In our last coding challenge post, we posted question 3 from our coding challenge. Did you try it yourself? Here’s the question again, as a reminder:
Archive for the ‘Social’ Category
Softwire Speed Coding Challenge – An Introduction
Softwire recently hosted their second speed coding challenge, after the inaugural competition proved to be a resounding success. The competition was open to current employees (and recently departed interns) and was designed to give everyone a chance to show off their ability to code solutions to a variety of problems in as short a time as they can!
Over the course of the next few months, I’ll be adding some details of the questions that were asked and discussing the winning answers (as well as announcing the eventual winner). In this post, I’ll explain the format of the night and the scoring system used and will give you the first question, so you can give it a shot yourself!
Photo walk
Shortly before Christmas a number of intrepid Softwire employees braved the cold and went out on the inaugural Softwire Photo Walk. We started at the Tower of London and, over the course of an afternoon, crossed Tower Bridge and walked west along the south bank of the Thames before finishing back in the warm with some beer and food.
There were four categories for inspiration – Water, Urban, People, and Close-up, but everyone was of course free to take whatever photos caught their eye. Here’s a selection of the photos we came back with.
Softwire up to 6th in Best Companies to Work For awards!
In 2012, Softwire entered the Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For awards for the second time. Our first entry, the previous year, had ranked us at 16th, making us the best small software company to work for in the UK.
Our position was only to be announced on the night when three lucky employees (from right to left: me, Luci Apostolou and Camilla Watson), would have the pleasure of attending the awards ceremony.
We did, however, know our score, which was higher than the previous year’s, though this was not necessarily enough to guarantee we had beaten 16th. Just for fun, we held an auction sweepstake (in aid of WaterAid). The most sought after tickets were those for a finish around 9th place: better than last year.
On the evening of the award ceremony, while the three of us departed for Battersea Evolution, the rest of the company prepared for an office party, featuring specially made cupcakes.
Those of us at the ceremony were welcomed with champagne before sitting down to a three course meal – with more champagne! – and a few speeches by the powers that be at the Sunday Times followed by the Top 100 countdown. All through this, we kept the office up to date through our Twitter feed and provided live coverage of the Top 100 countdown.
The results exceeded our expectations: Softwire pushed up to 6th, significantly better than the previous year and even better than the sweepstake bidding had predicted. And, for the second year running, the best small software company to work for in the UK!
Top 5 for 2013?
Christmas Celebrations
At Softwire we’re lucky in that we celebrate Christmas twice each year. Once with a very long lunch just for employees, and once with a slightly more sophisticated evening meal to which we can invite guests.
Here’s a peek into what we get up to at these events. Merry Christmas!
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