Christmas Jumper Day for Save the Children

A solid effort

And the winner is....Teresa for her homemade jumper which included a real carrot nose on her snowman. Jamie O came 2nd with his flashing lights Christmas pudding jumper. Jamie H won the sweepstake. 

Cake Monday - December 2014

We race (electronically) and the loser has to bake a cake to feed the office. 

Why? Because we like cake.

Who? Everyone in the office. No one gets out of it. When? 1st Monday of the month. The rules: you make the cake yourself, without any help. You can't 'repeat' a cake. Your cake will be judged on presentation, difficulty and taste, and marked out of 10 by each colleague. When you have baked 3 cakes, you are out of the competition for 1 year.

'Chocolate Cake' Jamie O. Having only joined the Company a few weeks prior, this was Jamie's first cake for Cake Monday. He had pre-warned us that he would be 'fitting' the cake into his weekend and that he would be hungover when making it (based on errors of method, I would actually question overall sobriety). So onto the cake, Jamie 'Googled' a recipe that was "fool proof". The cake was made completely by hand (no electrical assistance) and empathy was awarded for the 10 minutes of focused whisking to beat air into the batter. However, what he didn't realise was that the order of the ingredients had been added into the cake mixture incorrectly, which meant for all the whisking undertaken, no air was ever going to be produced, and what should have been a light, fluffy chocolate cake, ended up as a 1 inch high, dense chocolate brownie/cheesecake. 

The Verdict - the cake had a cracking flavour and this was clearly a good solid first attempt at Cake Monday for Jamie. We appreciated the melted chocolate that had gone into the butter icing. However, the density of the cake was such that it felt as if we had eaten 4 slices of cake by the time we had powered through a slice. Considerable jaw effort was required and the singed edges to the cake did not go unnoticed. There was also some disappointment in the lack of Christmas theme - it is the 1st of December after all... If only he had called it 'Chocolate Brownie Cake'.

'Chocolate Cake' Average Score: 6.1

Next time: Katie's culinary and artistic talents are put to the test. 

Cake Monday – November 2014

We race (electronically) and the loser has to bake a cake to feed the office. 

Why? Because we like cake.

Who? Everyone in the office. No one gets out of it. When? 1st Monday of the month. The rules: you make the cake yourself, without any help. You can't 'repeat' a cake. Your cake will be judged on presentation, difficulty and taste, and marked out of 10 by each colleague. When you have baked 3 cakes, you are out of the competition for 1 year.

‘Strawberry Surprise’ by Smritee. After 2 years of getting away with not making a cake this was Smritee’s second cake in 3 months! There were very high expectations for this cake, with Smritee’s ‘Chocolate Cherry Gateaux’ cake currently holding the joint top place on the leader board, and she didn’t disappoint. Following the Cake Monday rules, Smritee went for a completely different cake to her previous one with this delightful strawberry cake but kept with the fruity theme. The recipe itself was complicated, involving a fresh strawberry puree made by Smritee, which was used in both the cake itself and the icing. The sponge was created using two mixtures one with flour and egg yolks that was folded in to a mix of egg white meringue to improve fluffiness. It had a fresh cream and strawberry centre and was covered in strawberry icing, strawberries and sprinkles.

The Verdict: Overall, this cake was loved by all of the Enterprise staff and with no scores below 6, this sprinkled cake cheered up a cold Monday morning. Feedback was that it was a complicated cake which was very well presented but many marks were lost because the icing was a bit runny. The cake was very sweet, which lost a few marks, but made up for it with the members of the team who have a sweet tooth. The pretty pink cake was a hit and has left the team feeling light and fluffy.

Strawberry Surprise Average Score: 7.8. 

Smritee is now on the leader board twice with her only two cakes, go Smritee!

Next time: After only joining the company in October Jamie O will be making his Cake Monday debut in December, we are hoping for a Christmassy theme! 

Fancy a new title?

