John Polacek

Chicago Web Developer

Senior Software Engineer at VEG

Shipping open source on Github

Follow me at @johnpolacek

I Wrote Our Developer Job Description

Originally published on 5/18/2016

We’re hiring a new developer, and my boss asked me to “gussy up” the job description. I love working with great people, so I’m happy help that happen.

I tried to capture a little of the flavor of what it is I love about working at Gesture, and do it in a hopefully entertaining way. If you can write Java and the below sounds good, please send me your info!

Did you know that most tech companies have ping pong tables to hide the fact that they are lame, boring SaaS widget factories? Don’t fall for it. Work at Gesture. Join the team with the world’s best mobile fundraising platform that helps charities host awesome events and raise more money — $300M and counting.

Do you want to be a faceless, burnt out code monkey on a giant “IT” team with 5 levels of management where it takes months before your code even gets into production? Don’t be that. Work at Gesture. We have a small team that works efficiently, ships continuously and has fun while we do it.

Want to work for a bunch of guys in suits who constantly change their minds, blame engineering for their own mistakes, and take their employees for granted? Don’t work there. Work at Gesture. Our culture is about collaboration and camaraderie. Our female employees outnumber the men (yes, even though we are a tech company). Our CEO is more fun than your CEO. Guaranteed.

Want to write code that is rushed, poorly maintained and built on a foundation of technical debt? Don’t do that. Work at Gesture. Our Software Developers own the code and we do not let that fly. We have thousands of tests that let us ship with confidence. Our sprints are right-sized to make sure we have the time to do it right.

Are you a do-the-minimum, in-it-for-the-paycheck, that’s-good-enough McLazypants? A stodgy, my-way-or-the-highway, know-it-all Party Poopster? Don’t be that. You can’t work at Gesture. We are looking for Software Developers who take pride in their work, and aspire to improve as people and software engineers.

If you can write Java and want to work at Gesture, please send me your info!