Rare Earth Interactive - the creative drives the technology

Hi there, web pro (or wannabe-pro)! We have some questions for you:

• Do you like living on the leading edge of website design and production?
• Do you smile when you see clean readable code and cringe at the sight of table, font, or frame tags? (while privately saying to yourself, "Geez, what were they thinking? That’s so 2001!")
• Do seed terms like "HTML5," "CSS," "mobile browsing," "browser standards," and "responsive web design" live at the heart of your Google alerts?
• Are you a fan of A List Apart?
• Do you live online and do your best, most inspired work in a place of your choosing or outside of "normal" business hours?
• Do you appreciate the freedom to make your own decisions within a broad operational framework with other team members, and at the same time take personal pride in exceeding the expectations of your peers?
• Do you like being asked "how can we do this better?" and then come back with an innovative answer?
• Does the idea of working with powerful applications to create powerful solutions for high-profile accounts appeal to you? 
• Can you work with Fireworks and Dreamweaver? Are you comfortable reading and picking apart code to build exciting templates?

If the answers to these questions are "yes," then we may have an opportunity for you!

Rare Earth Interactive is looking for a smart, capable, dedicated, nimble-minded web site producer to fulfill a sudden need for additional talent, on a contract-to-permanent basis. 

Your commitment will be between 12 and 20 hours per week over the next 8-12 weeks, and if you perform the way we expect you'll perform, there's a good chance we'll invite you to become a permanent part of our team on a full-time basis.

In the process, you'll learn state-of-the-art techniques for producing applications-powered websites that our customers manage themselves - and you don't even have to be a programmer to do it. Our development team already has that covered.

Here's what we expect you to know:

• How to slice up a web site layout into functional HTML code, using standards-based methodologies (note: we prefer Adobe Fireworks for this).
• How to develop inside a CMS framework. Experience with Wordpress, Expression Engine, etc. is a plus.
• How to write and debug raw HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

Here's what will set you apart from the pack:

• Knowing how to create code that looks and works well in the 6 most popular desktop web browsers.
• Knowing how to use various JavaScript frameworks (like jQuery).
• Demonstrating that you know the meaning of the terms "responsive web design" and "usability," with at least one live web site you've done.
• Demonstrating that you're able to change directions in a reasonable amount of time, if (or when) specifications change.
• Owning an iPhone or Android device.
• Favorable references from customers, clients, or instructors (yes, we do hire college students and recent grads).
• You're presently in (or looking to relocate to) the Buffalo/Niagara region of New York State (not required, but a definite plus for both you and us).

Here's what you'll love about working with us:

• We're a small shop with big ideas and big projects, and most of our work comes from outside the Buffalo/Niagara region. These are among the most important reasons that we've been a vital interactive design shop for the past 16 years.
• We believe that "normal" is a setting on a household appliance. We hate "normal," and believe the "normal" workplace environment is an outmoded idea. So we've created a results-oriented (and virtual) work environment that lets us work when we want, and where we want. The team members who meet our project milestones with an acceptable (or superior) work product, while being reasonably available for last minute changes, never ever hear anyone complain that they’re not "in the office." The office is wherever we happen to be.
• We embrace the ideas of these guys: Jason Fried in "Rework," Eric Ries in "The Lean Startup," Steve Krug in "Don't Make Me Think!," Daniel Pink in “Drive,” and Jim Collins in “Good to Great.”
• We meet as a team just three times a week: online on Mondays and Wednesday (for 15 minutes) and Fridays face to face for two hours. Lunch at one of Allentown’s great restaurants is on the company every Friday!
• We have a portfolio of top-flight customers that give us the freedom to innovate when there's a solid business case for the innovation. You'll never be bored with the work you do, and you'll come away with more knowledge and more skills than you came in with.
• You'll be working from solid project specifications that derive from a proven development process. This means you'll know the direction you're going in and what's expected in the end product, before you ever write a single line of code.