The next Agile@CollabraSpace Book Club will be on October 7th at 8AM! You still have plenty of time to catch up or start reading to be ready for our morning book club! Leah Burman will be holding a discussion on the book The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim. To learn more about the book and to sign up, click here:
We will never forget those who lost their lives 19 years ago. #neveforget
Every day at CollabraSpace we are breaking fresh ground in the pursuit of mission critical solutions. We are often recognized throughout the community for our talented group of Software and System Engineers and for our solid leadership team. Our team is constantly pursuing the best, and right, technology to advance our clients mission. Our ability to pair the right CollabraSpace team member with the right program and position ensures the highest level of performance and satisfaction for both the team member and the client.
As you’ll see throughout the site, at CollabraSpace it’s not just about making a living. We believe it’s important to support our team members’ passions as well and encourage our team to bring us into the fold on charities they are passionate about. Whether forming teams for charity runs, holding raffles to raise funds, or donating silent auction items, we’re committed to sharing our success with our team and the community.
Because it’s never enough to just go to work – MAKE A LIFE, NOT JUST A LIVING.
At CollabraSpace it’s not just about making a living. It is about making a life and sharing it with others. That sense of belonging to a community of genuine, friendly people who are passionate about learning, growing, supporting one another, and supporting the important missions of our local community and the safety of our nation. Our team and their passions are the reason why we help those in need, encourage growth of knowledge and career, and regularly recognize our team for the amazing people they are.
Because it’s never enough to just go to work – MAKE A LIFE, NOT JUST A LIVING.
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Whether forming teams for charity runs, holding raffles to raise funds, or donating silent auction items, we’re committed to sharing our success with our team and the community. In recent years we have supported charities that hold a special meaning to members of our team such as Best Buddies, Nanci’s Gift and
In 2017 the desire to support one of our team came with same ferocity and urgency as the hurricane that made it necessary. Bags of Love for Puerto Rico, an organization determined to ship necessary supplies to Puerto Rico, was a grass roots effort and quickly became near and dear to team member Roddy M.'s heart. Many of Roddy’s family still live in Puerto Rico and our desire to help spurred an industry-wide effort to collect needed items and promote Bags of Love’s need for volunteers to pack the donations for shipping. Leading by example through a CollabraSpace donation of 8 full size generators, volunteering, and individual donations from team members too numerous to count, CollabraSpace encouraged others to join the effort! CollabraSpace is proud of our team who donated both their time and their money raising over $4,500 for Bags of Love!
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CollabraSpace's Technical Excellence Award was created to recognize team members who have achieved technical excellence beyond the workplace. In addition to the award, Technical Excellence Award winners also receive a spot bonus and a unique experience for the team member’s significant other to show our gratitude for their support as well.
The 2017 Technical Excellence Award was presented to team member Joe S. for becoming an Apache Nifi Project Management Committee (PMC) Member in December 2016. PMC Membership is by invitation only and must be approved by the consensus of the Apache NiFi PMC members in an open vote.
Really, that’s just one of the reasons Joe received it though. His technical excellence expands to consistently lend his hand to the technical education of others within CollabraSpace, performing more Technical Talks then we can probably count (well, we could but it’s A LOT so why bother). He willingly and eagerly shares knowledge and is always there to answer any technical questions and genuinely wants others to succeed.
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The Joni Award is named for our super fun team member Joni C.! Did you ever meet one of those people who is just genuinely nice and fun? That’s her! What’s better is she’s also a rock star when it comes to supporting her program.
The creation of the Joni award speaks to who we are as an organization; it’s not just how good you do the job but how your presence on the team affects the team. It’s issued annually to a team member who is committed to “Performing my normal amazing every day duties in a super awesome way!” Yup, that’s a quote from Joni when asked to describe what she’d been up to since her last chat with her lead. It’s for those folks who help hold the team together; work really, really hard, and do a great job all while keeping an upbeat and positive attitude!
