Phoenix.pm: Software Developer Needed

[Bill Nash]

On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 extramail at cox.net wrote:

> <my 2 cents>
>
> Funny, I interviewed with them 2 years ago. Sounds like they have
> changed a little because one of the things they did for me is sit me
> down and bring up a pretty narly porno pic. They wanted to know if that
> really offended me because I would probably be running into it.
>
> In general, while they had some cool artwork, I didn't get a good feeling from the place.
>
> </my 2 cents>

Considering the customer base, that's really a decent litmus test, all
things considered. Programmers, engineers, even marketing, they deal with
porn. If that's something you can't handle on a daily basis, then don't.

I've been through their interview process as well (although I didn't get
to see any porn, wtf?) I've seen the IP docs of which you speak, and I
asked a lot of the same questions, and the answers you got seem to be
different than the ones I got, likely because the document has been
revised since then. Your concerns are well founded, and it's good to see
people looking out for themselves, especially developers who don't want
their work sucked under a corporate umbrella.

The long and short of the IP documents they presented, and how to keep
your work out of an employer's IP space (Note, I am not a lawyer, please
consult yours.):

1. Declare your side projects, in writing. So long as none of them are in
competition with your prospective employer's primary (or even secondary)
mission, then you're likely in the clear. Get their legal folks to sign
off on a written statement of work for each project, as non-conflicting /
non-infringing, and you're good to go. Bring them up during the interview
process.

2. Work is work, personal is personal, and never the twain shall meet.
Establish *clear* and *hard* boundaries on work you are paid to do, and
work you're doing outside of the company context. This means no coding for
the company on your home box, and no logging into your home box from the
office to tinker with something because you had an idea. The term 'work
for hire' applies to *everything* you do while you're on the clock.

3. If you want to contribute something you are working on to the open
source community, simply ask before you pour a lot of time into it, unless
you have to do it anyway. An example: In a previous position developing
Network Management tools for a major ISP, the work I was doing dealt
directly with our primary product, and a community release of my toolset
would have been potentially damaging to our company's profitability, by
giving tools to the competition. So long as what you want to release would
not offer a competitor an advantage in your particular space, then it's
entirely possible it could be kosher.

Yes, you should absolutely be taking steps to protect yourself.
Conversely, don't be too quick to assume a company is evil and out to
get your work. Everything is open to negotiation. Pre-declared conditions
to employment will often save you.

- billn

> > I interviewed with them. I think a few people - Doug and Kurt -
> > heard the story. Perhaps they have mellowed out a bit, but they wanted
> > me to sign a document that stated that I had no intellectual property,
> > and I assigned all of my IP to them. I got the interview partially because
> > of free software programming I had done, and when I asked about this,
> > they got their lawyers over to "help clarify", and surely enough, I
> > couldn't sign the contract because I would be making a false statement,
> > as I couldn't retract the code I've released.
> >
> > Anyone going down there should be aware of this and read the contracts
> > carefully and evaluate your priorities. If you keep your mouth shut,
> > there probably would be no problems, but a lot of people don't like
> > being "owned".
> >
> > It seemed like a really nice outfit with nice people. Techies are well
> > reguarded and respected in the company, and you'd have to see the
> > building - very artistic - and the other programmers and people on
> > tech support seemed very cool. This could be a great job for someone
> > more interested in the business side of software than the hobby side.
> > If you're thinking about it, pay a visit to their website. The industry
> > is interesting. Final note - if you set up a website that accepts
> > payments through ccbill, one of their tech guys (seperate bay
> > than the programmers, though I don't know which this post is for)
> > ssh's in and sets up the perl scripting for the webmaster, including
> > setting up the redirect, forms, and such. You may find yourself
> > working on websites you normally wouldn't be looking at.
> >
> > 2 cents and that.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > -scott
> >
> > On  0, Jacob Powers <jpowers at ccbill.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
> > >
> > > ------_=_NextPart_001_01C39A50.23DD2E9D
> > > Content-Type: text/plain;
> > > 	charset="us-ascii"
> > > Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
> > >
> > > Software Developer
> > > =20
> > > CCBill, a leader in online e-commerce transactions, is currently looking
> > > for a Software Developer.
> > > =20
> > > Job Description: Writes and tests code written from specification
> > > provided by engineers and prototyping. Works under the guidance of team
> > > leads to deliver fully functional and tested software for both internal
> > > and external clients.
> > > =20
> > > Requirements:
> > > *	Strong understanding of programming concepts and best practices.
> > > *	Excellent PERL and SQL programming skills.
> > > *	Object oriented PERL knowledge.
> > > *	Experience using Linux/Unix OS and the VI editor.
> > > *	Ability to thoroughly test and troubleshoot code.
> > > *	Experience using HTML and JavaScript to build web applications.
> > > =20
> > > Following Skills a Plus:
> > > *	Java, PHP, and C/C++ knowledge.
> > > *	Apache experience.
> > > *	MySQL experience.
> > > *	Database design.
> > > *	Shell scripting.
> > > =20
> > > CCBill offers a wide range of benefits, competitive pay and a casual
> > > work environment. All interested applicants should send your resume,
> > > cover letter and references to jpowers at ccbill.com=20
> > > =20
> > > For more information please see our website www.ccbill.com or email us
> > > at the above address.
> > > =20
> > > Jacob Powers
> > > Project Manager
> > > CCBill.com
> > > =20
>
>