The Noder Nation handbook

The Noder Culture

You’ve found the secret page. Serendipity, right?

If you’re curious about who the people working at Avinode Group are (a.k.a Noder Nation), this is the place for you. And hopefully, you will fall in love.

There are so many things beyond our control, but our company and the way we work is something that we know we can shape exactly as we want it to be. It’s our little piece of the world that we can make our own.

We want Avinode Group to be something everyone can be part of, and we take pride in who we are, what we do, and how we do it.

Here’s the breakdown.

What Noders are all about

As a whole, we “Noders” are a passionate, sort of goofy, and generally down-to-earth crew. Our open and collaborative work culture empowers every single person to come forward with new ideas and see them to fruition. We care about what we create, have thought it through, and are ready to iterate quickly.

We are proud to say that 80% of the industry uses our technology. But it didn’t get this way by chance. We can trace our success back to the principles we’re driven by:

Curiosity is our constant. We are insatiable question-askers and future-prodders. “How could this be better?” is a question in continuous rotation.

We are doers. We know we learn best by doing. Seeing (the right) things built is our greatest source of satisfaction.

Communication flows freely. Up, down, and sideways communication is how we make the right decisions and move forward swiftly.

Stepping up is second-nature. Noders leave things better than they found them, especially software.

Relationships matter. Everything of value we create ultimately stems from our relationships with each other and our customers.

Work where you work best

Some great work has been done in our offices in Gothenburg and Portland. But some equally good work has been done on sofas, sunbeds, and balconies around the world. We know that productivity is not bound to a specific place, so flexibility to work where you work best is a core principle of ours. You are free to utilize our offices in Gothenburg and Portland as much as you wish of course. But honestly, what’s better than finishing up your workday from the comfort of your own bed? And that’s what Noders are all about. Working from wherever we work best, that is. Not just lying in bed. Not exclusively, at least.

What about time zones?

Yes, time zones exist. And they work in our favor! Because by the time your Swedish colleagues start cracking jokes like “What shoes do ninjas wear? Sneakers!”, you can simply sigh and substitute them for your American colleagues. Or vice versa.

Every day there’s an overlap of a couple hours where all offices are awake. And due to our flexible working hours policy, where some choose to work early and some to work late, there’s always a colleague online somewhere in the world!

But.. How do you communicate with each other?

Being a tech company in the 21st century, we’ve found our ways. Slack is our king, Confluence is our queen and the sporadic e-mail is… Well, much like a joker. It pops up from time to time and you wonder “wow, does anyone actually use this?”. Hint: many do.

What we’re trying to say is that even though we may be further apart geographically, we feel closer than ever. It’s the power of technology, baby.

Decisions, decisions, decision

As you can tell, we’re firm believers that each individual knows what’s best for them. Remote/hybrid working arrangements are great for the most part. Less commute stress, more time with your family, and no real need to wear pants. But there’s one major disadvantage: making all the big decisions yourself. Like what to have for lunch. Previously you’d just tag along with some colleagues and go to a restaurant. Now it’s up to you to decide. And you’re like “I don’t know? Should I order takeout or try my luck in the kitchen?”. We’ve all been there. Decisions, decisions, decisions. To make it easier for you, we asked some Noders for inspiration. Consider your taste buds tickled.

The cuisine of Noder Nation

Mike Andersen
“Pizza delivery on the lazy days. Also pizza, but homemade, the other days.”

Sofia Karlsson
“Rice is very good when you feel like eating two thousand of something”

Alexandra McRae
“A microwaved sweet potato with nice toppings is a real life hack. Quick, simple, and delicious.”

Steve McDonald
“I don’t really eat lunch.”

Keith LaRoy
“I once boiled lasagna sheets and ate them with ketchup. It felt like eating a cooked paperback book. That’s one thing I don’t recommend.”

Marianne Svensson
“I normally eat a boatload of pasta and then feel terrible for the rest of the day. But it’s worth it!”

Ok, so maybe we’re not experts in the culinary arts. But our moms say we have other talents! Moving on.

Work hard, play harder

Although creating industry-changing software with kick-ass features is our specialty and driving force at work, we highly suggest everyone to walk away from the desk and recharge their batteries every now and then. We’re very competitive and social, so anything from intense FIFA games, Pokemon walks, dance battles, indoor golf tournaments to board games and workout sessions in our indoor gym. Some even dedicate time to do a stair sesh going from the entrance floor to our office on the 15th floor, but we can really elaborate on that as we’re struggling to understand why a person would do that willingly. But we love the dedication.

A week dedicated for play.

Every year we decide on a week where we together with our US Noders pause all ongoing BAU duties to investigate new tools and technologies or implement a crazy idea that we would never be asked to do in our day-to-day work. Some ideas actually make it to production, like the project “Dude Where’s My Aircraft?” and “Recent Quotes and Trips”, whereas some just live on in Avinode Group lore. Either way, this is meant to take a break from your usual work to collaborate with Noders on fun, and often non-work related, projects.

