Category Archives: Meet the Team

Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Christiana

Hello and welcome to our Meet the Team series, in which we aim to give you deeper insight into the minds and personalities of those who make up this eclectic, close-knit group. We are developers, marketers, and technical support engineers, and at work we craft everything from Microsoft reporting APIs to mobile email applications. And outside of work? Let’s just say racing against the machine during hackathons, building architecturally sound beer towers during retros, and paddling down the Charles during the warmer months are simply the beginning.Christiana

Meet Christiana – our Illustrator pen-wielding, master of design, making things beautiful on the daily (see the recent website redesign) and bringing a lightness to the office with her sparkling wit.

1.What do you do?

I’m the graphic/web designer for the company.

2. What are you listening to right now?

The iTunes Festival

3. When you were 5 what did you want to be and why?

I probably wanted to be the only member of an adult Fisher-Price marching band, but who remembers 5? Sometime after 5 I wanted to be a news reporter, because I always loved when breaking news came on. And I’m not talking about being an anchorwoman. Nope, I wanted to be the live-on-scene person interrupting your TV shows. That was until the realizations hit that in no way did I want to be in front of a camera, I hated the idea of driving around in a van, and was highly opposed to writing any kind of reports. I reassessed.

4.What is your favorite tech blog and why?

Smashing Magazine. They have so many design and code-related tips, tricks, and inspirational goodies.

5. What is your worst nightmare?

Web-weaving terrorists tethering down and air-bombing me as I sleep….Spiders.

Continue reading Meet the Team: Christiana →

Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Alison

Hello and welcome to our Meet the Team series, in which we aim to give you deeper insight into the minds and personalities of those who make up this eclectic, close-knit group. We are developers, marketers, and technical support engineers, and at work we craft everything from Microsoft reporting APIs to mobile email applications. And outside of work? Let’s just say racing against the machine during hackathons, building architecturally sound beer towers during retros, and paddling down the Charles during the warmer months are simply the beginning.

Say hello to Product Manager Alison – belovedly known as author of the Pitan the Pivot Mage series. When she’s not supplying delicious office treats, you can find her scrumming in Trello, pumping out Pitan posts, or answering your questions on the OfficeWriter Answers site.

1. What do you do?
That depends on which hat I’m wearing. On Monday, I write tutorials. On Tuesday, I shift to designing sales demo or web site content. By Wednesday I’m managing a product backlog. Thursday is all about answering technical support questions and writing sample code. I wrap it up on Friday with some PivotTable blog posts.

2. What are you listening to right now?
I’m oscillating between the action theme from Doctor Who and the opening to an anime, Aquarion Evol.

3. If you could build any app, what would it be and why?
I would definitely want to build a mobile app that could analyze a reference picture of a character and generate a list of color swatches from the images. On top of that, it would allow you to switch between ‘picture colors’ and ‘real life colors’. For example, a bright yellow in a cartoon image would correspond to a golden blonde in real life.

4. When you were 5 what did you want to be and why?
I wanted to be a marine biologist because that was the perquisite for training Orcas at Sea World.

5. If you were a beer what would you be and why?
Apple juice – because I don’t drink and no one would be able to tell the difference visually.

6. What is your favorite tech blog and why?
Contextures has all my answers when PivotTables stump me. Continue reading Meet the Team: Alison →

Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Paula

Hello and welcome to our Meet the Team series, in which we aim to give you deeper insight into the minds and personalities of those who make up this eclectic, close-knit group. We are developers, marketers, and technical support engineers, and at work we craft everything from Microsoft reporting APIs to mobile email applications. And outside of work? Let’s just say racing against the machine during hackathons, building architecturally sound beer towers during retros, and paddling down the Charles during the warmer months are simply the beginning.

Meet Paula – Our Talent Acquisition Manager (creator of Networking on PAR) with a knack for Twitter and crafting the tastiest pasta salad (among other delectable BBQ treats) you’ll ever eat.

1. What do you do?
As Senior Talent Acquisition Manager for SoftArtisans and Riparian Data, I am responsible for sourcing talent to match the needs of my team.  You can find me on social media (ln|t), attending events and getting ready for our next board game night!

2. When you were 5 what did you want to be and why?
A vet because I thought you could have as many puppies as you wanted.

3. Fill in the blank. Contrary to popular belief I ____.
Am not Katara.

4. Describe your perfect Saturday afternoon in 10 words or less.
Cooking a big meal to share with family and friends.

5. Describe your personal style in one word.
Tall.

6. What is your worst nightmare?
Getting taller.

Continue reading Meet the Team: Paula →

Events, Meet the Team, Office Life

Game Night at SoftArtisans

1 Comment

Board Games and Beer

Once a month we get together for board games, beer, and pizza. On Wednesday, Aug 8th, we’re opening our doors to the community (yes, you!) to partake in the festivities!

Come meet the team, strategize on building the next laser-bagel-toaster-cutter, and enjoy FREE food and drinks. That’s right — free food, beer and great company. (We can arrange transportation if needed.)

The Details:
When:
Wednesday, Aug. 8th, 6 p.m.