Our 2017 recipient of the Joni Award was Marlena R. who was recognized for the incredible job she’s done after stepping into a new leadership role on her program. She is a shear force to be reckoned with when there is a job that needs to be done. Her determination for her team to succeed all while ensuring they are a tight knit and supportive unit made her the obvious choice.
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Ever feel like your hard work goes unrecognized or may be forgotten by review time? Quick ChATS, CollabraSpace’s Agile performance management sytem, helps us achieve our team’s recognition when it happens; not at the end of the year. The program allows for frequent interaction and discussions with your lead about your project, your professional aspirations and how we can help you be successful and happy in both. This very successful program enables our management to make sure you get the recognition and support you deserve when it happens.
Nothing makes us happier than showing appreciation to those who are genuinely committed to their own professional path and serving their clients, our company and other team members.
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Everyone has hobbies they are passionate about outside of work. CollabraSpace is there with you every step of the way to offer support, donations, or just being a cheering squad!
Team member Craig Szczesiul (pictured left) has an immense passion for home brewing beer. Craig and his wife Rachel were named CRABS (Chesapeake Real Ale Brewers Society) 2017 Homebrewers of the Year! We enjoy cheering Craig and Rachel on in this endeavor (and sampling his beer)!
Craig even shared a meat flavored beer with the team for sampling and a little fun. Was it good? Hard to say. Was it creative? You bet! Their hijinks in creating the pastrami flavored beer encouraged Craig and his wife to make two podcasts surrounding it’s creation, and the author of Experimental Homebrewing and Vice Chair of the American Homebrewers Association Governing Committee spent about fifteen minutes of the three hour festival just talking to Craig’s wife about the recipe.
In keeping with our desire to pursue the things our folks are passionate about, we held a Tech Talk about beer brewing to help the rest of the team have some fun and learn this great craft!
At CollabraSpace it’s not just about making a living. Are you seeing a theme here? It’s about so much more than that. As team members involved in the technology field we all know things can and do change quickly so knowledge sharing is highly valued at CollabraSpace. From unique perspectives and hands on experiences, everyone has something valuable to share with the team.
Because it’s never enough to just go to work – MAKE A LIFE, NOT JUST A LIVING!
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Join us each month for relaxed Technical Talks where questions and open discussions are always welcome. Our team shares their experiences and insights with current and evolving technologies and discusses potential uses for you and your client.
For us, knowledge sharing reaches beyond our own team. Our desire to provide the best technology choices for our clients drives us to offer our Tech Talks to the entire community. We welcome the open discussion and additional knowledge sharing that can occur! We have held over 65 Tech Talks since 2013 and there is no slowing down on sharing our knowledge with the CollabraSpace team, colleagues, and our many guests from Annapolis Junction!
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The commitment to expanding your knowledge extends to training and education as well. Sometimes the technology is so new you may want to be the thought leader for our team on the technology and we can support that! We cover the costs of training up front! And your time spent in training is covered by the company so no need to use your PTO.
Your continuing education is important to us too. Expanding your knowledge isn’t just a benefit to you, it’s a benefit to us and our customers too. Our Education Reimbursement allows you to pursue advance degrees without the worry over how you will pay for it.
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With all the new technologies coming out each day, meetups are great places to learn more. We announce meetups on topics we think may be of interest to the team and often have multiple team members attending together. We host meetups as well including meetups on BlockChain and RedHat products.
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So we keep trying to drive the point home here, but just in case you still aren’t sure, there is no need to be shy here! There is no-shame in call-outs to the company seeking help on complex technologies or technical issues. We are a team of Software and System Engineers with broad backgrounds and experiences who can help each other figure things out! More than likely, if you have the question someone else does too.
There are so many team members who genuinely want to help others succeed. Their willingness to help with information and knowledge sharing speaks to our desire to help you and our clients achieve the best possible outcome!
Each member of our team is valued and was specifically chosen to be a part of the CollabraSpace team so we each should have the same amount of time for all the fun things we do away from work!
