iCrossing is hiring a Java developer in Chicago

My employer, iCrossing, has opened a search for a new member for the Merchantize team. Here's the description. To apply for the position, visit http://www.iCrossing.com/careers, select U.S. Career Offerings, Jobs by Location, then Jobs in Chicago, IL.

Java Software Engineer (Open Source / Web Analytics / ETL)

JOB DESCRIPTION

We’re a people business.

People are the heart and soul of our company, working every day to make our clients’ marketing programs successful.

At iCrossing, we combine experienced talent with world-class technologies to efficiently create marketing programs that truly perform. With more than 620 professionals in 15 offices in the U.S. and Europe, we are equipped to service the digital marketing needs of large enterprises and growing companies alike.

We’re seeking the talented, the experienced and the exceptional to give our clients the most creative and successful solutions for an ever-changing industry. When we find them, we offer a dynamic working environment, competitive compensation, the opportunity to work on exciting client programs, and occasional bagels.
We are seeking a highly motivated and technically proficient JEE Software Engineer / Software Developer to work on our industry leading and mission critical Paid Media Management (Search Engine Marketing, bid management) product.



Features of the position:
• Work on a high-visibility, high performance product that supports iCrossing’s industry leading SEM practice in a growing and fast moving industry.
• Work closely with all of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, AOL) and their APIs.
• Work in a fast moving and forward thinking development environment that is constantly researching and rapidly implementing the latest technologies.
• Research and participate in the advancement and implementation of open source frameworks and architectures such as SOA/ESB, MapReduce, Grid and Cloud computing, and others.
• Work with an experienced Agile Software Development team in a highly collaborative environment.
• Modern Java Enterprise open source based product stack, Java 6, Spring, Hibernate 3, Webworks/Struts 2, JMS, JUnit, MySQL and more.
• Learn current software development best practices (continuous integration, build automation, test driven development, pair programming, agile estimating and planning, etc)
• Apple MacBook Pro, 24” widescreen monitor, IntelliJ or Eclipse.
• A casual, fun, and creative work environment
Major Job Responsibilities / Accountabilities:
• Write test driven quality code.
• Work closely with your dev team.
• Follow and encourage development best practices.
• Develop knowledge of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) principles and techniques.

Skills/Requirements:
Required Technologies (At least one or more of the following)
• Spring
• Hibernate
• SQL scripts
• Shell Scripting
• Webwork (Struts 2.0)
• Linux / Unix admin
• Junit (required) or TDD (preferred)
• Grid Computing (GridGain preferred)

Bonus Technologies (Preferred any of these)
• MySQL (especially advanced knowledge of replication, storage engines, backup and recovery)
• PERL
• Data warehousing design concepts, ETL
• Mondrian OLTP
• JMS
• Amazon EC2 / S3 / AWS

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:
• BS in Computer Science or equivalent level of experience
• Understanding and/or appreciation for Agile software development methodologies.
• 1+ yrs of professional development experience.
• Familiarity with source control using Subversion
• Familiarity with IDE tools such as Eclipse or IntelliJ
• Must possess effective interpersonal and communication skills and ability to work successfully in a team environment.
• Good organizational and time-management skills.

Do Not Apply if you:
• Do not know Java
• Have no interest in Agile, TDD or Unit testing
• Are close-minded and don’t want to learn new technologies.
• Are more comfortable working on the same technology you did last year.

*ICROSSING IS NOT ACCEPTING RESUMES FROM STAFFING AGENCY PARTNERS AT THIS TIME. THANK YOU.

Recruiter tips: finding software developers

Recently a friend from a company outside of Chicago asked me some advice on how they should go about hiring a java developer. I found myself offering advice on screening techniques for technical people and how not to blow it, and found myself thinking, damn, these are things that professional recruiters should hear.

Despite this economy, the market for programmers seems very hot right now. (Seller's market.) I get contacted by a lot of recruiters all the time. When I'm actually on the job market, I get more of these cold-call emails/phonecalls than I can possibly consider returning. So unfortunately I have to go on their voicemail or email as to whether they are worth my time or not. (First impression is a big deal.) Many people say things that send bad messages, like the job description doesn't make sense (they want strange mixtures of technical and business skills), or there's too much detail on company operations and history at the expense of core details (e.g., what the software development environment is like, whether it's Windows vs Linux vs Mac, what webserver they use, etc.), or they want you to complete some coding test before you even get a how-do-you-do. When recruiters get the message wrong like this, the more senior and experienced people know to stay away, and you get more junior or unqualified people who are willing to go along...and you waste a lot of time discovering that, or even make the mistake of making a bad hiring choice.

So here's my advice. Before you contact any software developer, get a complete job description. Keep the description of the nature of the company's business to no more than 1/3 of the description; the rest should all be technical specifics of the programming core responsibilities. Make sure that part is written by, or at least with the collaboration with, a person qualified to manage that person. Get coached by that person on how to describe that position over the phone. When you find a person to contact, either get them the description in their hands before the phone call, or try to send it to their email address during the phone call. On the phone, don't try to say more than you know. Don't bore the candidate with the history of your recruiting firm---trust me, all recruiting firms histories and mission sound completely identical. Don't ask the candidate to read their resume over the phone to you; do your due diligence and show them that you've digested it already. If you meet the candidate first, don't insult them by making the meeting be about nothing. The recruiters who did the best work for me never asked me to meet them first. Hope that helps!

Goodbye, Chicago Tribune!

I loved working at the Chicago Tribune! Unfortunately I felt it was better for my career to move on and take another opportunity. Here's a photo essay about my experience working there.


It's a beautiful old building with lots of history and class. Being right on Michigan Ave was fun. While all the tourists were gawking at pieces of castles and churches embedded in the walls of the Tribune building, I'd walk right in to go to work. And there were great places to go during lunch, like the nearby Viet Nam memorial on the Chicago River. I got to watch the Cubs' 2008 division-clinching game from the Tribune's box suite. I enjoyed pizza on the building's 22nd floor balcony. One early excitement was our president dumping $1 million cash in singles on the office floor to challenge us to come up with fantastic ideas. The idea was that if our idea could generate a 3:1 ROI, our idea would get funded with that $1 million. (Alas, falling revenues and changing priorities caused them to back off of that initiative.) At the elevators down to my office in Tribune Interactive, Sam Zell placed one of his personal sculptures called "Beaurocratic Shuffle", a fatcat businessman with seven legs. The offices of Tribune Interactive themselves are simply breathtaking. Formerly the location of the printing presses before they moved to the Freedom Center on Halsted street, they now are three-levels of glass meeting rooms and concrete catwalks. (I've included several historical photos of what the space looked like with the printing presses.) The actual content of the work was unlike any job I've been at before. The daily rhythm was dictated by what was happening in the news, because if a big event suddenly drew a lot of traffic to any of the Tribune websites, it could cause problems. It never got boring there, because events like the R. Kelley verdict, the Tim Russert passing, any number of hurricaines, the Sarah Palin announcement, the UAL stock panic, or spikes caused by a Barack Obama photo gallery link appearing on Digg or the Drudge Report, we'd constantly have to suspend whatever project we were working on to fix something. Also, there were interesting technical challenges created by over a dozen different newspapers sharing a common content management system which had new stories being added by the minute. Plus it was a great group of people too, of which several remain friends. So long!