Check out our 10 featured jobs for November:

New Consultants join Enterprise

We’ve had four new starters recently – Adam J and Callum have joined our software team, while Tom and Jamie O have joined our mechanical and manufacturing team. They come from a variety of backgrounds and all bring something new and individual to the teams. We’re now into the second full week of training and while they are getting to grips with all the technical side of things we have so far concluded that their tea making ability is ok – but could do with more practice, and we’ve yet to test their cake making ability, but it can only be a matter of time……

Cake Monday (on a Thursday) - 9th October

We race (electronically) and the loser has to bake a cake to feed the office. 

Why? Because we like cake.

Who? Everyone in the office. No one gets out of it. When? 1st Monday of the month. The rules: you make the cake yourself, without any help. You can't 'repeat' a cake. Your cake will be judged on presentation, difficulty and taste, and marked out of 10 by each colleague. When you have baked 3 cakes, you are out of the competition for 1 year.

Before we discuss this week's cake, we need to inform you of some shocking news; we have a Cake Monday cheat. Someone's cakes have had to be removed from Cake Monday and its score boards as we have Facebook evidence that they did not make their own cakes. Yes, it's true. Not only did they cheat, but they carried on the lie throughout the weeks that followed! The powers of Facebook. Now, onto more jubilant matters of this month's cake... 

'Snickers Cake' by Rosie. Rosie volunteered for this month's Cake Monday - so extra 'brownie' points there. There had been much talk about whether or not to do a snicker's cake and a fair amount of prior research. The efforts to achieve such a cake also resulted in our first Cake Monday injury. A chocolate sponge was made, a chocolate ganache was made (injury-free thus far), a peanut butter and cream cheese filling was made (still no injury), and then the toffee topping was made. This involved heating sugar to a high heat whilst stirring in cream and butter. A circular template was drawn up so that the molten toffee could be manipulated into a circle to sit on top of the cake. And her next move was Rosie's fatal error, she touched the volcano-hot-toffee. Blister-city is all I'll say. Fortunately, I can tell you that Rosie is ok and was even able to continue with her bake and toffee-fy her walnuts before placing them on top of the cake. 

'The Verdict': a sterling effort from Rosie, no one doubted how much work had gone into this cake, but it did split the camp into those who like peanuts and those who don't. Quotes from the pro-camp included, "loved it - it brought the dream of a snickers cake alive (albeit that it tasted more like a Dime bar)". "I like the mix of flavours, chunkiness and chewiness". "I wasn't expecting those walnuts - they should come with a warning! They're like pork scratchings, but sweet". 

The more negative comments included, "impressed with all the techniques going on, but wasn't a fan of the toppings and the sponge was a little dry". "Too many things going on - every one of them tasted good individually, but not all together". 

And then there were Jamie's comments, "I really didn't like it. It reminded me of sickly popcorn". (Jamie - stop). "I can't believe you are getting all of these high scores". (Jamie - STOP!). "I just didn't like it and...." (Jamie, STOP TALKING!!). 

Snickers Cake Average Score -  7.3 (higher if you exclude Jamie's mark)

Next time: Smritee is back in the kitchen - will she increase upon her already leading score? 

10 Featured Jobs for October

Cake Wednesday - September 2014

We race (electronically) and the loser has to bake a cake to feed the office. 

Why? Because we like cake.

Who? Everyone in the office. No one gets out of it. When? 1st Monday of the month. The rules: you make the cake yourself, without any help. You can't 'repeat' a cake. Your cake will be judged on presentation, difficulty and taste, and marked out of 10 by each colleague. When you have baked 3 cakes, you are out of the competition for 1 year.

'Raspberry Bakewell' by Jamie. Jamie doesn't have the best track record in Cake Monday with a history of producing dry, over-baked fruit-flavoured cakes and here he stood before us having gambled with fruit again. Proclaiming it as a very easy recipe where everything went in a bowl and was then turned out into a tin, Jamie was never going to hit top marks for difficulty. However, he did keep watch over it in the oven this time and had added baking powder to the batter "to make it rise", a tip from Teresa apparently (as it happens, Teresa was referring to a sponge cake requiring height and fluffiness, not a plain-flour-almond-cake such as this, which is designed to be low to the ground). 

