Tucows: Sr. Ruby Engineer

Tucows is looking for a Sr. Ruby Engineer:

Work as part of a small Agile team (2-3 developers) to deliver and improve RoR/AJAX/DHTML/Javascript based systems and interfaces that help us meet our business objectives and support an excellent customer experience.

The Good
Tucows is a pretty well-known company, and you can get a glimpse into their finances (they seem to be doing well enough).  They imply they’re small enough that you can make an impact:

We’re a small team with a big mission. Come prepared to hit above your weight.
We believe in taking the time to do it properly while working in a real-time environment. Launch, learn and iterate is favored over taking too long to find the perfect answer.

There are also not a ton of Ruby jobs in this town, so if you’re really into Ruby, there’s no point in leaving stones unturned.

You can also get a little view into Tucows from reading Joey DeVilla’s blog (or go talk to him at one of the many events he attends in town).

What’s Missing?
A fair amount.  What exactly would you be working on?  What are tucows online retail services applications?  What are the other team members like, and what’s their experience with Ruby on Rails?  What’s the compensation like?  Is this at the 96 Mowat location?   What’s the office and work environment like?  What are the challenging problems you’d solve in Tucows retail services applications?  Is it likely that you’ll be proud describing retail services applications, as they suggest?  How do they empower the developers to be creative?

There’s a lot of information in the posting, but most of it just raises more questions for me.

YMMV
My mileage would definitely vary with this location; that won’t be true for everyone.  It’s not bad if you can get on the gardiner or the lakeshore without too much effort, but there’ll still be days when traffic is evil, and there isn’t really free parking in the area.

The Location
Probably in the King/Dufferin area:

View Larger Map

Parkdale has its moments, there’s some good food around, but if you’re not somewhere in the area already, it’s pretty far west for a TTC commute.

In Summary
If you’re interested in doing Ruby on Rails, it’s probably worth talking to Tucows about this position.   Otherwise, I’m not sure there’s enough of the right kind of information to really draw me in.

Warning: Direct Leap

Last time I posted a job that Direct Leap was offering, I got some feedback that implied that any interested parties should be wary.  Someone else has contacted me recently with the same warning.  Both have offered specific details, some of which I’ve been asked not to get into, and, in fact, since I’m only hearing one side of the argument, I don’t think it’s entirely fair to present a viewpoint that I haven’t corroborated in detail.

That said, I think it’s fair to say that when you hear a number of troubling stories from different people about the same company, it’s a dangerous sign.  Anyone considering taking a job or doing some work with Direct Leap would do well to do your research, talk to people who’ve worked with or for them, reach out to your networks or search LinkedIn, or whatever it takes to get more information.  For that matter, if you really can’t find anything and you’re desperate to learn more, get in touch with me and I’ll try and put you in touch with people who might be willing to talk to you.

Or, you could simply play it safe and not work with Direct Leap; that’s probably what I would do, at this stage.   But it’s your call.

Anyone who’s worked with Direct Leap and wants to share their story, whether that’s positive or negati, do feel free.  It’s up to you how explicit or anonymous you wish to remain.

Closing the Loop

I’ve recently met a few people who found jobs they’re happy with after reading about them in Toronto Tech Jobs, and it’s nice to hear — helps me justify the time this takes to myself.  So if you’ve found a job through Toronto Tech Jobs, drop me a line, leave a comment on the post, send me a message on twitter, whatever works for you, let me know that I’m doing something useful.  ;)

If you haven’t been following the twitter stream, you might want to know about the following positions:

• Organic: Rich Media Architect
• IBM: Application Solution Architect
• Unspecified: Configuration Management and Build/Release Engineer

And, yes, as @EmFi discovered this morning, I have my own twitter stream, and I do sometimes accidentally tweet jobs there, although I usually realize it and push them over to the other stream.

CTVglobemedia / The Globe and Mail: Systems Integrator

CTVglobemedia is looking for a Systems Integrator for The Globe and Mail (TGAM):

• Analyze business and technical requirements with Partners who want to build or enhance web and data integration solutions;
• Engage Developers, Data Analysts, and QA to build, modify, install, deploy and manage components of data and web solutions using a variety of technologies including HTML, XML, JSP, and possibly Java and Oracle as appropriate;
• Maintain integrity of interface definitions (API’s) between the Globe and Mail and Partners.
• Monitor implementations where Partner sites have integrated Globe content for reliability, integrity, and performance;
• Represent Partners within Globe QA and change control notification processes;
• Provide first or second level support of Partner solutions in conjunction with Customer Support Representatives.
• Identify opportunities whereby the Globe and Mail can leverage common development to the benefit of Integrated Solution Partners and Globe public sites such as reportonbusiness.com.

