A company's culture pervades everything a company does, and as such our reputation for delivering high quality software comes from the SSW culture. As one of Australia's longest-running .NET consultancies, SSW is mature but flexible, always evolving to include the best cumulative values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs of the employees.

Though culture can be nebulous and changeable, it is a point of pride at SSW that our culture is always underpinned by the following:

"Make it happen"

We work together to provide solutions to problems for our clients every day, and this proactivity happens internally too.

We are effective and make sure our time counts.

We always leave meetings with clear action items and knowing what's expected from everyone.

We use Scrum extensively to help with prioritization and work transparency.

Appreciation

We understand that not everyone communicates and listens the same way, and that what's important to some may not be important to all. However, it is human to want to feel appreciated for our effort, so at SSW we keep this in mind when making an employee feel valued for their work.

See our interview with Kylie Hunt, workplace happiness guru, on the 5 languages of love.

Innovation

Keeping on the cutting edge of technology, we're always looking out for the latest and greatest way of doing everything. We use the latest version of everything, sometime while it’s still in Beta (or even Alpha) stage. Being flexible and able to pivot as required means we’re ready for anything.

Consistency

We have documented all of the best practices we can possibly think of in our Rules to Better 'Everything', and are always trying to make sure we're following and updating them whenever possible. We have also made a number of apps that enforce our coding standards in our work, such as SSW Link Auditor and SSW Code Auditor.

We also have an extensive induction program built on SugarLearning, which ensures we’re all on the same page with regards to our roles, rights, and responsibilities at the company. Each person who undertakes this induction is asked to provide feedback, to make sure the process is as fresh and accurate as possible.

Community involvement

We run multiple user groups including the Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra .NET User Groups, the Brisbane Full Stack User Group and the Fire User Group in Beijing and Hangzhou. We encourage as many of our employees as possible to share their tech passions by speaking at other User Groups and industry events such as Ignite, Build, NDC, etc.

SSW also runs our own TV channel called SSW TV, filled with content on the latest technologies. SSW TV encompasses everything from recordings of presentations and conferences, videos from our training courses, webinars, interviews and more. All content on SSW TV is available to anyone, 100% free, no sign up required.

SSW Retreats

Once or twice a year the SSW guys and their families escape Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to attend SSW Retreats and spend some time together outside the office.

During these getaways, we do a bunch of fun activities together, have a hearty and delicious meal, and take an epic walk someplace beautiful.