27 reasons to work at Nine Connections

This piece actually has a fairly interesting starting point. While trying to figure out our hiring positions, someone posed a seemingly-innocent question: Why do we like working here?

I thought the answer was obvious. Apart from actually liking my tasks, I love the freedom of my job and the ridiculous amount of laughter we have. The fact that my dog comes to work with me totally brings it home.

But as it turns out, these were only some of the reasons. So we asked the rest of the team of their input and this is what we got.

Floris Van Der Grinten, Development

1. We always have input on the product and it’s a short loop from idea to production. We have the ability to choose your own direction. Some of us started as mobile developers, but was interested in machine learning, so took that responsibility on ourselves.
2. Lunches are pretty intense around here with lots of cheeses and fresh smoothies everyday. Plus we get premium knives as birthday gifts.
3. It’s amazing how the focus is on creating. Every day is a step forward. We move at a fast pace and I’m constantly surprised at how fast I consider some earlier work to be old already.

Gonnie Spijkstra, Product Strategy

4. I just love content, especially news content. It is so relevant, everybody talks about news and that makes it really social. I also love the technical aspect of social media and trying to pinpoint how social distribution can be optimised.

5. As part of my job I write blog posts and make presentations. Because I’m pushed to make a story that is completely right, I get new insights, which I just love.

6. What I love about the company’s culture, is that everyone knows so much about each other’s preferences, especially regarding food. And that’s quite symbolic, as we believe that artificial intelligence should become your best friend who knows what you like and when you need it. Here at Nine Connections, everyone is able to make a shopping list with everybody’s favorite lunch on it.

Esteban Lopez Valecky, Development

7. I like the people, they are very friendly. We often hang out with some drinks or even go to the cinema to watch amazing movies. That kind of bond strengthens trust between each other. That really helps us work better.

8. Job-wise I feel happy and comfortable, because I can do what I like to do, dedicate time to myself, to the team. This kind of transparency makes us open for technology innovation.

Gemma Damen, Sales

9. I showed up a day too early for my interview, my phone rang 8 times during the interview and they still hired me. Talk about flexibility and understanding.

10.The people here go through bags of beef jerky, rolls of biscuits and bags of coffee as if their lives depend on it.

11. We have the opportunity to think outside the box and come up with our own solutions as opposed to following strict guidelines. We are expected to always take a second and a third look at why we do what we do and then make sure I fully understand what our customers need, which can be challenging when there is time pressure but keeps us on our toes.

Anthony Gadsdon, Content Curation

12. I love that we all are given our own responsibility and autonomy, but at the same time can always count on each other to have each other’s backs. I love the easy atmosphere, but at the same time the general seriousness about our products and company’s success.

13. There’s so much freedom. I love that we are free to decide our own hours, including be able to work home, or from, for instance, Spain in my case. I love we can workout at the office on the bike and rowing machine.

14. We are given very cool birthday presents and a lot of people bring in food they made themselves to share with co-workers. We have some tremendous fully paid lunches, especially the ones insane hamburger or croquettes. We take the time off to play football, watch movies or more recently, a boat trip around the holidays. We also have an office dog, Pushkin. My friends actually get jealous and ask if we ever do any work in between all of this.

15. Most of all, I love my work. Curating news is something I really like doing, but what I love even more is writing own content, especially when it creates the possibility to implement things I learned in my studies, like data analyses or analysis in general.

Dinara Krasilnikova, Development.

16. I really wanted to be front-end developer and in Nine Connections I have an opportunity to grow in this way and to do it very very fast, to solve interesting tasks, and to make my own decisions.

17. Working here is like being in kindergarten sometimes. The team is very funny and we’re always laughing. I found my perennially-12 year-old soulmates in this company.

18. Pushkin the office dog is also a lot of fun.

Pascal Immink, Sales

19. I’m one those people who just came aboard — the new guy. So what can I add? Well a lot of good things. But there’s one thing in particular that strikes me. In just a day, I knew all my colleagues by name. That’s huge! I’m usually not good with faces and names. But Nine Connections is a ‘social’ company, and it’s the people who truly form the heart of it — and that is something you notice right away. You are no stranger here or ‘the new guy’ but really a person with just a lot of new stories.

20. What i love is the opportunity to help companies to be truly social again within their social network. With our product and service we can help companies interact with their customers on a personal level, which is far better than communicating from the corporate accounts. . When they experience that and get more business from it — we get happy customers and users. And that is worth all the effort!

21. Our office culture have a lot of social gatherings. For example, we have a weekly Monday morning breakfast held in the nearby restaurant. A cup of coffee, croissant and a quick chat is the best way to start a new week.

Fehim Hathipoglu, Development

22. I’m lucky to work with people who actually enjoy what they do. Everybody at the company is always enthusiastic and dedicated. That’s probably why we have this much fun even while working on challenging projects. We are also quite ambitious in our plans and motivated in creating something very big, and hopefully in very near future.

23. The overall sense of humor in the company is infectious. There is always something funny going on, people pranking each other and making jokes about pretty much everything.

Wouter Schoonhoven, Sales

24. The team itself is pretty unique,we have a pretty good international presence. Also our location is gorgeous with a harbor and a park overlooking us and a brewery just 50 meters away.

25. The lack of hierarchy is the best part of working here. Everyone is super-approachable.

Emre Delibasi, Development

26. Everyone is really helpful. I’ve found that I can develop my skills as an app developer by consulting my more-experienced colleagues. Whenever I need assistance, everyone is always eager to help so I feel I’m developing my skills at a good pace.

27. The best thing here is the friendship and togetherness among colleagues. Our chemistry makes us work as a unit and increases our productivity which promises good things for the future. Also, seeing that the people I work with share the same ambition to get better everyday makes me happy and content.

Do you want to be a part of this madness? Come join us!

If you know of other ways that brings a workplace to a shared goal or just want to share your thoughts, let us know in the comments!

written by Smruthy Sachidanandan