Just one week into my new job and I was already being taken out for an exciting evening in Chicago’s west loop to bond with my new co-workers and get to know the DMC team.
This night of entertainment was dedicated to a welcome party for new hires Gabby, Paige and myself. It might not be typical, but at DMC, a welcome party is thrown for every new employee. Gabby, Paige, and I decided to combine our welcome parties for a fun evening at the WNDR Museum with food and drinks afterward.
The WNDR Museum (pronounced “wonder”) was full of artistic, interactive exhibits that invite you to touch and explore. Exhibits included musical showers that played a song based on the buttons you pressed, a room where lights on the floor followed your every step, and a room of wall-to-wall mirrors that reflected each other into infinity. If there was ever a place to go for an interesting Instagram pic, it’s here.
Many people’s favorite exhibit was one where water-sensitive panels on the wall enabled painting with water. Everyone was handed a brush and given a small area to unleash their creativity on.
My personal favorite display was a huge wall made up of small discs, each about the size of a quarter. These discs flipped between black and white sides to reflect the shape and movements of any people walking in front of them. Every time a disc flipped, it made a "clicking" noise, and with hundreds of discs, this wall definitely drew everyone’s attention! Working at an engineering company, my co-workers and I, of course, had to stop to figure out how it worked. I even heard a couple of people wondering out loud about how we could build this in our office.
My experience at the WNDR Museum had a lot of parallels to my experience so far at DMC. I encountered a lot of new things I had never seen before, and everyone else was happy to try and figure them out with me. Of course, we were all equally clueless going into the WNDR museum, which made for a nice change from my last couple weeks of asking more experienced engineers a mountain of questions! Everyone at DMC is as happy to answer my newbie questions as they were to figure out how the wall of flipping discs worked together.
After a surprisingly short trip through the museum and a quick gift shop browse, we headed to our final destination: The Press Room.
The Press Room has a cozy atmosphere and tasty cocktails, which made for the perfect setting for me to get to know some of my new coworkers. Talking outside of the context of the office and snacking was a great way to end a great night. After a group toast to all of us new hires, I left feeling welcomed by everyone at DMC and excited for the next after-work event!
Learn more about DMC's company culture and check out our open positions to join our team.