#450 - New to Identity with Alexis Bernthal

Jeff flies solo for episode 450, joined by Alexis Bernthal, an associate on RSM's technology risk consulting team who found her way to the podcast through a corporate-wide email and a contact form submission that led to an invitation to Identiverse. They trace how Alexis went from failing a high school computer science class to finishing a CS degree, and how a topic on the show, role-based access, first put identity and access management on her radar. Alexis walks through what technology risk consulting looks like day to day, her first industry conference experience at Identiverse (including Identibeer, sessions on agentic identity and transaction tokens, and a Women in Identity gathering), and the blog she started at AlexisBernthal.com to document her own journey. The conversation turns to what it takes to bring more early-career people into identity: the perceived technical barrier, the value of mentorship and simply introducing yourself at conferences, and whether seniority is really a prerequisite (Jeff's own path started with programming parking lot lighting identities at Walgreens). They close things out with a browser tab hot take and a warning about what not to leave open during a screen share.

Connect with Alexis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-bernthal/

Visit her website: AlexisBernthal.com

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/

Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/

Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com

00:10 - Introduction and upcoming conference schedule

01:48 - Guest introduction: Alexis Bernthal

02:10 - How Jeff and Alexis met and the podcast's origin story

08:12 - How Alexis got into IT and landed at RSM

11:02 - What technology risk consulting actually involves

14:34 - A day in the life, plus RSM's Power of Love campaign

17:15 - How identity first showed up on Alexis's radar

18:48 - Identiverse: Alexis's first-ever conference

21:31 - Enthusiasm, Identibeer, and standout sessions

26:06 - AlexisBernthal.com and her own podcast with her dad

28:35 - What surprised her most about IAM

30:05 - Jeff's identity-as-a-language analogy

37:49 - Breaking into IAM without a technical background

41:21 - Learning by being in the room, plus IDAC's website Easter eggs

46:23 - ID Pro, mentors, and shout-outs to the RSM digital identity team

49:58 - What's holding the next generation back from IAM

54:19 - Introducing yourself at conferences and meeting people where they are

59:30 - Jeff's own accidental start in identity, programming parking lot lights

1:04:00 - Luck, networking, and today's job market

1:08:03 - Advice for new grads breaking into the field

1:10:26 - Where Alexis sees her IAM journey heading

1:12:59 - Lightning round: how many browser tabs is too many

1:17:44 - A cautionary tale about screen sharing

1:20:12 - Wrap-up and thank you's

IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Alexis Bernthal, RSM, technology risk consulting, identity and access management, IAM, role-based access, Identiverse, Identibeer, ID Pro, agentic identity, transaction tokens, career development, mentorship, networking, early career, digital identity, authentication, authorization, single sign-on