Author: Tom Newman
Date: 29th October 2019
Introduction
So, you think you have what it takes to work at Arcturus? This blog post will give you a brief introduction to the people you will find yourself working with, to the quirks of the office environment, and an insight into what our work-life balance is like.
Arcturus, the Detect arm of the Cyberfort group, is a young penetration testing company that employs first-class CHECK & CREST accredited penetration testers. These employees, in combination with an industry leading QA process, ensures that we perform tests and produce reports that consistently impress our clients, and that further the expectations of the cybersecurity industry.
The Employees
Let’s start at the top with Arcturus’ backbone, Simon Fletcher. Simon is the heart and soul of our team and is an utter workaholic. He spends most of his time meticulously shaping every aspect of Arcturus into his perfect vision of a cyber security firm. He is a fair-minded leader who cares about his employees and nurtures them all to individually be better than their best.
Sitting next to Simon is his left-hand man and our service delivery manager, Mark. What makes Mark unique is his relaxed temperament and gentle voice, which compliment his tenacious organisational skills and scheduling abilities perfectly. Mark is the glue that holds Arcturus together, and his persistence to carry out the painful but critical administrative tasks is greatly appreciated by every member of the team.
Next up are the penetration testers, or as Rory likes to say, “the people who actually do the work”. Rory is a fanatical hacker who somewhat borders on psychopathy with the amount of enjoyment he gets from destroying peoples beloved work. Time is no constraint for Rory’s mind or body as he spends endless extra hours and weekends ripping through source code hunting for zero days. If you saw our Microsoft Teams server you’d notice that he has his own dedicated channel named ‘Rory Spam Channel’ which he frequents. He likes to leave a friendly ‘good morning’ post in the general channel at the start of the day, alongside one of Alex’s occasional inspirational quotes.
Alex is known in the team for his absurd dietary habits, such as that of having pickles on everything he eats, with his most impressive feat being when he ate 3 Carolina Reapers at once just for fun, as if 2 wasn’t enough! He is the line manager for any newbies in the office, and he does not hesitate to drop everything to provide mentorship to them, or to help them up if they slip.
Arcturus’ golden child is Luke, who’s relentless drive and capability has turned him into an outstanding security consultant that our clients love to interact with thanks to his charm and charisma. Equipped with the same calm and systematic approach to work as Mark, Luke is extremely reliable and has no issues with handling challenges, such as dealing with unexpected adversities whilst representing the company on site.
Finally, we have Craig and Ross. Craig is not only our omniscient systems administrator, but currently also Arcturus’ top infrastructure penetration tester. From being on top of what seems like every techie news outlet available he has developed an endless pool of technical knowledge, which Alex enjoys dipping in and out of as somewhat of a replacement for Google. We have quickly established here that when Craig goes on holiday, everybody else has a bad day.
Last but not least is the manliest member of Arcturus’ team, Ross, who is the lucky business development manager that gets to reap the benefits of our world-class testing & reporting. Frequently passing positive feedback on through to the testers, Ross appears to have little trouble signing up new clients to our premium service. His selflessness and devotion to Arcturus knows no bounds, and he can easily be contacted whenever the team or our client’s need him, including at the weekends and throughout his holiday.
Work-life
Our bespoke selection process allows us to hunt for raw talent instead of looking solely at qualifications. This guarantees that we find the very best candidates on the market that other companies may not have considered. We take the skills and knowledge of our new employees and we develop them further, helping them through industry-leading qualifications such as those offered by CREST. Minutes after an employee passes the qualification they were working towards, Simon will already be convincing them to book the next tier up.
One of Arcturus’ biggest competitive advantages is within the quality and clarity of the reports that we send out to our clients. This advantage has been encapsulated into our workflow by our managing director who, from his decades of experience in cybersecurity, observed that most penetration testing companies do not put anywhere near enough useful information into their reporting. This oversight often leads to reports from other companies being illegible to people of differing levels of technical capability, which is an area that our reports garner particularly positive feedback. Our QA process involves pushing reports through several different fine-tooth combs from multiple testers, which keeps us internally competitive and maintains a standard nothing short of perfect.
A typical work day is 09:00-17:30 but this may vary as we promote a work from home ethic, as well as reasonably flexible office hours. In return for this leniency, we expect and strive for the quality of our work to remain exceptional. If you show up to work late or need to leave early, nobody bats an eyelid. All the staff here at Arcturus follow this mindset, and typically Teams (our group communication channel) will have active members from the early hours to late evening.
Our parent company Cyberfort cares profusely about the satisfaction & happiness of the employees in the group, and so we often receive emails from our People Team requesting feedback on what changes could be made to make us happier. This could range from standing desk raisers & new chairs to something as simple as maintaining a consistent supply of the office’s favourite monster munch crisps. It is also not uncommon for Cyberfort CEO Andy Hague to be visiting the office, wandering around in his trademark no shoes style. Every Friday you can expect to receive one of Andy’s detailed company updates that summarises the direction that the Cyberfort group is taking, and any key events or notable achievements that have sprung up within the group.
Venture West Office
Arcturus’ office is based within an ex-USAF command & control bunker on Greenham Common near Newbury (Berkshire), which is a former American airbase that was featured in two episodes of Star Wars. The common has beautiful bike & walking paths that make it an ideal place to take a quick break from the office. When you get to the building, you’ll first come through reception & meet our wonderful admin assistant Annie who will sign you in with a cheery greeting. If you get in Annie’s good books, then she may even bring you a McDonald’s breakfast straight to your desk.
Our upstairs office can truly be described as having ‘character’ thanks to the mix of unique personalities that come from combining the Arcturus team with staff members from our sister company “The Bunker”. The character is also defined by various unique noises that you can hear throughout the day, such as the sandwich van lady beeping her horn when she arrives for lunch, or by The Bunker’s alarm systems being occasionally tested, frequently then followed by the office’s tallest and arguably most amicable member James sarcastically commenting ‘Nice noise’. Our kitchen comes equipped with copious quantities of tableware and office subsistence, such as unlimited tea, coffee, biscuits, crisps, and occasionally some baked goods from Marc’s partner. The typical lunch here consists of a visit to Tesco, with the occasional guilty trip to one of Newbury’s many fast food places, which everybody eagerly gets on board with.
Fridays at the office start in the infamous ‘stripy room’ next door, where everyone on the team unites for a weekly update call. In these meetings everybody discusses their achievements from the week, and we are updated on company news. The atmosphere for all meetings at Arcturus is strictly informal, which is an extension of the work environment that we maintain for most of the day, with constant back and forth banter that keeps everybody on their toes.
Conclusion
We would love to hear from you if you have an interest in anything cybersecurity, whether that be as a career path or as a prospective customer. If you would like to find out more about Arcturus, then you can visit our company website at https://www.arcturussecurity.com. To learn more about the Cyberfort Group in its entirety and all of the services that we have to offer, you can visit us at https://www.cyberfortgroup.com.
Other resources
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