Category Archives: Office Life

Events, Meet the Team, Office Life, Staff Picks, Truth in Tech

Staff Picks: Apps to Use, News to Read on the Commute

Credit: tjba.comOnce a week I snoop around the office, bothering my coworkers with questions on what they’re reading, listening to, consuming, or any other random inquiries I’d like to subject them to. Sometimes they even respond.

The questions:
 1. What did you read this week?
2. What is the latest app you are all excited about?
 
The answers:

David, CEO of Riparian Data

1. Reality is Broken

2. We’ve used GroupMe pretty extensively this week at SXSW and it has worked out well. GroupMe is a free group messaging app for your mobile device.

Christina, User Experience Designer

1. Would you buy Gucci off your Smartphone?

2. Little Inferno has been fun over the weekend. It takes about 15min of play before getting into the story line though.

Ozgur, Software Engineer
1. I read this article on Mysterious Bacterium Found in Antarctic Lake. Although, I just saw this blog post that disputed it, saying there was not actually a new bacteria. So now I don’t know what to believe.
2. Although it is not an “app,” I have been looking into the functional programming language F#.

Kristen, Sales Rep

  1. Florida Anglers Liven up Spring Break by Reeling Sharks onto the Beach
  2. Poshmark. It’s like ebay for clothes, but much easier.

Annie, Executive Account Manager

1. What Most School’s Don’t Teach by Code.org

2. Seconds – interval timer/training

 

Nick, IT Admin Continue reading Staff Picks: Apps to Use, News to Read on the Commute →

ASP.NET, Events, Meet the Team, Programming

Events: Spring 2013 Career Fairs

IMG_1115 Photo 2IMG_1056

Coming to a college near you. We’re Looking for swashbuckling, creative college grads with object-oriented programming under the belts, a penchant for amassing new skills, and who don’t mind a few board games and BBQs. Think you’ve got the coding chops to work in this dynamic office environment? Then we want to meet you.

We’re big on hands-on learning and career development. In years past we’ve had interns work on product demos, pick up a new programming language, and share their expertise on our blog. Have a question? Ask it. Have an opinion? State it. Have an idea? Run with it.

Got you curious? Let our Technical Services team give you an inside look at this eclectic group and the types of projects you could be working on in this video.

Who we are: SoftArtisans is a leading developer of Microsoft Office reporting software. As a key Microsoft partner, SoftArtisans delivers award-winning products to over 20,000 clients in over 70 countries. We’re a company founded on brains not gimmicks and we aim to keep it that way.

Find out more about internship and career opportunities at SoftArtisans and how to join the SA Crew (and get in on those BBQs) by interacting with us on all of the usual social media hotspots or visiting one of the career fairs below. Looking forward to seeing you then!

Spring Career Fairs

Olin College

Wednesday, February 13, 2013, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. Continue reading Events: Spring 2013 Career Fairs →

Office Life

How to Use Trello to Stay on Top of Your Hiring Process

Sample - Recruitment Dashboard - TrelloWhat three letter acronym will send the most tech savvy recruiter running?  You guessed it!  ATS, the applicant tracking system, or most affectionately known as: the last place I want to spend my time when I need to recruit amazing candidates and get my positions filled!

No names. For those of you looking for the latest pros and cons article on what system worked well and which one not-so-well, this is not that post. If you would like to try something that only measures the metrics that matter and gives you and the hiring manager a dashboard view of “Got Talent or Not,” then hang on for a quick tour of my new best friend and management tool, Trello, and why it works for us.

My recommendation to step out of the box and try something completely different is based on a few assumptions of why ATS tools ever came into existence in the first place.  There is a need, and still is, for a tool that makes the job easier for recruiters “to recruit” and for companies to understand the value of where the recruiting dollars are being spent now and where to spend in the future.  Before my team starting using Trello as our Recruitment Dashboard, we took into consideration 3 things:

1) Candidate Pipeline: For us, this is the active candidate pipeline. Candidates that are being screened either by me or one of the hiring managers. Our preference is to have all of that information on one screen, dashboard style.

