JOBMATCHBOX

Here are this week’s featured jobs. To have yours considered for addition to our features add them to our jobs list.

First off, we are looking for a web developer to re-design and develop a client site and integrate a content management system like Drupal or Joomla into it. Virtual is ok, but only for someone in the DC/MD/VA area. The role is contract, but for the right person (if they are interested) it could have follow-on work or turn into a permanent role.

Lotame in Elkridge, MD is looking for a QA Tech Lead who will be tasked with implementing a testing program in conjunction with the engineering team, but not someone who will be managing a team of testers.

Lotame in Elkridge, MD is looking for a Sr. Software Engineer who join a team of accomplished and well rounded peers who are engaged in object oriented development using Java/J2EE, PHP and MySQL to build the system behind Lotame. Experience with web application development and experience working in a UNIX environment.

Positive Energy in Rosslyn, VA is looking for a web developer with web programming experience in Java and Java web application development frameworks (Spring or Wicket preferred) as well as experience with CSS, XHTML, and HTML. Experience with Ruby on Rails is desired, but not required. Note: their new website just went live so check it out. Also, if you are in Palo Alto they will be participating in the Stanford Spring Career Fair on April 10th.

B-Line Medical is looking for a Flex Developer to help build cutting edge new products. B-Line Medical produces market leading products for the medical simulation and education markets.

I talk to a lot of people thinking about the Bay Area like is the place to be.  There are a lot of hot web properties taking off out there right now, but most of the people who are talking about the bay area are bragging about job offers that they have from companies like Yahoo!  If they started interviewing with them BEFORE the IPO then I’d be impressed, but today that isn’t any more impressive than getting an offer from Microsoft.  While I would love to dissuade them, I’m not so sure that those are the people who are going to contribute to the community.  After all, getting a job with a big (established) company isn’t the point of being in the startup friendly Bay Area is it?  The point is to be in a place where there is a thriving entrepreneurial culture…a place where your contributions might disrupt the market like Facebook and Google have.  And if you choose well and get a little lucky you might even make a few bucks if the company that you are sweating for IPO’s or gets acquired.  I’m pretty sure that the people who are want to work for Yahoo! and Microsoft are not concerned about the future value of their stock options or whether or not those companies make it.

Money isn’t everything, and even the bay area folks know this.  The people behind the big name startups of yesterday are founding companies that are doing philanthropic, green and cool new things like space exploration.

The only thing is that these guys have to head East to get connected with the people in philanthropy, environmentalism, politics, space, etc.  Facebook visited DC and would have skipped the DC tech community had it not been for a well organized community and a mob of networked bloggers.  The reality is that these days the people here on the East coast have ambitions and ideas of their own, so they don’t need to head West.  A recent event called Social Matchbox (www.socialmatchbox.com) hosted here in Washington, DC brought together more than 30 startup companies in one night that represented extremely well.  With crowds like this coming together it will not be long before the money makes it way to the East too.

Today a new startup called FireBall launched in private beta today. FireBall works with Twitter, Google Maps, and Upcoming.org to create a on the fly interactive mobile social network based on your existing network.  The service uses Twitter to determine who you are connected to and then ties you to them so that it can display where you (and they) are on a Google Map.  Additional information on where you are and what you are doing is provided with the help of Upcoming.org.  This is an interesting concept that represents the direction that social networking and wireless devices are headed in.  This is a company to keep an eye on.  The bad news is that so far it only works in the bay area right now.

Here are this week’s featured jobs. To have yours considered for addition to our features add them to our jobs list.

First off, we are looking for a web developer to re-design and develop a client site and integrate a content management system like Drupal or Joomla into it. Virtual is ok, but only for someone in the DC/MD/VA area. The role is contract, but for the right person (if they are interested) it could have follow-on work or turn into a permanent role.

Lotame in Elkridge, MD is looking for a QA Tech Lead who will be tasked with implementing a testing program in conjunction with the engineering team, but not someone who will be managing a team of testers.

