10 Things you Didn’t Know about James Hadley
James Hadley is the founder and CEO of Immersive Labs, which is an on-demand, fully interactive, and gamified cyber skills platform. His goal is to help global organizations address the lack of cybersecurity skills from receptionists to CEOs through enterprising solutions. Through his work in delivering GCHQ cyber schools, he made several observations about the manner in which people with cyber talent learn, which is not the usual classroom experience.
For that reason, Hadley created an interactive skills platform that assists organizations to change their workforce. This ensures that people with the desire to enhance or hone their skills would enjoy the experience and ensure that the skills they learn stick and minimize the risk of cybersecurity. Here are 10 things you need to know about Immersive Lab’s James Hadley.
1. He started learning computers early
Hadley received a computer from his dad when he was 8 or 9 years old and he became an addict to computers. He learned to program and then tried many things, such as trying to use programs that did not have the capacity to run or attempt to find ways to get various parts of the operating system that may have been blocked.
2. He was not bright in school
According to an interview conducted by LDC, James admits that he was not bright in school and he continues to say that he scored poorly. However, he is proud that his poor results in school did not keep him from being the founder of immersive labs. He encourages people who could also have performed poorly in school by saying performing well in school does not determine your success in life. He says his aptitude and passion made him successful and insisted it is not about having letters after your name.
3. He joined college at the age of 16
When he was 16, Hadley joined college and specialized. He took a two-year course in computer studies. He then joined GCHQ, a cyber and intelligence agency in the UK. He spent the next ten to fifteen years consulting across government departments in some commercial organizations and the U.K. Ministry of defense, including spinouts from a fair-trading platform. Before starting Immersive Labs, he was teaching cybersecurity at GCHQ (James Hadley: Spend time on what interests you.
4. He has a self-driven attitude
Hadley is a driven individual and one of the things he is proud about concerning immersive labs is the speed with which the company has grown over the last 3 and a half years in the marketplace. The CEO does things fast but is also a caring individual. Speed is one of his main motivating factors. The company, therefore, reacts to what is happening in the world very fast, including helping its customers.
When asked what makes him a successful CEO, he says that he is driven, resolute and he perseveres. He also says that he remains positive with his team, but he does not gloss over the pain points in his enterprise. He identified the fact that business comes before his friends. You can develop the tendency to shield people from certain things that go on.
Maybe, you might not want to worry them, but to get the best from people, there has to be transparency. Building an effective network with experienced peers to obtain feedback is also essential because they can assist you in selecting the right path when you are not certain.
5. He founded the company alone
As a solo founder, building a technology company is a lonely experience since one has to learn everything across the entire organization oneself for the first time. This includes marketing, sales, technology, customer success, investment, support, and share auctions, among other things that need to be done in a company. According to him, the greatest challenge is doing everything alone.
6. He recommends the use of the internet
Hadley recommends using the internet to learn or acquire information. He also advises people not to get focused or hung up on certifications based on multiple-choice exams since they are not a true barometer or proof of capability. Instead, if you spend time on what you are interested in, such as research or blog posts, and get the information to prospective employers, it will get much further than pieces of paper. In the world we reside in, everything works well. It is seamless. For that reason, you could take uploading files, cloud computing, or sending emails. Everything works and for that reason, computing is the global and accessible item for most developed nations.
7. Personal life
Very little is known about Hadley’s personal life. We are not told whether he had girlfriends or not. We are also not told whether he is married or not. However, on his Twitter page James says he is a father and a husband though we don’t know he is married to who and how many kids he has. There is also limited information about his net worth. This could be mainly because the immersive labs company was only founded in 2017 and chances are that information about his net worth will appear as time goes.
8. He delights in assisting
James is kind-hearted and as the CEO of immersive labs, he delights in creating jobs for people and helping them. The company helps military veterans to get back into the workforce. The company also helps parents to get back to work and ensure that teens are thrilled about IT through the services they offer.
9. He aspired to be a teacher when he was younger
James Hadley aspired to be a teacher in his youth. That’s what he did for his work experience when he was in high school. He went back to his primary school into a class with a teacher who taught him. Going back to school as a teenager and sitting in the staff room with his previous teachers was an odd experience.
10. He is passionate about cybersecurity
Hadley has a passion for cybersecurity having spent his whole career around it. He also has a passion for cloud technology. The ability to bring together high-fidelity security environments in the cloud anywhere in the world excites him. This is especially the case where the company can use it for their skill-development purposes.
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