#450 - New to Identity with Alexis Bernthal

<p>Jeff flies solo for episode 450, joined by Alexis Bernthal, an associate on RSM&#39;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&#39;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.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Connect with Alexis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-bernthal/</p><p><br></p><p>Visit her website: AlexisBernthal.com</p><p><br></p><p>Connect with us on LinkedIn:</p><p><br></p><p>Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/</p><p><br></p><p>Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/</p><p><br></p><p>Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>00:10 - Introduction and upcoming conference schedule</p><p>01:48 - Guest introduction: Alexis Bernthal</p><p>02:10 - How Jeff and Alexis met and the podcast&#39;s origin story</p><p>08:12 - How Alexis got into IT and landed at RSM</p><p>11:02 - What technology risk consulting actually involves</p><p>14:34 - A day in the life, plus RSM&#39;s Power of Love campaign</p><p>17:15 - How identity first showed up on Alexis&#39;s radar</p><p>18:48 - Identiverse: Alexis&#39;s first-ever conference</p><p>21:31 - Enthusiasm, Identibeer, and standout sessions</p><p>26:06 - AlexisBernthal.com and her own podcast with her dad</p><p>28:35 - What surprised her most about IAM</p><p>30:05 - Jeff&#39;s identity-as-a-language analogy</p><p>37:49 - Breaking into IAM without a technical background</p><p>41:21 - Learning by being in the