Arcus Global
December 18, 2017
This is the final blog of the year, so it’s a bit of fun.
2017 is drawing to a close. Like every year we at Arcus have had our moments of great exhilaration and of course we’ve dealt with the odd challenge along the way. Just what you’d expect in a fast growing company. Overall it’s been great and we’re all looking forward to an exciting 2018.
Arcus is a wonderful mix of personalities and cultures all housed in the Future Centre on the outskirts of Cambridge. We don’t see diversity as just a ‘good thing’ we see it’s as an absolute necessary fuel for creativity, which is essential in our business. So it makes sense that at Arcus we hire first and foremost for cultural fit. Our culture is fundamental to our success and growth so everyone at Arcus has to fit in. This doesn’t mean that we’re all the same. Far from it, rather than conform to a given norm, we’re encouraged to be the best version of ourselves. This is a nice way of saying most of us are a little odd..
So we’re quite an interesting mixture of backgrounds and cultures. But diversity isn’t just about your background. It’s more than that and it includes what life experiences we bring with us.
Earlier this year, having a sense of the diverse background colleagues enjoyed, I sent around a email asking everyone what what the most interesting job they’d had. It set off a series of brilliant responses and here’s a flavour of what we bring to the party.
Some are worthy.. I worked for the natural environment research council helping scientist doing ocean floor research, looking at underwater volcanoes and the rocks, chemistry and biology around them.
Others quite unexpected…. I’ve had many different jobs/careers over the years. As for most interesting, might depend on what you’re interested in but people always seem curious when I tell them I was an industrial glass blower for a while.
Some people have a collection of interesting former jobs.. I’ve worked as a forklift driver, chef, labourer, flight simulator shell fabricator and corporate telecoms engineer.
Others down play their efforts.. For four years I was volunteer Marketing Director of Worcestershire Wide Credit Union. If that’s of any interest…
Some of you who know the company will probably guess who this is..I had a job selling news papers when I was 12 in Moscow underground in the winter of 1991 – 1992.
The same person went onto bigger things. I also had a role in Rolls Royce as a graduate trainee in a team called “offsets and counter trade” which was about trading jet engines for random goods like frozen prawns or sand (seriously).
Some jobs aren’t even former…I run a games company with my husband in my spare time. We released our game Chompy Chomp Chomp on Wii U last year.
Others are simply greedy…. My strangest job was probably being Vice-Chair of the Board of a low carbon Venture Capital Company based in Beijing. My first job was being a magician at children’s’ parties and the job with the best freebies was Head of Technology for BBC World.
Some alluded to gained life experiences…Working night shifts in a petrol station certainly opened my eyes to a lot..
One key member of our team said..Along with the obvious jobs, it was running a wet fish stall in Billingsgate Market
We have help at hand for all sorts of things… I qualified as a Dental Nurse when I left school (assisted with a few famous patients including Professor Stephen Hawkins) – happy to offer any advice on your teeth.
We have the worthwhile..I was the volunteer Marketing Director of Worcestershire Wide Credit Union
And this rather lovely job...I worked as a conservation officer in Warwickshire and got to go into hidden, ancient woodlands to lay hedges, coppice and pollard….amazing:)
Finally, let’s save the best quote to last. When I wasn’t inspecting the rear number plate lights, I was assembling cheap plastic toilets. I make terrible life choices.
Of course the terrible life choice doesn’t include being a fantastic member of the Arcus team! Have a great break, reflect back on the year and make plans for the future. Please get in touch with us if you’d like to work with us in 2018.
