Category Archives: Office Life

Office Life, The Intern Diaries

The Intern Diaries: Shane – I’ve Made a Huge Mistake

When I chose Riparian Data, I had no idea what I was getting into. I showed up to my first day excited to organize filing cabinets and get print outs. I can get a mean cup of coffee or drop something off at the post office in under 2 minutes. Much to my dismay, there were no filing cabinets, and developers got their own coffee. I didn’t even realize we had a printer for the first four weeks. Instead the team expected me to write code. Not just any code, though, they wanted me to write actual code for the app. I realized they were a little confused and tried to explain to them that I was an intern. They just didn’t get it and kept trying to give me real work, as if they actually expected me to provide productive contributions.

After talking to a few friends, I realized how unlucky I was. One has to play with the company’s app all day everyday without ever seeing the code. Another does have to work on code, but, not to worry, it will never actually touch his company’s product (phew!). I need to acknowledge, though, that it could be so much worse. One friend has been tasked with creating an entire web application for his company. Not only must he code, but he must design and plan an application for actual use. Dreadful, I know.

Really, though, internships are pretty sweet. I get 2 months to check out a company and work with their full time devs on a real product. I’m expected to jump right in and learn as I go. I came in with zero iOS experience and was supposed to spend my first few days simply learning Objective C and Xcode (the IDE for Apple Apps). Over the past month, I’ve worked on everything from finding the best way of connecting the server to our database to localizing our app so it could potentially be translated into other languages.

For college kids like me, internships are like the 90-Day Money Back Guarantees of the working world. We get the chance to jump into a company and see it from the inside. It is about more than just getting to do “real world” code. It also gives us a glimpse into how companies really function and what type of company matches our personality. Some of my friends loved the idea of working at a huge company with products that play a part of our everyday life, so they went to Facebook or Google. A few others were interested in the startup culture, so they found tiny startups to work for.

With my friends working all over the place, I’ve been asking them about their experiences and teams. For this post, I decided to send out a little survey to get a little bit of a bigger picture on my friend’s internships. I received about 60 responses, mostly from Olin students. Here are the questions along with the most common answer:

  • What type of internship is it? Computer Engineering/Software
  • Given the chance, would you return to this company? Yes
  • On a scale from 1-10, how much responsibility are you given compared to a full-time employee? 7.317
  • Was this internship your first choice? Yes
  • What class are you in? 2015
  • How large is the company? 15-50 People or 1000+ People

I found a few interesting stats when I started to punch the numbers.

Continue reading The Intern Diaries: Shane – I’ve Made a Huge Mistake →

Office Life, The Intern Diaries

The Intern Diaries: Alex

interns_alexThis is the first installment of our Intern Diaries series, wherein each week our lovely interns give you the inside scoop on what being a programming intern at a high-tech startup is really like. This week Alex walks you through first impressions of his internship.

Hello, my name is Alex, and I am a sophomore at Oberlin College. I have been interning at SoftArtisans for a little over a month and am happy to report that my expectations have already been exceeded. I do real work, get to code, and have learned about the different parts of a software company.

Before arriving at SoftArtisans I didn’t have any warm and fuzzy feelings associated with offices. My dad works at a big law firm in Boston and over the years, my visits have shaped my perception of the work world. His office is a sterile and quiet place. The walls are white and the floors are so clean that I almost feel funny walking in with my sneakers on. However, after entering and sensing the atmosphere, it is evident shoes are not to be removed.

This leads me to why I love being at SoftArtisans. Sure it’s great to walk around barefoot and wear casual clothing, but more than that, it is all the other reasons that I feel comfortable at work.

I am a technical support intern and every day the Technical Services (TS) department does something called Stand-Up. During Stand-Up the team circles up and takes turns saying what they are working on. In addition to keeping the team organized, Stand-Up is a great opportunity to voice any concerns or ask for help.

In one of my first Stand-Ups, Continue reading The Intern Diaries: Alex →

Office Life, The Intern Diaries

Summer 2013 Interns

Our favorite time of year is upon us. It’s summertime, and that means kayaking down the Charles, BBQ’s in the parking lot, and best of all summer interns. We’re handing over the blogging reins to this talented crew. Each week follow along as they give you an inside look at SoftArtisans and Riparian Data, life as an intern at a start up, and any other random musings that pop into their heads. They’ve already taken over with their podcast. Listen in on itunes!

Summer 2013 Interns

(Top row: Kyle, Justin, Daniel, Front row: Madalyn, Alex, Shane)

The questions:
1. Where do you go to school?
2. What do you study?
3. Give us a unique/random fact of your choosing.

The answers:

Kyle:

1. Olin College of Engineering.
2. Software Engineering and Applied Mathematics.
3. A random fact about me is that I am the music director of Olin’s premier a cappella group, the PowerChords.

Justin:

1. Rochester Institute of Technology
2. Game Design
3. The average color of the universe is known as Cosmic Latte.  (If it was actually supposed to be about me, then… uh… on good days, I could see Canada from the house where I grew up?)

Daniel:

1. Gann Academy

Madalyn:

1. I go to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
2. I study Computer Science and Digital Art.
3. The longest (documented) that a person has ever lived was to the age of 124 years.

Shane: 

1. Olin College of Engineering Continue reading Summer 2013 Interns →

Office Life, The Intern Diaries, Truth in Tech

Truth in Tech Ep. 20: The Internship

So you want to be a programming intern? Take it from these all-star students who’ve maneuvered the tech waters to land hands-on programming internships. They give you the inside scoop on where to look, secret interview questions, and what it’s really like at a summer internship. Listen in on itunes.

Truth in Tech E20: The InternshipTech internships have been getting a lot of play in the news and pop culture lately, but what are they actually like? Our summer interns spill the deets.

