Unspecified: Application Integration Manager

A contract ‘manager’ role is a little unusual, but this posting for an Application Integration Manager has its good points:

We are looking for an outstanding professional contractor to work for our client on a six month contract. You will be working for a major player in the telecommunications arena. In this role you will be managing the relationship with extremely important clients through your adept skills and the breadth of your knowledge in relationship building, software development projects and integration.

What you will do:
-Perform client facing tasks ensuring client satisfaction through effective delivery
-Engage client as warranted to develop deliverables and manage expectations
-Lead the integration of client’s application with hosted middleware platform
-Implement the ecommerce application according to guidelines, budget, reqs etc
-Contribute to project estimation and planning phases

The Good
Notably, the pay.  $78/hr max should mean that you get paid $78k for the six-month contract.  That’s not mad money, but it’s not bad for six months work.

The Bad
Very little detail in some areas.  “Major player in the telecommunications arena” could mean a lot of different things.  What’s the work, what’s the process?  Who will you be working for and with?

YMMV
Contract’s not for everyone.  You may be making more than $78k already, and have benefits.  To take this job, you have to quit, with only $78k promised, and even that might not pan out.

On the other hand, you can take your 78k, live frugally for the rest of the year, and relax, or start a startup, or find another job.  The world is your oyster.  Whatever that really means.

In Summary
If you have the freedom to take a contract right now, and you’re making less then $78/hr, this could be interesting.

Unspecified: PHP/Social Game Developer

While we’re on the PHP vein, this posting for a PHP Developer doing Games for FaceBook and MySpace sounded like a certain kind of fun over in Liberty Village.  If you’ve been doing PHP for Social Networks, this might be up your alley.  There’s not nearly enough information to bother reviewing, but there aren’t a lot of calls for social network game developers, so if that sounds like fun, give ‘em a call.

FreshBooks: Software Developer

FreshBooks is looking for a Software Developer.  Normally, I’d segueway right into a description of the job here, but there’s a pleasing backstory here that’ll set up the rest of this post.  A few months ago, I wrote about the job of Agile Web Development Manager for FreshBooks, and Corey Reid saw that posting, responded, and got the job, which he seems to be enjoying.

Now that he/they are looking to grow the team by adding a Software Developer, he’s come full circle by letting me know there’s another job at FreshBooks open, if I’m interested in posting about it.  And, indeed, I am.  Partly because of the backstory: A toronto technology jobs reader gets one of the posted jobs, then comes back to suggest new postings for the new company.  But also, because I’m impressed by FreshBooks.

Here’s what they’re looking for:

We need fresh-thinking, disciplined developers who don’t sneer at scripting languages but also know their enterprise-level design. In return, we supply a stable, creative environment (want a Mac? got Ubuntu? No problem!) with a competitive compensation package, and the sort of collaboration that comes out of just wanting to get things done, not from the latest IEEE-mandated “best practice”.

[D]esigning and developing our popular online application and the tools we use to run our business behind the scenes — you should be able to figure out what that entails. You’ll learn hands-on about our industry and our customers, and you’ll be figuring out how to make them happy, and then going ahead and doing it.

• 3 years’ experience building online applications
• 2-3 years experience with object-oriented development
• Serious SQL chops
• Communication skills like whoa (you better be able to talk to customers on the phone (yes, we talk to our customers on the phone))

FreshBooks describes themselves this way:

Love the fast-paced and creative environment of a start-up, but could do without the stress and chaos?  FreshBooks has been around for more than five years now and has a fanatical fan base of over 400,000 people who use our groundbreaking Web 2.0 application.

Personally, I’ve used FreshBooks’ product, found it easy to use and more than capable for the simple tasks I threw at it.  I think they’ve done an excellent job getting potential customers in the door through the freemiuim model, and then potentially getting revenue as their little fish grow in the way they use the product.  I’m inclined to believe that if FreshBooks keeps at it, they’re almost certainly going places (although perhaps they’re already “getting places”, I can’t say.

The Good
First and foremost, I think FreshBooks is an interesting company that stands a reasonable chance at success.  And, although I’ve only had a few conversations with him, Corey Reid seems like a nice enough guy, with a sense of humor, but also an earnestness about making a difference.

Secondly, because their application is public and easy to access, you can try the thing out before you apply for the job.  That’s rare, in Toronto.  Using it and building it are different, but it’s nice to get some sense of what you might be working on.

