E4 - Betty DuBois at Packet Detectives

On our fourth episode of our Women in Tech spin-off series, our host Maddy Norris was joined by Betty DuBois, the Chief Detective at Packet Detectives. Betty is a Packet Analyst and focuses on network assessments, fault isolations, network analysis equipment deployments, and knowledge transfers.

Originally Betty had not intended to work in the networking area, but after moving to Georgia because of her husband’s career move, she attained a position in accounting. The company that employed her was bought out, and she was put in charge of all networks and computers. The previous network administrator, who was also Betty’s boss, had his job duties change quickly, so she was given the opportunity to run the network and did so with great eagerness. Betty learned quickly on the job, all thanks to her boss who was a great teacher.

Back before she started her career in the Networking space, Betty relocated to Georgia due to her husband’s career move where she got a job as an Accountant. The company got bought and who she was working for, was in charge of all the networks and computers but no longer had the time to run it all anymore from the rapid growth of his role. Betty was given the opportunity to run the network which she grabbed with both hands. She learned on the job, all thanks to her boss who was a great teacher.

SharkFest…

SharkFest is the annual Wireshark user and developer conference attended by about 300 people. The event focuses on sharing knowledge, experience and best practices among the Wireshark community. It’s great for anyone who uses or wants to learn about Wireshark.

Women in Wireshark…

Throughout Betty’s career, she has been mentored by several women who have taught her a great deal and acted as valuable role models. Betty wanted to inspire other females to attend SharkFest and encourage them to enter the field. To facilitate this, she reached out to the conference manager and proposed to donate her presenter fees to pay for two females to attend the event. 

SharkFest administrators agreed to match Betty’s financial contribution and award conference tickets to two lucky women. The scholarships give each winner admittance to Betty’s 2-day Wireshark class as well as the three-day conference, a value of over $2200 per person. 

In the course of her many years teaching Wireshark, Betty has always had one or two ladies in her classes but recently she has noticed an increase in the number of women and people of various ethnic backgrounds attending the weeklong course. The increased diversity has numerous positive effects for both newcomers to the Networking field, as well as those already established in the industry. 

https://www.cisco.com/c/en_in/training-events/networking-academy-program.html. 

For women in the tech space, anytime you have an opportunity to talk to other women in the space, take that chance. It allows you to learn how to handle different situations that you would’ve never gotten into otherwise.

On to our quick-fire round, Betty shares her answers from what technology she thinks will take over the world to the nerdiest piece of tech she owns. Make sure you listen to the full episode now to hear her answers!