The Good
The Globe and Mail is a well-respected newspaper, and some of their staff (e.g. Mathew Ingram) are clearly in tune with the kinds of technologies cultures they’re going to need to survive the turmoil of the newspaper industry.  Integration is increasingly a part of many enterprise applications, and that’s true in the media world as well, so this could be a good opportunity to make a real impact at The Globe if they’re serious about integration.

The Bad
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve heard the newspaper industry isn’t in great shape, and television looks like it’s going through some challenges as well.  This may not be the best of times at CTVglobemedia.  And, despite some of their more recent digital features, I’m not sure the Globe is well-known for it’s APIs.  The technologies they describe are pretty basic; that could be good or bad depending on your viewpoint.

What’s Missing?
What kinds of integration is The Globe doing right now?  It sounds like at least some of it will be financial/securities, although it’s not clear if that’ll be most or all of it. How does it expect to continue to expand the integrations it offers and consumes?  Does your role offer a chance to have an impact on that?  Would you be the first of your kind, or part of a larger team?  What approaches and technologies are they using for integration right now?  How is this role likely to expand within The Globe?  What does The Globe pay for a Systems Integrator?

YMMV
Your mileage may certainly vary when it comes to working in media, and particularly the newspaper industry.

The Location
Unclear.  Could be Queen & John, which is a great building, a fun area, and pretty easy to get to; could be front and spadina, not a bad area, easy to reach by vehicle and not totally off-the-grid for transit riders.  Could be something else entirely.

In Summary
If you’ve got a background in integration, this might be an interesting opportunity to focus on it in a challenging industry.

On the Road Again…

As some of you have no doubt heard from Twitter, it looks like I’m back in the hunt for new contracts or employment; I’ve got a slight preference for contract work at the moment, but I’m not averse to employment.  I’m a software development generalist, and I like hands-on roles where I have a chance to make a real impact, so when I go for employment,  I tend to lean toward positions like technical lead, “architect”, and in small companies, even things like “development manager” and the like.  I’ve got a ton of Java experience, but I’ve dabbled and worked in a variety of others, so if you’re looking for someone to help you with Scala, Ruby, Python, Groovy, or something else entirely, I’d be happy to explain where my experience could help and where I might need some ramping-up.

Many of you are also looking for employment rather than potential employers, so I’ll leave this short; if you’re looking for someone and you think I might be a fit, get in touch and I’d be happy to talk about it in more detail.  If you’re a job-hunter with no jobs to offer (or at least, none that you think are worth taking), take heart, because being on the hunt means that despite my hectic schedule, I’m going to have to dedicate more time to looking at jobs and that means more traffic and content for you to absorb.

I hope this economy isn’t finding too many of you searching, but if it is, I  hope I can help some of you find the position you’re looking for.

Questions to Ask Employers

I’ve mentioned a list of questions to ask employers a couple of times, but haven’t had much chance to sit down with the list and prepare it for public consumption.  A similar (although smaller) list came through red canary recently and reminded me to share my own.

Without further ado – questions to ask employers is now a page on Toronto Tech Jobs; I’ll try and keep it updated as I go.

GigPark: Ruby on Rails Developer

GigPark is looking for a Ruby on Rails developer:

GigPark is a Toronto-based web startup that’s growing fast

Built with Ruby on Rails and hosted on EC2

We’re not religious about technology. We believe in using the right tool for the job

You believe that database design is part of application development and you know your responsibility doesn’t end when your code is deployed

You have opinions on better tools & technologies and love to try new things. You are also pragmatic and choose the best tool for the job

You have a solid understanding of software fundamentals including: programming languages, scalability, security and source code management

If you’ve also got some design chops, you might want to check out their Ruby on Rails Designer/Developer position instead.  I haven’t met that many people that do a particularly solid job of both, but if GigPark can find one at a price they can afford, they should certainly hire him or her (you?)

