In this blog series, we’ll be featuring our staff here at Switchbox Inc. to give you a little more insight into what it’s like to work here, and all the interesting stuff that our team gets up to! Next up is our Lead Developer, Alexi!
Company Role: Lead Developer for the Rails Team
What do you do at Switchbox?
I help the Rails team run projects, work on software development and write programming. I also am a team lead and project coordinator for the Rails development team.
What is your favorite memory at Switchbox?
Universal Studios work/GGOB trip – really great to get everyone together, and going out and getting dinner. Vegas was also a memorable experience.
The day the wall fell over in the parking lot and crushed a bunch of cars was pretty awesome.
And of course the chili cookoff is always a great time at the office.
What’s your favorite movie or TV show?
Movie: Arrival
What do you like to do when you aren’t at work?
Submission grappling – which is a form of ground wrestling. Jujitsu, building custom mechanical keyboards, walks outside, dangling things in front of my cat.
What is your favorite thing about working at Switchbox?
The culture that we’ve built up and doing a great job of hiring like minded people who get along well and become friends. Friendly, welcoming, atmosphere.
In this blog series, we’ll be featuring our staff here at Switchbox Inc. to give you a little more insight into what it’s like to work here, and all the interesting stuff that our team gets up to! Next up is our Lead Developer, Evan!
Company Role: Lead Developer for the .NET team
Evan riding the Tail of the Dragon in Tennessee this summer
What do you do at Switchbox?
I help run projects, and support the development staff. Sometimes I write code, but lately I meet with clients to go over their projects and offer a technical process when trying to figure out what will be best for their project and business.
What is your favorite memory at Switchbox?
One of them, as others have said, is the Universal Studios trip with the Switchbox team. But there are so many that I have with my 11 years at Switchbox that it’s hard to pick just one. Touring client facilities is always cool to see what they are working on and how our project will them will help their business.
Another funny memory was when the office building was under construction and a pipe had burst in the basement while we were working. It was like a fire hose level burst, so we had to put a trash can under it so it didn’t flood the office.
What’s your favorite movie or TV show?
TV Show: Babylon Five
What do you like to do when you aren’t at work?
Riding my motorcycle, watching cat videos, learning how to play the guitar, and working out has become a new hobby recently until I broke my collarbone mountain biking with some co-workers.
What is your favorite thing about working at Switchbox?
Oh, the people that work here are awesome (Joel is the best boss ever).
In this blog series, we’ll be featuring our staff here at Switchbox Inc. to give you a little more insight into what it’s like to work here, and all the interesting stuff that our team gets up to! Next up is our Director of Development, Eric!
Company Role: Director of Development for .NET
Eric & Joel at Eric’s Daughter’s 1st Birthday Party
What do you do at Switchbox?
I get to wear multiple hats as a Director in a small firm like Switchbox. However my specific role is to lead a team of developers while also being hands on with a number of projects. I have to make sure that projects are running smoothly throughout the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). I also get to lead a few projects where I get to work with the client directly and help build their application with the team. The best part is that I get to work with some of the smartest and talented people while trying to solve business problems and challenges using software as a solution.
What is your favorite memory at Switchbox?
Hanging out with the team during the company GGOB trip at Universal Studios.
What’s your favorite movie or TV show?
Latest Top Gun: Maverick
Bachelor in Paradise – a great mindless drama
What do you like to do when you aren’t at work?
Basketball, car detailing and gets my mind off of things, short term reward that you get to enjoy the finished product
Your favorite thing about working at Switchbox?
It’s never boring, and I get to work with many clients, many projects, and many business problems/challenges. You get to apply your skills against many different industries, and get to meet so many different people. Putting perspective into what problem that they are facing, and helping them figure out how to solve it.
In this blog series, we’ll be featuring our staff here at Switchbox Inc. to give you a little more insight into what it’s like to work here, and all the interesting stuff that our team gets up to! Next up is our PO, Tommy!
Company Role: Product Owner
Switchbox Board Game Nights
What do you do at Switchbox?
All the things. I lead projects, and am the point of contact for all client communications, and heavily do account management. I tend to wear a lot of different hats here, but the biggest role I do is project management – building out the project timelines, working with the development team, getting the project, gathering requirements.
What is your favorite memory at Switchbox?
Oh that’s a hard one to come up with. The Universal Studios trip in the beginning 2019 for GGOB. All of us were hanging out in our Director’s hotel room playing card and board games. Everyone was having a really good night, at the end of it we realized we had had lost our other Director somewhere. We found him hiding in the closet, playing a game of hide and seek by himself. It was much funnier if you were actually there.
What’s your favorite movie or TV show?
Movie: Grandma’s Boy, but I would also say Step Brothers
TV: Breaking Bad and Stranger Things
What do you like to do when you aren’t at work?
Wood working and working on cars in my workshop, mountain biking, anything really doing with the outdoors, concerts. Board gaming
Playing with my 3 Boston Terriers – Lily, Lupin, Bellatrix
Your favorite thing about working at Switchbox?
That’s easy, the people. The friends and work family that I’ve established over the 5 years that I’ve worked here. Longevity in the staff, while also making you feel welcomed from the first day that you start.