2) Time to Hire: Self-explanatory. The candidate starts the process and things are competitive, so let’s keep it moving. If you don’t act with a sense of urgency, game over.

3) Source Tracking:  So many places to go when looking for candidates but where do we get the most value for time spent networking and reaching out to the best talent?

I took that wish-list and presented my recommendations on which ATS might best serve our needs.  Those of you that know me and my passion for all things recruiting, I get pretty jazzed about the latest tools and toys in my industry. But just like finding the right candidate for the job, I wasn’t finding the perfect match for our needs.  Enter Trello.

Our development team adopted Trello in early 2012 for managing their work on Gander. (You can check out their Trello Made Awesome Blog Series on taking your boards to the next level.) Personally, I was thrilled to delay my search for the perfect ATS and jumped in (hesitantly, at first) to my new Trello board. For the first day, I made a few cards and moved them around the screen. Honestly, I was skeptical if this would work or just be another drain on my time! Continue reading How to Use Trello to Stay on Top of Your Hiring Process →

Big Data, The Intern Diaries

Big Data for Dummies. Big Daddy for Geniuses.

[The following is a guest post from our partner company Riparian Data and new intern and data-ist Brennan Full. Happy to have you on board, Brennan!]

I first heard the words “big data” while listening to the radio at the gym, the host’s voice guiding me over the precipice of a “hill” on my humming elliptical.  The words immediately brought me back to my “Sandler period” where Big Daddy was watched on repeat until one had reached comedic enlightenment.  It wasn’t until the 3rd mention of “zettabytes” that I finally came around and realized that this conversation was concerning the mountains of data humans create every day.  Disappointed, I changed the station. Months later, looking for marketing opportunities I came across an opening at Riparian Data, a company that works with “big data”.   Again, the flashbacks returned; Scuba Steve, tripping people in Central Park, teaching Rob Schneider how to read… I have got to find a way to work there!

Before my interview I began researching the company, shocked to find out that I was horribly mistaken/illiterate and that Riparian Data in fact had nothing to do with the magnum opus of my childhood.  I sat for hours, researching, working desperately to understand what this emerging technological field was all about.  Hours passed and I was no closer to grasping NoSQL.  Dejected, I turned to my worn copy of Big Daddy.  As I slowly descended into a meditative state it hit me, BIG DATA AND BIG DADDY AREN’T COMPLETELY DISSIMILAR!

You see, much like shapeless masses of data, Sandler’s character lacks purpose, that is until someone comes around and gives the data/“daddy” meaning.  Big data is the collection and analysis of the information we’re all constantly generating as we text, tweet, buy things, use GPS, etc.  This incomprehensible mountain of information would lack significance if not for the tools brought about by big data.  This, ladies and gentlemen is how my warped mind came to understand what big data is all about.

Thanks for having me on board Riparian Daddy!

NOTES: I never went through a Sandler period, I never use an elliptical, and I’m fairly certain Rob Schneider was acting like he couldn’t read.

Office Life, OfficeWriter, Programming

Cookie Wars: What do OfficeWriter, Baked Goods, & Technology Have in Common?

In case you haven’t noticed just yet, along with playing around in .NET and working with Microsoft Office reports, we enjoy food here. This year we’re incorporating both of these passions into a new company-wide challenge to ring in the new year. And this time it involves cookies! Both the kind on your computer and the edible ones that are ever so plentiful this time of year.

The Challenge: Break out and dust off your to-die-for cookie recipes with those secret ingredients handed down from Meemaw to her kids to you, the kind you pull out at parties to impress your friends, the kind people will be talking about at company holiday parties for years to come. Represent your cookie, secret recipe, or baking process using technology (bonus points and automatic win for incorporating technologies that power OfficeWriter.) Example: Create a report in Excel outlining your recipe, code your recipe in Chef (see what we did there), tweet out a line of your recipe every hour on the hour, etc. You can play along at home as well. Post a link to your project in the comments section below and perhaps there will be a little swag in it for you.