The Good
It’s a live, working application you can use.  If you’re not already familiar with GigPark, register, and see if it’s something you’d be interested in working on.  This is always a really big plus to my eye, because there are lots of jobs where you won’t know what you’ll be really doing until long after it’s too late to decide if it’s interesting.  It’s also using fun technologies, both Ruby on Rails and EC2 are interesting to many of the developers I know, as well as myself.  They also closed a deal with Metro recently which is probably good for business.

The Bad
There’s nothing overtly bad in what’s there.  The posting’s a little low on specifics, but I think it probably gets the general gist across clearly enough that most people can decide whether or not it’s something that’s interesting to them.

What’s Missing?
What exactly does competitive salary really mean in this case?  I’m assuming startup employment without benefits at this stage of GigPark’s growth?  Are they profitable at this stage, and if not, how are they funded, and how long will that last?  It’s somewhat true that most of the Ruby jobs in town don’t pay quite as well as the enterprisey Java and .NET work, in part because they tend to be for startups.  If pay is a big deal for you, this is something you might want to probe in detail.  What’s the size and composition of the team?  How regularly do they release?  What’s their process like, from design through development, testing and operations?  What do they use for testing, and how do they ensure their code is well-tested?  (If, for instance, they’re using code coverage, what kind of coverage do they aim for and achieve?)

YMMV
Some people like sharply defined roles and responsibilities.  They want to work on the server-side code, not the database or the client code, and certainly not the operational side.  Most startups don’t really work that way, and it sounds like GigPark is definitely hoping to find a generalist or a specializing generalist.   Then again, that’s often part and parcel of working for a startup, so this might not come as a shock.  It looks like a young crowd — most people would be fine with that, but it might be worth knowing.

The Location
Looks like GigPark is located at Lansdowne and Dupont.  That’s a fair way west for most of you, but still central enough that it’s not a brilliant place for highway commuters.  Basically, it’s well-suited to people who are already taking the subway a fair ways, and particularly those in the west end of town.  I don’t know the area especially well; there are certainly some nice things down by High Park, but that’s just far enough to be inconvenient.  You’ve also got the Junction around  you, which might supply some interesting shops and restaurants.  Ultimately, it’s out of the way, but not horrific.

In Summary
There are only so many Ruby on Rails jobs in town, mostly for startups like GigPark.  If that appeals to you, then you’re probably already interested.  If it doesn’t, then you’re probably not the right fit anyway.

Rypple: Software Engineer / Developer

I haven’t talked about Rypple since they were a stealth startup looking for a ‘star software developer‘ and, later, a ‘star developer and front end ninja‘.  They’re no longer stealth, and they’re looking to hire a Software Engineer / Developer:

If you have a proven track record of building successful software (e.g. people love what you create), then we want to talk to you. If you don’t think its crazy to build both scalable, high-quality applications and release early and often – then you’ll like it here.

At Rypple, you’ll:

• Join our dev team to design and build our online apps and the infrastructure we run our business on.
• Regularly deal with users, customers, and our industry partners. You’ll be expected to come up with new ideas to create value and then implement and improve on those ideas
• Be a generalist with technology but a specialist with building world class applications.
• Be highly adaptable to technical challenges and thrive in an adaptive environment.
• Be disciplined and get stuff done.

The Good
The founders are entrepreneurs with a good track record at Workbrain, and I found them to be impressive in person.  They believe in agile processes.  Their product is in an interesting space and a space they know well.  Initial feedback on their product seems to be positive.  Because it’s a public application, you can take a look at it and see if it’s something you’re interested in being a part of, which is always a big plus.  The technology stack is a good one — GWT, REST, Hibernate.  They claim to be agile.

The Bad
Workbrain had a bit of a reputation as a sweatshop.  I haven’t heard the same vibe from Rypple, but ultimately that’s something you’d want to assess for yourself.

What’s Missing?
What’s the size and composition of the team, and where would you fit into it?  What’s the compensation like, from ‘generous pay’ to vacation and benefits?

YMMV
When last I spoke to the Rypple founders, they were believers in Peter Thiel’s hypothesis that low pay is a predictor of startup success — that members of a startup need to be hungry and committed to the success of the company, and that high pay prevents that from happening.  It’s an interesting hypothesis, but your mileage may vary when it comes to the specifics of how much Rypple is willing to pay you to join the team.  You won’t know if you don’t talk to them.

