It’s not all work and no play around DISTek. Last Friday, we were fortunate enough to take advantage of one of the last hurrahs of summer and get out over the lunch hour to enjoy the beautiful weather. Our on-site team organized a lunchtime picnic-style grill out and all DISTekians in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area were invited to attend and partake in team-building camaraderie and delicious food.
As an engineering services company, what are the keys to DISTek’s future success? We believe it’s: 1) hiring and developing top notch engineers, 2) a best place to work culture, and 3) great leadership. With “great leadership” in mind, we recently established DISTek U and kicked off our first leadership track (DISTek U 101: Potential Leads).
Just recently I was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation for ten years of excellent service and valuable contributions to DISTek Integration. Needless to say, I’m quite thankful and happy to have been involved with DISTek for the past ten years. Wow! I’ve been employed here for ten years? It sure doesn’t feel like ten years. Maybe that’s partly because since December of 2014, I, like many others at DISTek, became employee owners, after DISTek founder Matt Dickinson decided to share a part of his company with his employees by forming an ESOP – an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. That’s right, DISTek is employee owned.
I’m not sure when…
♫It’s the most wonderful time of the year♫…..DISTek continues the tradition of giving back:
Once again this year, as in previous years, the DISTek Cedar Falls office adopted two families from the Waterloo school district to help make their Christmas a little extra special. We received a wish list from each of the families and shared these with DISTek Elves (employees) who set about fulfilling everything (and even some extra items) on their lists. As usual, Elves were very generous…
The Present – Part 2
In the last phase of DISTek’s 25 years, we expanded our engineering services again. The concept of model-based software development (MBSD) had been in use for a few years at several of our off-highway customers and we had gained experience with it. But as we surveyed the market landscape……..
DISTek has been encouraging youth in STEM and problem solving by sponsoring FIRST teams for many years. This year is no different. DISTek is sponsoring ten FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams and eight FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams. We will also be sponsoring FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams when their season officially kicks off in January. In addition, we have ten DISTek team members that have committed their time to either coach or mentor teams.
Happy Halloween! Today was no exception from year’s past. In keeping with tradition, we once again held our annual Halloween costume contest today at noon.
DISTek’s employees aren’t just all work and no play. We frequently do a variety of different activities after hours. Let me tell you how I got into some of the after hours activities almost instantly after I started working at DISTek, including how I implemented Board Game Night, as well as my thoughts on the LAN Party, which was my first interaction with the DISTek Activities’ Group.
On a gorgeous evening, after work, employees gathered in the back lot of the DISTek Cedar Falls office, while Jeff donned his apron and manned the grill. Employees were treated to brats, burgers, sides, and beverages, while at the same time getting the chance to bolster camaraderie with their fellow DISTekians.
The Present – Part 1
The 2000s were a tumultuous decade, bookended on the front end by the dotcom bubble bursting, Enron collapsing with Arthur Anderson, and the September 11th attacks, and on the backend with the financial crisis and the great recession. In the world of technology, we saw the quick spread of broadband internet and the broad adoption first of cell phones and PDAs before the two merged by the end of the decade into the smartphone. The internet seemed to get its legs in this decade with the advent of such tools as Google Maps, Wikipedia, YouTube, and social media.
When DISTek began its 25th year in business back in March, we knew we wanted to celebrate this rather significant milestone, maybe have a party, take in a ball game, go out to dinner, or have a family picnic. 25 years ago, any of these ideas would have been possible with not much more effort than calling the wife, locking up the office, and heading uptown. Ah, the simpler times of yesteryear!
