Individually, many of the developers at Vodori are involved in one form or another of community development. As a company, we make use of a lot of open source software in our projects, and it would be downright selfish of us not to give back the fixes that we make or share advice.
Through technical blog posts, bugfixes, and active testing of use cases for open source development teams, we try to be good citizens in an open source world.
I went to a club for the first time when I was in graduate school, and I loved the idea of mixing two completely different songs together and making them one continuous thing. So I spent a year or so teaching myself to DJ. That turned into a nice little side job that's really a hobby that I love.
Before I moved to Chicago (space is at a premium here), I had a bunch of pinball machines in my house that I would restore from a beat-up mess into a like-new game. My previous roommates can tell you that it's an addiction. I'm down to one at my place in Chicago. But after Friday happy hour, some co-workers can get downright competitive.
One night a week a bunch of us play bar trivia—it's a team made up of Vodori employees and their friends, significant others, spouses, fiancées, whoever. Win or lose (and we do win sometimes), we have a good time. Speaking of that, I should mention that Vodori sponsors some fun outings for our team. We've been to Cubs games (with the requisite pre-game), cooking classes (with the requisite pre-game), had a beach day with a bags tournament, and gone to a few movies. We're also trying to organize WhirlyBall and paintball. Any other ideas?
My day begins with my German Shepherd/Lab mix staring at me until my eyes pop open so that he can start wagging his tail and coax me into taking him for a walk. Too much detail? Okay, let's talk about work instead.
At the office, my days are varied. I don't think I ever spend the entire day sitting in front of the computer. I spend quite a lot of time helping newer developers learn the ropes. I also try to participate in discussions with more seasoned developers on how to best tackle some of the problems of the day.
A chunk of my day is spent programming—working on whatever projects we have at the moment. I think it would be incredibly difficult to guide developers without keeping your hands-on skills sharp and up-to-date.
A part of each day is spent thinking about how to improve Vodori as a company. How do we work in ways that make us happier and more efficient?
In no particular order:
- Initiative
- Intellectual curiosity
- A healthy (but perhaps dark) sense of humor
- Desire to help your neighbor
- Desire to be helped by your neighbor
I'm surprised mostly by how great a team we've been able to build. The combination of talent and personality at the office really makes it fun to come to work. The balance of serious vs. fun is just right.
It surprises me that I want to hang out with my co-workers after work. You would think you'd had enough of them, but they're fun. Really.
For me, the "traditional" professional development things that employers offer—training classes, conferences, etc.—aren't necessarily the most beneficial things to do. Classes are often 80% what you know and 20% helpful—or they're bogged down by someone who doesn't have the pre-reqs. Conferences are hit and miss. We've found some good ones and some bad ones. So, occasionally, we'll hit the good ones.
I get much more out of having my co-workers who have expertise in a particular area take some time to teach me what I need to know. Grant and I will often bounce ideas off one another in dreaming up some creative solutions to problems. I also like having company time to research new technologies at whatever pace I'm comfortable. Like sharks, to stop moving in the technical world is to die.
Vodori has a per-employee budget for professional development. Some of our developers use Safari Bookshelf. Others might want to go to a conference. I appreciate having the best tools possible to use so that I'm spending my time expanding my professional ability rather than waiting for my workstation because it has a slow processor or not enough RAM. SSDs anyone?
How the Spring Framework re-sparked my dying interest in Java and programming as a whole, my current big decision between a Pioneer DJM-2000 and an Allen & Heath XONE:DB4, or my favorite pinball game.
You can email me: matt.young@vodori.com