I am currently finishing up a project in which I did most of the user registration and database work for a site aimed at retired employees. It has been a great learning experience as I was able to do some work with Spring security and also creating complex object interaction with a database from scratch, both of which were new to me.
I think the biggest surprise has been the people here. I was a little nervous to start my career at a highly technical company because I was worried that co-workers wouldn't be friendly or that the level of technical expertise would be over my head, but everyone has been very ready to lend a hand , and I enjoy hanging out with them outside of work as well, which is an added bonus. Not only are Vodorians welcoming, but they are also scary smart, constantly working on cool new things (see Brian's Phantom Limb blog post), and always willing to help out if I am stuck on something or need some direction on how to solve a problem. Vodorians come from all over the country, and are a very diverse group of people with unique backgrounds and skill sets.
I have a Dell Precision M4400 laptop(8GB RAM, Intel Core 2 @2.53GHz, running Windows 7) and an Asus widescreen LCD monitor. I also have a couple notebooks, a work phone, iPod charger, and a squishy ball to play with while I'm thinking
I used to be on the soccer team in high school, so I am on an intramural soccer team with about 5 co-workers. I also pride myself on knowing random useless facts, so I play pub quiz weekly with 5-10 people from the office at a local bar. On weekends I like to go on runs or bike rides (occasionally with a few co-workers who also like road biking), and just signed up for the Chicago International Distance Triathlon for the second straight year. Other than that, I am a huge sports fan, you can probably find me at the bars during Bears or Illini football games. Of course, I am also a huge nerd, I enjoy spending a lot of time online catching up on news through Digg and reading tech blogs.
I usually get to work around 9 a.m., and check my emails from the last night. If there are any urgent issues with newly discovered errors, I work with my current project leader to triage and then start coding for the day. I usually bring my own lunch, but on Thursdays around noon, I walk with about 10 co-workers to get lunch from Whole Foods (cheap sandwich day!) or the Chinese place right down the street. We come back and eat lunch at our desks most of the time. I occasionally take some time to ask coworkers for advice on a project, or just chat for a few minutes. A few times a week, I have a half hour meeting about the current status and future plan for the project I'm currently working on. I work until about 5:30, then head home for the night.
I describe this job as being a lot of fun and a great place to learn. It's not uncommon to see a dog running around the office, and company outings are a blast (the USA-Poland soccer game this summer comes to mind). On the other hand, I have a lot of responsibilities, but I never feel too overwhelmed because my co-workers are always willing to help out if I am stuck, or teach me something new. It's very much a work hard, play hard atmosphere; the Friday lunches and happy hours are great, but we also like to buckle down and get our work done and make some really cool websites. I also love the freedom we have to do our work here; a lot of our projects involve combining technologies that have never been used together before, to solve complex problems. The small size of our company and the way we work allows us to be very flexible and I feel like we can create custom solutions for almost any problem.
I love the fact that the office is in Chicago, I think it's one of the coolest things about Vodori. I think Chicago is the best city in the world—it's clean, a great sports town, and there's always something interesting to do. I moved to the city a little less than a year ago from the south suburbs, and love it. I live a little south of Wrigley Field (I'm a Cubs fan), and there is always something exciting going on in the area. I am also only two miles north of the office, so it's a nice eight minute commute down Halsted on my bike when it's nice outside, and we can see the Sears Tower* from our window, which I think is pretty awesome. [*ed. note: Yeah, it's technically the Willis Tower now, but no one in Chicago actually calls it that.]
My favorite charity organization and how it led to this job, why I care about issues related to HCI, or how being a caddy helped me go to college.
You can email me: jesse.krantzler@vodori.com