What is company culture?
Why is it so important? Why it’s THE THING in Silicon Valley? I’ll answer the above questions by sharing a real example – the culture in Dreamix!
For me the culture in every company is mostly the people working in this company but not only. Company culture is in every small detail. For example, the office – we have bathrooms that allow us to run or bike to work, not just WC. We have recycle bins and we recycle bottle caps, not just trash bins as we want to preserve our planet. We don’t have free cokes but often buy juices as we cherish healthy lifestyle. Also, we don’t offer chips but seasonal fruits. Big windows with natural light or 24 hours under lamps, I prefer natural:) For the readers, we have free books. Twice per year we order the books wanted by the #dreamixteam – here you can see the selection we bought several months ago.
Click on the button to load the content from docs.google.com.
It’s very important for a company to consider that nowadays the relationship between an employee and a firm must be in the form of partnership. Meaning that both stakeholders invest in each other as much as possible. Thus the market value for both the company and employee increases and even if later a separation comes, both will be better off and satisfied. This is really important in today’s world where change is a constant – one might decide to experience a different country, to begin a startup or to switch careers. Â
Dreamix is such a company.
We invest as much as possible in #dreamixteam. Our company culture believe is that everyone must become better professionally and personally. What does Dreamix do so that every employee can thrive:
- Hires only good people who are hungry for knowledge (learning animals we call them:)) or are great experts. People that are always ready to help their colleagues or partners
- Makes sure people feel comfortable working here.
- We work with partners not clients. We cherish relationships not transactions. We strive to develop long lasting relationships with our clients. Being partners allows us to consult not just code, to discuss not just obey, and gives us the opportunity to work with modern and interesting technologies.
- Bookclub – To be up to date with the latest trends and technologies we gather each Thursday morning to discuss a different chapter from a book ( example: Java 8 Lambdas, Head First Design Pattern, Code Complete, The pragmatic Programmer, etc)
- Frydix events  – Every week we organize a presentation in the office on a different topic – from tech and best practices to entrepreneurship, startup pitches, wine & food testing, lectures about Space & Astronomy.
- Paid courses and certificates – about a month ago almost 70% of #dreamixteam was going to some type of additional education after working hours supported by Dreamix. As the english course (with a UK native speaker) ended, currently our people are going to Angular 2 + Typescript course, Business and Life coaching, Scrum, etc.
- Rotation and participation in different projects if wanted.
- Urge to communicate with clients ASAP. Thus to practice your english language skills and to become more self-confident.
- Travel abroad to client’s location – Becoming better in consultancy and business skills.
- Blogs – Sharing is caring. To better express yourself. To gain knowledge from the suggestions in the comments section. To practice your english writing skills. Build a reputation and a name for yourself.
- Hackathons – Work on your own project with whomever you want, wherever you want, however you want. Just show us the results in 24 hours.
- Open office – We share our office with freelancers, teams from abroad for $1 per day. Before leaving they have to present to us what they work on, how and why. Thus we’re meeting new people, gain new friends and interesting knowledge.
- Weekly breakfasts – Every Monday for the start of the week and every Thursday for the book club. Moreover, breakfast serves the ideal purpose of gathering together in the kitchen and socialize.
- Working from the sea – last year we worked for a week from the sea side and it turned out to be a huge success. Our work from their won us a new partner with whom we’re still working. Video below:)
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
What we cherish and promote is the betterment of our people. This is number 1 goal. We all must come to the office with joy and feel happy spending most of our day in #dreamixoffice.
Every one of our colleagues can express their opinion freely without worrying about possible consequences – this is how great ideas are born. Everyone must cherish their colleagues no matter their religion, origin, opinion. Recently based on what we believe in and the results of an internal survey, we wrote down our values.Â
Click on the button to load the content from docs.google.com.
This is Dreamix. This is our company culture and we are proud of who we are. We continue to invest heavily in our culture as it isn’t stale but something that evolves daily. However, we believe that culture is the backbone of every organization and the thing that allows it to grow and survive.
Let’s see what #dreamixteam is saying:
I’ve been working at Dreamix for more than two years. During this time I’ve participated in different projects with wide range of technologies. Some of them include jasperserver, postgresql, python3, flask, Linux, linux containers, java, spring framework, angularjs, css, html, javascript etc. The list of technologies is very long and I’ve acquired extensive knowledge in all of them, which helped me to get a better perspective of the different approaches in software design and development. By using project management and issue tracking tools I improved my skills to properly break-down and define the tasks for a given project. The constant communication with the clients helped me to improve my soft skills. The flexible working time and understanding of the people gave me the opportunity to continue studying and successfully acquire master degree in Software technologies. The company provided me with free English courses and I significantly improved my speaking skills. The people in the company have the entrepreneurial spirit and we discuss many different business ideas. This helps me to better understand the business environment of our field. Different people present their ideas and experiences which again helped me extend my technological and business knowledge. Veselin Pavlov
In my opinion people show the best of themselves and can grow in their carrier only if they feel comfortable. So in the first place Dreamix and the people in the company gave me this comfort. I go to work everyday without stress and worries, which later helps me to be focused at work.
Another important thing is that here everyone is ready to share and explain to you how to find a solution to a problem. There is no finger-pointing. It’s more important to help your colleague fix the problem. Finally the trainings that we go through all the time in the company really helped me improve myself in both technical and personal way. It really helps to build confidence when you stand up and present in front of your team or the company. Denis Danov
Working in Dreamix brought me to a whole new level of thinking. Never before have I appreciated the power and importance of teamwork so much. It gave me the unique opportunity to work side by side with clients (most often remotely), see and feel their problems and needs, understand what would make their lives and work processes better. I would say that the most important thing is to gain the trust of your clients. You need to be available as much as possible so that they can get the feeling that you, as their “guardian” will always come to rescue on time.
At Dreamix I am given with a lot of freedom which includes flexible working hours, ability to work from home, taking days off/vacancies whenever I need them. As we all know with great freedom comes great responsibility. This contributed to improving some qualities of mine including better time management and task scheduling.
During the last year I also developed better understanding in database management, RFC standards and domain management. We also have a Bookclub, where we discuss some of the most interesting programming related books every week. We are also encouraged to improve ourselves by becoming certified as Oracle Certified Associates (OCA) in Java or boosting our expertise in English by attending additional courses.
In conclusion I would like to state that the company culture is of great importance. The team support and the understanding from the management/tutors are invaluable parts of the working process. They are the soil in which you, as a blooming flower, will keep flourishing. Martin Patsov
Professionally -> Dreamix supports sharing of ideas on solving specific problems. The company gives me the freedom which project to join based on my interest and skills. No stress while working. Through internal initiatives on sharing knowledge and on learning new technologies.
Personally -> Achieving of an internal peace based on the well done tasks on the job. Thus I’m becoming more confident and ambitious on taking higher responsibilities. Boyko Dimitrov
Dreamix helped me to find out what I want to work on and what not. And Dreamix created the conditions to develop in the direction I wanted to. Viktor Hadzhipopov
And finally why is company culture so important? It’s simple. Great culture makes you happy, helps you grow, allows your people to thrive and to stick around you. Invest in it!
Contact me if you have questions on company culture or write a comment with suggestions. Thanks for reading!
