I've been employed as a PHP developer since 2003. Since then I've been very lucky; every role I've had has avoided churning out the classic ten-page websites. Instead, it's been "let's understand this company, let's understand their business and let's build something so that when they start using it, they don't know how they lived without it".
A few years ago, I decided to setup Diginuity which continues that specialism: a technical agency focused on delivering business applications. Since I started, I've loved the response I get from clients for providing an honest, reliable, approachable service.
It's decision time now. I can either keep the business a one-man-band, or I can start to build a team. I love working with people who take pride in their work. I love seeing what a team can achieve, so let's do it; let's build a team.
I don't want to take over the world. I want to have just enough people so that we can rely on each other, take pride in our work and delight clients. I want to push myself (and staff!) so that they feel they need to bring their brains to work with them. I want to reward staff to the best of my ability.
Overall, people should enjoy their jobs. They should feel like they can make a direct contribution towards the company's messaging, brand and success.
Things I look for in a developer:
- You can communicate openly with me
- You can communicate openly with others
- You are (relatively) organised
- You are willing to ask for help when you get stuck
- You have a passion for your craft and take pride in what you do
- You can accept the commercial reality of technical debt:
- Clients change their minds and they are welcome to do so
- You can accept that your implementation of feature X is academically imperfect and that's OK because it does the job for now.
- The 8th letter of the alphabet is pronounced
'aytchand notHaytch
Things which I don't think are important in a developer:
- If you prefer to use Windows, Linux, OSX, RISCOS - I don't care, provided it works on the target platform when we're reviewing, deploying, etc.
- How many github stars you've got
- Whether you have experience with 10 frameworks or 1
- If you use Vagrant or just one monolithic, precarious development environment
- Whether you have sysadmin experience or not
- Whether you use PHPStorm or vim
- Whether you use tabs or spaces ... seriously though, not tabs.
This role is not for someone who wants an on-site gym and cinema screen. This job is for someone who likes the idea of being able to start something, shape something, create something.
So you can either join me in my home office 20 minutes from Preston, Lancashire (there is a desk here, it's heated and there's a big window) or, you can work remotely if you have demonstrable experience of being able to do so. I want to look at office space very soon so, assuming you're relatively local, let's try to make sure our commute is as pleasant as possible.
The budget for the salary is modest (~£25k) and I'm offering a profit share to be reviewed annually. I've currently budgeted for 10%. I've never worked anywhere that's offered an annual bonus so I'd like to be the first to instigate it. I'm easy on start and finish times provided that you get a ~32 hours of high-quality, billable client-hours in per week. That said, we clearly need to cross paths at some point during the working week, but you get the idea.
Each employee will be able to decide how to spend the "employee setup budget" (amount is TBD) which can be used to buy a laptop, monitor, keyboard, etc.
Oh, and you need to be legally allowed to work within the United Kingdom.
If any of what I've said sounds fun send an email to letsgo@diginuity.com and let's have a chat.