Series of Fortunate Events, Part V: Open Day 2023

Series of Fortunate Events, Part V: Open Day 2023

One Crew to Rule Them All

Open Day was a huge success! On May 6th, over 140 young enthusiasts arrived at our office early in the morning to learn something new and potentially become part of our Boost Internship Program. Despite the long hours, we put in leading up to the event, seeing so many eager individuals made it all worth it. We’ve never seen CodeChem so crowded. The office was filled to capacity, with all four floors packed with happy faces.

Our teams pulled off the event flawlessly, and we couldn't be happier with the outcome. Each year, Open Day gets better and better, thanks to the hard work of everyone involved. Everything went according to plan, and CodeChem's crew finished this event like a champ!

The day started with the arrival of the candidates; if you were in the neighborhood that morning, we are sure you noticed a bunch of people going toward our offices.🏃🏻‍♀️

The first pitstop of the day was a presentation about what we value and our work culture, followed by a presentation that immediately warmed up the students for the upcoming challenge. Nobody fell asleep during this, so it was great. 😂 On the contrary, the presentation was interactive and funny and kept everyone focused. Such a good job! 🤝

Let’s see the atmosphere from the presentations:

There are two mentors from CodeChem on this picture with an ongoing presentation for Open Day and a lot of participants who sit next to each other and listen to the mentors so they can easily solve the challenge afterwards. There is one screen on the wall and a lot of chairs and desks in this image.

One of the members from CodeChem presenting the work culture and how we work at CodeChem on Open Day to the participants. There is a screen with ongoing presentation on the wall and a laptop from which the mentor presents.

During the event, the candidates participated in a workshop where they were split into teams to tackle a " Hexoscope " challenge. The challenge was demanding, and everyone made a great effort to complete it. CodeChem's team has dedicated much time and energy over the past month to prepare for this, and we are very proud of everyone who contributed.

The teams received guidance from their mentors, but they also supported each other while trying to find the best solution to the problem. It was impressive to see how everyone made an effort to contribute their ideas to overcome the challenge.

Our Embedded team, located on the lowest floor, created a C++ challenge that was well-prepared and ready to be solved. The attendants were so efficient that they solved the challenge among the first teams. It was clear that the candidates were impressive.

After a long coding session and brainstorming, Oljo's Burgers delivered their delicious burgers, tacos, and cold drinks to our yard. It was bustling with so many people that it appeared as if a concert was about to start at any moment.

It happened, indeed!

In addition to coding, our engineers have a variety of hobbies and enjoy pursuing activities that bring them happiness. One of their passions led them to form a band called "Burek so Svirenje." We are not biased because they are our colleagues, but simply put, they are incredibly talented in both singing and playing instruments.

Before they started playing, Kosta gave his usual humorous closing speech, which had everyone laughing. Then the band played and rocked in our newly opened garage, which we will talk about in some other blog post, but oh boy, we had so much fun!

Then our colleague Dejan Slamkov brought the party to the next level. He was DJing till the end of the event and cheered everyone up with some classic and famous hits.

Hats off to everyone who worked tirelessly to make this event a success!

We hope you enjoyed learning something new and having fun with us! It was exciting to see so many enthusiastic individuals who could be the future of the IT industry.

You might have lost your ordinary Saturday, but you gained something valuable to prepare you for future challenges, and we are thrilled that CodeChem is part of that.

Now let’s dive into some of the feedback from our participants:

“I really liked the whole organization of the event and the atmosphere around the office. All of the employees were very friendly and welcoming, and they were always there to help.”

“What impressed me the most from this Open Day was the challenge we solved and the discussion we had together instead of a classic interview. It was great that each team had their mentor who was always there to help and answer our questions.”

“Throughout the day, we could all feel the whole team's hospitality and effort. Kudos to all of you that organized the day and made us feel relaxed as we are part of the company and as we are already employed there”.

“The challenge was really exciting, and the most exciting part of software development engineering is tackling challenges and finding solutions, infinite possibilities, and options. Although we didn’t completely solve everything, it made me think the next day how I would solve this, and guess what? I think I have the right answer now.”

“The technical presentation was excellent. The presenters explained everything we needed to hear about the challenge, which helped us a lot to solve and understand the challenge and get answers for everything.”

"I would like to thank my mentor, who was always there to help, to give us the right direction so we could solve the challenge, and he was very focused on our team."

“Everything was fantastic! I will attend again next year! CodeChem Open Day 2024” :)

“The event was followed by the amazing energy that this company has! Keep going, guys. You’re doing great!” <3

As a final note, we just want to thank you for joining us; we hope this experience opens new doors for you!

Till our next one!

❤️, CodeChem