With a series of ups and downs, challenges and opportunities, this year has brought us together in learning, growing, and having fun together. It almost feels like the “old times”, yet we notice the wind of change: we’re all a little older, wiser, and we don’t take the little things for granted anymore.
That is why our tagline for the year was “The Bright side of IT”: we now have a new view and spin on things, looking at the bright side in everything we do, finding solutions to problems and staying strong together.
And that was reflected through our events throughout the year. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane.
February 2022
The first edition of the Maxcode Hackathon
February was the perfect occasion for a new learning tradition in Maxcode: The Maxcode Hackathon. The first edition was on the topic of blockchain and had teams working for a day on a product that should be based on the blockchain: a food delivery app, an NFT, and even a college grading platform. All the projects turned out brilliant with the efforts of our smart colleagues, the guidance of our tech manager Adrian, and the help of out guest host, Gabriel Dumitriu.
A great start of the year, indeed.
A Learning Club on how to build your own radio
Also in February, our colleague and skillful presenter, Vlad Sandu, has shared his love for all things electronic with the team, in a demo on how to build a radio from scratch, complete with explanations on electric components, types of radio waves and how it all works when put together.
March 2022
Maxcode at Stagii pe Bune
We were so happy to partner again with the local Computer Science faculty in order to present young students in Iasi and beyond the opportunities that they can get after finishing their studies. We are firm believers that support is key in achieving success, and we encourage our colleagues and our community to share their knowledge with the people that find themselves at the beginning of this trade, so that they can discover, as well, the bright side of IT.
Start of our first Internship of 2022
March has also marked the first internship of the year, with beautiful results and a great product built by the internship team. We congratulate them for their hard work and for the great work ethic they displayed, alongside their trusted mentors.
Being part of BEST Hackathon
In March we partnered with a very cool association of students in Iasi, who organize and promote events that have as a main goal the practice of skills needed in the trade of software development, all made fun with games and interesting topics. This time, we partnered for a hackathon where the topic was (surprise) blockchain. Our talented colleagues now served as mentors, with the practice from their own hackathon a month before.
April 2022
Running a half marathon
Spring it’s here, let’s get moving! A full team of Maxcoders braved the slightly cold weather of April and ran a marathon, with great results. Congrats guys! Let’s go at it again this year.
A new Learning Club edition
In the spirit of spring and Easter, Alexandra Săvescu was the host of our second Learning Club for 2022. With a technical topic, yet a social approach, Alexandra delved into the subject of web accessibility, or how to make websites accessible for people with visual impairments or other disabilities. We talked about things companies can improve, small tricks that take little time and can make all the difference for people that need some extra help when browsing online.
Happy Easter, everyone!
This Easter, we went all out. We wanted to bring the bright out , so we prepared small gifts with the help of our friends from Oddity Iasi. For a few hours, we were able to celebrate the renewal and life that Spring and Easter brings, together.
May 2022
A Learning Club on hobbies
It’s May, time for another Learning Club. This time, we discussed hobbies, and Adrian shared with everyone his long-time love of modeling, especially tanks. We discussed about how to integrate such a hobby in your life, its benefits, costs, and it has definitely triggered the interest of many colleagues.
Beer and learning at Maxcode Meetup
Remember Alexandra and her amazing presentation on accessibility? Well, we thought it was too good to keep it just for us, so we organized a Meetup at Beer Zone. It was the perfect setup for interesting conversations over beer and chips.
June 2022
Asaltul Lupilor brought out the teamwork in us
We’re such a great team – even in the harshest of conditions. The track at Asaltul Lupilor was filled with obstacles and mud, yet our Maxcoders, guided by their captain, Dragos, were victorious in the end.
A Learning Club on the art of photography
Taking photos is more than just pointing a camera – it takes research and practice. Our colleagues, passionate about photography, used a Learning Club session to do an introduction into photography – from camera settings, frames, and types of exposure, what it actually takes to make your photos works of art.
July 2022
Maxcode at MPE
This July marked Maxcode’s presence at Merchant Payment Ecosystem. It was a great opportunity for our company to interact with payment professionals, to chat and learn about their challenges and to present them our company, our culture and our values – as well as their gain in working with our teams of professional software developers in the field of fintech.
A teambuilding for the ages
We’ve had teambuildings before, but not as cool as this. At least not for a while – and we surely missed it. The late nights playing guitar, the fun games, sharing more about ourselves and getting to know each other, and our inner brightness. Special thanks go to our friends from Outdoor 360 for all the help. Can’t wait for the 2023 teambuilding – it’s going to be epic!
