Why I chose Sourcefabric
Working with Sourcefabric was my first full-time, long-term gig after finishing school. It was everything I thought I didn’t want from a job and employer.
Let me explain…
Right after graduation, I, like many of my classmates, thought that I wanted to work for a huge, mega-corporate company with lots of departments and cubicles. In my young newly-graduated mind, I thought I would learn and thrive in that type of environment. But despite my reasoning at the time, Sourcefabric was interesting to me because they developed open source projects, which is something I had studied and contributed to while in University. So even though Sourcefabric was a small nonprofit organisation based out of Prague in the Czech Republic, i.e. the antithesis of what I thought I was looking for, I took the job.
Open structure means open learning
When I first started here, almost four years ago, I was surprised to learn Sourcefabric didn’t have a lot of the “departments” you would typically find in any other small or large organisation. There was no HR, sales team, customer service/support team, marketing team, SaaS team, nor finance team. A lot has changed since then but I believe that is why I was able to learn and thrive so much. Sourcefabric lacks strict corporate walls and does not make you go through a long chain of corporate hierarchy to get to the people you need. We operate with transparency and communicate well within every team and project.
In my near four years as an Airtime developer, I have never once been bored with my work. I’ve had my hands in numerous projects including feature development, frontend and backend development, SaaS infrastructure and deployment, marketing a SaaS product, design, reporting, and more. This is something I am confident that I would not have found in a large corporate organisation. Having the opportunity to work on so many things means that your potential for learning and creativity is endless. Sourcefabric actually encourages you to spend time learning new technologies or hacking on new projects and I find it a refreshing way to spend my time.
Toronto's tiny team
Another thing I love about Sourcefabric and being an Airtime developer is that our team is small and big at the same time. With just three devs, including myself, on the Airtime team we work very closely with each other. Literally! We share a tiny office and bump chairs a lot. Sometimes it gets annoying and has its challenges, but what is important is that it allows us to be in constant communication, help each other with problems, and share knowledge. When we need to reach beyond our three-person team, we have immediate support from the customer support team, system admins, management, QA, designers, communications, and fellow developers on other projects. We juggle a lot in our tiny office in Toronto and it would not be possible without the help and support from all the other teams within Sourcefabric.
Working with Sourcefabric has been a surprising blessing. I’ve acquired many different skillsets and worked with incredibly talented, passionate, down to earth, fun individuals from all over the world. It truly is a unique experience and a privilege to go to work every day.
Interested in joining our team? Check our jobs page to see if there are any positions right for you.