As LibraryThing learns again and again, hiring hackers in Maine is hard. So we’re renewing our offer—find us an employee and get $1,000 worth of books.
Skills. We’re looking for a smart, capable, passionate hacker/programmer. We work primarily in PHP and JavaScript, with some Python thrown in. We use a lot of MySQL. We have a startup mentality.
I’ve given up on listing skills and requirements. We want someone who will kicks ass immediately or very soon after the hire. The rest is window-dressing.
We are only looking for someone in or around Portland, Maine. If you’re super-excited about working for LibraryThing from home, go ahead and send a resume, but it’ll go in a different pile.
$1,000 for an Indie. With southern Maine losing bookstores fast, we want the money to, well, keep ’em here. So, the winner gets a $1,000 gift certificate to Longfellow Books, Books, Etc. or any other independent bookseller, new or used. If you’re not local, we’ll write the check to your local indie.
Rules. To qualify, you need to connect us to someone. Either you introduce them to us—and they follow up with a resume and etc.—or they mention your name in their email (“So-and-so told me about LibraryThing”). You can recommend yourself, but if you found out about it on someone’s blog, we hope you’ll do the right thing and make them the beneficiary.
Small print: Our decision is final, incontestable, irreversible and completely dictatorial. It only applies when an employee is hired for a full-time salary job, not part-time, contract or for a trial period (which we often do first). If we don’t hire someone for the job, we don’t pay. The contact must happen in the next month. If we’ve already heard of or from the candidate, or the situation is otherwise unclear, we may split the money up. Void where prohibited. You pay taxes, and the hidden tax of shelving. Tim Spalding and his family are not eligible, but other LibraryThing employees are.
Labels: employment, jobs, maine, portland
Why do you want a hacker?
Hacker has one meaning for programmers, and another outside. To the latter, hacker is some sort of negative term for people who break into computers—an idea largely derived from popular media. To the former hacker is a smart and creative programmer.
See http://www.paulgraham.com/gba.html for a good post on the word.
This makes me wish I still lived in Maine. I even lived in Portland! Alas, I was old four at the time, and by no means the hacker I am today. Oy vey!
I totally read that title meaning a Maine-based hacker used a PHP exploit to purchase $1,000 worth of books.
I also read the title as referring to a thieving book-worm hacker… Now I'm wondering what books the guy would have stolen if he actually existed. Any thoughts?
Portland? Too far from Caribou. 😉
Although I'm not looking for work, actual job seekers might like to know the salary range for this non-entry level position. Best of luck.
Employees qualify? I'm on it.
An RFC on a (seemingly pervasive) Portland perception: What qualifies as local?
It seems (other) companies in Portland find Portsmouth, NH too far (50 min drive) to qualify for a local position. I think the view down the coast casts a different perspective than the view up. Is local a keyword for 'lives in Portland', or perhaps 'does not live in NH'?
Its hard to tell if its geographic or 'geoperceptive'.
Insights?
Mark
Where does the term "hacker" come from anyways?
For the definitive history of the term, read Hackers, by Steven Levy.
wtf? i need a jobby freddy. lost my job n stock from AMZ. Bumming bout it cuz i lovd that job. i left unfortunately b4 i got the pink slip cuz i had accrued the darn pts. fightn the state of appeals n yes the ansr was affirmative. i tink ur job hoax. ?
urania1: What you're talking about are crackers—people who crack systems and cause trouble just because they can. Hackers, for those of us who have enough gray hair, are the guys you want to have on yer team 'cos they're the ones who'll crank out the elegant solutions. The only drawback is that you sometimes have to hire a translator and a PR specialist to run interference for the hacker, 'cos many of the best ones exhibit Asperger-spectrum tendencies and can't be allowed to go loose without handlers.
Angela– Given the nature of Library Thing, I suspect an unstated job requirement may be actual literacy in English. I'm just sayin'…