So I’ve officially completed my first week as a Software Engineer at Increo and it has been action-packed! After filling out all the boring paper work and setting up my desk and accounts and all that jazz, I was able to jump right into working on Backboard. The first few days I was the resident newbie, asking questions every 15 minutes about this data structure or that control flow. However, by the beginning of this week I was making many fixits and squishing a few ugly bugs. There is definitely a lot of code and I still have a lot of coming up to speed to do, but when I left the office today, I felt I had made some solid progress.

The office culture is a good mix of intense and casual. We’re always pushing ourselves to develop better software and create a productive, enjoyable experience for our users: sometimes it’s through hardcore coding sessions, other times it’s by mocking up user interfaces on the whiteboards. But we’re always able to squeeze in some fun, such as 2-minute dance parties or writing ridiculous phrases on the Increo quote board.

One of the very cool things about working here is that we love using the products we develop. For example, several Backboards a day will be shared with the team to get feedback on virtually anything we’re working on at the moment – from webpage graphics to business card designs to marketing handouts (although I’ll occasionally use the red mark-up pen to draw silly pictures as feedback).

Ultimately, what I value most at Increo is being a part of a close-knit team that works on challenging problems, brainstorms and discusses innovative ideas, and makes important decisions within a fast-paced Silicon Valley startup.