I applied for the open Front-End Developer position last Friday. Not knowing whether or not you had already hired for the position, I hastily updated my résumé after not touching it in over four years and submitted the job application form.
Now I’d like to follow up.
First and foremost, I like what you all are doing. Your blog and social media game is on point. You contribute to the open source community. Your website is original and feels authentic. Your work speaks for itself. And most importantly, it seems like you have a tight-knit team that enjoys working together.
These are just some of the things I value in a potential employer.
What I also noticed in my research is that you are not afraid to evolve. After watching Jason’s presentation to AAF Louisville in July of last year to reading Shawn’s blog posts on Iterative Development and Silencio, it’s clear that the company is willing to adapt its process to a more collaborative one that better serves the needs of its clients. I like to see that.
The core principles of the process seem to be intact. Emphasizing a content-first approach, using lightweight design deliverables, appropriately setting expectations and valuing relationships above all else. I agree with all of that.
You must be blushing right now. Enough about you. Now let’s talk about me.
I have been doing front-end development in some form or fashion for 15 years. From using tables and spacer gifs to the Web Standards Project and CSS to responsive design and JavaScript MV* frameworks—I’ve done it all.
As you’ll notice from my résumé, I’ve done a lot of back-end development as well. Whether it’s PHP, Ruby or Python, I can take the code from spec to deployment.
I’m willing to get my hands dirty in just about every step of the process. I’ve interviewed stakeholders, written/diagrammed requirements, designed wireframes and conducted user testing sessions. I am experienced in all aspects of search engine optimization, web analytics and split testing. Hell, I’ve even built production servers from scratch. You probably don’t want me messing around in Photoshop though. I like to leave that work to those way more talented than me.
What about WordPress? I didn’t mention it on my résumé because I’m by no means an expert, but I have set up WordPress instances for clients and have done a small amount of customizations to it in the past. It has been a couple years since I last worked on a project that involved WordPress, but rest assured I can get up to speed quickly.
I don’t have a very active GitHub profile due to the confidential nature of the code I’ve written over the last few years, but I expect that to change soon. It’s a great sign that you’re doing your part with Silencio as well as sharing your coding standards and environment configuration. That will be a big help for onboarding new developers.
As I begin to lay down roots in Louisville, I’m looking to work for a company that I believe in. From what I’ve seen thus far, VIA Studio could be it. And I know you would be more than happy with what I bring to the table.
If you’d like to see code samples, I have plenty of them. I can also get you in contact with folks that can vouch for me and my work. Whatever you need, let me know. I can be reached at nick@haxorize.com or 312-636-5249.