Much like a creative mind’s dream.

What you need to know

For well deserved time off.

Life is short. So it should be fulfilling and fun. While a lot of that happens at work, we know realistically that not eeeeverything happens at work and we need time off work to reenergize. Software is our thing, but so is raising a family, tumbling down the Alps and competing in an international quidditch tournament. To help you in your journey to become the next Quidditch gold medalist, we offer a generous amount of each year . Don’t let us down. We believe in you. The sky is the limit. Or should we say, the quality of your broom is the limit. As long as you’re not team Slytherin.

When parenthood is just around the corner.

Just as important as it is for us to recruit new Noders, it’s also important for us to create and raise them, and to do it well! We support the importance to connect with your newborn right from the get-go, and as a Swedish company we have a solid and very necessary policy in place for the new-parent Noders.

Clocking in and out is not our thing.

Even though we enjoy working together we sometimes find it difficult to leave each others side and our goodbyes are often much like the memorable Titanic scene. But in order to have a functioning workplace where we can plan meetings and be available to employees, customers and partners, we have office hours 9-16. Normal working hours are 40 hours per week, but in temporarily high workload due to for example a system maintenance during weekends or in case of late evenings prior to a fair or release. In those situations, suitable arrangement will be made between Noders and their manager.

There are very few things we are against, but discrimination is on top of that list.

To think different we need to be different. We are committed to providing a work environment free of discrimination, we maintain a strict policy prohibiting all types of harassment, including sexual harassment. We strive to achieve equality and diversity in all departments and functions in Avinode Group. People have different experiences, viewpoints and ways of expressing themselves. We love that and therefore want a diversity of backgrounds and beliefs.

On the daily

Good communication is key when you work across multiple time zones. Luckily, Noders are a chatty bunch!. Most of our internal communication happens through Slack – important organizational news and changes, team happenings, events and office communications etc. Once you’ve caught up with the need-to-know stuff, we have more, should we say topic-specific channels. Such as:

#noderpets
The name pretty much says it all. A channel dedicated to our best furiends.

#noderlifephotos
Anything that happens in the life of a Noder can be shared here. It’s the place where we share photos amongst teams and offices, pretty much of anything. No rules, but if there was it would be “photos only”.

#friskvårdstimme
As explained later on, this is where we share healthy habits, activities and challenges related to Friskvårdstimmen.

Dress how you want. Who are we to judge?
We don’t do dress codes. We’re easily impressed and just happy that you show up to work fully dressed.

Snack break, please.
We love food in all its shapes and sizes. Mostly because of the wonderful kick of dopamine it gives us but also because it fuels us to finish off our work. Every Thursday we all gather for Fika and every Friday we serve Swedish candy for everyone to devour. And wow, have we mastered the craft.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term “fika”:

fika
A Swedish word, pronounced feekah. It is when you eat e.g. a sweet cake, cookie or even regular sandwich, normally with some kind of beverage. Preferably coffee or tea, but any form of soda is commonly accepted!

Meetings

Noders at Avinode Group are spread around the globe and even though we work closely on a daily basis, we have some global company-wide meetings for different purposes. Like most companies we of course have department meeting, cross-team meetings and project-specific meetings but there’s two we think are worth mentioning.

Speakers Corner is a weekly global wide meeting for any Noder to present on topics, projects, results, learnings, inspiration and sometimes even personal things the Noder is passionate about.

Town Hall is a monthly Global wide meeting where important updates from the management team are communicating around organizational updates, company and industry news and any other business-related information necessary for all Noders to be informed about.

The reason is that we want some updates to reach all departments and locations at the same time.

Healthy, happy Noders

We hire Noders for one reason – simply because we need them! In their best form. We believe it is important to exercise, not only for the body but also the mind. To take breaks and refresh your mind. So we’ve put together a few initiatives to help us along the way. And if any other ideas pops up in mind, we have our designated Sports Committee ready to take it on. We’re always looking to improve and expand our offers!

Many of us are suffering from the well-known excess energy syndrome and therefore we want Noders to have a lot of options as to where, when and how they choose to exercise. We offer all Noders a healthcare allowance to spend on things such as a gym membership. We know what you’re thinking and the answer is no, Pokémon Gyms do not qualify.

As mentioned, our Sports Committee is always setting up activities and outings to keep us happy and healthy. One highly appreciated and well-used initiative is what we call “friskvårdstimma”, which is 2 h/week during office hours that we can use for personal training activities, whether it’s used for a walk around the area or a Padel session. Simple, but yet so effective.

That's all

All in all, we love what we do. We’re open-minded, laid back and generally easy-going people. Heavy believers in collaboration, open communication and hard work, all made in a fun way.

Don't just take our word for it

Talk to us, because websites are terrible listeners.

Check out our open positions if you’re interested in joining the team or find a friendly-looking Noder on LinkedIn to contact directly for a chat.

We’re a talkative bunch and would love to connect with people who are curious about Avinode Group.