Culture

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During our last few months of recruitment, one of the main questions that we were asked during this process is 'what does your average day look like'. The extremely varied work at endjin made this quite a tricky question to answer, so we expanded the question to be slightly broader - 'what does your average week look like?'

Many companies struggle to bridge a communication gap between their business stakeholders, and the technical team. At endjin we employ a few different techniques in order to help our customers overcome this challenge. These include (but aren't limited to) user stories, BDD specs, and a ubiquitous language. This blog focuses on user stories, and how these can be used to enable business-wide communication or requirements.

Thinking of data as the new soil is useful in highlighting the key elements that enable a successful data and analytics initiative.

Summary of key themes from the Doing Data Together conference hosted virtually by The Scotsman newspaper and Edinburgh University in November 2020. The conference agenda was pivoted to focus on the use of data to help tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. It provided a fascinating insight into the lessons learned.

CodeOps enables you to layer standards, automation, and governance to your source control repositories, decreasing manual effort and increasing productivity.

Building a system that solves even just 10% of a problem is a worthwhile endeavour, not just because of the value the 10% delivers but because its mere existence will lower the barrier-to-entry for your colleagues to collaboratively iterate on it - not so much 'Build it and they will come' as 'Build a road and they will come'

At endjin we solve complex problems which cover a huge range of cloud services, data science techniques and industries. The work we do is massively varied and in this there is a huge opportunity. Hear about Carmel's experience in completing her apprenticeship here at endjin, and why you should consider our apprenticeship scheme!

A few years ago, I attended a Guardian 1-day Masterclass - Introduction to Data Visualisation. What I did not know then was that it would have a profound effect on how I view design. This blog is a recap of that day and reference points to consider when designing and creating graphics for data visualisation.

It is possibly that I have only recently discovered one of my favourite pieces of UX whilst on lockdown - Mobile cheques deposits via digital imaging in my banking app. In this short post I share my experience of discovering a simple but practical piece of UX that made me happy.

With a lot of people all over the world suddenly finding themselves working remotely, I thought I’d share some thoughts on what I think is one of the most challenging parts of a company going fully remote: maintaining relationships.

If, like me, you often find yourself unable to decide how to spend your time productively, it might be worth giving this post a read! Here Carmel runs through some of the things to consider when deciding which task to tackle next. These tasks can be anything from "send out finance report", to "call mum", to "decide where to go on holiday next year". We have a huge amount of options when deciding how to spend our time, so here are some strategies for whittling down that choice!

I doubt that it's escaped anyone's notice that we have suddenly been thrown into a world which is pretty unrecognisable from that of even a few weeks ago. And I don't think any of us can claim to be managine it well all of the time, but in this post Carmel runs through some of the strategies and coping mechanisms which have helped her adjust.

We are currently living in extremely uncertain times. As we try to process these changes, many of us have found that we do not have the same mental capacity we once did. Some of that might be due to extra constraints on our time, but a lot of our brain-power is also spent trying to process the huge worldwide changes which are currently taking place. In this blog, Carmel talks about some techniques for managing that mental capacity, and how those apply in an ever-changing world.

As part of my series on guidance for CTOs, I discuss using the Office of the CTO (OCTO) approach to management, its strengths and limitations.

Salaries. What a nightmare! Hardly anyone likes talking about money. Technical people don't like talking about money. Even a lot of sales people don't like talking about money. When a CTO comes into an organization (even a brand new start-up) one of the first things you need to sort out is the salary quagmire. In this article we look at the strategies and pitfalls of introducing open, capability-based pay levels for a product development team.

The theme of this year's British Science Week (6 - 15 March 2020) is "Our Diverse Planet". We'll be getting involved by speaking to school children about the work we've been doing with Oxfordshire-based OceanMind (part of the Microsoft AI for Good programme) to help them combat illegal fishing, hopefully inspiring some of the next generation of data scientists!

Getting Things Done (GTD) is a workflow designed to increase productivity and decrease stress. In this post, Mike Larah talks about what's involved with GTD, and what he learned whilst attending a recent course.

