Avast ye Hackers!
A crash course in how SparkFun's IT department went from total amateur hour to... not-as-amateur hour.... and how we're hiring for a couple of IT positions by unconventional means.
Like all branches of the multi-branch tree-beast that SparkFun has grown into over the years, IT has developed very organically and at a varying pace. It started years ago when there was no concept of "IT" at SparkFun and I was brought on to do minor things like adding those little color bubbles to the website.
Now I'd be lying if I said some of the earliest tweaks to the product pages and checkout were not developed on the live production site. Back then nothing was under version control and there was no local copy for testing. Working without a net... good times.
Before long IT was a full time gig for one person.Then there was too much to do, so I hired my first minion (who's now risen to the rank of Senior Developer).Then I bought some stuff, hired more people, and bought some more stuff, and hired even more people. And so it goes. Looking back on it all it feels almost like geologic history, complete with a mass extinction or two.
Now things are rolling along nicely. There's a big release due out in the next month or two with some tantalizing new public features (it's in beta testing right now). We moved to a big, bright new space on the quiet north end of the building and have the Giant Nintendo Controller hooked to to the AVC scoreboard for maximum awesomeness. IT's to-do list is only five or six years long, and life is good.
This is about where all you hackers come in. It's time to HIRE!
We're ready to bring on a dedicated Systems Administrator and at least one more full time PHP Developer. It's a good time to work at SparkFun and a great time to be in IT. If you've ever thought it would be nice if SparkFun paid you for a change and you have boast-worthy sysadmin chops or consider yourself a real programmer, now's your chance.
A word of caution though: don't just fire off a resume in an email. What fun is that? The price of admission here isn't quite so cheap.
Instead, you'll need to clone a public git repository, fork it, push your contributions to it and publish it where we can see it (or otherwise give us credentials to access it). It may sound like a lot of work for just for a chance at a job but a seasoned hacker should be able to fire off a quick application in the same amount of time it might take to write a stodgy cover letter.
So then!
SparkFun PHP Developer
git://github.com/sparkfun/hacker-application.git SparkFun Systems Administrator git://github.com/sparkfun/sysadmin-application.git
And please... take time to show off the embarrassing extremes of your geek cred.
It can only help your chances.