Lotame in Elkridge, MD is looking for a Sr. Software Engineer who join a team of accomplished and well rounded peers who are engaged in object oriented development using Java/J2EE, PHP and MySQL to build the system behind Lotame. Experience with web application development and experience working in a UNIX environment.

Positive Energy in Rosslyn, VA is looking for a web developer with web programming experience in Java and Java web application development frameworks (Spring or Wicket preferred) as well as experience with CSS, XHTML, and HTML. Experience with Ruby on Rails is desired, but not required. Note: their new website just went live so check it out. Also, if you are in Palo Alto they will be participating in the Stanford Spring Career Fair on April 10th.

B-Line Medical is looking for a Flex Developer to help build cutting edge new products. B-Line Medical produces market leading products for the medical simulation and education markets.

Clearspring in McLean, VA is looking for a web developer who will contribute their expertise to the development of Web-based tools for our platform, as well as our public-facing website. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to a platform that reaches tens of millions of users monthly and is facilitating the evolution of the distribute Web.

CustomInk.com in McLean, VA is looking for a web developer who will help build new web-based applications using Ruby on Rails, JavaScript and AJAX for use by our customers and internal users as well as extending our existing applications that are built in both Ruby on Rails and Java. The role is one that requires collaboration with peers and internal clients so excellent people and communications skills are essential.

I was reading an article on a content aggregator site that one of my favorite blogs lead me to today. Somewhere near the bottom of the page I found two links:

Mac vs PC - Benchmark Speed Tests (Popular Mechanics)

IBM Launches Pilot Program for Migrating to Macs (Roughly Drafted Magazine)

I didn’t even have to read the stories to get what was going on. Maybe this was because I’ve been using an iPhone over the last year. Or perhaps it was the fact that I keep letting myself get tricked into upgrading Microsoft products that are worse than the ones before, not better.

At any rate, I feel like I’m reaching a personal tipping point where I might make the switch. I wish that Popular Mechanics would have reviewed similarly equipped Linux devices. I have been thinking a lot about whether or not I want to switch to a Mac or just switch to a device running Linux. Macs may be better overall, but they are just too expensive for a small business owner to buy for their team.

I’m also not so sure that I’m on board with the whole consumer thing that Mac is pushing. I enjoy my iPhone, but if someone else came along with a device that had a better keyboard OR something decent with 3G then I’d go for that in a second.

Then there are my reservations about the impact of a shift in the social benefits of where I spend my money. PC’s are a lot less expensive than Macs. But that is just the beginning…Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates on Philanthropy is another animal entirely. Steve Jobs is amassing amazing wealth, but Bill Gates is pouring money into good causes around the world.

I don’t plan to make a switch any time soon, but these articles definitely got me thinking today.

Update:

Microsoft must have read my post!

Today I got the blue screen of death 6 times in a row…

They even followed up with a note in the bottom right corner of my screen telling me that my copy of Vista is not valid…

This video interview of the Twitter team, done by Shel Israel for Fast Company, provides some great insights about the people behind the company. At least three of the people there worked for Odeo previously.

Today I found out that Orkut has apps now, just like everyone else, but somehow I don’t really care. What I do care about is finding ways to get the most out of Twitter. Here are a few tools that you should know about:

Alpha Twitter is tracks which links are most popular on Twitter.

#hastags provides realtime tracking of Twitter hastags

TweetAhead lets you schedule Twitter posts ahead of time. Not quite ready for primetime.

Stammy Script allows you to push your RSS feeds out across Twitter. I’ve seen a lot of people doing this, but I’m not sure whether I like it or not. If too many people start doing it then Twitter will die.

Tweetburner lets you share what happens with the links you share on Twitter.

Twhirl is a great IM like program that allows you to use Twitter without being in a browser window.

TwitBox lets you view and submit tweets, see replies, direct messages, delete your own tweets, and also offers multiple account support. Also had Second Life support. Great idea, but the developer has stopped working on it.

