In just one year and 10 months, Sefunmi Alabi worked from six countries across three continents — all while employed at TikTok as part of their global cybersecurity team. From London to Singapore to his final stop in Japan, each trip was fully covered by the company.
How did he pull it off? And more importantly, how can you do the same?
This is his story, As Told To Dennis
2025: Working from Japan
I nestled into my room in Japan in a breeze. It was my first time in the country. By now, I was no stranger to settling in quickly in strange new lands. I had done it before.
In the past year and ten months, working as a Cyber Security Engineer at TikTok, I have done it five times — in Dublin, London, the US, Singapore, China, and Japan. This was the sixth time, and it would also be my last, that is, as a work trip for TikTok.
You see, I have resigned from TikTok. In May, I started a new role at Amazon Web Services as a Senior Security Engineer. So, I decided I will not be leaving Japan immediately after my work for TikTok is complete in the country. I will stay a bit longer and call it a vacation. I am so blessed. God has been good. Life has been good.
2000s: Growing up in Kaduna
I have been a nomad all my life. I was born in northern Kaduna, the youngest of three siblings, and lived my formative years in the state. But when the Sharia riots started, my family moved to southern Kaduna, where more Christians lived. Later, my father was transferred to Lagos, and we moved with him.
We attended the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. I went to Babcock High School. My siblings all went to university.
When it came time for me to go to Babcock University, I told my father I wanted to go to aviation school. I passed the exam, but I was not yet eighteen, so I couldn’t resume. Later, he asked me to consider Valley View University in Ghana, where I studied Computer Science. I knew nobody in the country, but I knew my fate was sealed. I would be a computer scientist. After I graduated, I got a job as an engineer in Ghana and started life.
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2017: NYSC in Abuja
Later, my father said I should return to Nigeria for NYSC. Returning to Lagos felt like returning to the nest. So I went to Abuja and served at the Centre for Communication and Social Impact (CCSI). After four years, I started thinking about my life. Nigeria wouldn’t give me what I wanted, what I deserved.
So I saved up, sold my car, and told my parents I had decided to leave the country.
Two days to Christmas in 2021, I wore a shirt and jeans, threw my laptop in a tote bag, wore a face cap, got on a plane and moved to Dublin for a Master’s in Cybersecurity at the National College of Ireland. I just wanted to leave that country and start to live my dream. I took nothing from my life in Nigeria with me.
2022: Life in Dublin
Failure was not an option. I knew I had to get a job before graduating. I took tons of courses online. I did a 100 Days of Hacking challenge. I tried really hard to upscale myself. Even though I was in a senior role at CCSI in Nigeria, I applied for internships in cybersecurity in Dublin.
When I saw that the Central Bank of Ireland was looking for two interns in the whole of the EU, I sent a cold email to the hiring manager and made my case. They hired me. After I graduated, they offered me a full-time position as an information security analyst.
2023: Starting at TikTok
I had applied to TikTok multiple times but didn’t hear back from them. But on a random day, I got a message from a headhunter who worked at TikTok on LinkedIn asking if I was interested in a role that had opened up. I thought it was a spam message. I was a cybersecurity expert — why wouldn’t I think that? I was wrong. I did six interviews. Only one was about culture fit. The rest were on coding. In August 2023, I joined them as a Security Analyst. I worked on Project Clover, a €12 billion data security initiative. In March 2024, I became a Security Engineer.
At TikTok, I enrolled in Stanford for an advanced cybersecurity degree, and later at University College Dublin for an advanced Artificial Intelligence program. Both were one-year programs. I completed both in nine months while working full-time at TikTok.
Life at TikTok
When you work at a place like TikTok, there are only a few Nigerians there, which can be daunting. But I never felt alienated; I never allowed myself to. I always focused on the work.
My approach to working in big tech is that I am solely responsible for blending in. My colleagues are also trying to fit in and do their jobs. They don’t have the time to make me feel as welcome as I might like. I just focus on my work.
Sometimes, people feel that speaking at meetings is work because they will be seen. But what I found is that work is work. Getting things done is work. Your output will speak for you, not how well you ride on other people’s waves. Just do things in a timely manner, aligned with the company’s goals. Document everything you do and make sure it’s available for appraisal.
Travelling for TikTok
TikTok is a global company with teams around the world. The cybersecurity team is also global, and we need to meet from time to time to sync on work. So, the company takes us to different outposts, where we spend weeks, sometimes months, working on projects as a team.
At first, they took me to London, which is close to Dublin. Later the US, then Singapore, China, and finally Japan. These were work trips, and they felt just the way you might imagine a work trip would feel. This is one of the perks that comes with working for a tech giant.
In the past year and ten months that I worked at TikTok, when these work trips ended, I returned to Dublin, where I worked from. But things were changing for me. I was heading to Amazon Web Services, so after my last work trip, I decided to stay a bit longer. It was a much-needed vacation after years of working hard.
Leaving TikTok for Amazon Web Services (AWS)
I didn’t know that AWS was hiring. I am not even sure they posted the role. But someone reached out to me again on LinkedIn and asked if I was interested in a role at Amazon. I work as a Senior Security Engineer there now. I started in May. This is also a security role, but it is different from what I was doing at TikTok. I am working with a Shield Infrastructure/Response team.
My next five years
I am also so grateful that I get to send my parents money. Who wouldn’t want to flex their parents when life has been so good to them? They’ve also been dropping subtle hints about marriage. They haven’t been very vocal, but they’ve been making comments about women. I’m not interested in a relationship right now. I just want to focus on my work and life. One of my siblings is married and has children, so they can play with them.
In five years, I see myself in 2030. I find that projections can be limiting. So let’s leave it at this: in 2030, I’ll still be learning new skills. In January, I started a Certificate Program in Digital Transformation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I want to spend my life learning new things. It has helped me come this far, and I never want to stop.
I want to make interview guides available for people like me who want to pursue careers in cybersecurity. So this year, I am trying to write a book. I know I’m a very resilient person. If I say I will do a thing, unless Jesus comes to stop me, I will. I started an academy for people looking to learn tech skills: Shefs Labs Cybersecurity Academy. That is my focus right now.
