Loading...As an eager promoter of IT excellence, Pentalog encourages the practice of IT knowledge sharing and continuous learning. Our resourceful Pentaguys are thirsty for knowledge and are always asking questions while at the same time being eager to share their knowledge with others. For all topics, knowledge sharing is one of the keys of the learning process. Hearing about a topic of interest, approaching it, discussing it with other colleagues and specialists in the field, and finally preaching about it is a great way to learn about and develop a topic of interest.One of our core knowledge sharing traditions is the PentaBAR event, a regularly scheduled afterwork meetup organized by the Pentalog Brasov delivery center since May 2016. The main idea behind the PentaBAR is to start a discussion focused on a recent innovation or QA / DevOps topic during an informal gathering, where everybody from the IT community is welcome to interact in a warm and relaxed atmosphere. The free food and beer is pretty cool too.
What our event speakers have to say…“The name itself says it all: an informal atmosphere where everybody feels free to interact and share ideas. It’s something quite magical. A mixed audience and a common goal: engage in a constructive exchange on IT topics of interest. For us, as Pentaguys, the PentaBAR is a great opportunity to share our own experience with others. For external participants, it is a chance to directly interact with our mindset. We use failure to learn and capitalize on our own experience and focus on how we can prevent rather than correct. As a speaker, I was pleased to see that people were familiar with agile notions and that they also apply agility in their everyday life, even outside the IT community. There is a whole agile culture that people feel attracted to and many people “hunt” for these types of events to confirm their theories, exchange on a particular topic or learn more about what they love.” (Vasile Putina, Agile coach at Pentalog and speaker at PentaBAR #13 // Early Signs of a Scrum Team Fiasco)What participants would like to add…“PentaBAR is one of the places where you come to validate your knowledge and hear about new ideas. From a participant’s point of view, I think PentaBAR is a great place to discover new technologies and people that do the same thing as you do and that are passionate about the same things you are. On the other hand, PentaBAR is also the place where you can evolve, contain your emotions and fears, present things and information that you find amazing and worth sharing with others. From a presenter’s point of view, you discover an audience genuinely interested in what you have to say/show.” (Ionut, PHP developer)“Awesome experience: free beer, free food, interesting topics, you are relaxed, can invite anyone you want, and learn new things. What’s not to like?” (Sebastian, tester)“A place where everybody can speak freely and share his experience on the chosen topic. Feels very much like a debate.” (Razvan, tester)“I love knowledge. Knowledge grows skills and skills grow knowledge. People with skills or knowledge need to have a group to share them with, a community with similar values. People who want to learn or need to know more should have people to reach out to for guidance. Nothing connects people and adults more than live interactions and freedom of speech. I am positive that the PentaBAR phenomenon will touch the soul of Romanian IT guys and that this knowledge sharing community will triple its number of attendees.” (Adina, DevOps engineer)“It’s a new, original event. A fresh experience in the IT field combining science with socialization. A balance between learning about new things and spending time with quality people.” (Andrada, software developer)Ask for a quoteAnd how recruiters feel…“I think it’s a really great idea to create a place where IT professionals with different specializations, students or people who want to change their activity can meet and exchange ideas, help each other by giving advice and share best practices. It’s a great way to stay up to date with the latest technologies and even make friends.” (Teodora, IT recruitment consultant at SkillValue)
The story of an entrepreneur “converted” after attending the PentaBAR
As an entrepreneur in the real estate business and a software developer with a 12-year experience in Brasov, Vlad was (and is still) passionate about agility and the agile mindset. He used to apply his agile knowledge outside the IT world to grow his family business. He attended one of our PentaBAR events and decided to stay 🙂 Here’s what he has to say:1. How did you hear about the PentaBAR?I heard about the PentaBAR from Dan Avram, the organizer and manager of the Pentalog Brasov delivery center, who invited me to this event a long time ago. I followed Dan’s LinkedIn posts on the topic and finally decided to accept his invitation.2. What do you think about the first PentaBAR event you attended? (atmosphere, topics, technical level, presented information, etc.)I first attended Vasile’s presentation on identifying the early signs of a Scrum Team fiasco that I found to be very interesting. The information presented was backed by many practical examples from the speaker’s own experience in real-life projects. There was also a Q&A session and the entire event enjoyed a very relaxed atmosphere.3. With what state of mind did you leave your first PentaBAR event?First of all, with the desire to come back. Secondly, with some possible ideas to apply to my personal life, but also with some contacts to keep in touch with and to ask questions to. Thirdly, I really appreciated how the event was organized and the “course material” (aka the beer and snacks) 🙂4. What determined you to join our team? Had you heard about Pentalog before attending the event? I had definitely heard about Pentalog before and I was flirting with the idea of joining your team. PentaBAR was the perfect excuse to get here and see how things worked from the inside. Also, during the discussions on agility, I had the opportunity to learn more about Pentalog through the questions I asked. This is how I learned about (some of) the team roles, project organization, the challenges and obstacles they were confronted with.5. As an external participant and now a team member, what do you think that the PentaBAR events have done for the Brasov IT community and Pentalog’s delivery center teams?I personally consider that the PentaBAR events are great for the IT community in Brasov, mainly thanks to the proposed discussion topics. There is a topic for every taste and I was pleasantly surprised to meet friends or former colleagues working for other companies in Brasov at these events. My office is also near the place where the events are held and I can say that I’ve seen people interested and often actively involved in the debates. In fact, debates are sometimes so intense that participants stay late into the night, which would not happen if the events weren’t interesting and captivating.6. What would you say to those interested in attending PentaBAR events?It’s simple: come and see for yourselves! You’ll have the chance to meet people as passionate as you are about the latest technologies, eager to learn and who prove that an IT job can be interesting and challenging but also fun. And who knows… this may also be a new step in your career, as it was for me ;)Vlad is currently working in our Pentalog Brasov delivery center as a project manager and Kanban master, doing what he loves most :)PentaBAR is such a rewarding event that our colleagues in Cluj started organizing PentaBar events as well. They already had their 2nd event which was focused on stackoverflow.com.Don’t miss our next PentaBAR #18 edition // Apache Sling & Oak – Accessing the Next Generation JSR on April 20! Our special guest will be Miklós Csere, Software Engineer and Barcelona JUG Member.
The beer is on us 😉
