That’s why we’re proud to announce today the opening of the Box OneCloud pavilion here at BoxHQ—it’s like our very own version of the Apple Genius Bar, but meant to showcase our best OneCloud partner apps, across a variety of categories: taking notes, showing presentations, e-signing, to name a few. It’s also a chance to get hands-on with some of the latest mobile hardware. Given that Box supports all major mobile platforms and that we have so many cool partners in the device space, the OneCloud pavilion has something for everyone: the latest iPads, a Windows Surface and the yet to be released, but waterproof Sony Xperia Z. Finally, and just because we could, it also has enough ambient lighting and optical flare to make J.J. Abrams swoon. Step inside, and it’s like you’re on the deck of the Starship Mobile Enterprise, ready to take your productivity to warp speed.

With so many thousands of business apps out there, across so many platforms, it’s tough to find the one that’s right for you. At the end of the day, finding the right app is a personal decision, deeply steeped in your organizational vision of what will work for you. As long as the apps are interoperable with the business content you truly care about, picking them shouldn’t be an exercise in assimilation. So that’s why we built the OneCloud pavilion. For our customers, it means we’ll help you find, try and deploy the best integrated apps that fit your needs. Apps that will truly let you do more, from anywhere. For our OneCloud partners, it means we’ll keep on helping you place your apps in the right hands. Better yet, we’ll have you come over so that you can demo them yourselves. Because we live it.

So next time you visit, drop by the OneCloud pavilion over here at Box HQ. We’ll take you boldly where no enterprise software company has taken you before.

We’ve just finished our Northeastern swing on the Box World Tour (and dodged a big snowstorm, to boot– stay warm and safe, East Coasters!), and we wanted to reach out and thank all the amazing speakers and attendees who made both of this week’s events so special. We hope you had as good a time as we did!

For those who couldn’t make it, a couple of highlights:

In New York, our co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie gave a talk on where Box is headed in 2013, and the exciting new expansions we’re planning. Our Director of Product discussed the business and product roadmap and encouraged attendees to sign up for beta testing and give feedback, and we offered special classes on how Box relates to two of New York’s biggest industries: media and finance. Michel Sergio, EVP/Director of Worldwide Client Operations at MRM Worldwide, ended the day with a great customer keynote.

Two days later, we were back on stage in Boston. This time, our Enterprise General Manager Whitney Bouck took the stage to share Box’s big 2013 plans, and we also offered special discussions for two of Massachusetts’ top industries: the legal industry and healthcare and insurance. Our talks focused on how Box’s great security features can help assuage users’ concerns in fields where privacy is paramount.

The Box Women’s Network was formed in May 2012 as a forum for leadership development and networking opportunities for women and men at Box. The BWN committee organizes external events along with monthly internal workshops to encourage individuals at Box to sharpen their skills and meet others outside their departments. The kickoff BWN event held earlier this year featured some of Box’s own prominent leaders: Whitney Bouck, Enterprise General Manager; Karen Appleton, VP of Business Development; Lesley Young, VP of Corporate Sales; and Jen Grant, VP of Marketing.

Workshops in the past have focused on activities such as defining personal mission statements and completing Myers-Briggs personality assessments. This time around, more than 140 attendees gathered at the Circus Club in Atherton to hear from Dana Evan, Heidi Roizen, Stacey Bishop and Rebecca Lynn. Each of these accomplished women has served on a board of directors in her past and present, often being the only female member.

Over wine and hors d’oeuvres, these women shared insights, fun personal stories and lessons learned on their journey to serving on the board. Here’s a quick overview of the speakers along with memorable quotes from the Box’s Women of the Board:

Dana Evan is on the board of directors at Box, SurveyMonkey, Proofpoint, Second Life, Fusion IO, Everyday Health and Health Trust. Dana was formerly the Chief Financial Officer at Verisign.

• On networking and building professional relationships: “Business in personal!”
• On balancing work and home life: “I tried very hard to be where I was – present in the moment”

Heidi Roizen is a Venture Partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson and a board member of TiVo, TrustedID, ShareThis, XTime and Prysm, Inc. Heidi was formerly VP of Worldwide Developer Relations at Apple and a Managing Director for Mobius Venture Capital.

