What's it like working at Ibuildings?

So what is it really like, working at Ibuildings? What does an average day of an Ibuildings developer look like (if there is such a thing as an average day at Ibuildings)? What are the challenges our developers face? Here are a few experiences.

Ben Longden - Technical Team Lead

What do you do at Ibuildings?
My job title is 'technical team leader' at Ibuildings. This means that I lead the technical design of solutions for our customers through the development phase of a project. I usually have teams of 2 to 5 developers working to deliver the final solution for which I am responsible. I even manage to write quite a lot of the code on the projects that I am involved in too!

Why do you enjoy working here?
As one of people who started up our office in Sheffield it's been really great to see Ibuildings expand into a larger team over the course of a year. We've got some great talent up north and we work closely (often on the same projects) with people in other locations. The variety of projects to work on keeps you motivated to see what's coming up next, and what new technologies we can use to deliver something really slick. We work hard and play hard - it's a great environment to be in!

What are some of the projects you've been involved in during your time here?
I've been involved in a few different things. The first was an application build using the Zend Framework which required building a few service modules to speak to a third party video/audio processing service(s) and placing the results of that on a CDN ready to be consumed by HTML5 browsers. Picking the best available services online, pulling them all together in an application and seeing everything work together is quite satisfying! I've also been involved in technical audits for some pretty big and well known brands, and most recently i've been working with the Magento eCommerce platform to add some highly customised behaviour!

Martin Roest - Professional Services Consultant

What do you do at Ibuildings?
My job as a Professional Services Consultant at Ibuildings consists of high-level support from small to large enterprise companies. In order to help a customer decide on future and existing plans, I often do a review and/or audit on their application architecture and infrastructure. My expertise is focused on high performance and highly available, clustered environments supporting the complete LAMP stack.

Why do you like working at Ibuildings?
I've worked for Ibuildings for over 7 years now and always found my work very challenging. We are a flexible and dynamic company always searching to improve things. We work in relatively small teams, which allow you to really develop yourself. I have very nice and skilled colleagues whom I enjoy working with, and we often hang out together to have some fun or to do cool stuff like sky diving.

What cool projects have you worked on at Ibuildings?
In the 7 years that I have been with Ibuildings, I've worked on many cool projects. Personally I prefer working with clients that have a long relationship with Ibuildings. Often, in this type of situation, we do lots of smaller to large projects and really have a good understanding of the client and their needs. Examples include Kieskeurig, Provincie Zeeland and RP Holidays. For Provincie Zeeland and Roompot, we not only develop and support their PHP applications, but have also delivered and are responsible for their hosting environment.

Mitch Goldman - Project Manager

What do you do at Ibuildings?
I am a Project Manager and ScrumMaster. My primary responsibilities are: the delivery of projects, account management, facilitating the adoption of the Agile/SCRUM process, and developing our testing practices.

Why do you enjoy working here?
Working with a team of professionals who really enjoy what they do, and are some of the best in the business. They drive me to improve my skills and step up my game. We are constantly learning: trying new tools, new processes, sharpening our skills and staying on top of the ever-changing world of software development. In two words: it's fun!

What are some of the projects you've been involved in during your time here?
I've worked on the fashion e-commerce site Kookai, developing their online brand and allowing them to sell their products directly to their customers in the UK market.

Hilary Boyce - Software Engineer

What do you do?
I am a Software Engineer based in the London office, however I am rarely there as I spend much of my time working on site for Ibuildings’ clients, either as part of an Ibuildings team, part of the client’s team or on my own. I spend most of my time developing PHP software usually using either Zend Framework, SilverStripe (CMS) or Magento (ecommerce). I also get involved in some technical pre-sales activities; I enjoy thinking about our client’s business needs and how to best meet them.

Why do you enjoy working for Ibuildings?
I joined Ibuildings in late 2009 and have enjoyed the variety of projects I have worked on and the frequent challenges, both technical and personal. My technical skills have certainly grown and matured considerably since joining. One of the reasons I had for joining was to be part of the team and I have learnt such a lot from the other developers and felt very welcome. Despite being spread over a number of locations we keep in close contact and there is usually someone to give advice, be a sounding board, help or just share a funny moment.

What cool projects have you worked on at Ibuildings?
The very first project I worked on was a SilverStripe implementation for iNQ Mobile, where, with some clever templating we created a whole site on a single page. This included using Google mapping techniques to display information about the mobile phones. Another highlight was working at the BBC on the service layer for one of their iphone apps. Having grown up in a world dominated by the BBC it was fascinating to be working there. Each project is unique and that keeps us on our toes; there is always another cool project just around the corner with fresh challenges and opportunities.

Harrie Verveer - Software Engineer

What do you do at Ibuildings?
My business card says 'Software Engineer', which basically means that I work on projects as a programmer and sometimes carry out some architectural tasks as well. Besides that I do a lot of on-site jobs for our customers. The reason for on-site projects can be anything. For example, the customer might need some extra capacity to get the project done in time, or they might be building something very important and they want to have an Ibuildings lead programmer to make sure that the project is built the way it should. In most cases, they don't just want me to type away and keep my mouth shut; they want me to explain what I'm doing and why I'm doing it so they can learn from it.

Why do you like working at Ibuildings?
The high level of innovation and cool projects makes Ibuildings a great employer to work for. We are constantly learning and always exploring new stuff. Besides that there is almost no bureaucracy, and you won't see many people in suits when you walk around the offices. Most Ibuildings developers are really passionate about what they do and want to discover new cool stuff all the time. It's great to be a part of such a team!

What cool projects have you worked on at Ibuildings?
A few months ago I worked on-site for SBS Broadcasting, a major broadcasting company in the Netherlands. I helped their IT department to create a framework/CMS so they could reduce the time they needed to build a website. When the project was completed, it turned out that they not only had a new foundation to build their websites on, but they also had discovered some new ideas of running projects and building software. Another cool project was an on-site project I did for QYN (Narrowcasting by KPN). Together we built a backend system for the routing screens in the Amsterdam RAI (Exhibition and Convention Centre). The system we built was a combination of PHP and Flash, running on an IBM System i server. When the project started, PHP for IBM had only been available for one year. It's great to work on a project and find out through Google that you're the first one in the world to try certain things.

Would you like to join us?

If you would like to be part of our team, have a look at our vacancies. Our recruitment process can be tough, but once you get through, you get to work on exiting projects in a team of highly skilled, enthusiastic professionals.