Avid Life Media: iPhone, Sr. Web Developer

Avid Life Media, whom I’ve mentioned before, is looking for an iPhone Developer and a Senior Web Developer.  Last I heard, they were using agile methods and some fun technology, and paying reasonably well, all of which sounded great.  On the other hand, I know a couple people who’ve talked to them in detail and opted not to continue because they weren’t totally enthused about the big projects that Avid Life media owns; that’s a decision you’d have to make for yourself.  Since Avid Life doesn’t go into detail about what they do, I won’t spoil it for them, athough they do give away the fact that they’re in the dating business, among other things.

In any case, if you’re interested, I suggest you give them a call to get more details; from the limited contact I’ve had, they seem like nice people.

Avid Life Media: Rubyist

Avid Life Media is looking for Rubyists:

• Extensive experience with web development and an excellent understanding of web technologies and databases.
• Ruby experience
• MySQL or Postgres experience.
• Unix experience
• Basic knowledge of Front end development (XHTML/CSS/JS)
• Familiar with OOP principles

The Good
It’s a Ruby job in Toronto, of which there aren’t tons.  I get the impression that Avid is pretty well-funded, and yet small enough that you can make a difference, which is a nice and uncommon combination.  I’ve had a conversation with Raja, and he seems like a nice enough guy, with an opinion on how to build software.

The Bad
The usual.  More information is always better.  I think Avid pays ok, but it’d be easier to tell if they posted salaries.  Where are they located?  What properties would you be working on?  What’s the process?  Tell me more about Avid Life?

When I last heard, Avid had a fair number of non-Ruby properties that might take away from your pure joy of working in Ruby, although this position implies that the work is full-time Ruby, so that may not be a factor.

YMMV
Your mileage may vary significantly when it comes to the actual properties that Avid Life has gone after.  They have a wide variety, like like five limes, where Raja comes from, and some that not everyone would go for, like HotOrNot.com and AshleyMadison.com.  I know a few people who wouldn’t want to be working on those properties, and some who would either not care or even be interested on that basis — you’ll have to decide where you fit.  The fact that Avid Life doesn’t go out of their way to list the work implies to me that they understand the downside.

I also get the impression from their portfolio that you might spend a lot of time working on individually small applications — not that they aren’t relatively high-traffic, just that each one might not require massive functionality.  That’s just an impression, I could be way off-base.

Finally, I’m a little suspicious of companies that don’t tell you much about themselves, and Avid’s front page is basically a brand teaser.

In Summary
If you’re looking to do some Ruby in Toronto and you’re not put off by the subject matter, Avid Life seems like an interesting place to work.

Little Bites: ‘Teach’ Lead, Sapient, Rails, Police

Agilon puts a lot of effort into their job postings.  For instance, they’re looking for a Teach Lead in TorontoUS, ON, CA which is apparently another way to say ‘Detroit, MI’.

Sapient is always looking for people in Toronto, it seems.  They’re still looking for a Solutions Architect and a Manager, Technology, both of whom should apparently be open to frequent overnight travel.

Someone is looking for Rails developers with PHP experience in Toronto.  If I had to guess, I’d say this sounds like Avid Life Media still.

Being a senior developer for the Toronto Police sounds like an odd but possibly interesting experience in its own way.  Unfortunately, it’s public-sector, so senior developer means $70-$80k here.