{"id":32,"date":"2013-12-04T20:26:22","date_gmt":"2013-12-04T20:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrmclaughlin.com\/web\/?p=32"},"modified":"2022-11-21T21:02:21","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T21:02:21","slug":"what-does-a-software-company-look-like-12-4-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrmclaughlin.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/04\/what-does-a-software-company-look-like-12-4-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"What does a software company look like? 12\/4\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to visit\u00a0AWeber<\/a>. \u00a0They are going to take part in our\u00a0Hour of Code<\/a>\u00a0events next week. \u00a0They have helped us organize several technology companies to come to our school district. \u00a0These companies will demonstrate what they do and the paths that lead to employment in a\u00a0technology company. \u00a0One of the goals of our week long events is to show students that the typical vision of the \u201ccoder\u201d is not a reality. \u00a0 The \u201ccoders\u201d (or \u201cmakers\u201d as I like to think of them) come from many different fields and backgrounds and yes some of them never actually write lines of code. \u00a0Coding a computer is no longer just line after line of a text based programming language. \u00a0Coding is a way of thinking and interacting with technology that everyone is capable of doing. \u00a0Bob<\/a>\u00a0one of the \u201cmakers\u201d as I like to think of them, even stated that a 10 year old could pick up the skills needed to code in CSS and html in just a few weeks. \u00a0Bob<\/a>\u00a0I am sending my kids on over.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AWeber<\/a>\u00a0 designs\u00a0web-based tools\u00a0 to help businesses grow by staying in touch with customers and prospects through email. \u00a0 To support their email marketing software, they have a robust customer solutions department and a thriving website with educational resources. \u00a0Beyond the CS department they also have an education department that provides training and education for their clients in using the products. \u00a0They even have an employee,\u00a0Brandon<\/a>\u00a0, who\u2019s primary job is to manage social media of the company.\u00a0(#Brandon is his nick name)<\/a><\/p>\n

During my site visit I was amazed at the value that is given to each employee at the company. \u00a0There are activities available for them to unwind, a restaurant that creates exquisite plates and lots of different chairs. \u00a0Yes chairs are important. \u00a0They have set up many spaces for people to work together and be comfortable so that they can live up to the potential that each employee has. \u00a0I have to admit I was a bit jealous when I walked in the door of the building and saw the two twisty slides.<\/p>\n

Our afternoon began with some informal meet and greets. \u00a0Everyone was happy to stop what they were doing and chat with us for a bit about what they do and how they got into the position. \u00a0Our tour guides were\u00a0Amanda<\/a>,\u00a0Eric<\/a>, and \u00a0Mike<\/a>. \u00a0They answered all of our questions and showed us every bit of the building. \u00a0(I have included some pictures at the bottom and WOW \u00a0is really all I can say to that\u2026) We even ran into the CEO and founder\u00a0Tom<\/a>\u00a0and the COO\u00a0Sean<\/a>. \u00a0Tom even posed for pictures. \u00a0The very interesting thing about their\u00a0layout is that there are no offices. \u00a0There are stations in an open format. \u00a0There are private rooms for meetings but the stations of Tom and Sean and the CTO\u00a0Brian<\/a>\u00a0are all in the same open space as the engineers and designers. \u00a0Every one is valued in the company. In fact they just recently had an event (one of many such events) that brought the entire company together for a thanksgiving meal where they created a book of culture. \u00a0I\u00a0n that book they all submitted what was important to them about the culture of AWeber. \u00a0Doesn\u2019t this sound like a place you would like to work? \u00a0Where is this place..California, New York, Seattle, nope\u2026It is in Chalfont, Pennsylvania just north of Philadelphia. \u00a0In fact\u00a0Brandyn<\/a>\u00a0(across the desk from\u00a0#Brandon<\/a>\u00a0AKA\u00a0\u00a0\u201cLady Brandyn<\/a>\u201d \u00a0and PR manager\u00a0) calls AWeber the new Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

We ended the day with a fantastic discussion with\u00a0Amanda<\/a>,\u00a0Eric<\/a>, and \u00a0Mike<\/a>\u00a0along with two engineers\u00a0Kelly<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Matt<\/a>. \u00a0We talked about starting a program for students in Bucks County, PA where different\u00a0technology companies would get involved with school districts to help promote STEM education. \u00a0At the end of the conversation I felt excited and \u00a0energized and I can\u2019t wait to get started (more to come on that in a later post).<\/p>\n

All in all it was a fantastic afternoon. \u00a0And yes I went down the slide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to visit\u00a0AWeber. \u00a0They are going to take part in our\u00a0Hour of Code\u00a0events next week. \u00a0They have helped us organize several technology companies to come to our school district. \u00a0These companies will demonstrate what they do and the paths that lead to employment in a\u00a0technology company. \u00a0One of the goals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrmclaughlin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrmclaughlin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrmclaughlin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrmclaughlin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrmclaughlin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrmclaughlin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrmclaughlin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrmclaughlin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrmclaughlin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrmclaughlin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}