Twitterholic is for people who want to track the top accounts on Twitter.

TwitterSnooze is for people who want to put the breaks on Twitter friends.

Visit the Twitter Fan Wiki for more.

A few days ago I was involved in a panel discussion that covered many of the challenges faced by companies that are just getting started. We covered quite a few topics, but one that sticks out in my mind more than many others is the importance of the pursuit of perfection. I’m far from perfect myself, but I try my hardest to make sure that I do my best at everything I get mixed up in. As a business owner this usually starts with hiring people who are willing to work toward perfection. Believe me, there are plenty of people out there who are content to just show up and get their hours in so that they will get paid.

Consider the following examples of this that I encountered today:

The first time was during a conversation that I was having with a technician from our current DSL Internet provider who managed to get us back up and running after a three week interruption in service. Three previous technicians and more than 14 individuals in the Internet service provider’s call centers were involved in resolving the problem. I ultimately had to get my problem escalated to the Operations Manager and threaten to sue before they finally sent this guy, who knew what he was doing. No matter what the outcome of this situation was, nobody wins. The Internet is now back up and running, but for the last three weeks our employees have had to work on an emergency basis. Outcome #1 is that we will cancel our service. Outcome #2 is that this will cost the provider more than the entire amount of money that they billed us for the short period (3 months) that we used them. Outcome #3 is that we will not use them when we sign up for corporate wireless services in a few weeks. This entire situation could have been avoided had they hired someone who had handled the job right the first time. Perhaps the problem isn’t the person who performed the initial installation (sounds like it was), maybe it was the person who trained them. It is hard to say, but in a customer centric world it is absolutely crucial that companies make sure they hire the best people the first time.

The second situation that made me think about this today came during a phone call with a friend who owns a technology solutions company. Without going into too much detail, their company provides technology consultants and solutions to the government. Sometimes that means that they have to go through others that do too. They ended up involved with another company that they had to go through for a government contract recently, and that company really put the screws to them at the end of the negotiations. For example, the company disclosed their bids to several other bidders in the process (they were not supposed to do this). The other firm also had a lot of what people in the staffing industry like to call “sub-vendors” or “3rd-Parties”. I could talk endlessly about why third-party vendors are disliked or about why they are used (especially by large staffing companies doing work for large companies), but that isn’t the point here. The point I’m trying to make here is that my friend’s company hired a sales representative who arranged this business relationship in the first place based on some really loose associations. Had my friend’s company found someone who was a little more motivated by the quality of their sales dealings then my friend would not have been in this situation. Outcome #1: a lot of time was wasted. Outcome #2: time is money, so a lot of money was wasted - something small business owners don’t have a lot of. Outcome #3: My friend and his team are in a bad mood today which will impact the rest of their activities for the next day or two unless…

At the end of the day, I’m thinking about how perfection in what we do isn’t always achievable, but that the pursuit of it sure helps.

A few users have asked that we add an index of companies listed in the Companies on Jobmatchbox section. Your wish has been granted, check it out here.

You may notice that the list is not comprehensive and that it also heavily emphasizes the Washington, DC Internet and Technology Startup community. This is by design.

You may also notice that company profiles now include a link to Employees on Linkedin.

As we find the time, and as we bring on summer interns, we will be adding in profiles for companies who share their jobs here on Jobmatchbox. We will also be adding additional features that will enhance the user experience. We value user input so please let us know what you would like to see.

In developing the Jobmatchbox and Companies on Jobmatchbox we have kept our focus on providing complimentary resources to those already in existence. We do not want to re-create the wheel or the social network because there are plenty of fantastic teams out there who have already accomplished this. However, we are always looking for opportunities to improve upon what we offer to anyone who uses our site. If you have a product or service that you believe is complimentary to ours then please do not hesitate to let us know. You can send us a note here: email@jobmatchbox.com.

For $25 (less for students) this is an conference hosted by the University of Maryland system that may be worth checking out. It runs from 8:30am-4:30pm. Link to the event website.