The Bad
Well, it’s a startup, so even with reasonable funding, there’s a question as to the compensation.  Although “competitive compensation package” implies it might not be awful, that also doesn’t mean it’s good.  They’re not looking for tons of experience, so that might be another cue with respect to the salary.  You’ll have to talk to them to sort this out.

And, despite some gentle prodding from me, there are still things I don’t know about the job, some of which might matter to you.  For instance, there’s limited references to specific technology.  Last I heard, this was a PHP shop, but there have been occasional Ruby references, so it’s hard to feel like I’ve got a concrete story to tell you in that regard.  The role, company and work seem to get reasonable descriptions.

YMMV
The location’s probably good for some, bad for others.  At roughly Glencairn and Dufferin, I’m inclined to say that it’s not ideal for a TTC commute.  If you’re not already midtown, uptown, or in the burbs, that location’s probably both inconvenient and lacking in the little touches that a great neighbourhood can offer.  That said, if you’re vehicle-commuting, or not too far away from that location already, it might be a good fit.  Besides, in your lunch hours, you can do some shopping for design stuff on Castlefield and deals up on Cartwright and Orfus.

Working in a startup’s not for everyone.  If you’re hoping for the kind of environment where you can spend a week surfing Slashdot before someone notices you’re done the last thing they asked you to do, you want to work for a bank, not FreshBooks.  I’m not going to go on and on about the differences between a startup job and an enterprise job, but they exist, and there are both good and bad sides to the coin.

In Summary
If this sounds good to you, and the location works, then I’d be happy to recommend you drop them a line.  I’ll let Cory Reid know when this post comes up, so if you have questions you want to fire off here, feel free to post a comment, and I’ll see if I can get him to respond.

Little Bites: The Hive?

This position looks to me like The Hive is still at it, although I still have no evidence that The Hive is a real company, that they’re actually really hiring people, and so forth, so I’d exercise caution.

Ethoca: Senior J2EE Software Developer

Ethoca seems to be looking for a Senior J2EE Software Developer:

Lead and put your signature on end-to-end, build-from-scratch projects for a company that is growing in every direction.

Looking to build new features? Want to tweak the architecture for a global company? Interested in assembling an analytics toolset that will touch millions of data points? These are all part of one very exciting and challenging job.

And of course you’ll work with a small team of talented individuals, enjoying a startup environment where your voice is heard and your experience is valued.

Opportunities that let you build a market-defining product don’t come along very often. This is one of them.

This posting doesn’t appear on Ethoca’s careers page (at the time of this writing, anyway), but the description on Red Canary seems to point pretty directly here, so it may be that candidates would have to go through Red Canary to apply.

The Good
If the company really is “growing in every direction” and they really want you to “put your signature on “a market-defining product”, it could be a good opportunity to make a significant impact on a company that’s growing, where you can grow with the company and be rewarded well for your efforts.

The Bad
The posting implies a certain amount of leadership in some areas (”Lead and put your signature on”) but the title is “Senior J2EE Software Developer”.  Makes me wonder if their pay might not match the expectations, so I’d definitely suggest you probe on both of those.

There’s a couple phrases here that you’ll need to decode:

• [D]rive and commitment that it takes to thrive in a startup environment
• Experience working for a start-up company -– understands what it takes to be part of a small team with big responsibilities

These could be very telling.  It could be a red flag in a number of areas — expectations for how much you’re going to work, the kind of chaos you should expect to deal with, the amount of pay you can expect.  Or it could simply be that they’re looking for a “get things done” person who doesn’t come from a background with heavily defined and rigid roles.  Hard to say.  But, again, implies that you’ll want to get a good sense of what you’re getting into, what their expectations are and what you can expect in return.

Sadly, for a startup, they’ve gotten in deep by dealing with EJB, Rational and Websphere already.  I imagine the banking influence is part of that, but it’s a shame from a technical perspective.

YMMV
Although Ethoca seems to have blue-chip clients these days, they do seem to have a past in doing fraud detection for online gaming.  I know some potential candidates would have a problem with that, so it may be worth probing further to see where that leads.  I’m guessing given the Tom Ridge / DHS connection, those days are basically behind them.

The location seems to be Yonge/401, which is a little far north if you’re downtown.  If you’re midtown, north, west or east and/or vehicle-commuting, this could be a pretty decent location.  It’s not exciting, but it may be convenient.

In Summary
If the location works for you, could be interesting.  Poke a little about the expectations/compensation mix, and get some sense of the current connection to online gaming, if that’s a concern, but otherwise, looks like a possible opportunity.