Your mileage may also vary when it comes to working for a startup.  It’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

And finally, I’m increasingly irritated by job descriptions that mention things like ‘nunchaku skills.’  I know it’s intended to be humor, but my mileage does vary.

The Location
Yonge and Eglinton.  It’s not great if you’re coming from far out of town, in particular by GO, but it’s pretty accessible by Subway from most parts of the city.  There are lots of restaurants and shopping, particularly if you include Bayview Village and Mount Pleasant.  It’s neither the perfect location nor a bad one, to my eye.

In Summary
A development position for one of Toronto’s more visible startups.  If doing Java development for a startup sounds interesting, then you should probably talk to Rypple.

Intelex: Manager of Product Design

Intelex is seeking a Manager of Product Design:

Intelex Technologies Inc.​ is a progressive Canadian software company providing innovative, web-based applications for Environment, Health & Safety and Quality management.​ Intelex currently has a need for a Manager of Product Design.​

The ideal candidate will: Have worked on numerous web-based software projects for Fortune 500 companies.​ Possess a good eye for system design and consistency.​ Be a good leader and have experience managing a team of Business Analysts.​ Have excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to take charge of meetings and requirements gathering sessions.​

The Good
Intelex would have you believe they’re doing well, at least before the downturn. They’re in an unusual, and therefore potentially interesting field, “Environmental, Quality, Health and Safety.” They have a blog and an API, so they’re at least somewhat modern in terms of being a software company. They claim to take an agile approach. It’s a pretty senior role.

The Bad
Although the field is unusual, it’s probably an area that some might describe as boring. It’s the sort of thing where people’s eyes glaze over before you finish telling them what your company does, unless you’re an excellent salesperson yourself.

What’s Missing?
What’s a role like this pay, at Intelex? What’s the Product Design team you’d be managing — size and composition? What’s the development organization look like, and what’s the organizational structure from management to product to development look like?

YMMV
I imagine this is fairly hands-off on the actual writing of code. A good thing for this kind of role, but not everyone’s cup of tea. The field is both unusual and industrial — could be interesting for some, boring for others.

The Location
Intelex seems to be at Adelaide and Charlotte. It’s a little far afield if you’re taking GO, and it’s a bit of a walk from the Subway, but it’s certainly walkable, and it’s in a nice area, what with the Charlotte Room, Dark Horse, and a pile of other places to eat and shop.

In Summary
A relatively senior role in what I’d probably call product management at a centrally located company in an unusual industry. Could be interesting, particularly if you’re already in product management.

socialDeck: Rockstar Engineer

socialDeck is looking for a Rockstar Engineer:

We’re building a platform for cross platform gaming — technology that enables games to be played between mobile and the web. Think playing games from your iPhone to Facebook to BlackBerry to MySpace.

We are looking for the brightest and most talented software engineer who will work with the platform team on building out our gaming platform in the cloud.

He/she will design and implement highly-scalable server systems to connect to the world’s most popular networks.

He/she will also be involved in building our client frameworks for iPhone, BlackBerry, Facebook, and Android.

The Good
They’ve got a pleasant web presence and decent press. They’re in an interesting/growing space: mobile / web social gaming. They seem to be taking a bit of a product angle with their talk of ‘a platform’.

Sounds like they’re funded, with nice space. The technology stack sounds reasonable, and the technology would probably be varied and interesting. And, frankly, it’s games. Working on games can be fun.

The Bad
They’re a startup, so odds are good that they’re not paying terribly well, although you’d have to inquire to find out.

Also, someone stop these people before they make another video. Teach them how to use screencasting software instead of a handheld cam pointed at a laptop on an angle.

Heck, I’ll even volunteer to help get ‘em kickstarted. A couple hours with Screenflow and their demo would take on new life.

What’s Missing?
Where are they? What’s this position pay? How many other people work there? How long is their funding good for? What’s involved in the platform, and what’s the expected mix of game/platform development?

YMMV
Your mileage may vary on working for an early-stage startup, especially if the compensation is low.

The Location
Besides ‘King West’, it’s hard to say. Probably a little off the beaten path if you’re not already west of the core, or driving. You’d need to inquire to know more.

In Summary
Game platform and game development on King West for a startup.