Alumni Spotlight on Noah Kastenbaum, MTM Class of 2022

Noah is originally from Los Angeles. He studied Communication at UCSB, where he also completed the Certificate in Technology Management as an undergraduate. Since completing the MTM graduate program, he has been working at Feedly, an AI cybersecurity startup.

The following comments are excerpted from an alumni panel event that took place in April 2024.

Q: How did MTM help launch your career? 

A: MTM taught me a lot about what I needed to know in order to get into the workforce, including being more proficient about going directly into a role that I wanted and skipping the entry-level sales positions. I went right into enterprise account executive, which is not the usual path, but I convinced the company, Feedly, that I could do it. I love what I do and I love the company. I speak with clients all over the world in different time zones, such as Amazon or different government organizations.

I can credit a lot of how I got into my current position to the career development team in the MTM program. They were superstars in helping us shoot for the stars and get the careers that we wanted. Instead of the traditional job search, I went on LinkedIn and reached out to a bunch of companies where I wanted to work. I just asked for advice from CEOs at companies that I thought looked interesting. These conversations went well and many said, “Hey, we're not hiring, but do you want an interview?” A few of those turned into opportunities, and one of those was at Feedly. The career services team members are big proponents of the concept of talking to your future self, which is super helpful. They believe you should be out there finding people in industries that you’re interested in, and talking to them. 

Q: How did the academic components of MTM prepare you for the role and industry you’re in? 

A: I went into MTM knowing I wanted to work in cybersecurity at a startup and do sales. I felt that MTM was going to make me more proficient in all of the different skills I thought that I was lacking. I really loved learning from the MTM professors, because I was getting a lot of academic knowledge but also a lot of real-world applicable knowledge that I was able to take into the workforce. Some of the MTM professors have their own companies or do consulting on the side (like Matt Beane!), and it really helped me feel more confident that I could shoot for a role like the one I went into. 

MTM helped me succeed in my interviews and gave me experience I could talk about. I knew I wanted a cybersecurity startup sales role, and everything at MTM helped me show that I had this skill set, specifically the capstone project, and all of the other projects at MTM. During the capstone project you usually do consulting with a company, and for my project, the company was actually a startup. You get to write that experience on your resume, and that helped me get my job because I sold that experience, and I could genuinely say “I love startups.” I expressed that I was not afraid to be outside of my knowledge base and learn. I didn't have AI, technical, or cybersecurity experience. In my current role I am speaking with Chief Information Security Officers of big companies all over the world, and analysts, who are telling me about collecting IOCs and very technical things that they need to know in order to monitor threat actor activity on their own network. It's very technical stuff, and I was able to prove that I could do this, and I was the right person for the company, through MTM and my experiences in projects during MTM. 

Q: Is this program manageable without a technical background? 

A: Going into MTM, I was not technical in any regard. I think that the program is presented in such a way that you're supposed to learn the concepts, not the fine details of everything. If you love learning, you’ll be able to do the program. The program is challenging, it's supposed to be challenging, but if you're up to the challenge, you can definitely do it.

Q: Why did you choose to go to graduate school in Santa Barbara?

A: There's a reason I did my undergrad at UCSB, then I did my master’s at UCSB, and I actually still live in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is one of the most gorgeous, amazing places, and I fell in love with it on my first day of orientation for undergrad. As much as it’s an incredible academic program and you’ve got an excellent career development team, it is also just the most amazing place to be. You want to go to a school in a place you will also enjoy. It’s impossible to not have a good time in Santa Barbara.

Connect with Noah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noahkastenbaum/

Learn more about MTM: https://tmp.ucsb.edu/academics/master-technology-management