The Fubra Blog
New Intern – Youngest Zend Certified Engineer in the World?
Today we welcome Ollie Armstrong to the Fubra PHP developer team. Ollie has just finished his GCSEs, and is joining us on a 6 week placement over the summer holidays before he goes to sixth form college in September. Ollie worked for us during his Year 10 work experience when he was 14, and since then he has been learning PHP in his own time alongside his studies.
Last week he took his PHP 5.3 Zend exam and passed, which now makes him a Zend Certified Engineer. Ollie’s 16th birthday is not until the end of July, so at just 15 years old I think he must be one of the Youngest Zend Engineers in the world. Do you know anyone younger? If so, leave us a comment.
Looking for Graduates
Joe recently posted here about us attending our first Graduate recruitment event at the University of Surrey. We are looking to recruit gradutes for the roles of developer and product manager to expand our team to grow both our network of content sites and continue to deveop our existing products such as CatN.
We have set out our stall at the Graduate fair and, for our first attempt, we’re very pleased. If you’re a student and are thinking of attending the event drop by and have a chat.
Surrey Uni Recruitment Fair
I’m very happy to announce that Fubra will be attending the University of Surrey Summer Recruitment Fair on the 24th May 2011. This event 
provides employers with the opportunity to speak to students in all stages of their studies about potential employment opportunities when they leave Univeristy.
Fubra is on the hunt for content writers, marketing experts, project managers and in particular developers, to help us continue to grow and invest in the future. The only requirements are that they are highly motivated, ready for a challenge, and well suited to our friendly, supportive working environment.
You can find the Fubra stand in the Austin Pearce Building on the University of Surrey campus and we will be available to chat from 2pm to 5.30pm. For the more technically minded we’ll have developer quizes ready for you to rate your skills. Alternatively come and chat to our friendly marketing and content team about the great opportunities in a non-technical role.
Red Nose Day 2011 at Fubra HQ
Red Nose Day 2011 has just passed, and everyone at Fubra decided that we should do something a bit out of the ordinary this year to raise money for this great cause. Ideas came flooding in ranging from a quiz night or all night game-a-thon to a bush tucker trial style buffet for all! We thought long and hard and settled on a few things that everyone could take part in. It turned out some of us were particularly eager to take on a funny task for charity and our well loved graphic designer, Nick Haines, had no hesitations in making the most of his already look-a-like appearance, by offering to dress up as Commander Riker from Star Trek for the day (if we raised enough money of course!) We all agreed this would be funny, but wanted to take it that little bit further, so emptied our pockets for him to dress up as Riker for a whole week rather than just the day.
The costume arrived, and on Monday 14th March, Nick came into work fully prepared (beard trimmed, hair in the style of Riker, facial expression toned and polished) and we handed over the costume, with instructions to make sure it got a lot of exposure. Take a look at the resemblance below. During the week Nick reluctantly willingly took part in the many embarrassing challenges we set for him, including a trip to the bakery and into town. It turned out that people in Aldershot didn’t really bat an eyelid at the fact he was dressed as a Star Trek enthusiast! Read the rest of this entry »
66 words
Fubra started in an attic at 66 Church Lane East, Aldershot a little over 10 years ago. Since then we have undergone a lot of changes, and some things have stayed the same. Over the next ten years I’m determined to learn from our experiences, good and bad, and to apply the little bits of wisdom we have picked up along the way, to our next decade.
Following on from our first decade of trading we find ourselves in an exciting place where we are not just helping to drive our own business growth, but also working closely with start-up companies, and investments we have made, to help them grow too. I’m confident there will be a lot more to learn as we apply what we have already learned, and we are certainly not short of challenges and great ideas.
When I set out to build Fubra, I had something to prove to other people. Some of those people had doubted me, but equally, others had believed in me. However, over time I realised this goal was not making me happy. My Dad, Paul and I have discussed at some length what we would like Fubra to do and stand for.
We have come up with 66 words which represent what we are going to do. What’s nice about them, for me, is that they are based on what we have most enjoyed doing at Fubra, and together I think they represent well, what we have built.
Others might call this a mission statement, but I prefer to call it “66 words”
Embrace change and seek long term growth by building radical, disruptive technologies.
Create excitement for our team, customers and suppliers by valuing curiosity, creativity and ambition.
Respect our customers by listening carefully to them and precisely understanding their needs.
Promote awareness by creating new interfaces for information that was previously difficult to access.
Invest our surplus resources equitably, with long term partners who share our values.
I couldn’t be more excited about having taken the time to think about our goals as a business, and codify them like this. It has taken us time to get round to it, but it’s a great feeling now we are here.