I can’t say this enough…CodeScientists LOVE costumes! And nothing says costume time like Halloween. Sure, plenty of brick and mortar companies host a Halloween event, but throwing a remote group Halloween costume contest? Yikes! Talk about challenging. Who’s up for the challenge? We are!
Now, this isn’t our first time celebrating Halloween. As seen here and here, we do it up right. This year though, we grew…a lot…and we wanted to find a way to incorporate as many of our folks into the festivities while also fostering some cross-team collaboration. And thus, the group Halloween costume event was born!
First, we announced the event and the categories on our weekly All Hands call and encouraged people to group up and start collaborating! The categories were:
Next, our groups created Slack channels to collaborate and used Zoom to check in, host dress rehearsals, and plan their strategy for costume submissions! Prepared to be wowed. Because I am ridiculously impatient, I immediately began pestering folks for behind the scenes details. While no one cracked and revealed their costumes, I did get some visibility into the process.
From our recruiter, Karen, on how they decided on a team and theme:
“The concept came as we all mused on our unique skills and experiences that bring us together as a team everyday at CodeScience. Ellie, our BA extraordinaire, coined the term Karen’s Killer Krew as she opened a Slack channel for us to collaborate in between meetings. It was there an idea was born — that, plus a little searching through PInterest, and we were on the hunt!”
And this is what they came up with…
Karen is a headhunter! The team members are her trophies! One of these costumes was even 3-D printed!
Finally, on the 31st, we created a company-wide Slack channel to host the costume contest and provided “rules” for submitting entries. Each and every costume post kicked off conversations and enthusiastic support. At the end of the day, we opened up company-wide voting to choose the best costume(s) for each category.
And the winner’s are…
I love CodeScience, these crazy, creative CodeScientists, and, of course, Halloween. And it isn’t just me, here are a few quotes gathered through this process from the CodeScience team:
“It was nice that everyone was from different areas of the company, and we did a great job collaborating on who was going to be what so we all would be unique.” Bryan
“I think it’s a great example of how all teams work at CS. No matter what the end goal is — a discovery, a product launch, or just bragging rights for the best Halloween costumes — teams at CS approach every project with the same enthusiasm and curiosity.” Nick
“On this team, we’re all united in a common goal: to win the Grand Champion or Most Inappropriate/Disturbing Costumes.” Mamtha
“We came together and worked together seamlessly, even though we were (purposely) a diverse group from different functional areas.” Jason
“I must say, never been so excited about Halloween…since I was a kid!” Paul
“I’m glad it’s a group costume contest. Otherwise, you would have gotten some ears and that’s about it.” Gilda
So tell me, how do you feel about Halloween, costumes, and an amazing culture with an emphasis on fun? Cause if you’re in the market for a sweet new gig, you should check out our openings here.
