DMC recently welcomed two new engineers: Derrick Huynh and Andy Femminineo. Each person who joins DMC is celebrated with a ‘Welcome Party,’ a fun activity or event which they attend to get to know their new teammates and coworkers in a casual setting.
For their welcome party, the two new engineers gathered their fellow DMCers and went to Jack’s Pumpkin Pop-Up: quite fitting for spooky season!
The Welcome Party
After chowing down on pizza at the office and learning about the original Stan’s Donuts from Derrick, the crew drove, and some brave souls walked, to Jack’s Pumpkin Pop-Up! The spooky evening began with some terrifying themed drinks (Hocus Pocus punch was the fan favorite).
A big draw of the event were the impressive displays based on popular Halloween movies: such as Hocus Pocus, Scream, and The Nightmare Before Christmas — which made them perfect for plenty of photo ops.
The group also tested their axe throwing skills, won cute prizes playing carnival games, and warmed up cold apple cider donuts under the warming lamps.
“The event was very cool,” Andy said. “Derrick and I were able to smash a couple of plates during the carnival games and won some prizes! We threw some axes, we got to take home some pumpkins, but the maze was the most interesting part.”
As for Derrick, he really enjoyed axe throwing.
“I’d never been before! I also won a stuffed pig from the carnival games, so that was fun,” Derrick said.
The biggest takeaway for both new engineers, aside from the free pumpkins, was the chance to bond with DMCers outside of the office.
“I thought it was nice to talk to other DMCers, especially since I just met them that week [...]," Derrick said. "I thought it was a nice bonding event to have some drinks and play some games with them and talk to them.”
The event also gave Andy the chance to bond with some DMCers he’s now working on projects with.
“It’s nice cause I'm actually working with some of these people now on some of these projects, so it's cool to actually kind of know them as people before working with them," Andy said. "It helps to shed some of the initial awkwardness. It’s just nice to bond and know people as people before they're work people.”
Outside of the welcome party, Derrick and Andy also got the chance to hang out with DMCers.
“I got invited to a weekly trivia night, so I joined a couple of DMC employees for that," Derrick said. "That was really fun!”
Another time, Andy was also invited out after work.
“Me and Blake [Strebel] were working late one night, and we hung out afterwards to grab dinner and drinks where we also met up with Patrick Barrett. It was a cool, spontaneous thing," Andy said. "It’s cool that I already got to hang out with DMCers outside of any work events.”
Settling into DMC
Now that they’ve been introduced to DMC’s Culture and traditions, the new hires are settling into their new offices, roles, and teams. Both cite the onboarding process for creating a smooth transition.
“I can say that the onboarding process at DMC is the smoothest I've gone through in my four different companies I've worked at since college,“ Andy said. “I think [DMC] does a great job partnering new hires with a Technical Advisor [TA]. I thought that was really helpful.”
Andy found his TA, Patrick Smith, to not only be helpful, but a familiar face to bounce project ideas off of.
“On my first project I wrote a python script to add tag descriptions to some tags in the PLC program, and I basically talked through that issue with [Patrick] earlier. I basically adapted the file he showed me and used it as a starting point," Andy said. "It ended up being the thing I used because I just happened to talk to him about this idea. He was my TA during the onboarding process, and it directly translated into increased productivity for me as an employee having a smooth transition into the DMC World.”
Though Derrick’s onboarding process happened virtually, he still walked away with a positive experience.
“It was really nice. I was able to go out to Chicago for one week and meet most of the people I was trained by,” Derrick said. “Even starting in the Seattle office was still very nice because there were activity fund [events] we did — like the corn maze — so, it was a nice, inviting onboarding experience.”
Learn more about DMC’s corporate culture!