Where:
SoftArtisans
3 Brook Street
Watertown, MA 02472

RSVP: http://boardgamesandbeer.eventbrite.com/

What’s in it for us? Continue reading Game Night at SoftArtisans →

Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Sam

Hello and welcome to our Meet the Team series, in which we aim to give you deeper insight into the minds and personalities of those who make up this eclectic, close-knit group. We are developers, marketers, and technical support engineers, and at work we craft everything from Microsoft reporting APIs to mobile email applications. And outside of work? Let’s just say racing against the machine during hackathons, building architecturally sound beer towers during retros, and paddling down the Charles during the warmer months are simply the beginning.
Meet Sam — forever in pursuit of the unique, beginning an Icelandic adventure, undercover ninja (like Tamar).

1. What do you do? 

At work I wear many hats, but my primary role is as a software developer on our product OfficeWriter.

2. What are you listening to right now?

I have quite an eclectic taste, and I generally rely on Pandora to pick my music for me. However right now I am listening to- Suzy – Caravan Palace

3. If you were a beer what would you be and why?

Continue reading Meet the Team: Sam →

Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Dan

Hello and welcome to our Meet the Team series, in which we aim to give you deeper insight into the minds and personalities of those who make up this eclectic, close-knit group. We are developers, marketers, and technical support engineers, and at work we craft everything from Microsoft reporting APIs to mobile email applications. And outside of work? Let’s just say racing against the machine during hackathons, building architecturally sound beer towers during retros, and paddling down the Charles during the warmer months are simply the beginning.

Say hello to Dan – grill master of SoftArtisans’ summertime BBQs, poker player extraordinaire (true story – Google it), soccer all star, not Sheldon Cooper.

1. What do you do?
As VP of Operations, I am in charge of all the financial, operational, legal and HR aspects of every business located at 3 Brook Street, Watertown, MA. I’m also the BBQ cook.

2. What are you listening to right now?
The voice in my head.


3. When you were 5 what did you want to be and why?
A lawyer because I liked Perry Mason.


4. Fill in the blank. Contrary to popular belief _____.
I am not Sheldon Cooper and I do understand context.

Continue reading Meet the Team: Dan →

Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Kate

Hello and welcome to our Meet the Team series, in which we aim to give you deeper insight into the minds and personalities of those who make up this eclectic, close-knit group. We are developers, marketers, and technical support engineers, and at work we craft everything from Microsoft reporting APIs to mobile email applications. And outside of work? Let’s just say racing against the machine during hackathons, building architecturally sound beer towers during retros, and paddling down the Charles during the warmer months are simply the beginning.

Meet Kate, SoftArtisans’ technical support guru by day, poetry slam artisan by night.

1. What do you do?
Technical support and web app consulting. I fix things. Then I make other things. This requires learning a lot of new technologies constantly. If you name a technology, I can tell you what mistakes I’ve made with it!

2. What are you listening to right now?
“Commando” by the Ramones. Over and over again. Because it’s so awesome.

3. If you could build any app, what would it be and why?

I’ve been working on this stupid thing off and on. It generates random free-form poetry and (almost, the algorithm is still a little off) sonnets. It uses a custom CFG that I’ll never be satisfied with.  I’m a performance poet in my spare time and it’s super fun to pull out my phone and tell the audience I’m quite literally writing the poem at that moment. When it works.

4. When you were 5 what did you want to be and why?
A ninja that tamed lions. True story. I was going to learn ninja skills, get some lions together, and be a superhero. I don’t think I need to explain why.

5. If you were a beer what would you be and why?
Continue reading Meet the Team: Kate →

Meet the Team, Office Life

SoftArtisans Poetry Slam: D&D&T&A by Kate Mogel

SoftArtisans’ technical support guru by day, poetry slam extraordinaire by night, Kate Mogel combines these two areas of her life into one engaging poem. I first heard Kate unleash her talent at the company retreat open mic night and after some prodding convinced her to share her talents with you. Listen to the audio above and follow along with the lyrics below as Kate takes you through the ups and downs of being a self-proclaimed “nerdy girl.”

D&D&T&A

by Kate Mogel

I’ll take the automated infrastructure.
I’ll take the prerecorded voices.
I would love to follow a convoluted maze of customer service concepts, taking a few steps forward by pressing 7.
Taking a few steps back by going forward.
I would not like to talk to an operator.
Because I have a girl voice.
I would not like to talk to a person.
Because I have a girl voice.
Tech support treats me like an idiot.
Because I have a girl voice.
“Okay, hun, there should be a wire that looks like a big phone cord…”
Ethernet cable? Reboot the modem? Release and renew the IP? Seriously?
Continue reading SoftArtisans Poetry Slam: D&D&T&A by Kate Mogel →

Meet the Team, Office Life

Meet the Team: Tamar

Hello and welcome to our Meet the Team series, in which we aim to give you deeper insight into the minds and personalities of those who make up this eclectic, close-knit group. We are developers, marketers, and technical support engineers, and at work we craft everything from Microsoft reporting APIs to mobile email applications. And outside of work? Let’s just say racing against the machine during hackathons, building architecturally sound beer towers during retros, and paddling down the Charles during the warmer months are simply the beginning.

Meet Tamar, a software engineer who beams for Boba, screams at BlackBerries, and doth protest too much her ninjahood. 

1. What do you do?

I’m a software engineer working on Gander for Riparian Data.

2. What are you listening to right now?

Paranoid Android by Radiohead, a bit of an oldie but I guess I am too.

 

3. Fill in the blank. Contrary to popular belief I  ________.

Am not a ninja.

Continue reading Meet the Team: Tamar →