Turning an internship into a job offer

My Quorum Cyber Journey

My journey to Quorum Cyber started when I was in my third year of University studying Digital Security and Forensics. I was part of a scholarship that helped students find internships during their third year of studies. It was then that I heard about Quorum Cyber’s Internship Programme. After sending my CV off to Bill Thomson, he got in touch for an interview and, within a few weeks, I had a place on the internship programme.

Once I had completed the 6-week internship, I realised how much I enjoyed working and decided to pursue a position working full time. I mentioned this to Bill and, a couple of weeks later, he told me there was a full-time position going within the Security Operations Centre Team (SOC) team. While this was not the original path I wanted to take within Cyber Security but after some research and consideration, I decided it was perfect for where I was in my career.

I had two interviews for the Cyber Security Analyst role. A week later (the week before I started University again), I was offered my first full-time cyber security role.

My First Impressions

My first day at Quorum Cyber was exciting and interesting. Throughout the day, we got to meet several members of the Quorum Cyber Team, including the CEO, Federico Charosky, which was an excellent opportunity to learn more about the values and goals of the company.

Every member of the company we met with was welcoming and quick to offer their time and advice during the duration of our internship. Meeting members of other teams allowed me to learn about the different roles within Quorum Cyber and the cyber security sector – this helped inform me of the diverse career paths within cyber security.

I felt welcomed into the Quorum Cyber Team as a full-time staff member and not just an intern – this helped me settle in much quicker than I anticipated and has given me the confidence to work closely with any team member.

What were my tasks?

When starting my internship at Quorum Cyber, we worked on Project FIRE (Framework Intern Research Effort); our task, to create a mapping between multiple cybersecurity frameworks for the Consultancy Team. We had no prior experience, having never come across this at University, so this was a steep learning curve for all the interns. It was made a lot easier by the help and support we received from the team at Quorum Cyber. As busy as every team member was, everyone helped us in any way they could. I enjoyed working on a real-life project and found it rewarding working on something that would make a difference.

Everyone I have met at Quorum Cyber – from the internship to working full-time – has been brilliant. Everyone is happy to help you, even colleagues I am not in a direct team with, still check in to see how I’m getting on. Something that excites me about working within Quorum Cyber is the opportunity to move Teams within the company – I think it is a great way to learn something new and expand your knowledge.

Working from home – the good and bad

As is the case with most people, I worked from home both during my internship and a full-time role which has had both positives and negatives. One of the positives of working from home is that it has allowed me to meet a far greater number of the Quorum Cyber Team as they are available for meetings through video calls. It was one of my favourite parts of the internship as it enabled me to learn more about the roles within Quorum Cyber.

However, working from home made some aspects of the placement more complicated; I did not meet any of my fellow interns until the end of the internship when restrictions eased. Getting to know each other was difficult but, despite that, we managed to form an effective working relationship.  

To overcome the complications from working remotely, consistent and clear communication is vital to work successfully. We agreed on what we wanted to achieve each day and set a timescale.

Giving ourselves objectives that we want to achieve each day meant that we stayed focussed and on track – giving us a sense of achievement at the end of each day.  

The advice I would give to future interns 

The advice I’d give to interns in the future is to talk to as many people within the company as you can. Daunting as it is, speaking with different people and getting to know colleagues on a personal – as well as a professional level – is essential.

Expressing my interest in working full-time is the only reason I found out about the position within the SOC. Unlike with University, I found the path I wanted to take because I spoke to many people about what they do and figured out what would suit me.

Scott is just at the beginning of his career with Quorum Cyber; we can’t wait to see where his enthusiasm takes in within the company. To keep up with Scott, and everyone in his team at Quorum Cyber, head over to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. There’s sure to be many more adventures and knowledge to share along the way!