Zetier’s team are scattered across the country in nine states, from New York to California to Florida. We communicate daily on the phone, by video teleconference, by email, on Slack. Still, when building corporate cohesiveness and interpersonal relationships, nothing beats having everyone in the same room at the same time, whether it’s to hear a presentation or share a meal.
To make this a reality, Zetier years ago began holding annual corporate offsites. We gather all of Zetier’s team members (and plus-ones) in one location for two days of corporate presentations and fun. (It’s worth noting many of the presentations are also fun.) The company pays for transportation to and from the offsite’s city, lodging, and food for the duration of the offsite.
We held our 2023 offsite in February in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In the mornings we attended presentations (some technical, some much less so) in the hotel. In the afternoons we were free to explore the city and the natural beauty of the surrounding area. Some people choose to hang out on the beach. In the evenings we, along with our guests, gathered for dinner and the occasional bit of late night dancing.
What did the presentations cover, you wonder?
- One staff member, who had been born in Puerto Rico, spoke about the island’s history, culture, and food.
- One of our program managers, who had majored in physics in college, told us about orbital mechanics.
- One of our vulnerability researchers spoke about Ghidra scripting.
- The leadership team spoke about the company’s many successes and occasional missteps in the previous year. They also talked about what to expect in the coming year—planned work, hiring goals—and took questions from those in attendance.
- One of our cyber engineers gave a presentation about emulating hard targets for RE and fuzzing.
- One of our engineers gave a talk about a project he was working on for Zetier.
- One of our engineering leads gave a talk about…digital extreme couponing.
- One of Zetier’s principals spoke about program leadership in the government sector.
- One of our cyber engineers spoke about how he found an 0-day in the software of…Craigslist.
- One of our cyber operators, who in a previous life was a robbery detective and hostage negotiator, spoke about social engineering—what it is, what it involves, and how to recognize when it’s being used against you.
These annual offsites are a good example of Zetier’s corporate philosophy: Good things result from hiring smart people and bringing them together occasionally to share knowledge, fun, and good food.
The location of the 2024 offsite has already been selected. However, I am not permitted to share any specifics with you at this time—other than to say we’ll need to pack our warm socks. Watch for a future blog post that will summarize and provide pictures of that event.
