Hey ya’ll,
There are three + jobs open at the startup where I’ve been working for
a month, LOLapps. Descriptions are below! I really like working here.
Interested parties should contact our recruiter – Mary Lee Stephens at
ml@lolapps.com
Interviews here are pretty serious multi-step affairs so don’t get in
unless you’re serious. You’ll probably get drilled. ;-)
Tip: Keep in mind that most people in SF don’t know automatically what
ITP is so don’t use it as shorthand for “I am a badass” in your cover
letters here or anywhere on the west coast. I am always having to
explain to people where I went to school. :-)
-Sarah
About LOLapps
We’re a young and scrappy startup in the social application space.
We’re still fairly stealthy but you can read a bit more about us at
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2008/09/09/white-label-app-platform-lolapps-raises-45-million-from-polaris-ventures/.
It’s reasonably accurate as far as these type of things go.
Here are a few bullets on us, because who doesn’t love bullets?
– We’re profitable, which makes us pretty much the opposite of your
typical echo chamber-spawned Si Valley startups. We’re not in this to
win a pat on the head from Michael Arrington.
– We raised $4m in an A round with Polaris Ventures and value-add
angels including Ron Conway and Ariel Poler.
– We’re only 14 people. You can make a MASSIVE impact here.
– Our office is in San Francisco, currently the in the old Yelp space,
but we plan to upgrade our digs soon (we’ll still be in SF).
– We have all the typical startup stuff (free food, Rock Band, exposed
brick walls, etc).
– If you like beer, check out our kitchen: http://lolapps.com/office.html.
SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Responsibilities
– Work with product management to break down high level goals into
tasks and timelines
– Design and implement large chunks of the product roadmap
– Mentor junior engineers
– Have a point of view on the product and be willing to debate it
Requirements
– Intelligent but not arrogant
– Care more about the company and your group’s goals rather than personal glory
– Desire and ability to quickly learn new languages and technologies
– 2+ years of experience as a software engineer
– Appreciate owning a full spectrum of responsibilities from backend
(SQL, memcache, etc) to frontend (JavaScript, FBML, FBJS)
– Interested in using / learning Python
– Detail-oriented: When someone sends you an email about something it
automagically gets handled with no need for a follow-up
– Interested in working in the social networking space
– Comfortable working in an environment where ideas are thought of,
described, and executed within a span of hours to days
Desired Qualifications
– Computer science or equivalent degree from a top computer science program
– 1+ year working on a consumer facing web product with a high level of scale
– Strong product sense
– You write software for fun. You’ve worked on projects of your own
outside of school or work
– Entrepreneurial
USER INTERFACE/USER EXPERIENCE DESIGNER
Responsibilities
– Work with engineering and product management to create and
communicate effective page flows, page layouts, and product
organization
– Implement HTML / CSS: If you don’t know them that’s fine, but you
have to be serious about learning them
– Basic visual design (we are not hiring you to be a graphic artist,
but if you are, hey, bonus)
Requirements
– Not a perfectionist: You know how and are comfortable with taking
shortcuts to get the best bang for your buck rather than shooting for
your dream UI
– Results-driven: If a “click here” call to action performs better
than a call to action that isn’t “soooOoo 1999!”, you go with “click
here” anyway.
– Metrics-driven: You are familiar with, and enjoy using, analytics
tools as a primary research tool driving your design ideas. We are
analytical, not gut or design driven.
– Organized: You create order from chaos. You can organize processes
and webpage flows whenever necessary but you don’t fix what’s not
broken.
– Comfortable working in an environment where ideas are thought of,
described, and executed within a span of hours to days
Desired Qualifications
– HCI degree from a top 4-year program or equivalent level of understanding
– 1-5 years of UI / UX experience with at least 1 year of experience
in consumer web software. We will consider the rare fresh grad who has
a hardcore get-it-done attitude (and proof of this on their resume).
PRODUCT MANAGER
Responsibilities
– Define and maintain product roadmap.
– Communicate ideas via mockups.
– Define and measure success metrics.
– Build consensus for your ideas.
– Double as a project manager to make sure your ideas are being
executed in a timely fashion.
Requirements
– Scrappy: You find a way to get things done no matter what. If your
web designer is busy you’ll create a pixel-perfect UI; if your
engineers are busy you’ll check in the change; if you don’t have a QA
team (heh, *ahem*) you’ll test the deploy.
– Technical: You’re not afraid to talk algorithms with engineers or
check minor modifications into source control
– Results-driven: You care more about winning in the marketplace than
whether your friends think what you do is cool or not. If an ugly UI
performs better under your success metrics you go with what works, not
what looks good.
– Organized: You create order from chaos. You can organize processes
and webpage flows whenever necessary but you don’t fix what’s not
broken.
– Comfortable working in an environment where ideas are thought of,
described, and executed within a span of hours to days
Desired Qualifications
– CS / symbolic systems / MS&E degree from a top CS school (Stanford,
Berkeley, MIT, Caltech, CMU, Waterloo, etc) or equivalent level of
technical understanding.
– 1-5 years of product management experience with at least 1 year of
experience in consumer web software. We will consider the rare fresh
grad who has a hardcore get-it-done attitude (and proof of this on
their resume).
—