Looking for Employee #1 at raywenderlich.com!

Update 2/2/13: We are happy to announce that we have filled the Employee #1 position with an amazing developer and author. Welcome, Brian Moakley!

As you know, we are working hard to keep improving this site and make it even more amazing for developers across the world.

But to keep growing and improving, we need your help! At this time, we are looking for:

1. Employee #1! That’s right – after three years of running this site, we are happy to announce that we are now looking to hire our our first ever Full-Time employee to help this site grow!
2. Talented tutorial writers. We are always looking for the best developers and writers to join the Tutorial Team – especially those who are comfortable writing on the coolest and most advanced topics.
3. A technical editor. Are you a talented iOS developer with an eye for detail? We are looking for a second technical editor to help make each tutorial on this site the best it can be!

Keep reading to find out more about why we’re looking for help in the first place, and to learn if any of these positions might be a good match for you! :]

Why We Need Help

Back in January 2010, I started this blog and wrote a post titled What’s This Blog About?, thinking that this would just be my personal blog. Back then the raywenderlich.com team looked kinda like this:

Things have changed a lot since then. :] This site has really taken on a life of its own – we now have over 60 team members in 30 countries!

Here in the US, this is the time of the year where we practice giving thanks. And here at raywenderlich.com we have a lot to be thankful for this year:

• An elite team of Tutorial Writers who have joined together to share their knowledge and experience with developers around the world.
• Top-notch editors and technical editors who make sure that every tutorial on this site reaches the high level of quality you know and love.
• An amazing group of translators who are busy translating the tutorials on this site into over 10 different languages!
• Generous forum moderators who donate a lot of their own time helping out other developers who are just starting out.
• A great Reader’s Apps Reviewer who helps you get exposure and recognition for your apps each month.
• And most of all, the most amazing readers! You are constantly sharing your time and knowledge with other readers in the forums, and helping to support this site by purchasing products and recommending the site to others. Since this blog started, readership has gone from a meager 20K pageviews/month to a whopping 1.6 million+ pageviews/month! You guys rule!

As you can see, even though this site bears my name, it is no longer about me. It is about you, and the community we are building together.

What This Blog Is Really About

These days, what this blog is really about is: helping each other reach our dreams. Whether you’re:

• …from another platform trying to move into mobile development
• …yearning to quit your job and go “indie,” or start a contracting business
• …trying to develop the app of your dreams
• …trying to become more involved in the community, get book deals, or speak at conferences
• …or just eager to continually learn and improve your knowledge

We’re here for you! In fact, we’re all here for each other – I believe together, with a spirit of cooperation, we can make everyone’s lives and apps better!

We happen to do this by writing high-quality programming tutorials. My goal is to take the coolest and most challenging topics and make them easy for everyone to learn – so that we can all make amazing things!

Today, we’re primarily focused on iOS, with a side of Android and Mac, but tomorrow it might be something different. The platform doesn’t matter – the important thing is learning and growing together! :]

Helping This Site Grow

As you can see, this site has grown a lot, but this is only the beginning of what it could become. I have even bigger dreams for this site, and a lot of ideas for how we can make it even more valuable for developers across the world.

But at this point, I’ve taken things about as far as I can by myself. I need some help so we can continue to grow and improve – that’s why we’re looking for our first ever full-time employee to work closely with me to make this site even more amazing.

In addition for looking for a full-time employee, we are also looking for more writers for the Tutorial Team, and a second technical editor. Click to jump to any position you’re particularly interested in!

1. A Full-Time Employee: Full time, obviously! :]
2. Tutorial Team Members: Informal, very part time, contracting position
3. A Technical Editor: Informal, very part time, contracting position

 

1) A Full-Time Employee

First and most importantly, we are very happy to announce that we are looking for our first ever full-time employee!

One of the cool things about this position is you can work from home! So it doesn’t matter where you live, as long as you’re authorized to work in the US. (Sorry to our readers who are abroad – hiring people outside the US is a bit complicated for a small company like us.)

Your primary responsibility will be to handle most of the administration of this site (coordinating the team, editing, writing, and updating tutorials, customer support, programming new features for the site’s backend, web design, system administration, and more) – and you might help me a bit with my own iOS projects as well. It will be a mix of writing, leadership, learning, and programming.

