Beyond the code - life at Sourcefabric
As a developer, the job market is pretty wide open. Our skills are in high demand and to some extent, we have our pick of jobs. But what I've really come to realise since I started working at Sourcefabric is that doing something I care about and working for an organisation whose mission I can support is immensely important to my ultimate performance and success as a developer. Here at Sourcefabric, I work on our Superdesk software, a project that I genuinely find interesting and one that I know will make a difference. And besides, I also get to work with people who share that same belief. Having something that fundamentally similar with all of my colleagues makes for a great working environment.
Before joining Sourcefabric about a year ago, I worked as a front-end/full stack developer at a few Serbian companies. Although I had the opportunity to learn and improve my skills while I was there, working on small projects and always chasing short deadlines started to become a bit tedious and exhausting. So I started looking for a change and found Sourcefabric. Working here this past year has been an interesting and positive journey.
The Sourcefabric team is very geographically diverse, which means that I get to work for a very international company. I work out of the Belgrade office but have colleagues from many different countries (14 to be exact). After being at Sourcefabric for some time, I started to become very impressed with the team. It seemed like every person here was a person that I could learn from and talk with. During my first Sourcecamp event (an annual week-long gathering of the whole team) I had the opportunity to meet all of my colleagues in person, and see a side of them that goes beyond only work; their interests, personalities and hobbies. That experience confirmed for me that this is a great place to be.
When you mix all these wonderful people with great company culture, you get a really fantastic place to work. Everyone here is treated like they are part of a family. If someone outside of Sourcefabric tried to find out who is who’s boss here by looking at our relationships and attitudes, they would have a hard time doing that, because everyone is treated equally. While of course we do have reporting and team structures in place, the vibe here really is different than your traditional office experience. Relationships here are one of a kind.
Since many of my colleagues that I need to work with on a daily basis work out of different offices, I was a bit worried about what the working environment would be like. But I soon realised that there was nothing to worry about and everything is actually perfectly organised. I never imagined that it would be possible to maintain good organisation with so many different people involved in such a complex project. In my almost year of working at Sourcefabric, I haven't noticed a single problem with project organisation and execution. This is pretty impressive considering the circumstances.
Aside from all these positive characteristics that are related to the company as a whole, there's also one that is specific to my office in Belgrade. I don't doubt that the other offices (Berlin, Prague, Cluj, Toronto) all have a good working atmosphere, but I can (objectively, of course :)) say that our office is the best in that respect. We have an office that everyone enjoys being at, where you can work in a relaxed atmosphere and where you can always take a break to have small talk, tell some jokes or have discussions on what to have for lunch.
As you can see, this is a place where we create great open source software and actually very much enjoy doing so. I think good people, company culture, organisation and working atmosphere are very important and directly related to the quality of a product. Since all of this is so superb, can you imagine how great our software is?
Want to join our team? We’d love to have you. Check out jobs page to see if there are any openings right for you. If you don’t see what you're looking for, feel free to send us an email, we are always on the hunt for talented people.