I just placed the following ad on Craigslist here in Seattle, and thought I’d share it here on the blog as well…
Mighty LAMP Coders of Seattle, Heed Our Cry
Don’t be wooed by the big firms; come to a place where your talents are appreciated, your voice is heard, and your code has an impact. If you can answer the following 5 questions with an empathic “heck, yeah!” then please, send an email right now (well, actually, look through the job specs, then send that email). 🙂
- Does the Internet cower before your webdev prowess?
- Are you a huge fan of the Daily Show & Colbert Report?
- Is your hatred for cubicles exceeded only by your desire to make the web a better place?
- Do you love the Venture Brothers (or at least promise to watch an episode after we lend you the DVDs)?
- Would you like to, on occasion, go to fun conferences in far-off cities and participate in comics like these – Chicago, London, New York?
If you’ve answered yes to the above, congratulations! You’re our kind of developer and we can’t wait to meet you.
Now, on to the serious parts…
Requirements:
- Ability to work at least 35 hours on site in our University District Offices
- Ability to put in a bit of extra time nights/weekends (from anywhere) when crises arise (avg 40-50 hours per week total)
- Can work independently with little direct supervision
- Gel well with the 7 SEOmoz crew members
- Maintain project timelines and meet all project deadlines
- Communicate directly with the client and SEOmoz on project status, requirements and troubleshooting
- Willingness to tackle unfamiliar problems and take the time to discover “best practice” solutions
Not Required:
- College degree
- 10+ years of experience (seriously, the Internet has been around for 13 years total, and some companies expect you to have 10 years of webdev experience? It just makes them look ridiculous.)
- Suits or ties
Qualifications:
- Advanced to expert level knowledge of PHP
- Strong knowledge of HTML, xHTML, MySQL, CSS & Javascript
- Ability to hand code without the help of WYSIWYG editor (no Dreamweaver!)
- Demonstrated history of skill advancement & strong desire to learn
- Excellent communication skills, both written & verbal
- Familiarity with the basics of building a content management system (CMS)
- Strong sense of usability & web design (i.e. you’ve memorized Don’t Make Me Think)
Bonus Round (if you meet any or all of these, you’re even more perfect than we imagined!):
- Familiarity with CakePHP or other MVC frameworks
- Experience/ability in writing complex regular expressions to scrape data
- Experience with Photoshop or comparable graphic design programs
- Apache/Linux server familiarity & maintainence (SysAdmin abilities)
- Web application testing and/or CVS experience (this is a huge plus)
- Moderate to Advanced Flash skills
- Familiarity with RSS/XML standards
- Experience building web-based tools & applications
- Database design & optimization experience
Compensation for the first 3 Months (trial period):
- $3,400 monthly, paid in two checks on the 1st and 16th of the month
- Paid as a contractor – you take care of your taxes
- Optional health benefits – you can buy in for ~$200/month (price depends on all sorts of healthcare industry requirements)
- Paid parking at our offices in the University District or bus pass
- Awesome people to hang out with
- Vacation and sick days TBD (as they arise)
Compensation for full-time position (if we decide, and you agree, that SEOmoz is the place for you):
- $4,100 monthly (two checks)
- Paid as an employee (we take out and manage all your taxes)
- Full health and dental benefits through Regence / Blue Shield (they’re awesome)
- Paid TV/Cable Internet at home (we need you knowledgeable on pop culture and the web, both)
- Student loan repayment compensation options (TBD)
- Paid parking or monthly bus pass
- Even more awesome people to hang out with (we’ll introduce you to Chuck who lives in the back closet and is totally cool, but doesn’t come out much)
- For conferences or other travel, all expenses are covered and a per diem for incidental expenditures provided
- Ownership stake options (after 1 year)
- Opportunities for raises (at least once per year)
- 3 weeks paid vacation/sick days per annum
- End of year cash bonuses (although, technically, they’re in check format)
How to Apply – Please follow these steps exceptionally carefully:
- Visit our website – www.seomoz.org, in particular the blog
- Look around a bit and make sure we’re the type of company you’d like to work for
- Create an email to Rand[]SEOmoz.org
- Author a short (but not one-sentence short), sweet bio/introduction with a description of yourself and a catchphrase, such as “Queen of Panthers,” only more relevant, to show us that you can write well.
- Paste your resume into the body of the email (include any recent projects or examples of your work)
- Do Not send an attachment
- I repeat… do NOT send an attachment
- Please send this email to us no later than Wednesday, July 11, 2007
We know that applying for jobs can be tough, frustrating and even, on occasion, soul-crushingly depressing. We empathize, and we hope that your search leads you to something truly excellent. Thanks for your application – Craigslist rocks…
While our financial compensation certainly isn’t the highest in the industry, we’ve had terrific success bringing in hungry, talented entry level folks that others rejected due to lack of degree or specific experience, and we plan to continue with that model. Look for a new mozzer on the team sometime in August. 🙂
p.s. Actually… Now that I look at it, according to PayScale, the median salary for a web developer with 1-4 years of experience is actually $47K (scroll down on the page).
