2023 started with new and exciting projects for all of us at LucaNet, and we are looking forward to another excellent year together. A key player in our journey to success is Daniel Dragas, our Information and Security Officer.  

Hi Daniel! Thank you for taking the time to sit with me for a chat. Tell me, when did you join LucaNet and what is your role here?  

I joined LucaNet in August 2019. I am a certified Information Security Officer, and I am developing the Information and Cybersecurity Strategy for the company. I am also in charge of the Auditing which comes along regarding the ISO/IEC 27001 certification that LucaNet is holding. 

What does a typical day at work look like for you? 

I try to structure my day along the projects I am currently working on. However, it is necessary to take 30 minutes in the morning to read about the current Cybersecurity News, Vulnerabilities, Breaches and what is happening in the field. I like to "eat the frog", so I start with the difficult and time-consuming tasks first to advance the projects we are working on.  

On busy days I have meetings with stakeholders to align on current topics, and on less busy days I work on risk assessments, internal and external auditing, and I also find time to help my colleagues when particular security questions arise. 

What is particularly exciting about your projects now? 

I am really blessed to be able to see how we as a team evolve, how the cyber program evolves. It’s exciting that we work in a fast-paced environment and that we constantly need to change, improve, and focus on the things that matter most, protecting LucaNet information, employees, customers, and partners. 
The projects that we are working on are confidential. I could tell you, but then I would have to use my superpowers to make you forget. 😉 

I would also like to get to know you a bit more, so I prepared a fun question: If you had to delete all but three apps from your phone, which would you keep?  

Thats an easy one! 1. Spotify to keep me entertained. 2. Telegram so that I can stay in touch with people and 3. my Calendar app... I like a structured day. 

What are the three things that you believe characterize LucaNet and that you would love to still see in five years? 

1. We are still helping our customers to simplify their work! 
2. We are still working as a team to achieve our mission and come closer to our vision. 
3. We always aim for excellence in our daily activities. 

Thank you for allowing me to take a glimpse into your daily work! I have one last question for you: Do you have any tips for potential candidates? 

I would like to answer this with a quote: “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard” - Tim Notke. So, tell us what value you bring to the table instead of what you have done in the past. We are looking for a future together! 

A key contributor to the success story of LucaNet is our colleague Sabeel Asghar, Team Lead People and Organization Strategy, whom we sat down for a quick coffee talk to pick his brain about his work at LucaNet and learn a little more about him.  

Hi Sabeel! First things first, tell us, when did you join LucaNet and what is it that you do here? 

I joined LucaNet in 2019. Over the years, I worked on various projects and programs facilitating the company strategy. However, the projects I have been leading are around Strategy Management and Organization Development.   

What was your first position at LucaNet? 

I started off in the domain of business processes and systems, eventually moving towards organizational development and strategy management. I had a great collaboration with the People team at the time, which sparked my interest in People & Organization topics and, due to our internal mobility opportunity, I moved to their department.  

At the same time, I was accepted into Harvard and thanks to LucaNet’s remote working policy and its training and development opportunities, I was able to study and work at the same time.  

How did that work out for you? 

I continued to study, and I used this newfound knowledge and experience gained from others in my cohort for LucaNet projects as well. I kept my full-time position while also participating in the Harvard Executive Program. That’s how I started my second role at LucaNet, as Senior Organization and Strategy Manager. 

That’s truly amazing! We want to get to know you a bit, so we prepared an icebreaker question for you: If you had to delete all but three apps from your phone, which would you keep? 

Oh, that's a tough one. I like all the apps that I use, they keep me organized and entertained. However, I would probably choose Instagram, because their target marketing is on point and that scares me. Imagine waking up one day and seeing a post about having a hair transplant for 5K in Turkey! (Is this something good or bad?)    

What does a typical day/week at work look like for you? 

Thanks to LucaFlex, it depends on where I am working from. If I am working from home, I start off by brewing myself a nice cup of coffee. If I’m in the office, I will pick up cereal and fruit from the kitchen and jump into my scrum dailies. My day-to-day revolves around managing projects and that’s why I use most of my time in budget planning and strategizing communication. 

What is particularly exciting about your projects now, in your role as Team Lead? 

I'm working on multiple projects at LucaNet around ESG, but for the past year my main focus has been the implementation of Salesforce. I'm very happy that we are unifying our global revenue and commercial processes and migrating data into one system so that all our global customers and partners can have the same experience through better reporting and enhanced processes. 

What are the three things that you believe characterize LucaNet and that you would love to still see in five years? 

1. Transformation is the new normal  
2. Leading ESG efforts  
3. Our core: Simplifying finance  

Thanks a lot for sharing insights into your work life at LucaNet! We have one last question for you. Do you have any tips for potential candidates?  

Be bold yet humble and be yourself, the rest all follows with time and experience.  

Amid the vibrancy of daily life in Berlin and the excitement of upcoming work projects and plans for the future, today I had the nice opportunity to sit down and chat with Stéphanie Adeyemo, one of our Software Delivery Managers, to get to know her a little better. 

Hi Stéphanie! Thank you so much for agreeing to our coffee chat. Tell me, when did you join LucaNet and what it is you do here? 

Hi Flavia, I joined LucaNet in August 2022, so I have been working here for about 6 months now. I work as a Software Delivery Manager in the Delivery department. 

We want to get to know you better, so here is a question I like to ask everyone I interview: If you had to delete all but three apps from your phone, which would you keep?  

This question is pretty easy for me, as I don't have that many apps on my phone and I barely use them. But I would keep WhatsApp to communicate with my family and friends, Twitter because of the memes I find there and Google Maps because I still need it to find my way around Berlin. 

What does a typical day/week at work look like for you? 

A typical day for me always start calmly, I like to come early in the office to check my emails and Teams to see if there is any urgent topic to cover. I also take this time to work on my To Do's. 
Then my day gets busier with the daily stand ups I have with my project teams. The stand ups allow us to sync and communicate as a team, and it's also a great way to see how we progress in our projects. 
The stand ups are usually followed by other meetings in which we discuss specific project topics with developers and product owners. 
I also have meetings with my delivery team where we discuss project management processes and potential improvements. 
Overall, I would say my day consists of alignment, communication and planning of my projects. 

What is particularly exciting about your projects now? 

What I found very exciting about my projects is that we are focusing on how to improve our product for the customer. We also use the Agile methodology, and it is very interesting as we focus a lot on how to make things more efficient and how to deliver more value to the customer. 

What are the three things that you believe characterize LucaNet and that you would love to still see in five years? 

In my experience, LucaNet has shown a deep commitment to its employees, always trying to meet our needs and foster collaboration and trust within teams. LucaNet is also very dynamic for me, a lot of interesting projects are coming up. Finally, I would say that LucaNet is forward-thinking. 

As International Women's Day approaches, I would love to gain insight into your experiences as a woman working at LucaNet. Is there any particular experience that you would like to share? 

Experience has shown that, in the Tech world, women are often underrepresented across all roles and can face particular challenges when aiming to advance their careers. I am happy that, at LucaNet, we are prioritizing Diversity and Inclusion throughout all departments and hierarchies. In my Delivery team I always feel that I am heard and that I have space to share my ideas. 

Thank you for sharing your insights, Stéphanie! I have one final question - do you have any tips for potential candidates?  

My tips would be first to apply if you feel that you match the job description ;) 
But most importantly, you should be yourself and not stress during the interview process. From what I have experienced, the interview process is friendly, and the goal is not to trick you, but get to know you. Good luck!