rookie.README
Why This Document?
whois david.rook
I’m English, originally from Kidderminster (it’s ok, most people in England haven’t heard of it either) which is a small town mainly known for carpets and steam trains
In my spare time I love playing games like you do. I spend most of my gaming time playing either FIFA or sim racing which I suck at but enjoy a lot.
I also take powerlifting very seriously and I’ll easily spend 15-20 hours a week either training, doing recovery work or reading research papers on human sports performance and nutrition (The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research is awesome)
This means if you do workout I’m happy to give all the advice you want and even train together if you want to learn how to do things in the gym
Why Riot?
My parents were gamers (thanks to early arcade cabinets in British pubs where they met!) and I can’t remember a time where we didn’t have consoles in our house and I didn’t play games
I love all of the points in our manifesto but without a doubt being the most player focused games company in the world grabbed my attention in 2013 and still does today
I’ve never worked anywhere with such a strong emphasis on giving and receiving feedback. That intrigued me when I was being hired and nowadays I can’t imagine working somewhere without this.
I like to fix broken things and our security program needed a lot of fixing back then :D Nowadays I’m excited by the fact I can move into different areas of InfoSec finding more things to fix.
My Role(s)
EU Security Lead
How my success is measured...
Dublin InfoSec Engineering Manager
Important: Please hold me accountable to these things. I’d love to know where I can do better for Riot and Players
My Availability
I’m usually in the office from 10am to 6pm but I’ll be on Slack from around 8:30am until around 7pm. I usually also check Slack around 10pm.
I work from home/later in the day on Thursdays to make it easier for me to meet with LA Rioters. I usually work 2pm - 10pm on Thursdays.
Always know that you are my priority and I’ll always endeavour to be free when you need me. Please don’t ever worry about asking or thinking I’m too busy to talk.
Well….apart from a few times per week. I take powerlifting very seriously in my spare time and unless I’m on call my phone will have Airplane Mode enabled Tuesday 7pm - 9:30pm, Thursday 9:30am - 12:30 and Saturday 09:30am - 12:30 when I’m training. I don’t like being disturbed in person or via my phone when I’m training.
Meetings and 1-1s with Rookie
I want you to remember your bi-weekly 1-1 should be about you. I prefer 1-1s to not be status updates but if that’s how you want to use that time it’s cool. It’s a time for you to talk about anything you want.
Our 1-1s can be done going for a walk, getting ice cream, in a meeting room, on a couch or playing games….it’s your meeting so let’s pick the format you feel most comfortable with
No phones allowed in our 1-1s. I feel it’s very rude for you to be using your phone in our 1-1s. I won’t be using mine and I expect the same from you.
Dublin InfoSec will have a monthly team meeting. If you aren’t on PTO I expect you to attend this meeting.
How to Contact Rookie
I don’t have Slack installed on my phone and generally only check work emails on my phone when I’m on call. I always strive to respond to you as quickly as possible so I’ve listed the best ways to contact me below (the lower down a medium is the longer it’s going to take to get a reply):
When I miss something please don’t hesitate to bump me. I sometimes read a message, formulate a response in my mind but end up distracted by something else and forget to reply.
What You Can Expect From Me
A manager who is very passionate about your development and happiness at Riot. Without a doubt my favourite thing about being a manager is helping you identify growth opportunities and seeing you progress as we work together. Seeing Rioters grow, get promotions etc brings me a huge amount of satisfaction so you should expect a lot of chats around growth.
Tech isn’t always king. If you work in an engineering role at Riot it’s very likely your technical skills played a big part in your being hired. I feel that “soft skills” are super important to progress in an InfoSec career beyond mid level engineer roles. You should expect me to raise this often and help you level up these skills.
I’m very straightforward and will always be as open and honest as I can with you. Sometimes I’ll have information I can’t share but that doesn’t happen too often. You can expect my feedback to be direct and timely. You’ll get feedback from me all the time and not just in 1-1s, 360 reviews etc
Someone who is often quite quiet in meetings and day to day at work. I’m an introvert so you shouldn’t be surprised to see me enjoying quiet time but that doesn’t mean you can’t interrupt me if you need to talk. In meetings I’ll be quiet but that doesn’t mean I’m unhappy or not paying attention. I’m listening and I will speak when I think it adds value.
What I Expect From You
I expect you to help me understand where you want to go in your career. I love helping people grow but I need you to help me understand where you want to go.
Where possible I expect you to own problems and not just raise them. If you see something that could be improved, a relationship that could be formed or just something you don’t like then it’s cool to raise it to me. If it’s something I feel you could’ve owned and dealt with I will tell you and expect you to own it.
I will recommend a lot of books, articles and training courses for you and I always like to know if these were useful or not. This helps me refine my suggestions going forward.
Feedback, feedback and more feedback. I’m still a pretty new manager, I’m going to make mistakes so please give me direct and timely feedback. The more specific your feedback the quicker I can correct things.
Known Bugs
Huge introvert, will definitely avoid every social situation if possible including team dinners. I’ve a bad track record of skipping these, when I do please do give me feedback but please know I feel bad when I do it.
My current role involves a large amount of people interaction which I find very tiring, sometimes I’m going to be very quiet and not involved in conversations etc. Nothing is wrong, I’m just recharging but I do appreciate you checking in on me!
My passion for the people and relationship building side of InfoSec very often surpasses my passion for technical security solutions nowadays. It might appear that I care less for you technical work which isn’t true. I’m just less likely to get as excited and involved.
If I see someone not making the most of opportunities (growth, training etc) presented to them I can tilt a little. If you see this happening please mention it to me and let’s have a chat.
How to Help Me
Give me direct, timely feedback when I do or say something you don’t agree with or I think I could’ve done better. I want to grow and improve as a people manager and feedback from you helps me do that.
As your manager I want to play a big part in celebrating your success and ensuring your great work is shared with the rest of InfoSec. It’s very likely I’m missing visibility into your day to day work so please make sure you share your awesome achievements with me.
Disagree with me. I’m not a person who thinks I’m always right, when I speak very passionately about an idea it might come across as me believing only my way is the correct way. That’s not true so when you don’t agree with me please make that clear.