Update: It’s Improving!

Happy Valentines Day! Today is the end of the 10 day contest that was kicked off on Super Bowl Sunday. If you haven’t guessed yet… today is your last day to enter! Also, if you have made multiple guesses… right now is the time to “lock in” your vote.

 

Contest Recap – Read the “rules and details here”
(note: Today’s Hints are at the very end of this post)

Hint #1

I am working for a company that is headquartered in Dallas, TX

Hint # 2

The company is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner.

Hint #3

If you search for “creating solutions mentoring” on Live.com they show up in the search results, but if you ask Google, “where does Caleb Jenkins work now?” they don’t.

Hint # 4

One of the founders of the company is a Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA)

Hint # 5

One of the founders of the company is speaking at one of the upcoming Vista / Office 2007 Launches.

Hint # 6

As I said before, the new company is a Microsoft Gold Partner. I’ll add to that that they specialize in promoting agile methodologies, object oriented analysis and design (strong Java background) in .NET through training and mentoring development teams. They have a Microsoft Gold competency recognition for Learning Solutions and for SharePoint (Office Productivity)… in short they are a CPLS.

Hint # 7

They are a training company (above), but they don’t believe in training. Here’s the thing, if you go to a traditional class, as soon as you leave the class you just lost 50% of what the instructor said. With this new company, we focus on a mixture of traditional learning combined with a project mentor for effective knowledge transfer.

Hint # 8

A guy named Sean works there. More people work there, but that might give too much away.

Hint # 9

They believe that a company’s people are its most valuable asset and are happy to work themselves out of a job wherever they go – in other words… the role of true consultants.

Hint # 10

I work with a couple of SCRUM masters… it’s cool to see a company run (not just a project) using SCRUM techniques. Every day we have a SCRUM meeting. Once a month, there is a sprint planning meeting. It’s very flat and organic, yet effective and efficient!

Hint # 11

Oh yeah, Todd works there too.

Hint #12

The founders of the company met when they worked at Object Space (back in the day).

Hint #13

I might be lying in this blog post title… maybe.

Hint #14

As I mentioned before, the company specializes in mentoring and training. They also do consulting, Microsoft technology briefings and seminars. Why is mentoring so important? For a couple of reasons. It’s been said that when you take a traditional training class, as soon as you leave the class room, you loose around 50% of the content that was just explained. Also, traditional training can help give you knowledge, but only doing the work with a strong mentor can truly pass on the skills. INMO

Hint #15

Someone named Jef works there.

Hint # 16

After yesterday’s hints, someone pointed out to me that I’ve only mentioned some guys that work here. So here you go, a person named Rachel works here as well.

Hint # 17

When you think of someone that can help your team improve their business, you should think of us. We have a slogan, and it could be re-worded “Making things better, that’s how we roll.”

And finally… Today’s Hints:

Hint # 18

No one in the company has a title on their business cards… instead each person has a favorite quote and or tag cloud that represents that person’s unique role and personality.

Hint # 19

Their website does not use any tables for layout. They use clean CSS the way that it should be used. Use the IE Developer Toolbar to check out Tables vs Div on websites that you visit. Yeah!

Hint #20 (Bonus Hint)

Their initials are the same as the browser that you should be running! 😉

Final entries begin now – Happy Hunting!