Maxcode Summer Internship
July also marked the start of our second internship of the year – and the team worked on an application that will help our quality assurance process really shine! Congrats for your hardwork and the great results that prove your skills, and the guidance from your skilled mentors!
August 2022
Pool Party
What better way to end the summer than with a swim, tasty cocktails and some great laughter and fun with your colleagues? Definitely a story worth repeating.
Summer Maxcode Meetup
The last day of summer was celebrated by Maxcoders at Beer Zone, with an insightful presentation held by Vlad Sandu, some beers, and some fun. If you want to join us in 2023 for meetups, make sure you follow us on social media, or join our Innovative group on meetup.com!
Inspiring at SoftCamp
We were all once at the start of our road in our careers, and not sure what college or what path to take. The caring people at SoftCamp are here to support highschoolers in their search, with presentations on different career choices, their implications, as well as bringing into discussion soft skills that are needed in order to succeed in your endeavors. For this event, our colleagues Madalina and Victor were the awesome representatives that were there to answer any questions and to offer guidance.
September 2022
Innovative TechTalks
We waited 2 years for this: Innovative TechTalks 2022, the first edition in the offline after 2 years! The event’s main topic was DevOps, and it brought together renowned international speakers, such as Viktor Farcic, Henry Been and Chris Behrens, who held interesting presentations on topics such as Kubernetes or Bicep. Two brave Maxcoders also took on the challenge to be speakers at this event, Cristian Mihăiță and Alexandra Săvescu. It was one full, awe-inspiring, and fun day and we can’t wait for Innovative TechTalks 2023. Stay tuned!
Dotnetdays Chisinau
This year’s September also marked the first edition of Dotnetdays Chisinau, and we were so happy to be part of this event as sponsors, as well as speakers with the help of our colleague Cristian Mihaita. We loved meeting everyone in Chisinau, and we can’t wait to be there (sooner than you might think) for both Dotnetdays as well as Maxcode meetups with the lovely people of Moldova.
October 2022
Dotnetdays
2022 was a year of offline conferences, and we’re so happy to be back meeting everyone in person. The rush, the noise, the fun – we missed everything. So thrilled to have met everyone that visited our stand, the speakers (including our very own Cristian Mihăiță), and we can’t wait to see everyone again this year, in April!
Halloween Party
Trick or treat? More like a treat! Our Halloween costume parties are legendary, and we’re so happy to be back in business, having fun and seeing our Maxcoders unleashing their creative spirit. Do you have any ideas for costumes in 2023? We already started planning our next spooky outfit!
Internship
Our last internship of the year started in October 2022. This time, we created a perfect mix for an internal project: both QA and .NET development, so that interns could practice not just on the hard skills of technical implementation, but also on creating the perfect mix of a team, understanding the importance of both parts in the development and release of a product: complex technical execution and maintaining quality.
November 2022
A Gotham-themed Hackathon
In a cyclical learning pattern, since we started the year with a hackathon, we better end it in style. This time, the topic of the hackathon was DevOps, and the theme was: Gotham! The Batman-inspired teams worked together for half a day to deploy a product using the tools and way of organization of their choice. The work was fun, the results were great, and we can’t wait for 2023 hackathons to see what’s in store.
Maxcode at Web Summit
Ola Portugal! The start of November came with the opportunity to attend Web Summit, a great way for our team to learn of new trends, new companies, and to spread the word on Maxcode as the go-to software development company for fintechs in Europe and beyond. The meetings we had gave us a lot of insights, and we had a great response from everyone we met. Obrigado, Lisboa!
December 2022
It’s a Bright Christmas!
If it’s December, it’s time for a Bright Christmas. And boy, was it bright and fun! We drank mulled wine and hot chocolate, decorated the Christmas tree, sang carols (well, three of our most gifted colleagues did), shared gifts, received gifts, had a decorations workshop and partied till late with sparkles and cake. And we’re probably missing some of the fun activities on that list, yet what we can surely say is that Christmas at Maxcode is always fun.
2022, that was a lot!
As full and challenging this year was, we loved the warm reception we had at every single one of these events. We missed the busy hallways, the buzzing of the coffee machine every morning and the laughter that starts in a faraway meeting room and makes its way though laptops and screens.
And 2022 delivered. We connected, we became stronger, we worked on ourselves and our relationship with each other. We grew, and we became ready to grow even more.
2023, we’re ready for you. For all the fun, the events, the challenges that we’re going to overcome together. On the bright side of IT.