The Verdict: the over-riding feedback on this bake was its tardiness. 2 days late was deemed unacceptable & people openly adjusted their scores to reflect their anger at lack of sugar on a Monday morning. The cake itself however, was a triumph for Jamie. A really good cake, that was moist, with a perfect row of raspberries down the centre. Yes it was simple, but it worked. 

Raspberry Bakewell Average Score: 7.5. 

Jamie has made it onto the Leaderboard with his final cake. Whoo-hoo!

Next time: Darren. This will also be Darren's 3rd and final cake for a year, so it's getting tight for those left in the running.

Cake Monday 4th of August 2014

We race (electronically) and the loser has to bake a cake to feed the office. 

Why? Because we like cake.

Who? Everyone in the office. No one gets out of it. When? 1st Monday of the month. The rules: you make the cake yourself, without any help. You can't 'repeat' a cake. Your cake will be judged on presentation, difficulty and taste, and marked out of 10 by each colleague. When you have baked 3 cakes, you are out of the competition for 1 year.

'Chocolate Cherry Gateaux' by Smritee.

Smritee has managed to dodge making a cake since she first joined a whole TWO years ago. Having confessed to never making a cake before, we weren't sure how this cake would turn out. It’s safe to say Smritee exceeded above and beyond our expectations with this deliciously creamy cake. So not to do things by halves, she chose a technically difficult cake to make with three layers of chocolate sponge, 2 different kinds of cream and finally cherries to add even more flavour. The combination was a big hit with the team and some even went back for seconds and declaring it their ‘favourite cake ever’.

The Verdict: 

We had some very high scores for this cake, and generally the verdict was that it was a huge success. The cake looked and tasted beautiful, we felt Smritee had put her heart and soul into this cake and it definitely paid off. Extra points were given for the fluffy texture of the sponge and the creamy chocolate mousse. No one had a bad word to say about this cake. The only negative comments were that some of us didn't like cherries, but these were easy to eat around.

So Smritee came in and blew us all out the water straight away, with her cake being joint top of the leader board!

'Chocolate Cherry Gateaux' Average Score: 8.8 JOINT TOP OF THE LEADER BOARD!

Next time: expectations are low after Jamie's last few baking attempts, we are all hoping he pulls out all the stops for his last cake Monday of the year.

Cake Monday - 7th July 2014

We race (electronically) and the loser has to bake a cake to feed the office. 

Why? because we like cake.

Who? everyone in the office. No one gets out of it. When? 1st Monday of the month. The rules: you make the cake yourself, without any help. You can't 'repeat' a cake. Your cake will be judged on presentation, difficulty and taste, and marked out of 10 by each colleague. When you have baked 3 cakes, you are out of the competition for 1 year.

'World Cup Cake' by Louise. The message driven home with this cake was its expense. 70% posh cocoa chocolate ain't cheap particularly when the Tesco home brand is unavailable. Anyway, back to the cake, chocolate, butter and coffee were melted, flour, eggs and sugar were beaten and added. The missing ingredient of cocoa powder was ignored. A new cake tin was used (further expense) and the cake was watched for an hour and a half. Buttercream, aero balls and a giant chocolate football were then added for presentation. 

The Verdict: positivity all round. No one had a bad word to say about this cake. It couldn't be improved, the only way it could have scored higher points was if it had been a more complicated cake to make. The World Cup theme was appreciated, it was moist yet fluffy and it was full of flavour (posh chocolate rocks). 

Armed with a cake tin and 2 good cakes in the bag, Louise has declared that she likes baking.

'World Cup Cake' Average Score: 8.8 TOP OF THE LEADER BOARD!

Next time: it's taken 21 months for Smritee to finally lose a drinks dash. It better be good...

Semiconductor Jobs - June

A hugely influential player when it comes to semiconductor technology and seen by some as an unchallenged No.1 company in its field, this is a seriously high-tech company and one that has changed the world with its products. Its revenues are growing faster than industry revenues - this is one pioneering company you don't want to miss.

