Our approach
We're software developers who love business problems
As a developer at Columbia Road, you get to work with a wide variety of different industries and different clients. Being a software development consultant means that you have two skills sets you get to use every day: hands-on software development and consulting.
Always hands-on
Hands on development is involved in every project we do. At Columbia Road, all developers are trusted advisors for our clients, no matter your seniority. Come as you are and learn something new every day. We don't usually have project managers, which means you get to take ownership and responsibility of projects.
Technology is a tool
We are technology agnostic by heart and are not afraid of legacy if it can bring value faster than implementing new technology. All of our developers are open to learn new technologies and consider the variety of technologies we use a huge plus. Most developers are full-stack, with a possible emphasis on either frontend or back-end, or a specific platform.
Solving business problems
We create business impact for our (usually large and well-known) clients, often visible to many consumers or companies. Seeing the impact of your work first-hand, building long partnerships, and measuring and improving services are the bread and butter for Roadies.
Learning with clients
While we offer a multitude of opportunities for learning, client work is the ultimate chance to learn the most. That is simply because most of us spend almost all of our time with clients.
We do our best to find the best match between our client needs with our consultants’ wishes for learning and development. Sometimes it's a new technology, sometimes people skills. What you learn in a project is much defined by how open you are to new adventures and opportunities to take the mental position of an apprentice.
The Roadie community
There is no question, problem, or even a passing thought that would ever go unnoticed if you voice it out. You can rely on the support of a community that goes out of its way to support each other.
You'll have 150+ experts in software development, design and marketing technology ready at your service. In addition, we have a very strong feedback culture that creates a safe environment to push each other forward.
Checkpoints and Mentoring
Checkpoints are our way of getting feedback and planning for professional development. They are not performance reviews and are 100% up to each Roadie to plan. You can choose the person to have the checkpoint with, you can choose the topic and you can choose the method.
A set of Roadies have been educated as Mentors, who have skills and tools to hold supportive, meaningful and inspirational checkpoints. The Mentors will guide you, but you get to choose what kind of discussion is best for you.
Organised learning
We organise monthly Lessons Learned sessions that are focused on sharing stories and learnings that have made a difference at a client. The projects are sometimes straightforward, sometimes challenging. They can be full of quick wins or long term bit-by-bit building. At all times, they are unique learning opportunities.
The developers at Columbia Road also organise weekly or biweekly learning sessions on current and interesting topics. The weeklies are for sharing answers to problems you've discovered, for helping others, for hearing about new development in your field and sometimes for welcoming speakers from other organisations and learning from them.