TIY goes to Tinderbox

Tinderbox

This past Friday, The Iron Yard (TIY) cohort took a walk to the Indy circle to visit Tinderbox.

Specializing in streamlining business analytics and analysis through their applications, tinderbox is a small, but powerful company. I'll admit, I knew very little, if anything, about the company prior to going. (C'mon! I was finishing my 4th week in this realm!)

I should also add, I was feeling festive and decided to dress up as Ron Burgundy for the day. I debated on if this would be appropriate for visiting a potential place to work, and came to the conclusion that, if needed, I could just play it off as 'dressing for success' ...or something like that.

We walk into a sweet old building right on the circle. The windows face the monument, and the stonework of the building makes my architecture-side geek out for a moment over the craftsmanship and the material use. (They just can't make buildings like these anymore - way too expensive for this kind of artistry.) Tinderbox takes up the entire 7th floor.

We are warmly welcomed into a space that is clearly set up and designed with the new generation "google-style", as I'll call it, workspace. There's an excellent flow to the building and several spaces where you can tell people often take mental breaks. (I spied a chess set in one corner. Nice.)

Samantha Haddad, the talent manager, greets us with a bright smile, and leads us into a meeting room to set our things down. After the building tour, we sit through a talk with the developer team on what the day to day is like for them. It was great to hear from developers directly working on how their lives are within the company. As someone new to this, I can hear things from Chris until I'm blue in the face, but I there's something to be said for having the reinforcement. (Not that I doubted you, Chris!) It was also nice to hear terminology used and ideas tossed around that we have covered already in our short time in the cohort. Specifically, Agile concepts and hearing that they use git and github.

There was a developer on their team who had been hired directly from his time with a bootcamp, but it made me proud to be a part of Iron Yard when he began talking about the things he had to quickly learn during his first few months on the job due to no experience - such as git and github. I know if we weren't using it for class, I'd be screwed on the use of it. I've already told you how frustrating it can be to work with at times. Iron Yard - specifically Chris Vannoy and Emily Tremble - are doing an awesome job of getting us every opportunity to be ready for moving into junior developer positions.

We also had a talk with Samantha about things she looks for in interviews and potential candidates for the company. She covered a lot of the usual, but it was also really eye-opening in terms of differences in workplaces from architecture to software. In LA, you need to have a well-designed portfolio, that matches your resume, make sure you present yourself in the proper way (which is usually more formal), etc. ...and although many of the basic concepts remain true, I was surprised to hear the biggest contributing factor in their process: do you fit our culture?

As I type this, I realize it may sound silly not to realize, but I guess I didn't grasp the gravity in which this factors into the equation. "Do you fit our culture?" ...so simple, but also can make or break you. Would they be willing to, say, grab a beer with you? If the answer is no, you're not really a fit. Software is something that, as a developer, to some degree, they know you're going to be able to do and you'll get the work done...but are you someone I want to chat with and hear about your passions, or are you a dick? Do our conversations feel like you actually give a shit, or is this a forced communication where I can tell you're looking for a way to get back to your work?

I found, again, that I love the level of blunt honesty in the feedback. Samantha didn't use the exact words I have above, but the idea was the same.

There was also a costume contest going on that day (which I apparently took some of the votes for, haha) and a chili cook-off. The workplace seemed really laid back, yet productive. I felt the guys and gals who were working there were both passionate about what they did and realistic enough to be able to have fun throughout the day. (I also feel I could kick some ass against those chilis. ...I'm a beast at making chili...)

Overall

 I loved the entire experience. I also realized I need to be actively looking into various companies and keeping my eyes peeled for where I'd like to work.  Samantha threw out an interesting point in terms of applying to jobs - ask yourself: if you're looking for a particular type of company or workplace culture, do all of the places you've applied fit into that category, or are you just blindly applying places? Employers can tell a lot about how informed you are or how hard you really are hoping to get the job by the other places you know of and have looked into. (That one was a nifty revelation)
I think Tinderbox would be an awesome place to work. I love what I'm doing in the Iron Yard course, and I got every indication that the guys and gals there absolutely love going to work every day.  

I also got to meet a guy who started the meet-up in Indy for the Python group. Python is one of the coding languages I'd love to look into. It's also object-oriented, and I know there are a number of video applications that use it. I'll have to try to go to one of their meet-ups.

They also named their meeting rooms after movie quotes. One of the developers said he loved the idea originally, but it now makes it hard to remember which room is which. ...I had to get a photo with one of the rooms...

Stay classy, Indianapolis

Thanks for reading.
-Ben Doane