Offering diversity of products & career opportunities, this Cambridge player wants to hire the best of the best and in return will offer you an exceptional benefits package which may include:

Share options, private medical care, life assurance, pension scheme, annual bonus (performance-related), 25 days holiday, flexitime, 4-week paid sabbatical after 4 years' service, on-site gym, restaurant, pool table, and relocation expenses (where appropriate).

These opportunities are largely based in Cambridge (but locations outside of this city are shown below) to give you a flavour as to the type of roles available with this firm. However, this list is not exhaustive and we have many more vacancies with this Company as well as other organisations. All vacancies can be found on our website www.enterpriserecruitment.com. Alternatively, ring to speak to one of our consultants on 01442 874 884.

Hardware Roles:Project Manager - Yorkshire
SOC Verification Engineer - South Yorkshire
Hardware Design Engineers - Yorkshire
Senior Implementation Engineer - Cambridge
Senior Verification Engineers - Cambridge
Project Manager - Cambridge
Senior DFT Engineer - Cambridge
Senior Project Manager - Cambridge
Electronics/FPGA Support Engineer - Cambridge
Product Manager - Cambridge

Software Roles in Cambridge:Compiler Engineer
Tools & Infrastructure Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer
Linux Software Engineer
RTOS Embedded Software Engineer
Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer
Embedded Software Engineer - Boot Time Drivers
Embedded Software Manager

Cake Monday - 2nd June 2014

We race (electronically) and the loser has to bake a cake to feed the office. 

Why? because we like cake.

Who? everyone in the office. No one gets out of it. When? 1st Monday of the month. The rules: you make the cake yourself, without any help. You can't 'repeat' a cake. Your cake will be judged on presentation, difficulty and taste, and marked out of 10 by each colleague. When you have baked 3 cakes, you are out of the competition for 1 year.

'Double Chocolate Sponge' cake by Darren. This ended up being Darren's back-up cake due to his first idea not working out. His aim was for this cake to look better than his last cake and as a result he was at that oven door watching his cake rise to ensure it didn't crack. What he would have done if it had cracked we don't know, but good to know he was watching it. By his own admission, this was a straightforward cake to make (cue an immediate drop of points in terms of 'technical difficulty') and that his original cake planned was a Banoffee Sponge (cue further groans of disappointment). Still, this chocolate cake did look good. 

The Verdict - well executed & a moist sponge, but the office was divided when it came down to taste; some colleagues thought he could have made more of the filling by substituting it for cream or buttercream. Others really liked the topping and filling and appreciated the mix of chocolate decoration. For some though, the sponge wasn't flavoursome enough and they didn't experience the 'wow factor', whereas others loved it, and said it was exactly their kind of cake. 

'Double Chocolate Sponge' Average Score: 7.6

A credible score, but it doesn't increase his existing position on the Leader Board. Next time: Louise is back in the kitchen.

10 Featured Jobs - June

Click on the image to find out more about these roles. More job vacancies are listed on our website:

Cake Monday: 6th of May

We race (electronically) and the loser has to bake a cake to feed the office. 

Why? because we like cake.

Who? everyone in the office. No one gets out of it. When? 1st Monday of the month. The rules: you make the cake yourself, without any help. You can't 'repeat' a cake. Your cake will be judged on presentation, difficulty and taste, and marked out of 10 by each colleague. When you have baked 3 cakes, you are out of the competition for 1 year.


'Berkhamsted Mud Pie' by Andrew. This is Andrew's 2nd cake submission to Cake Monday, with his first, he hit the top of the Leader Board which was impressive enough, even more so considering it was his first ever cake bake. The pressure was on. He borrowed cake books and even did a dry run of a cake (which was rank apparently). In terms of method, Andrew's details were very limited making us all very suspicious that he was hiding something. "Squashing it all in the tin" was about as much as we got. 

