Looking for an Entry-Level Web Developer

Once again I am looking to fill an open position on the Seattle Children’s Hospital web team. We’re looking for an entry-level web developer/designer.

Position Summary

Did I say this was an entry-level position? If you’ve got more than a couple of years of experience you will likely find that it is too maintenance-heavy for your tastes (and I’ll be unlikely to consider you).

Chief responsibilities will be building and maintaining web sites and pages. You will also provide the majority of the support for our intranet.

What You Will Be Doing on a Regular Basis

• Making updates to web pages
• Building new web pages from templates
• Helping departments manage their own sites on our Movable Type-powered intranet
• Working with the web team to solve design and usability problems

What You Will Be Doing on a Less Regular Basis

• Assisting in the design of banners or graphics
• Building simple web apps
• User testing
• Working with other members of the Marketing and Communications on special projects

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Designing web sites from scratch (i.e. designing comps)
• Building complex web applications
• Managing projects
• Designing stuff in Flash

What You Will Be Using

• ASP and ASP.net
• Movable Type
• Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Fireworks, Visual Source Safe
• IIS
• Windows PC

What You Won’t Be Using

• PHP
• Mac OS X (except for testing)
• Open-source technologies and frameworks

About the Web Services Team

Let me say first that this is a great position for the right person. We’re a small (4 people), fun team who get on well. Bringing onboard someone we like and get on with is more important than having someone with a vast skill set.

There is a ton of work to do and we are looking to continually improve in terms of building CSS-based, standards-compliant, accessible sites that provide a great user experience.

We are passionate about the web and strive to keep up with industry best practices. Naturally, we will expect this same level of passion from our new web developer too. We recognize that we are constantly learning and we try to do things better with each project.

More About the Position

The web developer will largely be responsible for building and maintaining web sites and pages. They will also be providing support and guidance to our decentralized group of internal site coordinators who are responsible for maintaining content on our intranet.

You won’t be spending most of your day in Photoshop, but you do need to know how to use it. You will be spending a lot of time in Dreamweaver (code view, of course!) and Movable Type (we use it a lot — to power our whole intranet, for example).

You won’t be developing lots of complex web applications either — we have an IS department that does that.

Although building web pages will be your bread and butter, this will be a great opportunity to learn about many aspects of web design and development: usability, information architecture, search engine optimization, writing for the web, accessibility, web application development, and everything else that makes up the blood, sweat, and tears of building web sites within a large corporate environment.

About You

We’re looking for someone with (ideally) a related degree and a couple of years experience, who can code to web standards using CSS. Let me stress that again — who can code to web standards using CSS.

If you believe that tables are for data and not presentation then keep reading.

Did I mention that we’re passionate about the web? I did? Well, so must you be — if you don’t have an online portfolio or at least a personal site that we can take a look at, then your chances of getting this job are slim at best.

About Children’s

Working for a hospital — and a children’s one at that — is unlike working for any other type of organization. It’s so much more than just a paycheck.

Wouldn’t you want to work at a place with a mission like this:

We believe all children have unique needs and should grow up without illness or injury. With the support of the community and through our spirit of inquiry, we will prevent, treat, and eliminate pediatric disease.

As a part of Marketing and Communications, the web team is at the center of it all. We work with everyone throughout the organization. And everything we do is centered on improving the experience of the patients and families who come to Children’s.

Sounds Great! Now What?

If you’re interested in the position, go ahead and apply for the job. If you have any questions, drop me a line or post a comment.