The Cybersecurity Recruiter talks to Joe Scholefield, Director of Compliance, DEFCERT
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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