The Verdict - we loved it. Definitely a favourite cake, one that we would happily pay money for. It was very tasty, very rich (which made it difficult to finish the enormous pieces and when you did reach the other side, you felt sick until lunchtime). Its texture was a bit like a dense chocolate cheesecake. A couple of people had some singed edges, and if smaller pieces had been dished up, he might have got away with people not labouring on about how rich it was to eat. That said, Andrew received Cake Monday's first ever 10/10 - TWICE! (and it was only revealed in the curry house later that night, the truth about what really happened when he baked this cake).

'Berkhamsted Mud Pie' Average Score: 8.4

Next time: Darren's up. Can he break into 8s this time on the scoreboard...

10 Featured Jobs for May

Mud Run - WE DID IT!!!

THE COURSE: Warrior adrenaline race (W.A.R.)

We entered 2 teams and have lots of photographic evidence which can be viewed at:
https://www.facebook.com/EnterpriseRecruitmentLtd

We did it as a team which meant dragging a log around the Course with us!

Have you got what it takes to complete the W.A.R? The obstacles:

• 1. Barbed Wire Crawl
• 2. Giant steps
• 3. Artic Camo Crawl
• 4. Sheer Ladders
• 5. Pyramid Drop
• 6. Balance Beams
• 7. Zip Wire
• 8. Log Loader
• 9. Barbed Wire Crawl

• 10. Spiders Web
• 11. Regiment Hill
• 12. Bison Hill
• 13. Balance Beams
• 14. Rope Ramp
• 15. Balance Beam
• 16. Muddy Tunnels
• 17. Monkey Bars
• 18. See Saw

• 19. Cargo Net
• 20. Tyre Maze
• 21. Fireman’s Pole
• 22. Dip Tank
• 23. Water Slide
• 24. Wall
• 25. New obstacle

19 hours to go until we start the Warrior Adrenaline Race!

There's been many injuries and pulling out of team members since we first registered ourselves for this mud run, but as it stands the Berko Ninjas will go against the Berko Beserkers tomorrow at the Warrior Adrenaline Race on Dunstable Downs. A 5km assault course of challenging obstacles in the mud (and rain by the looks of things). Did I mention the 20 kilo log that each team has to carry/drag round the course? Photos will be uploaded here next week....

Aerospace Jobs – Buckinghamshire - April ’14

Actively hiring top scientists and engineers, if you are an engineer wanting to be a part of the full life cycle of a product, this could well be the €billion company for you!  This company designs, manufactures, tests and integrates its own products (such as motors, power control, actuators and generator systems) into the latest ‘all electric’ commercial & military aircraft; you could be travelling on one of their aeroplanes the next time you fly off to a sunnier climate!

You will receive great training and development, a good set of benefits and the chance to work closely with other departments on the full product life cycle in their large open-plan office environment. Modern facilities and strong progression opportunities make this an exciting place to work.

View the job vacancies here:
http://www.enterpriserecruitment.com/job/deputy-operations-manager-jobid-8998es1
http://www.enterpriserecruitment.com/job/manufacturing-team-leader-jobid-9075es
http://www.enterpriserecruitment.com/job/test-engineer-jobid-9157es
http://www.enterpriserecruitment.com/job/reliability-and-maintainability-engineer-jobid-8924es1
http://www.enterpriserecruitment.com/job/emc-test-engineer-jobid-er9179ag
http://www.enterpriserecruitment.com/job/mechanical-design-engineer-jobid-er8923ag
http://www.enterpriserecruitment.com/job/senior-electronics-design-engineer-jobid-9132dh

http://www.enterpriserecruitment.com/job/senior-electro-mechanical-engineer-jobid-9131dh

Katie Scott joins Enterprise Recruitment

Katie joins us from a London based consultancy where she worked closely with her clients and developed excellent customer service skills. She has joined Adam’s team where she is specialising in mechanical and manufacturing roles for a wide range of applications. She brings a fresh approach and is looking to develop close client and candidate relationships. Not sure of her cake making skills yet – will have to put her to the test soon.

Cake Monday 7th of April

We race (electronically) and the loser has to bake a cake to feed the office. 

