We could say that 2018 was a transformative year on so many levels! If it were for eJump to celebrate the past New Year’s Day with a unique resolution for the new year, it would have been something like #YesToChange. Because a lot of changes did happened, that allowed us to reach a new level of awesomeness knowledge, skills and friendship. Not kidding. From projects involving Internet of Things and smart apps to Kinect-based, fun platforms to international projects from all areas (gambling, fashion, medical, travel, consulting, renting), we’ve been busy and together.
Let’s proceed with this special year in review and celebrate some of the highlights of 2018:
268 gratitude notes exchanged during the October challenge
The Gratitude challenge 2.0 proved to be funnier than last year, probably because of the newcomers’ different types of humor that challenged the old-timers’ even more. We were 18 participants, including the interns, who left exactly 134 thank-you notes. Surprisingly, it’s the same number of thank you notes received by the colleagues. So a total of 264 notes for this year! The winners took them all got a mind & body relaxation session at Float Room.
31 new projects
And we’re talking about the ones we started apart from 99designs. Here are some of the web projects we’ve been working on this year (some of them are completed already). The main change for this year was that we got on board for projects from new types of industries.
We built a builder for Litera.ro which allows creating book promotions on their online store, while Mihai, who became part of our crew this year, started to work for a challenging ERP system for Euromaster. Luckily, he’s super passionate about everything involving cars. We also took care of the design and development work for our long-term client, Autonom (for example, www.autoinlocuire.ro), including of their own complex management dashboard. Also, we started our collaboration with HELM for web enhancements, landing pages, online quizzes, as well as with the renowned OTI Group for their e-commerce platform. Two rather short, but really nice projects were developing a microsite for a wine-based aperitif brand and an interactive app for Heineken – for their teambuilding events. Another challenging project we’ve embarked on is a complex responsive WordPress platform for Wizrom, one of the most innovative business management software providers in Romania.
Moving on to a new industry – gambling. Yes, we’re currently working for Felicity Casino (a Romanian gamble and casino games website) and a similar project is in the books. Also, the fruitful collaboration with VMS led to the takeover of the Easy Track service. With the help of Easy Track you know everything about your vehicle any given moment – and we’re developing a really tough optimization algorithm for automatic ride allocation. This fall we started working for ACA, an international organisation involved in international cooperation in higher education, located in Brussels, which we were recommended to by a past client of ours. Cheers to happy clients! Oh, should also mention the hard work done by one of our super girls, Betty, for a MindShpere based BMS. Plus the official launch of the Budureasca online shop (developed with Magento), and the online calculator built and designed for Fanatical Sabbatical, a dear client of ours. Worth mentioning that we’ve continued working for Faurecia – for their animated rules – part of a gamification project regarding workplace safety tests – as well as for their management dashboard.
17 completed projects on 99designs
Our team managed to complete all types of projects on this platform, from landing pages to big websites that needed coding as well. At least 17 of them are completed; a short selection: http://doylesalewski.ca/ (design and development), https://standupurology.com (design and development), https://www.geginc.com/(design), https://www.tarinfitness.com/ (design). We won two design contests, like MindTech and Appareal, and have another 6 projects pending.
Three mountain adventures (or more)
Two team buildings took place on top of the greatest mountains of Romania. Well, kind of: one of them almost became a tradition for us to have since it’s the fourth or fifth time at this place. And another one happened in a small village called Magura, under the brightest starry sky. And the third trip in the mountains was completed by some of our colleagues who are travel seekers and went conquering the Moldoveanu peak. A challenging quest – both physical and personal.
One Pac-Man game on our website
This is Pac-Man with a twist. Now, you get to catch the infamous Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde and win the game faster than Flash, to become a hero in our Wall of Fame – or better yet, in our crew! Without further ado, this is the eJump version of the well-known game: https://ejump.ro/careers/
12 custom T-shirts for the crew
We’ve continued the eJump tradition and made personalized t-shirts for each of the eJumper we celebrate on their birthdays. Here’s a GIF with some of them (click on it).
5 eJump interns on board this summer
Each of them was special and got easily accommodated with our workflow, but most importantly, they fit in so well with the team! They were young, ambitious and open-minded and made the crew more united and diverse and funnier of course. At the end of their internship, two of them – Diana and Alex – chose to remain with us for the long run and now work on some bad-ass projects.
1 sponsorship
Also last spring we helped a bit and offered support to a young Romanian team of really smart highschoolers that participated at a Robotics world competition, the FIRST Tech Challenge in Detroit, Michigan.
2 new games at the office (actually, a full pack)
Actually, there are more, but didn’t know what to tell exactly. One of the fresh guys on board, Alex, told us about the Jackbox party packs and immediately took action. A series of short/silly/fun games to play on your mobile phones at the office sounded perfect! So when it’s time for a break between tasks or at the end of our program, we shift to these games. Or we play Secret Hitler. Or anything we like.
15 coaching sessions at the office
Also this year, Radu and Bogdan thought that having one-on-one coaching sessions, as well as occasionally group sessions, would help the crew improve their personal development and skills, learn how to deal with unhealthy stress and feel more productive. We’ve learned a lot more about how our mind works and about our reactions in certain situations, especially work-related. Somehow this helped us acknowledge that workplace mental health is important and that we all share common traits that can strengthen our teamwork.
One amazing VR experience to successfully close this year
Instead of the traditional Christmas party, R&B asked us if we’d like to try a fun experience at a VR Studio, before having some food and drinks at Fabrica. Something new, exciting, gamelike, techie – of course we were eager to try it, especially since it was the first time for many of us! Some even played again at the end. And there it was: one of our future regular LogOuts in 2019…
23,294 hours of work in 2018
Wow! A new record! Maybe because we have a few more allies on board, which we hope to continue to come next year as well. We got cool work to do and need more awesome power here. The many thanks for this year go to Radu and Bogdan and the entire team of crazy kids, as well as to our amazing and ambitious clients we have or those we met this year. All of them have helped eJump become even stronger, better, even funnier I’d say. We’ll see what 2019 bring about! Now, the winter holidays are coming, so does our long-awaited vacation after a year of hard work and exciting adventures. See you next year and Happy holidays to you all!