All employees accrue Paid Time Off (PTO), which may be used for vacation, sick, holidays and or other days not worked for personal or family reasons. Accrual begins with your first day on the job. All full time employees are eligible to accrue up to 240 PTO hours per calendar year. And, because PTO is a bucket of time, it allows the flexibility to use your time as you see fit for vacations, holidays, sick time and personal days.
Because it’s never enough to just go to work – MAKE A LIFE, NOT JUST A LIVING.
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100% Paid Health Insurance
Medical, Dental, and other ancillary benefit premiums are all paid 100% by the company for all levels of coverage and we’ve been doing that for over 15 years. That’s right, we’ll cover you and your whole family for Medical and Dental. And, it’s great coverage with a Health Savings Account so you can begin saving now for future medical expenses!
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Referral Bonuses and the Talent Playoffs.
Well, we don’t do much else the same way everybody else does so this shouldn’t be any different. We do offer the traditional referral bonus to existing team members when their referral is hired but we also have some fun with it. For each referral who is hired to the team, $2,500 goes into a pot for a drawing at the end of the year. Each referring team member is placed in the drawing and one of them goes home with the whole pot of money!
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Team Recognition.
The CollabraSpace Technical Excellence Award is issued to team members who have achieved technical excellence beyond the workplace. Its intent is to recognize those who take on Technical Leadership roles within the company or industry that increase or broaden our corporate image or education initiatives.
The Joni Award. It is fun but it’s really about doing a great job! The intent of the Joni award speaks to who we are as an organization. Issued annually to a team member who is committed to “Performing their normal amazing every day duties in a super awesome way!”
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Agile Performance Management.
Here’s one we don’t think many others are doing. Why wait until the end of the year to be recognized for your great efforts? Most of the programs we work on are Agile, why shouldn’t we be? CollabraSpace’s Quick ChATS performance management program allows team members and their leads to an opportunity to talk about what’s going on right now, how the company and the lead can help team members achieve their goals, and provide recognition when it happens rather than waiting until the end of the year!
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Spot Bonuses.
It has always been our goal to recognize the outstanding work of our team. Nothing makes us happier than providing bonuses to those receiving program and other valuable recognition. The new Quick ChATS program helps ensure that those recognitions don’t wait until the end of the year!
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End of Year Profit Sharing.
Yup, you heard it. Profit Sharing.
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Technical Training
We cover the costs of training up front! And your time spent in training is covered by the company so no need to use your PTO.
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Flex Time.
As programs allow, CollabraSpace supports flex time!
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Monthly Tech Talks.
Join us each month for relaxed Technical Talks where questions and open discussions are always welcome. Our team shares their experiences and insights with current and evolving technologies and discusses potential uses for your client.
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Charitable Passions.
If a team member is passionate about a charity we’ll do everything we can to support as well; from donations, to silent auction items, to sponsorships or fundraising teams. Our team and their family members have participated in a number of 5K Fun Runs throughout the years! Whether it’s to support a charity that one of our team members is passionate about or supporting our industry organization we’re always up for working up a sweat for charity!
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Annual Picnic.
Well, it’s just flat out family fun. Always lots of fun stuff to do, great food and drink, and of course great company.
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Happy Hours.
It’s nice to get out once in a while and doing so with a great group of people who all share the same mission and support one another is just a plus. It’s also not uncommon to see spouses and significant others at our Happy Hours.
I have been working at CollabraSpace full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Wonderful benefits. A team that cares about its employees.
Cons
Certain projects may not be attractive to younger developers
Application
I applied online. The process took 3+ weeks. I interviewed at CollabraSpace (Annapolis, MD) in May 2009.
Interview
It was a long time ago but it was about the same as any other place, phone interview first then face to face.
Interview Questions
Negotiation
they offered 8k over what I was making.
Pay Equality Pledge
Committed to paying equitably for equal work & experience
Social Responsibility Pledge
Formal programs or foundation to give back to communities
Tech Hiring Commitment
Helping to train, hire and promote more technology workers
Pledge to Thrive
Taking steps to prioritize employee well-being