Unspecified: Binary Tools Developer (C, C++, Assembler)

Cistel is helping an unspecified client look for a Binary Tools Developer:

- Significant hands-on software development experience (C, C++,
assembler) across multiple platforms (Windows, Mac/OSX, Linux, Symbian
and embedded systems).

- Significant low level operating system and kernel experience.

- Security knowledge (encryption, software cracking, obfuscation).

- Demonstrated knowledge and experience with the inner workings of
compilers, linkers and loaders.

- Knowledge of binary object file formats as well as experience with
binary code patching and rewriting.

The Good
If this is the kind of code you like writing, there’s only so many places in Toronto where you can make that happen.

The Bad
Other than the technology, there’s basically no information.  Who’s the company, what do they do, what would you be doing for them, is it fun, how well does it pay, what’s the process, where are they located?  For all I know this is a job in Texas for $10/hr, so anyone interested would obviously need to get massive infusions of information about the job before going any farther.

YMMV
Given how much less common these postings are, I’m also assuming that your mileage may vary when it comes to doing C, C++ and Assembler.  Mine certainly would.

In Summary
There’s not a lot of detail, but if this technology mix matches your skillset, might be worth digging further.

Why Hiring Technologists is Difficult

Malcom Gladwell entertainingly speaks about mismatch problems: in essence, most hiring/selection practices attempt to evaluate performance in one area (the job, the task for which the person is being selected) through the use of seemingly related tests that don’t correlate well to performance in that area.

He uses concrete examples of sports, teaching and law, showing how selection criteria used to pick players in drafts, teachers for schools and candidates for law school don’t seem to correlate, or in some cases, negatively correlate with future performance.

It’s not hard to relate this quickly to the kinds of things we do when trying to hire developers, architects, managers.  Unfortunately, the information that makes these studies compelling is good supporting data, and I don’t have that.  Certainly part of the problem is that we don’t have a particularly good measure for quality when it comes to developers, even once they’ve been practicing their art — we don’t have a score that accurately reflects the skill of a developer at developing software.

That is, however, one of Gladwell’s final points — that our desire for certainty leads us to concrete measures that take us astray when subjective measures may, in fact, be more accurate, despite their subjectivity.  Maybe all we really need is a score that aggregates the subjective opinions of those who have worked with you in the past.

Little Bite: Symantec: Systems Engineer

Symantec is looking for a Systems Engineer to work in Toronto, Ontario, Tonga.  If you believe that there’s a Toronto, Ontario in Tonga, then does Symantec have a job for you.

Fiver Media / Anon: Team Lead Game Developer

An ‘anonymous’ company is looking for a “Team Lead Game Developer“.  Any Toronto job talking about ‘game’ or ‘gaming’ without being too specific about it is probably gambling rather than what I would call game development.  And if the “gaming” job talks about Java server-side skills (as opposed to, say, J2ME), it’s further evidence that it’s a back-end for some kind of gambling shop.

Finally, when the posting is anonymous but otherwise almost entirely similar to the aforementioned Fiver Media posting, it’s a lock.  I don’t have any personal experience with Fiver, but they do seem to be the latest in a long chain of names associated with a gambling company whose reputation is far from pristine.  So if you see postings like this one, I suppose it’s up to you to make the call, but you might want to read some of the discussion thread on this post before getting too excited.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers: Director, Technology Infrastructure Services

PriceWaterhouseCoopers is looking for a Director, Technology Infrastructure Services.  I can’t find a good quotable section, but basically they want a high-level manager/leader for Canada in what they’re calling infrastructure services, which seems to revolve around IT infrastructure like the hardware, software, networking, groupware — the kind of stuff that many people would simply group under “IT”.

I’ll grant that I probably don’t qualify for this job, and perhaps I’m a little tired, but … I’ve read this position a couple times and I still don’t feel like I’ve really got a great sense for what the job’s about.  It’s got lots of action-oriented business words like Engage, Establish, Ensure, Enable.  There’s lots of emphasizers like world-class, key, essential, leader, innovation.

Maybe being able to clearly understand the position from this posting is the first requirement for potential candidates.  I don’t feel especially qualified to offer an opinion about it.  In any case, if you read it and it sounds like you, then go forth and talk to PWC about becoming the Director, Technology Infrastructure Services.  Sounds like an important position at a large company, so it can’t be all bad.