Right now I can afford to pay a junior to mid-level developer’s salary, but not much more than that. So I’m looking for a junior to mid-level developer with these Five Essential Qualities:

1. An excellent writer. One of your primary responsibilities will be editing and writing tutorials on this site. As such, you have to be a top-notch writer. The kind of person who always got A’s on papers in high school, high scores on verbal SATs, loves to read, and probably took writing/English classes in college for fun.
2. Very good with people. In this job, you will be working with a lot of people – readers, Tutorial Team members, editors, forum moderators, and more. This means it is essential that you are friendly, patient, and good at working with others.
3. A love of learning. Due to the nature of this job, you will constantly be learning new things. I’m looking for someone who loves to learn and develop their skills. The kind of person who reads tutorials like those on this site for fun. :]
4. A good developer. You also need to be a good developer – but it doesn’t matter what platform you have experience in. Since you’re a very good learner, between this site and my assistance, you’ll have no trouble picking up iOS. :] Also note that being an “excellent” developer is not a requirement, because I realize your on-the-job experience might be limited at this point in your career.
5. In for the long haul. You are literally going to be Employee #1 at Razeware LLC, beyond Vicki and myself. As such, you will be incredibly important with respect to how this company and this website fare in the long run. I am looking for someone to be my “right-hand guy/gal,” who believes in what we’re trying to accomplish, and who wants to be part of this for the long haul as this company grows.

The above five points are key, but there are also some Bonus Qualities you might have. Specifically, experience and talent with any of the following aren’t required, but would be a big plus:

• Art/design
• Web/Wordpress/PHP/MySQL development
• Linux system administration
• iOS development

Do you meet these criteria? If so, here are the Top Five Reasons Why You Should Apply for this position!

1. A Completely Unique Opportunity. I believe this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Think to yourself – how many other sites are building a community centered on high-quality developer education like this, that have grown organically, without any outside investors? And how many of those do you have the chance to join as Employee #1, where you can make such a huge impact on the future?
2. Get Paid to Learn. If you like to learn, this is the job for you. Part of your job will be to learn new things and write about them, and to learn new things by editing others’ tutorials. You will constantly be developing your skills!
3. Be a Huge Part of the Community. By working for this site, you will become a well-known member of the development community. You will speak at conferences. You will write books. You’ll make friends with some of the coolest guys and gals in the industry. People will recognize you and come up to introduce themselves. People will throw you parades. (OK, maybe not that last one, but 4/5 isn’t bad!) ;]
4. Be An Indie – Without the Risk. This is such a small company that it’s pretty much the same thing as being an indie developer – but without the risks of being on your own! You’ll get to set your own hours, work from home, work on small projects that you can complete quickly, and work on small apps. But you’ll have a steady paycheck – and benefits like health insurance, vacation, and an IRA!
5. This Job is Fun! I’ve never had a job as cool as this one, and now that I’m “spoiled,” it would be really hard to go back to a “normal” job. :] It’s so much fun to make money by learning, working with a bunch of talented developers, making cool stuff, and at the end of the day, helping a lot of people! Every day is a fresh and interesting batch of challenges, and I think you will love it too! :]

 

2) Tutorial Team Members

If you’d like to help out this site on a more part-time/informal basis, you should consider joining the Tutorial Team!

We already have a bunch of great people on the Tutorial Team, but we could always use more talented writers.

I have to warn you, though – we’re getting pretty selective for who comes aboard. At this point, we are only looking for advanced-level developers with particularly good writing skills to join the team.

Here are some examples of advanced-level topics we’re currently looking for authors to explore:

• How to Make an App Like Paper
• Fluid Simulation in Cocos2D Tutorial
• Core Data + iCloud: Beginning to Advanced
• Artificial Intelligence in Games Tutorial Series
• Developing the Server Side of a Newsstand App

If you feel you have sufficient experience to write on one of these subjects (or a topic of similar complexity), Tutorial Team membership might be for you!

There is no better place to write tutorials on the Internet than raywenderlich.com.

