Silverpoint Openings
Silverpoint is adding three new positions, one each, to its three offices: a designer (Baltimore, MD), an ASP/.Net developer (San Francisco, CA) and a Network Administrator (Hoboken, NJ).
Have a look at the job descriptions (Net Admin description forthcoming) and contact if you’re interested in joining a team of talented and dedicated designers and developers.
014 Comments
I know this might someone off topic, but how come you’ve chose the .NET platform? It’s interesting to see how companies choose some technologies other others.
Also, in this very comment form, there is a very large gap between the URL field and the comment field. Around 100px. I’d say. What’s that all about? I’m on Firefox 1.0/Windows.
Gabriel, I’m not responsible for development platform decisions. Venturing a guess I would say that most markets are locked into Microsoft products. In order to interoperate with those products, it’s often easier to stick to the same family of technologies.
As for the space in the form, that’s the result of an unresolved float/clear conflict with the form elements and my sidebar. It only occurs on short posts and is usually eliminated by the first comment (in this case, yours).
Shaun - what’s your current title? Do you have the same responsibilities as the web design position, or are you higher up?
Mike, I was initially hired as a Designer (and that’s still what my business card says) but my role has evolved into more of a liaison between pixels, production (client-side), and implementation (server-side).
While I still do a fair share of design and production (I’m still a PHP guy at heart), a good chunk of my time is spent making the decisions about how best to utilize and internally standardize the technologies we’re using.
Being a small company there’s a bit of polymorphism in our roles. I don’t think there’s a title that succinctly and accurately depicts what I do. Design, not just the pixel pushing but the organization of information into easily digestible and even memorable chunks is where my passion lies. So I’m more comfortable with a specific, although not entirely accurate, title like Designer than something like Internal Consultant, which is closer to what I do but far more vague.
All the cool jobs are on the coasts.
::sigh::
Wanna open a Montana branch? :)
“All the cool jobs are on the coasts. “
Why would you want to live anywhere else?!?!
SI: “So I’m more comfortable with a specific, although not entirely accurate, title like Designer than something like Internal Consultant, which is closer to what I do but far more vague.”
Have you considered the title Creative Director?
I go by creative director within my business/partnership, as I think it represents my role perfectly, predominantly from the point of view that I define goals, code the sauce, design the look’n’feel, and dictate the finished product to the best part of 90% of the outcome. Basically we create, and I direct the creation, therefore I personally think the title fits the job!
On another note, is silverpoint applying it’s services to schools only?
I’m interested in this because I find it intriguing how some (companies/businesses) find niche markets and lock into the security of such a market. My business is now three years old and still trying to find a niche, do you have any tips or suggestions for locking into a niche?
Cheers love your work! Nathan.
It’s interesting to see the title thing coming up so often when people try to define what they do… Sure, it helps to clarify things for people who’d like to understand what goes on, but it also bogs things down.
A good friend of mine always used to say: My title? Um, if I can work myself out of it within a year, make it redundant, then I will have achieved my goal :-)
Seth Godin had something interesting to say about this recently…
Nat - Apparently you’ve never been to Montana. :)
This may be a little off the subject, but I am an aspiring web designer as well. While I dont have anywhere near the skill level as you, I like to think that maybe I have some potential for the future. Lately (over the last 2 years) I have been thinking about leaving the industry all together. Clients are sparse and often go with the cheap “nephew” solution. I find my self bidding low just to get a job only to realize Im working 70 hours a week for no pay. I guess what Im wondering is; is it even possible to make a good living as a designer? Is this something usually reserved for the Design Firm owner? I worry that I may never be able to use my skill sets in a non-hobby format. If anyone cares to shed some experience I would really be thankful. Also shaun, I was wondering if I could interview you for an article on my web site. We mostly have a community of ‘aspiring’ designers and would love to get some input on how you got started. Let me know if you would be interested. BTW, thanks for such a great site and for giving us little people something to hope for. ROCK OUT!
Joel…it is very possible to make a good living as a designer; many of the regular visitors here undoubtedly prosper as design creatives. If I can make a suggestion: you will probably see better results if you spell-checked your WDD site. I count no less than 10 spelling errors on the homepage alone…and whether you are a freelance designer or not, clients are definitely concerned with the details.
Also, from my experience, bidding low for the sake of getting the work usually doesn’t benefit any of the involved parties. I recommend bidding fairly…for yourself and the client.
I’m quite the aspiring web designer as well, however, after seeing others work, especially this site, I’ve realized I’ve still got a long way to go. I try my best though, and hopefully one day I can actually achieve a level at which I can make a living at designing. I suppose my biggest down fall is that I lack any real programming skill and am basically fixed on HTML only.
Love the site as always. -Vlad
Well, at the end of the day, my advice to a young web guy is to specialize, specialize, specialize. People pay for expertise in particular areas that have a bottom line impact on what they are doing, and if you’re going to be a successful designer / developer / etc, and get paid enough to live in a high-priced metro area (where you’re most likely to find this kind of work to begin with) you’ve got to have something unique that someone wants.
Thanks for the input guys. I guess I’ll have to keep looking for that NICHE market although I dont really know where to begin. For now Im just trying to do it all and maybe I will find something that I can really be good at. My partner is an HCI grad so we mostly try to focus on Usability when we design. Im hoping that this will lead to more consulting jobs later in life, but who knows.
Anyway Shaun if you get some time, I would love to know how you got started. Im always interested to know where the top dogs go their start. Thanks to everyone else that has help me. Oh yeah, fixed those spelling errors too… ;)