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Mon stage chez Skinkers

September 1st, 2010 | Company, Thoughts | nicolas.nouvellon

Dans le cadre de mes études d’ingénieur, je dois avoir une expérience professionnelle à l’étranger pour pouvoir obtenir mon diplôme. Il me faut donc choisir un pays et y trouver un stage. Je me dirigeais naturellement vers un pays anglophone, hors quel pays est plus anglophone que celui qui a vu naitre Shakespeare ? Apres le choix du pays, il m’a fallut trouver un stage. Après quelques recherches, je trouve un stage en plein Londres, dans une société appelée Skinkers ! Société spécialisée dans la création d’applications innovantes dans les nouvelles technologies, parfait !

Me voici donc dans le vol AF2580 au départ de Paris-CDG avec pour destination Londres-Heathrow. Il faut, auparavant, préciser que j’ai déjà eut un certain nombre de stage dans diverses sociétés françaises. Dans cette optique là,  je m’attendais à trouver une société typique : costume-cravates, bureaux, avec des rapports hiérarchiques. Eh bien, j’y ai trouvé des bureaux… Skinkers est une société complètement atypique dans ce que je pense être le monde du travail. Si je devais définir Skinkers je dirais que c’est un groupe d’amis qui partage la même passion et qui ont décidé d’en tirer profit, et ca fonctionne !

Avant mon arrivée, j’avais un peu peur de devoir faire le café (ou plutôt le thé, je suis en Angleterre ne l’oublions pas !) ainsi que les photocopies. Mon stage a été littéralement l’opposé de cela ! J’ai eu ainsi la chance de travailler de prés ou de loin sur quatre projets différents, pouvant ainsi aborder de larges projets sous différents angles. Dès les premiers jours, je me suis senti réellement impliqué au sein de la société, avec un projet vraiment intéressant ! Je pense que c’est leur mode de management qui fait cela, avec des managers très proches de leurs employés. Durant les différents projets auxquels j’ai participé, j’ai toujours put demander de l’aide a quelqu’un !

Pour conclure je dirais que lorsque vous travaillez avec des gens passionnés, vous n’avez pas le temps de vous ennuyer.

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Skinkers, a work experience view.

July 13th, 2010 | General News, Thoughts | Jonathan Tarcy

After much deliberation and debate with my Dad I was finally sitting on the 243 bus on the way to the Skinkers office with a feeling of anticipation. I wasn’t sure what to expect from work experience as I had never done any ‘experience’ as such before but once I arrived at the office it certainly blew apart any expectations I had previously.

I had always imagined an office to be a highly formal place where everyone was required to dress up in suits and sit at their desks working solidly until they had finished their hours. However Skinkers turned out just the opposite. Walking into the office for the first time there was music playing, people were dressed in casual clothes and everyone was very friendly, this was not the welcome I was expecting for a 16 year old who didn’t really know anything about work and had none of the skills required to work in a place like Skinkers.

Rob Noble, the COO, introduced me to the team and gave me and Nicolas (A French student on an internship at the time) a briefing of what to expect from the next ten days. I was thrown straight in at the deep end and given some of their latest applications to carry out tests on. I was certainly not expecting to have my hands on some of their cutting edge technology on the first day.

As the week went on I was given lots of things to do which were actually related to helping Skinkers with their business, not the typical work experience which many of my friends have had where you walk around and fetch coffee and cakes for all the employees. At Skinkers I felt I was part of the team, and even though what I did was very minor they made it seem like I was doing something for them.

Sitting here now at the end of the week all I can say is thank you to Skinkers for giving me this experience I have learnt a lot and had fun at the same time.

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iPad – game changer or over-hyped over-sized iPhone?

July 1st, 2010 | Thoughts | Rob Noble

OK first-up, I confess I’ve been a fan of Apple for some time.iPad

Whilst never cheap, in my opinion, the products are always reliable, work well and for longer than most other vendors offerings, PLUS they’re really a pleasure to use. My 2 year old MacBook Air is a great example; despite daily use, it still looks great, the built-in battery (that everyone got so concerned about) still lasts 4-5 hours before needing a recharge and it’s never crashed or hung.

So, as you’d expect, I was keen to get my hands on an iPad. But when I did I was not that impressed, in fact it was a bit of let down. Was it too hyped by Apple’s marketing gurus?

When it arrived, apart from the excellent build and screen quality, I was somewhat disappointed, it really did look and feel like an oversized iPhone and it didn’t have a camera nor would it run Flash. WiFi and 3G connectivity worked well and setting up all my work and personal email accounts was as straightforward as you’d expect from an Apple product, but it still failed to excite. That is until I started to use it on a daily basis during my commute…

Instead of viewing email, documents, surfing and checking on train times on my laptop or my iPhone I used the iPad. The first thing that strikes you is how easy it is to take out of a bag and be usefully working in seconds, then you realise you’re not worrying about the battery running down anytime soon (it really does last up to 10 hours!). However the real revelation comes through continued use and in my case in three forms:

  • Firstly; using apps to access information you want on the web rather than a browser (this being the great development for Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone OS). It’s just so quick, easy and pleasing to check the weather, stock markets or make a quick tweet via a purpose-built app. Reading the FT on that excellent app really shows the future too and reading a book changing for the first time since the invention of the paper-back.
  • Secondly, no keyboard; at first you miss it (the on screen keyboard is fine for email, but you wouldn’t want to write a long report) but when you use apps built specifically for the touch screen you start to be released from your addiction to the mouse and keyboard, this can be very positive. Using Apple’s Keynote to create a presentation is instinctive, fast and fun, the end results can be stunning. Surfing the web is also instantly pleasing.
  • Thirdly, it’s so light and easy to pass around, you can present or share information in a far less formal way and as it’s solid state there’s no hard-disk crash to be concerned about. Useful for company presentations to a client or simply watching the news on Livestation or as I did recently, watching England lose at football on TVCatchup with the family whilst away on holiday.

Don’t take my word for it, get one and live with it for a few weeks and make your own mind up. Like classical music or jazz you really need to give it time and understanding to really appreciate it – ironic really, given it’s the perfect device to feed the instant gratification that many seek from the mobile internet.

Whilst Apple’s iPad is the first out of the blocks as a truly useful tablet it’ll not be alone for long. Cisco have just announced the Cius, a very interesting business communications oriented tablet based on Google’s Android OS, it’s rumoured HP bought Palm so they could launch a tablet that is non-Android and a gaggle of PC manufacturers such as Dell have products in the wings.

Who will win, who knows? But those offering Cloud Services and the publishers who grasp this new technology are sure to benefit and so will you.

Don’t listen to the cynics it IS a game changer!