What's it like working at Ibuildings?

Working at Ibuildings is challenging but always fun. We have a team of talented PHP developers working on a variety of projects, ranging from web development to high-level PHP consulting.

But what is it really like? 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 they face?

Lorna Mitchell - Software Engineer

What do you do at Ibuildings?
That varies a lot, depending on what is going on. I do quite a lot of development work on various projects, both in the UK and with the teams in The Netherlands. I also deliver PHP training in the UK, on a variety of topics, which I really enjoy. I've also spoken at conferences and seminars and helped out with pre-sales.

Why do you like working at Ibuildings?
There are so many reasons I love working at Ibuildings, but I can try to pick a few. The first one is being surrounded by the brightest in my industry, with such a positive attitude internally to asking questions, and emphasis on growing each person in their own way. The combination of very technical skills, both for PHP development and training, and the softer skills with training and speaking really suits my strengths. Often strong programmers outgrow their challenges and/or move into management - I don't have to do either.

What cool projects have you worked on at Ibuildings?
Developing bespoke training courses always gives me a real buzz. We have some great stock courses of course, but crafting something for a particular audience and then seeing them all able to complete the exercises at the end of the week is something else. I also worked on an interesting project for five.tv - high-availability RESTful services with fairly specific database design requirements. Seeing that project go out at the end to a happy client makes me very proud of the code - and it was such a cool set of technologies, too!

Mikko Koppanen - Professional Services Consultant

What do you do at Ibuildings?
I am one of the professional services consultants in the UK. My daily work involves visiting Ibuildings' customers, helping them work through various technical challenges. I've also conducted audits on security and performance , and given technical support to our sales team. Sometimes I even get my hands dirty with writing some code, too.

Why do you like working at Ibuildings?
I have been working at Ibuildings since we were just starting up in the UK, and it has been great to witness the rapid growth of the company. I've been part of the team recruiting a few good people as well. The best thing about the work itself is that I get to work on a wide variety of interesting and varied projects, and often get to choose the things I like to do. The atmosphere is flexible, so if I feel like coding during the night, it's quite often OK. And of course there's the free Coke...

What cool projects have you worked on at Ibuildings?
I've been doing high-level consulting at BBC, which consisted of helping to build their development platform, improving performance and scalability, and writing documentation. I've given training on Zend solutions at Web Reservations International, and consulted at Ladbrokes. And at one customer site, I made Mediawiki work fluently on Oracle. We've also had a couple of projects where Imagick has been used, and as its lead developer, it has been refreshing to see that your open source solutions are actually used in business-critical applications.

Ivo Jansch - CTO

What do you do at Ibuildings?
I have several roles at Ibuildings. Besides being CTO of the company, I'm also a software architect and a consultant. This means I operate a lot in the areas where technology and business meet. I am also the author of several of our open source products, such as the ATK business framework, so I still develop a lot.

Why do you like working at Ibuildings?
What I've always liked is that as technology evolves, Ibuildings does, too. By continuously applying new technologies and new products, our job is never the same and never boring. To make sure that all our developers continue to learn, we do 'competence management' at Ibuildings. This means we keep track of skills and help people learn new things. We also stimulate this by doing monthly workshops, where the developers of Ibuildings meet and together learn about new developments in technology.

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.

Dennis-Jan Broerse - Professional Services Consultant

What do you do at Ibuildings?
As a Professional Services Consultant I'm focused on training and software development life cycles (SDLC). Working with small to large companies, I will train their people with the latest skills and techniques of software development. After analysing the results of the brainstorming session and the interviews with the students, I develop a course plan. After that, the real job begins: training the people. Another part of the job is to analyse their SDLC and together we will create a plan to enhance it. Finally I will assist the manager to implement their new SDLC.

Why do you like working at Ibuildings?
Ibuildings is a very young and dynamic company. I have great colleagues and it is great to work with the best. Working at Ibuildings is always challenging, every time you need to be one step ahead. Ibuildings always gives you the opportunity to develop yourself and your skills of knowledge. So you'll become one of the best, too!

What cool projects have you worked on at Ibuildings?
Do you know companies like SBS, KPN, XS4ALL, Sogeti? I have trained their people!

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.