Junior to Mid-Level Front-End Developer (React) - remote

Aardonyx Software
Posted 2 years ago
We Work Remotely
We are looking for 1 or 2 junior to mid-level developers to join our team. 
 
Your day-to-day work will be, at a high level, routine. We make task cards in Asana, and either assign them to you or leave them available for anyone to grab. At a lower level, the work can be varied, as the task cards will be across many projects and targeted at solving many different things/working with different technologies.
 
You will work mostly independently (though you will always be welcome to reach out for support). We operate on a work-is-separate-from-play basis, as well as a trust-you-to-get-what-needs-to-be-done basis. This is the ideal job for someone who loves the independence of contract work, but wants the reliability of a salary.
Responsibilities/Technical Needs
If you strongly feel like you’d be a good fit, but don’t exactly fit our requirements below, go ahead and apply, but also include your explanation/reasoning for why you’re the right person anyway. You never know!
  • 1-3 years programming experience / 4-6 years programming experience.
  • Proficiency in HTML/CSS/JavaScript (let us know your experience with anything else, though).
  • Proficiency with React. Let us know any other things you have experience with that might be relevant to FE work.
  • Familiarity with testing tools like Jest &Cypress is a plus.
  • Work four 8-hour days per week (more details about how our scheduling works will be provided at interview).
  • Complete tasks as assigned or pull/complete tasks in the pipeline (we use Asana tasks). These may span 1-3 projects in any given week. We try to avoid it, but because we are small, task juggling is inevitable.
  • Occasional Zoom meetings. Sometimes it’s easier to explain a task this way.
  • Track your time, per task, in a provided Harvest account (this is how we track time across various client’s projects.)
  • You MUST have reliable high speed internet and a space in which you can work/focus as we are fully remote.
What We’re Looking For
  • You have a “keep improving” mindset. Many times you’ll be working on old code, or with code that was written hastily to meet an urgent deadline. You will be willing to work with and make improvements to this code as you work.
  • You are thoughtful about the best ways to build things, yet flexible and empathetic to other routes. Reason: We love exploring new and better ways to do things and love having them brought to our attention, however, sometimes our clients’ needs do not permit this—they are working with their own deadlines and investors, and our idealistic priorities may need to take a backseat to their financial ones.
  • You are able to balance priorities and forgo code-perfection idealism when needed. Reason: sometimes our clients have urgent issues that need to be addressed and sometimes this means using solutions that are temporary and pragmatic.
  • Your communication style is open, honest, transparent and thoughtful. Reason: We are happy to make adjustments or changes to work flow based on your needs but require your input. Similarly, we are very happy to give you help or direction with development, but need someone who feels comfortable asking for those things. We are also always open to hearing your opinions about development things so long as you present them kindly.
  • You are a mindful, careful reader. Reason: Most of our communication and instruction is via written text. We try to avoid meetings/live calls unless they truly will be more efficient.
  • You thrive working on your own (self-motivated). Reason: We are very hands off. We are still doing dev work ourselves, so we are not able to be full time project managers. This, combined with the possible flexibility of your schedule, requires you to be able to direct yourself, or ask us for direction when some is needed. 
  • You are independent/you have interests outside of your job and programming. Reason: We are friendly and kind but we do not attempt to cultivate any sort of “family-like team” and don’t tend to socialize much on the job—you are certainly welcome to, but work isn’t our family, and we don’t expect it to be yours either. This is perhaps born from our rebellion against all the cult-like software companies we’ve worked at previously (Your children will NOT be "Aardonyx’s grandchildren", and will NOT receive branded onesies. Sorry.)
  • You are organized. Reason: Being organized will help you take advantage of the unusual nature of our scheduling (see benefits section below). 
  • You enjoy making products that are aimed at solving, or experiments to solve, real problems. Reason: Most of our clients are small to mid-sized businesses. The work that we do for them is usually the core of someone’s life, and the solutions we build are often informed by actual problems.
  • You are open to feedback. Reason: Good work benefits from multiple perspectives. We do pull requests &code reviews and we’ll be looking at your code for places to improve.
Benefits
  • Flex scheduling with “Fridays" off. You will create your schedule each month in advance. For each Friday in the month, you get to choose one day off during the month (with some caveats). Reason: We strongly believe a five day work week is unhealthy and tips the scales too far away from the “life” side of work-life balance. We also believe that requiring this day off to be Friday is an unnecessary limitation—you may want to combine your days for a trip, or move them around to accommodate children’s schedules, visitors, etc. Note: if planning your monthly schedule is overwhelming to you, you can just take Fridays off.
  • Education credit. At least half of this must be spent on programming-related things. The other half may be spent on programming-related things or on any formal type of education: cooking classes, ballroom dancing, guitar lessons, etc.. Reason: We value continued learning. We also believe that furthering interests outside of work can have unexpected benefits in all areas of your life.
  • Use of a company laptop (optional).
  • Fully remote.
  • Initial home office stipend and recurring monthly internet and electric credit.
  • 10 paid vacation days &5 paid sick days.
  • We intend to offer good health care and retirement contributions in some form, but, to be frank, you will likely be our first or second employee and we will want to work out the details with you during the hiring process.
  • Optional: The nature of our work sometimes requires urgent or concentrated development. When these projects come up, you may choose to work overtime for additional pay.
What’s Next
If you’re interested, please send us your resume with a cover letter explaining why you think you’d be right for the position. Please also include one thing in programming that you are strongly opinionated about, and why (even if your reasons aren’t logical). There is no need to be overly formal in this letter, we’d rather hear from you as you actually are;that said, we want to hear from you as you are at your best. 
 
As mentioned above: If you strongly feel like you’d be a good fit, but don’t exactly fit our requirements above, go ahead and send us an email with the above information, as well as your explanation/reasoning for why you’re the right person anyway. You never know!