Along with several of my endjin colleagues, I attended NDC London in January this year - here's a run through of the sessions I attended on Day 3 and my thoughts. This final day was a mixed bag, taking in talks on drumming and AKKA.net, as well as something a bit more close to home - a session from endjin's own Jess Panni and Carmel Eve on our recent project for OceanMind.

Remote working has many benefits. It allows us a huge amount of freedom, especially around managing our personal and professional lives. But alongside these benefits it also brings challenges. When you combine these challenges with certain aspects of mental health it can sometimes be difficult to manage. However, there are also ways in which remote work can enable us to control our environments in a way that would be extremely difficult if working from a conventional office. We have been a fully remote company now for over two years, and in this post Carmel shares some of her experiences of managing mental health whilst remote working.

Along with several of my endjin colleagues, I attended NDC London in January this year - here's a run through of the sessions I attended on Day 2 and my thoughts. This day was UI heavy, with sessions on Vuejs and UI testing, but I also learned more about GraphQL and writing high performance C# code.

A retrospective of my first day at NDC London 2020, taking in sessions on AI and Machine Learning, Capability Mapping, Micro Frontends, Diagnostics and Blazor.

NDC London day 1 was mainly focused around the responsibility we all face when developing new technology. As developers we cannot absolve ourselves of the consequences of not considering diversity and inclusivity when designing our solutions.

Towards the end of last year, Microsoft invited endjin along to a hackathon session they hosted at the IET in London as part of their AI for Good initiative. I've been thinking about the event and the broader work Microsoft is doing here a lot lately, because it gets to the heart of what I love about working in this industry: computers can magnify our power to do to good.

There are many different paths into the tech industry, Carmel has been speaking at some local schools about joining the industry from a scientific background. In this post she discusses the crucial tools which science gives you which can help you succeed in tech!

Here is a blog written by our apprentice Carmel after her second year of the apprenticeship. We think it demonstrates the huge variety of things we get to work on here at endjin, and highlights the best of the blogs that Carmel produced through during the year - of which there were a lot!If you think an apprenticeship with us is something which might interest you - send a CV through to hello@endjin.com!

In this post Carmel runs through some of the main principles behind agile estimation and planning. At endjin we use a lot of these techniques in our projects and this is a great post which highlights the reasons behind some of what we do. The key motivation behind good estimation is to be useful for project planning. There is a huge amount of inherent uncertainty surrounding estimates, especially early in the project. So, we shift our aim from 100% precise, or "true", estimates, and towards providing estimates which are useful and accurate. Carmel also runs through the steps in an agile delivery and release process. Definitely worth the read if you have an interest in agile and/or project management!

Anyone can be a role model. You don't have to be a veteran in the industry to inspire someone. There are constantly people coming through the pipeline behind you, and in that there is an opportunity to make a real difference.What can you do to drive positive change and help combat the gender imbalance in the tech industry?

As an apprentice engineer at endjin, you cover a lot of ground, especially at a consultancy which works with the latest and greatest tools to solve its clients' problems. Learn about endjin's Modern Data Platform, which is a culmination of IP, processes and knowledge built from years of implementing high-performance data-driven solutions. Also learn about the types of tools an apprentice gets to use, and the types of things an apprentice learns along the way.

Here is a post that Carmel wrote not long after she started back at endjin. Time has really flown since then, but it provides some great insight into how our apprenticeships work!If an apprenticeship and endjin sounds like something that might be of interest to you, send your CV over to hello@endjin.com!

Learn what types of things an apprentice gets up to at endjin a few months after joining. You could be learning about Neural Networks: algorithms which mimic the way biological systems process information. You could be attending Microsoft's Future Decoded conference, learning about Bots, CosmosDB, IoT and much more. Hopefully, you wouldn't be in hospital after a ruptured appendix!

Structured apprenticeships provide a great way to build skills whilst getting real-life experience. Endjin's apprenticeship scheme has been refined over years, with an optimal mixture of training, project work, and exposure to commercial processes - a scheme which is designed to build strong foundations for a well-rounded Software Engineering consultant. This post explains the transition from university to an apprenticeship at endjin, including the types of work an apprentice could end up doing, and some examples of real-life learnings from a real-life apprentice.