• On starting your career: “Put yourself out there, yet start small.”
• On balance: “Be selfish with your time. Recognize your own patterns and create a sustainable lifestyle.”

Stacey Bishop is a Managing Director at Scale Venture Partners and currently serving on the board of Vitrue and NComputing. Stacey also works closely with Scale VP portfolio companies Box, DocuSign and Hubspot.

Rebecca Lynn is a Venture Partner at Morgenthaler Ventures and serves on the boards of Lending Club, Pageonce and Socrata. Rebecca was formally VP of Marketing for Next Card and led product development for Proctor and Gamble.

• On transitioning to management: “Pick three things that you have to do everyday, and don’t care about the rest”

For more photos of the event, check out the album on our Facebook page. It was a great night, and I can’t wait until our next event! For updates about what’s coming up next for the Box Women’s Network, follow us on Twitter.

The Food

You can get just about anything your taste buds crave in San Francisco. World-renowned restaurants? Check. Vegan baked goods? Check. A Creme Brulee cart? We have that, too! Seriously, the sky – or rather, the size of your stomach – is the limit when it comes to dining is SF, so feel free to get adventurous when you head to the bay this October. For some great Mexican eats, head down to 24th street in the Mission and try La Palma (great burritos!), or make the trek to Colibri for more upscale fare. If you’re looking for something a little different, check out Suppenküche – this German restaurant has amazing food and beer steins bigger than your head, and it’s one of my favorite places to take friends in the city. Even if you don’t venture away from downtown, we’re sure you’ll find something you love.

The Parks

If you want to get a little exercise after your foodie adventures, head out to one of our many parks, like Dolores Park, Golden Gate Park or Crissy Field. Little known fact: Golden Gate park consists of more than 1,000 acres and is bigger than New York’s Central Park! You could spend an entire day checking out attractions like the Japanese Tea Garden, Conservatory of Flowers and even wild bison. It’s just a short train ride from downtown, so don’t miss it.

The Museums

San Francisco has a plethora of museums that run the gamut from modern and chic to quirky and fun. If you’re into art, places like the SFMOMA and De Young Museum where you’ll be able to see creations from up-and-coming artists or classic pieces from legends. If you’re a science buff, our Cal Academy of Sciences has it all: A Natural History Museum, Aquarium, Planetarium and 4-story rainforest all rolled into one. There’s plenty more, too, like the Walt Disney Family museum or even – if you’re looking for something a little edgier – Alcatraz.

You can check out all these things and more when you head to BoxWorks in just a few weeks! Right now, you can save $200 on a BoxWorks pass or $100 on a Developer Day ticket if you register by Tuesday, September 18th at 9am PST. Register now.

Relay for Life happens nationwide, and we joined the Los Altos event which had over 300 participants and raised a total of $142,139 for the American Cancer Society.

We began with modest team goals: we wanted to get 50 Boxers to participate and raise $2,000. We were thrilled when over 90 Boxers showed their support by donating online, joining our team, and showing up to walk at the event. We hit our fundraising goal early and raised the bar to $5,000, then we beat that with a total of $5,880 raised. Go team!

True to Box form, we created our own t-shirts for the event and had a great time participating. While Box has been involved in holiday food drives, back-to-school collections and other local endeavors, this was one of largest showing of not only our entrepreneurial spirit, but also our philanthropic spirit! This was a great start to what will most certainly be a Box annual tradition. I can’t wait to see how many Box team members we’ll have next year.

Along with HP, EMC, Cognizant, and Symantec, Box was a corporate technology sponsor for 6 Degrees of the Bay Area, a networking event for middle schools students to practice and learn fundamentals skills for job interviews.  The event was held at Cesar Chavez Academy in East Palo Alto, and organized by Citizen Schools, an organization that partners with middle schools to provide learning opportunities for children in low-income communities.

14 members of the Box team joined other volunteers from Bay Area companies to spend time networking with students, who were prepared with resumes outlining their academic coursework, apprenticeships, career aspirations and extracurricular activities. Everyone was excited to be there, and I was particularly impressed with how professional the students were; they were great at giving firm hand shakes and maintaining eye contact, and even sent hand written thank you notes as a follow-up to the event.

