Top Ten Reasons JavaScript Hackers Will Love Working at Inkling
Have you been playing around with the latest technologies in HTML5 & CSS3 and are itching to deploy them in actual applications?
Are you passionate about JavaScript and want to do real software engineering with it?
Do you want to work with a nimble team creating tangible software that helps people and society?
Come join me at Inkling! Inkling brings the world's best content to the iPad with interactivity, social collaboration and simple ease-of-use. No more heavy, expensive textbooks to carry around campus. Inkling textbooks are more interactive, more flexible and cheaper than their print alternatives.
I joined about about three months ago and am loving it. I'm looking to bring in fellow JavaScript hackers from the community to work with. We have huge plans in 2011 focused on the web and we need talented engineers to help make that happen.
One of the best parts of working on Inkling is our freedom to use the latest web technologies, since we target WebKit and newer emerging browsers to exclusion of older technologies. This includes everything from using HTML5, CSS3, and SVG to using newer, nimble micro-frameworks like Backbone.js for MVC, Jasmine.js for testing, and Mustache.js for templating. The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed yet.
In late night talk show host style, here's my top 10 reasons why I love working at Inkling (and you will too!):
UX and Product Design - I've never seen a startup (or even large company for that matter!) so dedicated to the user experience and product design and Getting It Right. There is an extremely talented team of UX people here, which makes me feel better as an engineer that the product and UX for what I'm building is the right one.
Geeks - Inklingers have no qualms admitting they're geeks, reveling in their nerdiness. We have people here with backgrounds in mathematics, science, biology, history, and more. Many of us happily admit to playing role playing games like D&D and even throwing the occasional d20 here at work sometimes. Our CEO lost at a game of Settlers of Catan last week.
Python and Amazon Web Services - There's nothing more productive than getting to code with Python on the server-side, while Inkling's infrastructure is pretty much virtualized using the latest Amazon Web Services like EC2. Both add up to getting more done faster.
Changing the World - I love coming in and knowing I'm making a tangible impact on people's lives by moving education and textbooks into the future.
Laughing - Even though there is a tangible sense that all of us are changing the world, I feel like I'm laughing all day long.
Unit Testing, Continual Builds, and GitHub - Creating great products requires a commitment to solid engineering and tools. If you've been exposed to unit tests, continuous integration, and GitHub you know how much all of them rock and make programing much more fun and productive.
Shipping Software - We've already shipped multiple versions of the iPad client; this is important, since having great ideas is one thing but real artists ship.
Small Team - You can actually get to know everyone here, and everyone involved in what you are doing sits right nearby. After having been in a big company myself recently there is nothing more refreshing than working in a small one and experiencing how awesome it is!
Great Location in San Francisco - I live in San Francisco; my old commute at my job was close to three hours round trip if the traffic was bad. Now its about 15 minutes by public transportation or a bit longer if I want to bike to work! The Inkling offices are about two blocks away from Union Square, so it's a great area.
Webkit - There's nothing better than developing for the leading edge of the web rather than the trailing edge. Imagine getting to use the latest technologies as a programmer rather than having to help IE 6 play catch up. It's awesome and transformative.
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