security bug, and suddenly a new training course must be implemented to teach everyone how to work with it and update the system.
I’ve faced multiple projects where a large portion of the work is making sure 100 people, experienced and new, need to have the same understanding of an update on a product we use on a daily basis within one month; however, it can be fun.
It is a big challenge at times to make sure we keep up with all security concerns, and we have become creative when it comes to creating our own internal training courses that are catered to our systems specific use of said technology.
We also work closely with various companies to see if they can work with us on making specific courses and accommodating extremely specific asks. It leads to in-depth conversations and, sometimes, new large-scale implementations.
SIA: What has it been like being involved with SIA’s SPARC community and collaborating on initiatives relevant to security practitioners and global security end users?
Ramirez: It has been eye opening to see just how far reaching the security industry goes when accommodating all possible facets of life, and new doorways have been opened as a result of these conversations and benchmarking sessions we have had.
There have been multiple occasions where members will say “I haven’t even thought about that” when they hear about ways technology may be implemented, possible security risks others are concerned about and so much more.
It is also refreshingly open and honest — with multiple groups helping each other realize they face the same issue and can then collaborate on fixing it together and opening that solution to the community. And if there is no plausible, or current, “fix,” the conversation happens and continues until something comes around.
SIA: What has been the most rewarding accomplishment or experience in your career in the security industry?
Ramirez: Knowing that I have been involved in discussions and have helped bring considerations to the table when it comes to making systems and tech more secure for — truly — everyone. With recent social issues coming forwards, I feel that I have a real ability to make my input heard in this sector, and as a result, the discussions I have with my own close friends and family are also heard.
At the end of the day, it is about the community we have around us and making sure that everyone feels they have a voice to say what will help them go about their lives feeling safe and protected.
SIA: What are your predictions for where the security industry may be headed in the next five to 10 years?
Ramirez: I feel like we may see some hard breaks happening, where the industry takes time to sit down and make sure that new tech doesn’t continue to go into the wilder meta west without proper security measures in place.
I feel that this demand for products to sit down and really implement and think about the future security of their product is starting to see traction. Of course, there will also be new risks introduced as we develop new technology, but my hope is that we are entering an era where security, and not “newness,” takes the forefront of emerging tech.
On the RISE is a column by the Security Industry Association (SIA) in partnership with Security Sales & Integration profiling the next generation of security industry leaders. This column is part of SIA RISE, a community that fosters the careers of young professionals in the security through networking and career growth events, education and professional development offerings and scholarship and mentorship opportunities.
