We asked our recent freelance worker, Raphael du Beaufret, to tell us about his experience with us. Here's what he said…
In August 2019, CE contracted me to join them for an initial 3 months duration. The project seemed really interesting, the managers seemed nice and open so I said yes.
In the end, I stayed for 9 months, finishing at the end of May 2020 and, honestly, I was really not happy to be leaving.
In a few words: Everything was great, really really great.
Initially, when I joined CE, I had 2 goals:
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Participate in a quality project to improve my dev skills with a brand new challenge, which I did. The project was a large educational program, mixing technologies, API and multiple frameworks.
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Improve my ability to work 100% remotely with an international team. What I didn't expect, is that CE was not only a fully remote company with an interesting client base, it's a company with a real human-centric experience, focused on wellbeing, and where team spirit is not a marketing word used to pretend to be cool. It's real.
Working with CE you are a developer, but first, you are a human. You work remotely but you are not alone. You're an employee, contractor, client, but above all, you are a member of a team, a great team. Everyone cares for each other, even if you're not working on the same project.
"Your word matters, your health matters, your life matters."
The company culture is the key, and sharing is the word, to sum up everything. At any moment, you are able to ask for help or question things. At any given time, you can reach someone to talk to. You can share your thoughts about any piece of code or process that can be improved, even when you are not on a code review task.
You can share a good joke, an interesting website, technical stuff, a movie or musical discovery. You are allowed to take a break and go outside. It's not because you are "AFK" that the company will track you. Trust is a real thing at CE and if you do the job, then… you do the job, no question.
This sharing philosophy is not restricted to the internal members. The client relationship is based on the same model. Transparency is almost everywhere. No one works in a shadow. At every moment, everyone knows the goals.
The client, manager and developer are all in the same room on a daily basis, all encouraged to discuss the sprint functionality, future decisions estimated timing and then afterwards hold retrospect for past activities.
There's always room to improve the process and provide better deliverability. CE try to spot all the little pieces that could ensure client satisfaction. Sharing experiences, good or not so good, is a way to get better. Being part of this process is a real pleasure as a developer, as you can see the big picture, and sometimes make a difference by pointing out something crucial.
My mission is finished, for now. Working for Code Enigma was an amazing experience and I really hope to meet the team again in a way or another. I have learned a lot, wrote a to-do list with a lot of things to improve again and get even better. I expect to hear good news about the project I worked on over the next weeks. I wish the best for everyone!
We'd like to thank Raphael for his input and dedication to the project and equally wish him well for the future!