Embedly Powered

via Ripariandata

Events, Meet the Team, Office Life

Bringing Watertown together for a Boston Strong BBQ

Thank you to all who attended the Boston Strong BBQ last week. We had a wonderful time getting to know our Watertown neighbors, while eating delicious food and supporting a great cause. With your help, we were able to raise $350 for the Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Comfort Dogs. We were excited by the strong turnout – from students at the Harvard Business School to our next-door businesses at Air Graphics and Sasaki to those who simply saw the sign and flyers and decided to stop by. Thank you again for coming out to support a wonderful cause and share in the strength and pride of our city. We’re looking forward to more Watertown BBQs and community events over the summer.

For the full photo album visit our Facebook page and feel free to tag yourself. To read the Watertown Tab’s write-up of the event visit their site here: Watertown Companies Team Up to Comfort Community

Events, Office Life, Social Media

Conference Recap: PubCon New Orleans 2013

PubCon

From the Pubcon New Orleans (2013) Trenches

PubCon (New Orleans, LA) – So many sessions, so much to consume and share. Where to begin? My week in New Orleans flew by as I soaked in both sessions and sightseeing. This was my first time attending Pubcon as well as my first time in NOLA. The first 48 hours were filled with numerous firsts: my first beignet, first walk down Bourbon St and the French Quarter, first tornado warning, and first full day in the SEO Masters Group Training. The conference sessions mainly focused on SEO, social media, and marketing. While I attended mostly the sessions in the SEO track, I did bounce around a little. The only way to try and recap the week effectively is for me to give you the top 5 areas from which I took the most away and what those in part covered.

PubConSEO

There were endless sessions on SEO, including tips, tricks, and tools. I heard multiple times a good way to rename “Search Engine Optimization” would be to start calling it “Search Experience Optimization.” Understanding the relationship between what people are talking about and how they’re searching is very important.

Top 5 takeaways:

  1. Create partnerships with other businesses and get your own company page on their sites. Then link back to a subpage of yours rather than a main page to boost rank on lower ranking pages.
  2. Build your own dashboards for compliance and performance so everyone is accountable for their part. Utilize Google webmaster tools and analytics to aid in this.
  3. Set up your own Google alerts to track your industry, keywords, and competitors.
  4. Use various tracking tools such as 3rd party sites or Firefox add ons like disabling JavaScript to literalize the page and see exactly how Continue reading Conference Recap: PubCon New Orleans 2013 →

Events, Featured, Office Life

Boston Strong BBQ: A Benefit for the K-9 Comfort Dogs

In light of recent events, we want to bring our community of Watertown together and share in the strength and pride of our town. Next Friday, May 3rd, we will be hosting a BBQ to benefit the K-9 Comfort Dogs, who traveled from Chicago and Newtown, CT to be with us here in Boston.

The K-9 Comfort dogs are a bundle of furry, affectionate Golden Retrievers, trained to provide comfort and care to those affected by tragedy. They were stationed at First Lutheran Church on Berekeley St. after the bombings and went around to the hospitals to visit those affected. They also provided much comfort to one of our employees, who ran the Boston Marathon. As such, they are a cause very close to our hearts. So stop by, grab some food, meet your Watertown neighbors, and support a good cause. We are one Boston.

When: Friday, May 3rd, 12pm – 2pm EST

Where:
SoftArtisans / Riparian Data HQ
3 Brook St.
Watertown, MA 02472
RSVP: http://BostonStrongBBQ.eventbrite.com

Can’t make it, but still feel like donating? You can do so here: LCC Comfort Dogs

[hs_contact name=”SoftArtisans” address=”3 Brook St.” citystate=”Watertown, MA, 02472″ phone=”6176078800″ display=”both”]

Meet the Team, Office Life

We Are One Boston

Last week, our home was invaded, our safety threatened. We’re still trying to process and heal, but we take comfort in knowing the strength and pride of this city, this place, this town.

We want to express our complete and sincere gratitude to the military personnel, Boston PD, and government agencies who spent countless, sleepless hours to ensure the safety of our residents and give our city peace of mind. For that we are extremely grateful. We also want to express our gratitude to the cities globally who showed their support for our city.

Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers are with those who lost their lives, are healing in the hospitals, and those grieving from these events. We’re not there yet, but we’re rebuilding, we’re healing, we’re finding our new set of normalcy. We could not be more proud of the heroic efforts of the police, military personnel and Bostonians alike, and to have the privilege to call this city home. We are Boston. We are Boston Strong.

BostonStrongSARD

Featured, IT, Meet the Team

Meet the Team: Nick

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 the TeamMeet Nick. Our systems admin and skilled crew champ and cook. While he claims he doesn’t know what’s wrong with your wi-fi (see below), we’re pretty sure he can fix just about anything.

1. What do you do?
I get paid to play with computers? In all seriousness, I’m the systems admin for SoftArtisans, which means I maintain our server infrastructure, build system images, troubleshoot printers, reset passwords, and ensure that our websites stay up.

2. What are you listening to right now?
Lately, I’ve been listening to Spotify quite a bit, but usually I just have the Hype Machine’s popular channel on. It’s a great place to discover artists, and really changed how I listen and think about music over the past few years.

3. If you could build any app, what would it be and why?
Something that lets me execute remote commands from my phone – simple stuff like resetting a password, rebooting a server, restarting a service – that sort of thing. It’d be a huge security hole in any network, but it’d be nice to have when I’m out to lunch and just need to do something quick.

4. When you were 5 what did you want to be and why?
I wanted to be a Marine Biologist because I was fascinated with Robert Ballard (the guy who found the Titanic, the Bismark, and a number of other ships). Sadly, I soon realized that most of them don’t spend all their time hunting for shipwrecks.

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