This was the second year we’ve volunteered with Citizen Schools, and I noticed some big differences from our visit a year ago. While many students aspired to be doctors or lawyers, I also met a few future entrepreneurs, too. Students who grow up in Silicon Valley are increasingly influenced by the success of tech startups, especially with the recent IPO’s of companies like LinkedIn and Facebook.

Our team stressed the importance of learning as much as possible and doing well in school – after all, Silicon Valley is only getting more competitive as entrepreneurs from around the world move here to chase their startup dreams. We also talked about how working for a tech company can truly change the way the world does business, and explained what the cloud means for their future, no matter what that might be.

I’d like to extend a big thanks to all the Box employees who attended. All of us are looking forward to our next big Box outing in the community. For more information on volunteering with Citizen Schools in your community, please visit: http://www.citizenschools.org

We were delighted to receive such a warm welcome from the city, and look forward to a bright future in Los Altos at our newest, biggest and best office space yet.

In other news, Box officially turned 7 this past Saturday! We’ve been through a lot of changes since 2005, but have always made it our goal to make file sharing and collaboration super easy and super awesome. We’re incredibly thankful for all our fantastic customers who helped us reach this milestone – the Box team couldn’t have done it without you! We celebrated our birthday at Box HQ with – what else – a cake-eating contest during lunch. Here’s to many more years in the cloud.

The flurry of activity going on throughout the night – whether it’s a major breakthrough mid-coding or the rush to get in line for pizza (which no hackathon is complete without) – is matched only by Boxers excitedly viewing the entries in the morning, as everyone wants to see what projects and ideas our fierce teams came up with. Oh, and did I mention the prizes? Winning teams this year earned trips to London and New York, iPads, spa packages, fancy dinners and more.

Our fourth hackathon took place at Box HQ last Thursday and Friday. Longer than ever before, the coding challenge began at 2:30pm on Thursday and lasted until 9:30am the next morning. Yup, that’s right – over 50 teams of up to 4 people each stayed up all night at our new HQ. This 19-hour coding fest resulted in some of the most innovative projects our company has seen all year. Keep in mind that teams aren’t just presenting concepts; every submission needs to be a demo-able product that can be presented during Friday lunch. The top prize – a trip to Le Web, the largest tech conference in Europe – went to a team of two that created a really cool feature for mobile devices. For now, the results of this year’s hackathon will remain top secret

What I like most about the hackathon is that it’s a chance for individual contributors to show everyone at the company what features they think are important. Creativity really skyrockets when people collaborate together – especially when it’s fueled by competition, motivation and of course, lots of caffeine. At Box, we truly believe our epic ideas are possible and achievable, as evidenced by the fact that many of the winning hackathon projects are actually finished, tested and implemented into our product! That’s one of the things I love most about Box – anyone can make a difference and voice their opinion about what the company ought focus on, as long as they can back it up with reasonable evidence and data.

So while the all-nighter resulted in bleary-eyed engineers chowing down on fresh breakfast items from the waffle truck and spending the majority of Friday catching up on much needed sleep, everyone left the hackathon feeling proud and accomplished. I’m already thinking up ideas for our next hackathon – I can’t wait!

You may have seen a few photos of our new office on Facebook or our Pinterest page, but pictures don’t exactly do this place justice. It’s way bigger than our old HQ (3 floors), and has lots of the amenities of our old office, but at a much bigger scale. To give you an idea of why we love our new home so much, I put together a quick list of my favorite things about our new HQ.

The Open Layout

We don’t do cubicles at Box, and that’s just how we like it. Our team is pretty big, so seeing people’s faces (rather than sad cubicle walls) definitely helps me remember names. Having an open layout also means more conversations with fellow Boxers, fewer meetings and a friendlier atmosphere around the office.

Speaking of meetings, we have a bunch of informal meeting areas that are great for a coffee chat with a friend, or a quick one-on-one with your boss. Our environment is much more relaxed than a traditional office, which definitely helps me focus on doing my best. Don’t like sitting down all day? Simply turn your desk into a standing desk with the push of a button, or head over to one of our big hammocks to work or take a quick nap.

Big Screen TVs Everywhere

To keep everyone informed about what’s happening at Box, we have monitors on every floor detailing useful information, like company stats, train schedules and more. It’s also an awesome way to call out employees who are doing a great job,  or display fun “Box photo moments” from past happy hours and parties. You’ll occasionally find them tuned in to the latest sports games and tv shows, too. Who says you can’t get work done while you root for your favorite team?