The gauntlet has been thrown. Who will win?

Participants:

Dan: CEO. Pub trivia master.

Alison: Product Owner. Pivot Table extraordinaire.

Kate: Technical Services. SharePoint guru.

Nick: IT. Breaks things. Fixes things. And repeat. Continue reading Cookie Wars: What do OfficeWriter, Baked Goods, & Technology Have in Common? →

Meet the Team, Office Life

Holiday Heroes with Youth Villages

Holiday HeroesBuzz Lightyear, Legos, and pink scooters lined the office as SoftArtisans and Riparian Data partnered with Youth Villages to bring gifts and the joy of the holidays to local Boston youth.

Youth Villages is a private nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting low-income children and their families overcome barriers of emotional or behavioral struggles and achieve long-term success. As their motto propones, they are a “force for families,” using Evidentiary Family Restoration approaches to work with troubled children. Each year, they help over 18,000 children and families from more than 20 states.  Holiday Heroes is Youth Villages’ largest initiative of the year and provides gifts and winter essentials to the children and families in their programs, who are often unable to afford even the basic necessities, let alone gifts, during the holiday season.

This year, SoftArtisans and Riparian Data employees came together to support this cause through
a company shopping trip, sponsoring a dozen children with art supplies, toy cars, books, and even a Spiderman mask or two. As an employee of SoftArtisans, I am truly inspired by the kind and giving hearts of my fellow employees, and the eagerness in which they participated. It warmed my holiday and I hope it inspires you to volunteer this season and throughout the new year.

To find out more about Youth Villages and learn how you can help not only during the holiday season but throughout the year, please visit www.youthvillages.org. They are truly an inspiring organization staffed with selfless and passionate people, aiming to make a difference among Boston youth and their families.

May your holidays be filled with joy and maybe a Lego or two!

Continue reading Holiday Heroes with Youth Villages →

Staff Picks, Uncategorized

Staff Picks: Snowy Day Coding Playlist

A wintery mix is settling in to Boston today. However, to steal a line from the the 1964 musical Funny Girl, there will be no raining on our parade. With our Technical Services team supplying us with a blind taste-test pumpkin pie bake-off and our heaters humming beneath our desks, we’re cozying up with our code and playlists to get us through the work day. While we can’t ‘port pumpkin pie to your desktop, we can share what’s playing between our ears.

Featured, Office Life, Staff Picks

Apps We’re Thankful For

[cross-posted from the Riparian Data blog]

All in the Family

[All in the Family by Jeremy Miller]

Tomorrow, just before you nosedive into Great Aunt Muriel’s famously belt-busting pecan pie, take a moment to think some warm and fuzzy thoughts about those special, non-needy, non-inquisitive, non-forever asking you when you’re going to settle down and get married apps in your life.

Just kidding! That’s what today is for. Below, the apps that make Riparian Data’s team of Gander handlers and the SoftArtisans team of Office doc wranglers happy. Feel free to add yours in the comments!

David Wihl, CEO of Riparian Data: 

  • Evernote
  • iOS Maps. Gwen, a random chimpanzee in Botswana, and I are the only two living creatures who actually prefer Apple’s iOS maps to Google Maps. [True–Ed]
  • The Trello app has grown up and is now better than using Trello via a browser.
  • The SephardiJews app, because it was written by a friend’s son who is only 13 years old.
  • The Loro Piana app so I can both drool and scoff at $18,000 men’s coats, in an app that often crashes.

Dan Medeiros, CEO of SoftArtisans

  • Open Table

Paula Marciante, Senior Talent Acquisition Manager: 

  • Evernote

Nicholas Martin, Software Engineer: 

  • Evernote
  • Mog
  • (I don’t really use many apps.)

Scott Dugas, Software Engineer:

  • Mog

Michael Fargnoli, QA Engineer:

  • Definitely Spotify. It’s made me a complete human being.

Jim Stallings, Egg Chef: