You're Not as Technical as You Think | Adam Arellano, Field CTO, Harness

At some point in your cybersecurity career, the skills that made you successful stop being the skills that move you forward. And according to this week’s guest, Adam Arellano, some of us may be a little more attached to our “technical” identity than we'd like to admit.
Adam is Field CTO at Harness, a longtime security practitioner, humanist, former social worker, leader, unapologetic wearer of kilts and heels, and one of the more unconventional thinkers you'll find wandering around a cybersecurity conference.
In this episode of Random Access Memories, Adam joins Jake Bernardes for a conversation about what happens when you stop following the career path you're supposed to follow and start figuring out what actually makes you different.
They talk about Adam's decision to be visibly weird and queer in an industry that still has plenty of sports coats, why representation can sometimes mean becoming the person your younger self needed to see, and why standing out isn't really about what you wear. It's about understanding the perspective, experience, and abilities you bring that nobody else does.
And then things got uncomfortable. Are senior cybersecurity leaders actually still technical?
Adam argues that technical expertise ages along with the technology you learned it on. If your hands-on expertise comes from 2006, calling yourself technical in 2026 may require an asterisk. And as practitioners move into leadership, Field CTO, Field CISO, and other positions of influence, the ability to communicate, understand people, and translate complexity may become far more valuable than staying the smartest person at the keyboard.
The conversation moves from punk rock to personal branding, social work to cybersecurity leadership, why disagreement is essential to good teams, and why surrounding yourself with people exactly like you might be one of the worst career decisions you can make.
And just when Jake thinks he's safely wrapping things up, Adam delivers some unsolicited therapy about success, anxiety, and our obsession with controlling outcomes.
Oh, and apparently Maui is a Disney princess…he makes a compelling case, trust us.
In this episode
Why Adam intentionally chooses to stand out
Being the representation your younger self didn't have
Why following the standard cybersecurity career path isn't always the answer
Finding the thing that's uniquely yours—and building around it
RSA vs. Black Hat and BSides: has cybersecurity become too corporate?
Punk rock, selling out, and why being effective can matter more than being righteous
Why senior cybersecurity practitioners may not be as technical as they think
What happens to technical skills as your career moves into leadership
Why communication becomes a critical technical-adjacent skill
Learning human interaction the same way you'd learn a new technology
Why you should surround yourself with people who aren't like you
How complementary strengths can create extraordinarily effective teams
Why disagreement isn't dysfunction
Understanding the person receiving your message instead of simply changing how loudly you deliver it
Letting go of success anxiety and the illusion that you can control every outcome
The definitive argument for Maui as a Disney princess