Here’s why – by joining the Tutorial Team, you’ll receive the following benefits (in addition to learning & helping others, of course!):

• Eyeballs. This site gets a ton of traffic – as mentioned earlier, over 1.6 million pageviews per month and growing! When you publish a tutorial here, it will get read a lot, and people will love you for it. They will tweet your post, comment it on the forums, and give you feedback. You can be sure that a lot of people will notice and enjoy your hard work.
• Tutorial Polish. When you submit a tutorial to raywenderlich.com, we will personally work with you to polish your tutorials to a high level of quality. Your tutorial will go through three edit passes: a tech edit, an edit, and a final pass edit. In the end, your tutorial will look much better than when you first submitted it, making you look really good! :]
• Writing Training. When we are done editing your tutorial, we will send you detailed feedback on how you can improve your tutorials in the future. This will help make you a better developer and writer.
• Personal Exposure. At the end of any tutorial you write, you can include your picture and a link to any site you would like for exposure (example). In addition, your will be featured on the About page, the raywenderlich.com Team Twitter list, and even the sidebar of the site!
• Money! The first tutorial you write to join the Tutorial Team is not paid, but after that you will be paid for your tutorials as long as you stay on the Tutorial Team. We offer the highest rates in the industry.
• Special Opportunities. Members of the Tutorial Team get access to opportunities not available to anyone else, such as contributing to our books and products, writing starter kits, working on team projects, and much more.
• Contracting Opportunities. Members of the Tutorial Team share contracting opportunities we hear about with the rest of the team – a great way to find out about more work.
• Free Stuff! And as a final bonus, joining the Tutorial Team will get you a lot of free stuff! You’ll get a free copy of all of the products we sell on the site, and some license codes for some popular development tools – over $250 in value total!

Think this sounds like a good match for you? Skip to the end of this post to find out how to apply!

 

3) A Technical Editor

And last but not least, we have one more position we’re looking to fill – a technical editor.

To see if this is a good match for you, ask yourself the following questions:

• Are you an experienced iOS developer who enjoys learning new things?
• Do you have an eye for detail?
• Do you enjoy helping people learn and improve as developers and writers?
• Are you dependable, responsible, and a hard worker?

If you said yes to most of these questions, you might be the person we’re looking for! :]

As a tech editor, you’ll make the first edit pass on tutorials submitted to this site. You’ll take a “hands on/value added” approach, actively testing and improving the tutorial so it reaches the high level of quality we expect.

As a technical editor, you’d:

• Learn a ton. Being a technical editor forces you to carve out learning time in your schedule, which can be difficult to do otherwise, due to the demands of a day job!
• Have a huge impact on the site. Through your editing, you’d have a huge impact on each tutorial you worked on, helping authors to be better writers and our readers to better understand the material. You’ll love comparing the “before” and “after” to see what a difference you made!
• Get a lot of exposure. You’d receive exposure through the site similar to a Tutorial Team member, as explained in the previous section. Even better, you’d get to know each member of the Tutorial Team, their experience level and writing style, and work with me more closely than just about anyone else. These contacts may prove to be invaluable!
• Get access to special opportunities. We occasionally come out with books and starter kits on this site, and where do you think we look for technical editors for those? :]
• Get a ton of free stuff. As mentioned in the previous section, you’ll get a ton of free stuff by being a technical editor, including all of the products we sell on the site as long as you stay on the team!
• Get paid! We may not pay as well as iOS contracting work, but we do pay a significant amount for each tech edit performed. So basically, you’re getting paid to learn! :]

If you think you might be a good candidate for technical editor, skip to the end of this post to find out how to apply!

 

Apply Now!

If this any of these positions are for you, please contact me and let me know:

1. (If applying as Employee #1): Are you authorized to work in the U.S.?
2. Which position(s) interest you.
3. Why you are interested.
4. Why you think you have the right qualifications for the position(s).
5. Include links to any apps you’ve made (or web sites, portfolion, etc).
6. Include links to anything you’ve written (articles, books, etc).
7. (If applying as Employee #1): Include a link to your resume.

Even if none of these positions are for you, please help spread the word! Finding the right person for each position (especially our first full-time employee) is really important for the future of this site.

Thank you for your consideration of these positions, and/or for sharing the word! I’m looking forward to seeing this site continue to develop and grow. :]