Alice reflects on her final year and an apprentice, what she's learned over the past three years, and the new skills and capabilities she's developed.

In 2016, endjin redesigned the Benchpeg website, migrating it from a 10-year-old platform over to our own CMS system - Vellum – so the Benchpeg team could have greater control over their content management and halve the day-to-day workload for generating content. This is a creative post about the practical experiences gained from 1-day silversmithing workshop at the invitation of Benchpeg.

Journalist Danielle Goldstein interviewed local barber Vangelos Georgiou, who has been cutting hair at George Gents' Hairdresser on Bermondsey street (near endjin's old office) since 1970. In the Time Out London article, Georgiou mentioned that he didn't have a phone or website because of the expense. The team at endjin spotted the article and decided to step in and help - building him a new website to help attract and inform customers.

A career in software engineering doesn't need to start with a Computer Science degree. The underlying traits of problem solving, a willingness to learn and the ability to collaborate well can be built in any field. Internships provide a great way to get your foot-in-the-door in the professional world, and arm you with some real-life experience for future endeavours. This post describes an internship at endjin, including the type of work you could be asked to do and what you could learn.

The 3-day "Reasons To" conference was held in Brighton in September 2016. The conference is a fusion of disciplines: design, development, illustration, 3D modelling and data visualisation to name a few. In this post Paul Waller provides an overview of the sessions he attended and the ideas that really sparked his imagination.

We've been running workshops and training sessions for a long time now, and one thing we've learned from that is that PEOPLE DO WORKSHOPS WRONG. From MBA classes, to design sessions, there seems to be a common problem: burn-out. We give you a survival guide for multi-day bootcamps and workshops, to get the most out of them, and take care of yourself in the process.

During her two month internship we tried to expose her to as many different aspects of endjin as possible; from New Proposition Development, marketing, partner & business development activities, as well as our software engineering processes and the Microsoft Azure ecosystem.

It is with a huge amount of honour to announce that endjin co-founder, Howard van Rooijen, has been awarded an Azure MVP award for his contributions to the Azure ecosystem.

Alice reflects on year 2, being given more responsibility, diving deeper into all aspects of software delivery, and the good habits she's been building.

In this post, Mike Larah reflects on his experiences going through the endjin three-year apprenticeship scheme

In this article we look at how technology startups are valued, how investors calculate their return, how you can position your business in that landscape, and whether you should!

Throughout endjin's history we have been invited to work on a host of projects. In late 2013 we were asked if we could produce a series of graphics props for the Great British Menu 2014. In this post we talk about the research and production methods behind developing graphics for television.

Delving a little deeper into Behaviour Driven Development and Specification by Example.

Day 5 includes more behaviour driven development with SpecFlow, talking to a real customer over a working lunch, and thinking about evidence-based decision making.

Day 4 includes a code review, performance optimisations, an introduction to behaviour driven development and mocking.

On her 3rd day, Alice starts writing some code, and uses the Argotic framework to process some RSS and ATOM feeds.

On her second day, Alice is given a deep dive into the commercial side of the business.

Alice covers her day 1 experience of starting her apprenticeship at endjin; setting up her development environment and getting familiar with endjin's tools and systems.

Reviewing the Developer Developer Developer conference held at Microsoft HQ in Reading

A review of the Windows 8 App bootcamp help at Microsoft.

In his second week as an Apprentice, Mike covers writing functional tests, automation scripts, working on a pet project, creating mindmaps and UX mockups and attending Microsoft TechDays.

Mike reflects over his first week as and apprentice and gets to grip with using tools to diagnose problems with his code.

On his third day Mike gets to meet a customer and understand more about the commerical nature of the company.

On his second day, Mike gets introduced to debugging errors in the PowerShell scripts he wrote on day 1, and is introduced to Visual Studio and C#

Mike is a mechanical engineering graduate, who has become endjin's first apprentice.

You don't have to have a Computer Science Degree in order to be a software engineer or work in the tech industry. In this post I talk about my career journey, from Psychology Grad, to Software Engineer, to Business Owner.