Episode
The Cybersecurity Recruiter talks to Joe Scholefield, Director of Compliance, DEFCERT
- Published
- Apr 13, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2048
- Processing state
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Summary
CMMC Readiness, Compliance Consulting, and Career Lessons with Joe Schofield In this episode of the Cybersecurity Recruiter Podcast, Tom speaks with Joe Scholefield, a former sysadmin/network engineer and ex-Dell cybersecurity manager, now serving as Director of Compliance at Deafcert, about helping defense contractors meet CMMC (based on NIST requirements) and preparing for DoD third-party assessments. Joe explains CMMC readiness commonly takes 12–18 months, with faster progress driven by aligned stakeholders, minimal internal resistance, and strong cross-department project management. They discuss CMMC as both a cost and revenue differentiator, increasing supply-chain pressure from primes like Lockheed and RTX, and a looming assessor bottleneck given the number of companies needing certification versus C3PAOs. Joe shares career advice on knowing when to move roles, the impact of earning a bachelor’s degree over 17 years to avoid HR filtering, the importance of soft skills in consulting, and recommends the “CUI Center of Excellence” Discord community. 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 01:03 What Joe Does Now 02:52 Helping Clients Succeed 03:36 Racing Through CMMC 05:24 CMMC as Revenue Driver 06:36 Supply Chain Pressure 07:46 Bottleneck and Assessors 08:50 Rollout Timeline Debate 11:39 Why CMMC Exists 13:08 Career Growth Lessons 16:27 Hiring and Soft Skills 19:19 Restaurant Skills for Consulting 20:29 Career Growth and Timing Moves 20:43 Finishing a Degree Late 22:37 Degrees and HR Filters 23:51 Certs and Hiring Signals 24:34 Job Search Fatigue Tips 26:31 Small Teams Hiring Stakes 27:17 Finding Community Resources 29:01 Mentors and Giving Back 31:26 Making Time for Growth 32:31 Work Life Balance Advice 33:08 Golf and Disconnecting 33:55 Wrap Up and Thanks