This is a cry for help. No, really. Our groovy little Unit is awash in cool
projects and we need a world-class designer/developer to join our team. If
this describes you and you're in the Dallas area Metroplex, heed the clarion call!
But wait! Let me first describe the kind of person we’re looking
for and then describe how we at Unit get our groove on. We’re pretty
particular about most things and our clients are very particular.
If after reading the following you’re compatible with both sides of
this equation, we would certainly like to talk to you.
Basic info on the position
First of all, we’re in Plano, Texas (in the Dallas Metroplex). This
position is for full-time contract-to-hire and we’re primarily looking
for someone to work on-site in our office. We may consider remote candidates,
but only as a second choice.
Salary is competitive. At present we offer no insurance or 401K benefits. We’re a bootstrapped
startup, for goodness sake. Those things are surely coming, but not for
a while yet.
You
Skills
We’re looking for someone who is a formidable Web designer, with particular
emphasis on interface design skills directly supported by a deep and
clear understanding of the many facets of user experience. This means
that we’re looking for a designer who is essentially a junior psychologist;
who knows what makes people tick, knows how different sorts of people
prefer to interact with interfaces in differing contexts, and knows
how to design for specific contexts.
We’re looking for a designer who, in addition to the above, knows how
to discover a client’s spectrum of business needs and desires, knows how
to discover the client’s brand needs and constraints, and then produce
designs that balance these elements elegantly—all the while remaining
true to the viewer/user needs, desires, and expectations.
We’re looking for a designer who is comfortable running a discovery or
kickoff meeting while sitting at the table with the CEO of a billion dollar
corporation. We need someone who knows precisely what value he/she brings
to the project and can confidently convey that information to a room full
of skeptical corporate middle managers; communicating in a compelling
and convincing manner. This is not a position of design obscurity. You
will be a point-person on every project in which you’re involved, and
you’ll interact directly with the client.
You should be comfortable playing with sketches before you touch a digital
tool. You must be practiced at writing your XHTML and CSS from scratch,
by hand. You must be well-versed in the conventions of Web standards,
and particularly with semantic markup and modern CSS and cross-browser
considerations. Bonus if you’re comfortable writing JavaScript and/or
playing with various JS libraries, or if you’re practiced at CMS integrations.
While I do the bulk of the project management, our new team member should
be capable of and practiced at running a project solo, from beginning
to end.
Education
Princeton, Community College, or Hard Knocks; doesn’t matter. Your
diploma won’t be doing any work around here. But you must be educated,
either formally or self-driven. You must be highly articulate, and as
comfortable conversing with captains of industry as you are conversing
with your buddies.
Tools
We need someone who is technically proficient in the Adobe/Macromedia
suite of graphics tools, focusing primarily on Photoshop/Fireworks.
For XHTML and CSS development, whatever tool you prefer is fine.
Work Habits
We understand that creative people work differently than most other
people. Whatever your approach to the workday, we’re likely simpatico.
But we at UI don’t miss project deadlines. If you’re comfortable missing
a deadline now and then, please do not consider working with us. Punctuality,
in all of its forms, is essential to our work here.
Gear
Bonus if you have your own badminton racquet, baseball glove, or Frisbee.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy …and makes Jill no firecracker
either.
Us
Angela and I started Unit Interactive with a very clear purpose and vision.
We want to work in a manner that we know to be best for us and for our
clients, and we want to focus on the work that allows us to bring the
most value and benefit to our clients. So we concentrate on what we do
best and let other competent professionals take care the things we’re
less proficient at.
We therefore regularly turn down projects. We’re not the right consultancy
for every need and we don’t take projects where we are not able to provide
substantial benefit to the client. We’re not in business to fill up our
project queue; we’re in business to provide effective design and quality
work. We don’t take projects where we’re not capable of or somehow prevented
from doing these things.
We take our work very seriously, but ours is a very un-serious office.
After all, Unit is a company founded by designers. Being creative professionals
necessitates a different environment and approach to work than is appropriate
for other professionals. We get this. We work hard, play hard, and work
…different.
We need to grow. We want to grow. But we want to grow the right way.
We have far more work offered to us than we could possibly take and we
want to have more opportunity to take on good projects. At present, we’re
a very small enterprise and so we can’t offer the sorts of benefits to
our team members that larger companies can. But we aim to change that
and hope to find the right people to travel that road with us.
If all of this sounds like a good fit for you and you think you’re a
good fit for us, and you’re in the Dallas Metroplex, we want to hear from
you. If you’d like to talk with us about this, please first or simply send us a contact form from
the UI site, and we’ll then proceed with more
direct contact.
C’mon people, work with me here. Seriously.