Unlimited Coffee and Snacks

Maybe it’s a holdover from my college years, but ‘m a free food fanatic. At our new office, we have more than 3 fully-stocked kitchens full of all the chips (the baked ones, too), candy and fruit you could possibly eat. We also have cold and hot drinks galore, with fancy espresso machines if you want to feel gourmet.

When we’re not snacking on granola or cereal, we’re eating catered lunch, Monday through Friday. If you stay late at the office, you can even order dinner online and have it delivered to the office.

Our Monstrous Slide

If you’re feeling adventurous, Box provides a unique form of transportation to get to our lobby. Instead of taking the stairs or an elevator, you can climb into our big yellow slide on the second floor to careen down a high-speed chute and emerge in the lobby. If you have someone visiting the office, this is a fun way to make a memorable entrance.

Want to see the office for yourself? Check out some of our open positions and apply today – we’d love to have you at Box HQ for an interview.

The final year of college is at once exciting and frightening—while at the top of the pecking order on campus, seniors must also consider what they want to do after graduation. If you plan on transitioning into the professional world, there are a myriad of great companies right here in northern California, and I think Box is among the best. Our team works hard and plays harder, as evidenced by Box’s successful product, rapidly growing customer base and awesome culture. We also strive to hire only the best and brightest engineers, which means our interview process is fairly stringent. Interviewers weigh candidates’ technical skills and cultural fit equally, so potential hires need to put their best foot forward during the interview process.

Looking to join the team? Here are some tips to help you prepare for your interview on-site at Box:

Be polite

Being respectful to everyone you interact with during the recruiting process is an easy way to increase your chances at a job offer. Since the most important trait we look for is the ability to work well with a team, being able to communicate with people in a positive way (even when providing constructive criticism) is extremely important. Whether it’s the recruiter, the receptionist or the hiring manager, the way you act towards the individuals you meet is a reflection of your personality – and will be discussed and shared amongst the interview panel before the final hiring decision is made. Your interview begins the moment you make contact with a Box employee, so don’t risk your chances by failing to be polite every step of the way.

Listen and ask questions

Don’t just answer questions during your interview. Remember to pay attention, too. Interviewers frequently walk out of interviews shaking their heads at a simple mistake both experienced and new candidates tend to make: not picking up on hints. For example, when working through a coding exercise, communicate your thought process to the interviewer by thinking out loud. If you start heading down the wrong path, a hiring manager or other interviewer will likely offer a hint to get you back on track. Listen for clues and take a moment to think them over. If you are hitting the nail on the head with your answer, chances are a hint wont been necessary. Additionally, many of the questions hiring managers ask are meant to elicit questions in response, so don’t be afraid to ask for clarification before answering. Asking questions not only shows that you’re a good listener, but that you’re able to identify when something isn’t clear and can take initiative to get it right.

Be honest

The catch-22 of resumes, cover letters and interviews is that you have to showcase your skills and talents without sounding arrogant. While you shouldn’t be afraid to highlight the experiences and qualities you posses, it’s crucial to only claim expertise about the things you actually know. Many times, candidates will rattle off programming languages or technologies that they are “proficient” in, even though they’re unable to answer simple questions about these topics. Be prepared to back up every line on your resume, every sentence in your cover letter and every statement in your interviews with evidence, because interviewers can and will ask for details. Bottom line: be real with your interviewers about what you do and do not know.

Don’t forget the basics

Be on time to your interview, smile and shake the hands of each person you meet, make eye contact and engage your interviewer, and most importantly, send the recruiter, hiring manager and any other interviewers a quick follow up email after your interview. This last step is crucial because to this day, it’s only practiced by a handful of candidates. Sending a note after your interview emphasizes your interest in the position and your enthusiasm about Box.

Remember, being invited on-site at Box means you likely have the skills, talent and personality we’re looking for; the final piece of the puzzle is put into place when you come to the office and meet potential co-workers and managers. We want people who are ambitious, intelligent and hard working, but also friendly and easy to work with. After all, if you get hired, we’re going to be seeing a lot of you! Highlight your potential as a future Box employee – and bring your A-game – by keeping these tips in mind. We look forward to seeing you in the office!