Why? because we like cake.

Who? everyone in the office. No one gets out of it. When? 1st Monday of the month. The rules: you make the cake yourself, without any help. You can't 'repeat' a cake. Your cake will be judged on presentation, difficulty and taste, and marked out of 10 by each colleague. When you have baked 3 cakes, you are out of the competition for 1 year.

“Pancake Chocolate Chip Cake” by Jamie. Self described by Jamie as “the easiest one he could make,” this Chocolate Chip sponge originally was not intended to feature “Pancake” in the title. After a first attempt that didn't rise, and a second that didn't rise much more, Jamie concluded that it was a combination of lack of ‘air’ and a confusion with the oven temperature that led to his ultimate downfall. The sponge was made of your standard ingredients – eggs, flour, sugar – with some generous helpings of chocolate chips to give that extra bit of pizzazz. Jamie did admit that the cake could have been a bit more substantial if he’d stuck the trial one on top with some icing - but he and his family already ate that last night.

The Verdict: The general consensus within the office was that the cake tasted “alright.” Top scores came from Nils and Louise who especially enjoyed the thick, chocolatey flavouring. The fact that Jamie made a second cake after the first fell through was also duly noted. Criticisms came with confusion about what the cake was actually supposed to taste like. Descriptions of it being a Shortbread-like-sponge were thrown about and Ellie couldn’t finish her piece as the chewy texture “made her jaw hurt.”

Pancake Chocolate Chip Cake Average Score: 5.8

Next time:  Andrew. Andrew’s last Cake Monday was the first cake he had ever made alone. He now faces the dilemma of knowing no other recipes, but as a rule, no cake can be done twice. Andrew’s baking skills really will be put to the test next month.

17 months later, and Smritee has still never lost the drinks dash and been forced to make a cake. 

                                               

The Grand National Sweepstake

The race is on. 40 horses and 3 prizes to be won. Last year George cleaned up - she intends to do the same again this year..

The sweetener is that it's 'Cake Monday' on Monday so those who arrive on Monday morning having lost will at least eat cake.

The Watford Gap

It's like the North/South divide in the office nowadays. Due to team growth (that's number-wise, not girth-wise), we've had to rearrange desks and a natural team divide has occurred. I say natural, some simply refer to it as the glorious "A Team" and the "B Team". So, does a six-inch gap between two teams of desks really create a psychological divide between people? Discuss..

10 Featured Jobs for April

Click on the image to access further information on each vacancy:

Cake Target Friday

Waitrose is doing well out of us, 3 weeks on the trot we've hit target and bought up their fresh cakes counter. Their staff now know Nils (and his weekly question, 'do you have any custard tarts??'). One day, he will discover the custard tarts aisle. In the meantime, bring on the cheesecakes. 

A sight we never thought we'd see

Adam dealing with office admin

Latest Hardware Job Vacancies

Enterprise attends school Careers Day

Enterprise Recruitment was invited to speak to Year 12 students at a local Secondary School as part of their 'Careers Day'. The Talk was to arm 16 & 17 year olds with some advice and pointers when it comes to tackling today's employment market & how we can potentially help them when they finish school & university. This is the 3rd school Enterprise Recruitment has presented to this year and we look forward to maintaining those links as we move towards the forthcoming academic year.

Work Ski Trip March 2014 - Morillon, France

Half the team can ski and half the team can't. Day 1: Nursery slope tuition for the beginners whilst the experienced skiers hit the mountains.

On the travelator - before or after he serrated his arms on the slope?!

Heading to the bar

Turning and snow plough fathomed, a few large beers before heading to the slopes

Selfie

After 2 hours of tuition, the experienced skiers freak out the beginners by taking them out of Nursery and down a slope. Two of us hate heights and one of us had just narrowly missed being swiped by the chair lift at the top here, none of which boded well for traversing a Blue steep bit (technical term).

TURN!!

Day 2: Man vs Food

A brilliant weekend skiing. Here's to hitting the Winter Target so that we can go again next year!