In this new blog series, we’ll be featuring our staff here at Switchbox Inc. to give you a little more insight into what it’s like to work here, and all the interesting stuff that our team gets up to! First up is our CEO and Founder, Joel Stephens.
Joel flying with his wife Megan, and daughters Sawyer and Sullivan
What do you do at Switchbox?
I do a lot of different things here at Switchbox, but creating a vision where tech is moving and that intersection with what our clients need is a large portion of what I do. As well as cultivating the team culture, making sure our team is taken care of, and how to make it even better. I basically got to create a company that I love to go to work everyday.
On the daily list, I’m usually interacting with clients, and getting to know a wide range of people. Giving them suggestions & ideas to help their visions come to life. Helping them to be successful in their own businesses. Sometimes the largest changes in organizations don’t have to be expensive and time consuming, if you know the right thing that needs to be done, a small change can have a massive impact.
What is your favorite memory at Switchbox?
Working on a project right when I started Switchbox, which was launching a medical tracking application that improved the quality of medical care for 50,000 patients a year. A lot of these patients that have diabetes & hypertension, which were very treatable, but the average person was only able to be seen every 6 weeks vs. every 2 weeks when they should be coming in. There was a huge gap in the scheduling because the administration staff was relying on memory vs. looking back on the data. This software enabled them to be able to track when each patient should be coming in for a check up visit.
It was such a cool experience to be able to create and execute a fairly simple application that was able to make a large difference in a huge number of people’s medical care. 10 years after the launch the CDC approached us with a request to review the data, because it was the only system they were aware of with this type of statistics in such a clean format.
What’s your favorite movie or TV show?
I barely watch TV and when I do it’s with my kids. Instead I’ll say that my favorite “be-lazy-and-let-your-mind-go-blank” activity is listening to fiction audio books. A personal favorite is “The Martian” by Andy Weir. The movie was good but you really have to read the book.
What do you like to do when you aren’t at work?
Our family loves family vacations, and that work hard, play hard mentality. In 2020 I got my private pilot’s license, as well as high performance endorsement. Some of my other hobbies include scuba diving, BMW race school, recreational home remodeling, and camping. I also love to take long morning walks to start my day.
As a department in your company, Human Resources has a lot of responsibilities, not to mention access to confidential information for your employees. This makes it all the more important to make sure that you are taking the right precautions to protect you and your employees’ information.
Here are just a few ideas on how to protect your company’s information in the HR Department.
Password Management
In a time when websites, emails, and passwords are easily accessible and hacked into, it is key to that you secure your company’s information with a password management system. There are several systems and companies that provide this service like LastPass or Bitwarden, but what it is is a system that stores your passwords, and requires you to only have one very secure, hard to guess main password to access them all.
Why do this instead of storing them on Google Chrome or Apple? It is simply less of a risk of them being breached, and if your physical device is stolen, you don’t have to worry about the entirety of your passwords being compromised since they do not live on your machine, and cannot be accessed without that main password.
Device Encryption and Firewall
Speaking of securing your information, it is vital that you ensure that your work computer is secured with a password. That may sound like basic knowledge, but it would surprise you how many people do not put a password on their computer or cell phone, making it a prime target if someone were to get ahold of your device, thus giving them all of the information to your employees and company.
Phishing Emails
Everyone in your company will be susceptible to phishing emails, but no one is in more danger to it than the HR Department. Let’s say that you have an “employee” who sends you an email requesting a change in their direct deposit to a different bank account, but you do not do your due diligence and check the sender’s email address, OR follow up with them via call or Zoom? You have the potential to reroute their paycheck into a scammer’s bank account.
Or you may click a link in an email that is asking you to verify your account information, which asks you to input your username and password. Turns out, that was a phishing email to get into one of your accounts, and now you are on your way to being hacked.This is why it is so important to regularly be engaged in employee security awareness training, and to know what to look out for in phishing emails across the organization.
These are just a few of the things that you should be on the lookout for to help keep your company’s HR department safe in the cyber security realm.
The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium came to us looking to develop a website dedicated to blogging that would showcase all four of their zoo properties, including The Wilds, Zoombezi Bay, and Safari Golf Club. Aptly named The Watering Hole, the blog website needed one centralized website to communicate about events, news, and provide educational content to their visitors, but with each zoo property individually managing each page. The Columbus Zoo team also needed it to be simple to manage using WordPress, which their marketing team was already experienced with.
With the development of The Watering Hole, while the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium team wanted each of the four zoo properties to individually manage their own blogs they also wanted the ability to cross tag blog posts between the properties. Each of the zoo property blogs needed to have a WP instance, and a simple yet effective design that gets their message across to the visitors.
The result is a concise, easy to use and manage blog that lets the community know what is new and upcoming with the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, The Wilds, Zoombezi Bay, and Safari Golf Club. You can easily switch between the four zoo properties blog sites, and learn about all of the new events, scientific studies, and fun animal events that are happening! And who doesn’t love to get to read about what’s new with animals?
Check out The Watering Hole today to see what is new with The Wilds, Safari Golf Club, Zoombezi Bay, and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium!
