Friday, 7:20 am.
My alarm wakes me with its not so soothing sounds. It’s the end of the week, that day of the week, that everyone is looking forward to, including me – but not for the reasons you might think. You see, it’s Company meeting Friday, a joyous day at Renuo. “Well hold up Julian”, you might be saying, “meetings aren’t anything to look forward to”. And you might be right at most other companies, but we’re talking about Renuo here. At Renuo we hustle through our meetings with finesse and humour, getting demos of the newest features of our ongoing projects and then get rewarded with Pizza for lunch. A dream, in my opinion at least.
So I swing myself out of bed, get ready for another day of work, and leave my humble abode at 8am, making my way to the bus station to connect to my train to Wallisellen. “8am?!” you might be exclaiming, in utter disbelief. “I have to be at work at 8am, how are you just now leaving your home?”. Well, you see, Renuo offers me the option to come into work at any time I like, as long as I do my mandatory daily hours. And because I am not really a morning person, I like to come into the office a little later. Cheeky me. Though, admittedly, I do get in some work on the hour-long train ride.
Life at the office
So I arrive at Renuo around 9:10am, but not before getting my obligatory two croissants from the bakery across the street and a Mate from our fridge. A must for starting the day right. I quickly get my things ready for the meeting and cosy myself up on the cushioned seats at our large table. The meeting starts. We talk about some company news. Afterwards, it’s time for our SCRUM meeting. We split into groups and talk about how we are feeling today and how our last two weeks (also called a “sprint”) went. A great opportunity to hear about your coworkers work and lives, quickly giving you a deeper connection to everyone in the company. We go back and quickly go over the newest features of our ongoing projects. And as quickly as it started, the meeting is over.
It’s 10:30am. After the meeting, we usually have a quick pool break to cool down. You might be thinking, “What? You guys have a pool in the office?!”. And although that would be really cool, I must disappoint. I’m talking about our pool table, where we regularly play a few rounds in our breaks. It gets very competitive, to the point where we’ve held a pool tournament not long ago to crown the definitive pool king of the office. Congratulations to his majesty Josua, the Pool King, for winning said tournament.
It’s hammer time!
Okay, it’s 11am, and it’s finally time to sit down and get some work done. I sit down at my desk with its nice view over Wallisellen and boot up my MacBook, sponsored by the company. At Renuo we believe that for us to produce the best software, we first need the best hardware there is. And we definitely hit the nail on the head with these machines.
As an intern, I’m mostly working on my intern project, where I’m the developer and the project manager at the same time. You are basically thrown into “cold water”. With no work experience prior, it is quite intimidating. But you have your Götti, your personal mentor and an experienced developer, by your side, helping you when you get stuck somewhere.
So I type away, coding some new features for my project. The clock strikes 12:30pm, and it’s time to go to lunch. We head out the door and grab a few bites in a cafeteria nearby. We get back and it’s 1:30pm. We have a quick coffee, and then it’s right back to my desk to continue coding my exciting new features. I get stuck and ask my coworker on how they would implement it. They give me a few helpful tips and I go right back.
The weekend has arrived
All of a sudden, it’s 6pm. I must have zoned out while working. I pack up my things, wave goodbye to everyone still left, and make my way to the train station. I’m tired, yet happy. It was another fun day, and I’m excited to see what's going to happen next week.
