Female Tech Professionals Earning More

Posted January 29, 2007 at 9:10 AM | Tagged as: Technology, Women!, Work | Comments Off

Via eWeek, we learn that the gender wage gap in tech is narrowing (from 10.9% to 9.7%) and that, in certain areas, women are earning more than their male counterparts!

Finally, some good news about women in tech. It seems that recent articles on women in tech have mainly focused on the number of women leaving careers in technology. Of course, I wonder when those articles are penned by men — they frequently cite what I consider to be bogus reasons for women leaving (things like “male counterparts too techy” and “not willing to work long hours”). Is it possible that these authors stir up this hype in an effort to scare away women? I think so.. since I’ve never heard of any woman leaving a job solely because of the hours being too long or because they weren’t geeky enough to get along. Honestly, I doubt that most men could fully understand the reasons why a woman would choose to leave a job… but that’s a whole other discussion…

Anyway, knowing that one has a better chance of being paid equally, I hope that more women will opt in to technology education and careers. More women are certainly needed, and most places I’ve worked, I know they’d be most welcome!

Standards Evangelist Wanted!

Posted December 8, 2006 at 2:08 AM | Tagged as: Web Standards, Work | Just 1 Comment

It was through Steve Ganz, whom I met at SXSW, that I learned PayPal was making the move to Web standards — entirely due to the great job he’d been doing evangelizing them! It was also because of Steve that I got hired at PayPal. I was excited that we’d be working together… but disappointed when, after just 10 days on the job, Steve resigned. (As Ducky would say, “Do I o-ffend?”)

Despite Steve’s departure, progress must continue to be made, and PayPal is in need of a standards evangelist! I’m out to find the best person for the job — someone with great knowledge, passion, and commitment. Is that you? Someone you know? The job description follows, along with instructions for applying. Contact me with questions, or just submit your resume!

The Web Development Platform team at PayPal seeks a senior-level Web developer to work across multiple projects and teams to drive the adoption of Web standards. The ideal candidate will have prior experience working as a senior developer on a high-profile site with a cross-functional team under tight deadlines. The ideal candidate will also be well-versed in Web standards (HTML/XHTML, XML, XSL, CSS, JavaScript/DOM scripting, accessibility) and protocols, coding for multiple browsers/platforms, and current JavaScript frameworks.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Standards evangelism: Requires extensive knowledge of Web standards, a passion for advocating their correct usage, excellent communication skills (written and verbal), and a high comfort level speaking to large crowds.
• Code analysis: Candidate should have experience with reviewing others’ code, delivering constructive criticism, assisting developers with making changes/fixes.
• Prototype coding: Based on user interface and visual design specifications, rapidly create necessary HTML, CSS, and DOM scripts to produce working model.
• Documentation and training: Create and deliver training materials to groups of developers.

Job Requirements

• 5+ years experience in Web development, including hand-coding of semantic HTML/XHTML, CSS-driven layouts.
• 3+ years experience of DOM scripting, including DHTML, Ajax, and JavaScript frameworks.
• 3+ years experience with XML/XSL or a content management system with template scripting capabilities.
• Expertise with cross-browser, cross-platform development practices.
• Experience developing accessible Web sites that conform to WCAG 1.0.
• Solid understanding of Web protocols.
• Knowledge of software design principles, OO concepts, and/or C++ or Java programming.
• Excellent time management, problem solving, teamwork, and communication skills.
• Experience in internationalization/localization a plus.

Education: Bachelors Degree or Equivalent

Interested parties should apply online at www.ebaycareers.com under Req #13672BR. Please provide at least 3 web site URLs that showcase your work.

The Big Announcement

Posted December 3, 2006 at 12:16 AM | Tagged as: Web Stuff, Work | 6 Comments

Some of you suspected something was afoot when I added the disclaimer to the footer of my site; even more of you caught on when I added another location to the list of places I call home. Finally, here’s the big announcement!

Since November 6th I’ve been an employee of PayPal (an eBay company). I’m managing the Web Development Platform team — our mission is to create, document, evangelize, and assist in the implementation of standards that improve the user experience! (We also so some other very important stuff, but that all applies internally and ultimately still contributes to the larger mission.)

This job may sound familiar to some of you, because this role is very similar to the one I played on the Product Integrity team at AOL. Of course, one big difference is that I now have the benefit of experience, which should make things go a little smoother. Still, a new company will present new challenges, which is partly why I’m there. The other part is that I’m excited about what’s going on at PayPal. And that’s what matters!

Job Postings

Posted August 14, 2006 at 8:04 AM | Tagged as: Web Standards, Work | Comments Off

Looking for Web standards work? There’s plenty of it out there, if you know where to look!

Steve Ganz has information about an expert-level JavaScript position at PayPal. Having heard the details of the job first hand, I’d call it a principal architecture job — pretty darn important, and requiring top-notch skills.

My good friends at mediabarn have several contract positions in the Washington, D.C. metro area for front-end developers skilled in semantic XHTML markup, CSS driven layout (including 3-column layouts), and advanced knowledge of the DOM. The project starts soon, so get in touch with them today!

The Launch is no longer The Event

Posted August 25, 2005 at 10:07 AM | Tagged as: Meeeeeeee, Work | Comments Off

Back when I worked at AOL, it was all about The Launch. As it got closer, people got tense. If the team worked well together, the pieces were ready, the plans were made, and you were in wait mode; on the other hand, you could be working up to the last minute, biting your nails, twitching from the caffeine that was keeping you alive. In either case, The Launch is no longer important to me, because I’m not involved in it any longer. For me, The Launch is no longer The Event.

In my new life as a contractor/consultant, The Event that I’m concerned about is The Delivery. So far The Delivery has been by far less stressful for me, because I have no one else to rely on but me. I determine my schedule, so I don’t overload myself with work. I get requirements and give delivery dates based on what I know I can meet (and so far not once have I been told that my estimated delivery dates were too far out). I ask questions up front and wait for answers before beginning work, so I don’t stress over having to rework code zillions of times due to lack of detail. And change requests haven’t even been a huge problem. So I do my work and I deliver my work, and other than questions that might pop up later, I’m done!

So yay for me, for reducing my stress levels. And hooray for the teams that actually did all of the stressing to launch two of the sites that I’ve worked on over the past few months: the Ruckus Network team and the AOL Find a Job team.