Before the Terminal

Yetunde Duze did not begin in a server room. She began in hospitals, handling the records of patients whose safety depended on the accuracy of her work. That, it turns out, is not so different from security.

Ladkem Eye Hospital, Lagos - 2021 to 2022

Her first professional role after graduating with a B.Sc. in Microbiology was as an Administrative Assistant at a private eye hospital in Lagos. She managed appointment scheduling, front-desk operations, patient record accuracy, and internal audits. It was operational, methodical, and detail-intensive - and it instilled habits she still carries. Every record had to be right. Every discrepancy had to be investigated, not ignored.

Skill transferred: Documentation rigour. In security, an incident report with missing details is a liability. She learned early that incomplete records are not neutral - they carry risk.

National Hospital, Abuja - 2022 to 2023

At one of Nigeria's foremost federal hospitals, she worked as a Medical Records Officer. Patient records here were not an administrative task - they were a matter of clinical safety and legal accountability. She managed confidential data, collaborated with medical teams on data retrieval workflows, and improved digital filing systems. Access control was real, not theoretical: the wrong person accessing the wrong record had consequences.

Skill transferred: Data confidentiality and access discipline. The principle of least privilege - only the right people accessing the right records - is a foundational concept in information security. She understood it before she knew the term.

Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered), Lagos - 2023 to 2025

Her longest pre-security role, and the one that shaped her most as a professional. She joined NIM as a Customer Relations Officer - the first point of contact for Fellows, Members, and prospective members of one of Nigeria's oldest chartered professional bodies. Over two years she managed enquiries, coordinated certificate dispatch, supported HR operations, and maintained the professional environment that a body like NIM depends on for credibility.

In her final months, she moved into an Officer, Council Affairs role - recording council meeting proceedings, coordinating with senior management, and supporting the governance structure of the institution at its highest level. This was not administrative support in the background. This required discretion, accuracy under pressure, and the kind of reliability that senior stakeholders depend on.

In 2024 she stood in front of all NIM staff and delivered a presentation on Customer Service at the organisation's Knowledge Sharing Session. She was also inducted as an Associate of NIM - AMNIM - in 2025.

Skills transferred: Stakeholder communication, governance documentation, professional credibility under scrutiny. In security, she now writes findings reports for a technology lead and a CEO. The ability to communicate clearly and confidently to non-technical leadership is not a soft skill - it is a career-defining one.

What the transition looked like

In 2025, Yetunde joined Pluto Cloud Computing as a Cybersecurity Analyst - and found herself functioning as a security engineer in an environment with no pre-existing security architecture. She did not arrive with a decade of technical experience. She arrived with precision, documentation discipline, a B.Sc. in a scientific field, and the ability to communicate findings to people at every level of an organisation.

The technical knowledge has been built deliberately and continuously since. The professional habits were already there.