Community management at Stack Exchange is an… Interesting job. Parts sociologist, cat-wrangler, therapist, software analyst and cheerleader, this small band of dedicated people work daily to make sure each individual community has the tools and support you need to be as awesome as you are. Of course, we don’t do it alone: from the very start, Stack Exchange attracted some amazingly helpful and insightful folk who’ve donated their time and effort to help out – and I’m pleased to announce that we’re adding one of them, Tim Post, to our full-time staff of Community Managers.

Tim comes from a systems programming background, starting out way back in the dial-up BBS days. He’s been working with and managing communities of various sizes ever since, and describes finding Stack Overflow back in the winter of ’08 like “getting stuck in a huge spiderweb”. His fascination with the system itself (both the software and the game-like aspect that drives so much participation here) led him to become a moderator, first on Webmasters then on Stack Overflow in the spring of ’11. Since then, he’s been a constant help and guide to the many folks using Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange.

When he’s not working, Tim still enjoys programming (nowadays simply to satisfy his whims), photography, DIY projects and tinkering with whatever he can get his hands on.

Tim’s been working with us on a trial basis for a little while now, and enjoyed our motley crew enough to sign on full-time. You’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the coming months, so please give him a warm welcome when he drops in on your site.

Think you have what it takes to manage the communities on Stack Exchange? We’re hiring community managers, and if you’re not near our NYC HQ, that’s okay – we love remote workers. You get to work with awesome people like Tim and help us guide Stack Exchange as it grows. (And on the off-chance you’re fluent in Portuguese, you should definitely apply – we have a special project for you…)

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Stack Overflow has always had a strong focus on individual merit. Although collaboration is encouraged to some extent by the editing features, attribution on posts and the design of user profiles all tend to emphasize rugged individuality, that lone wolf toiling away at a keyboard.

But most of us don’t actually work that way. We’re social creatures by nature, and the most challenging part of finding a good job can be finding the pack you want to run with. In spite of the dearth of features aimed at networking, folks have been using Stack Overflow to find and research potential colleagues almost since the day it launched – so a couple years ago, we started looking for ways to make this a bit easier. Well, now it’s done:

With Company Pages, we’ve focused on the best ways to tell an interesting company story. And what better way to tell your story than with massive photos of workstations, team outings, hackathons, local attractions, and the people who make the companies who they are? There are tightly designed sections to list your company tech stack and benefits, along with plenty of room to be creative and communicate what makes your company special, what awesome products you’re working on, and the philosophy that drives your team forward.
—Introducing Careers 2.0 Company Pages

Go check out the other wolf-packs… or show off your own on Careers 2.0.

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We’re Back!  It’s been a while since our last podcast (why you ask – listen to find out!) but we’re back now and “stronger” than ever.  It’s Joel, David and Jay (plus producer Alex and Abby) coming to you from the brand new SE Podcast Studio (check out the picture below)

• News of the day: we’re finally in our new office (and podcast studio). We’ve got hexagonal offices (and therefore crooked hallways), and a cool café area. AND HEATED TOILET SEATS. And a kitchen with a giant walk-in refrigerator, for our interns (which we don’t have).

Taping podcasts in our new “studio”!

• The new office has a nice event space. We’ve even done an event in it already!
• Last week, we had all of the remote developers, sysadmins, community managers, and sysadmins fly into New York to come hang out in the new office. We ate sushi and fried chicken and played a lot of ping pong, and also got some work done.
• Originally, we had planned these summits to be our Main Decision-Making Time, which ended up working terribly. We need to be able to make our decisions and do our brainstorming with remote team members regardless of whether or not they’re in the office.
• Jay, what’s happening with the Stack Exchange sites? We closed a couple of small sites - Arduino and Big Data. Everything on Arduino could have been discussed on Electrical Engineering anyway.
• We may have the same problem with Network Engineering (currently in private beta), but we’re more optimistic about that site. Likewise, we shut down Big Data, but currently have Open Data in private beta. Learn more about why one will survive where the other languished by listening in.
• Next topic: do tags belong in titles? Joel: “No.” Jay: “You’re wrong.” (there’s a bit more to it)
• This is a good discussion! You can weigh in in the podcast comments!
• David, do we have any new features? Check out our sites in an incognito window to see some stuff you may have missed.
• We’ll be debuting the new Help section soon! Previously, we’ve had all of our FAQ/help/how-to information spread far and wide across the network sites and their metas. No longer!
• Also, we’re working on some mobile apps. They’re vaporware at this point.
• Related: we’re hiring! Devs, front-end developers/designers (which is it?), community managers, sales people… everything.

That’s our show! Thanks for listening to Stack Exchange Podcast #47. See you in two weeks!

SE Podcast #47 - Do You Even Twitter Bro? [ 41:13 ] Download

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It seems like just two months ago (OK, it was exactly two months ago) that I announced our last batch of new hires.  Today I’m pleased to introduce our newest employees.  There are TEN of them … so get comfy and prepare to learn all about our latest hires, who seem to have an overall fondness for food, sports, music, and the great outdoors.

Jessica Brady, Associate Sales Representative (Careers 2.0)

New York

Jessica was born and raised in warm, sunny Florida, until she packed up and moved to less warm, less sunny Chicago for non-weather-related reasons (okay, it was school). She has lived in New York and worked in television for the last four years, but is excited to make the leap into a brand new industry at a great company like Stack Exchange. In her spare time, Jessica likes to run for fun, take in a baseball game (TV, radio, or in person), hang out with her four-legged friend Cash (like Johnny)…and yes, watch TV.

Marco Cecconi, Web Developer (Core)

London

Marco is from Milan, Italy, and he has been traveling around the world for some years. He studied in Singapore, then worked in France, Portugal, and finally settled in the UK for the past four years where he lives in Kent with his wife and kid.  He goes by the handle of Sklivvz on the Stack Exchange network, where he has been a contributor since November 2008 and moderator on Skeptics since February 2011.

Pieter DePree, Recruiter

New York

Native to sunny Florida, Pieter decided to trade in his flip flops and board shorts for a piece of the good life here in the Big Apple.  Pieter has a passion for travel and has, at last count, traveled to 27 countries including a year spent living abroad in China. Previously, Pieter has been responsible for high volume regional sales recruitment at ADP, as well as the national sales recruitment at Seamless! Outside of work, you might find Pieter hiking, sailing, or playing volleyball.  Pieter is very excited to be helping Stack Exchange grow its global sales teams!

Jim Egan, Sales Representative (Careers 2.0)

Denver

Originally from the south side of Chicago, Jim now feels the need to argue with people in bars that Chicago is the greatest city in the world. He’s passionate about the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox, so Jim couldn’t imagine a better sports town. Leaving that behind and moving to the Rockies was tough but needed.  Armed with his trusty sidekick Loomis (pictured here, left), Jim plans to conquer the mountains and everything Denver has to offer. An avid crock-potter and terrible at accents, Jim hopes to fit in nicely.

Paul Frey, Account Executive (Careers 2.0)

London

Paul has lived in London since May 2010 and he loves it!  He was born and grew up in Cologne, Germany. Due to this fact he’s a big supporter of his local football club, FC Koeln. But he doesn’t just watch sports; he also loves to be very active, playing European handball up the third German division, and also squash and football. But his biggest passion is cooking and eating! His cooking style is experimental and cross culture…he never uses recipes, he just combines the things he knows and likes. Most of the time his cooking tastes good. ;-)

Todd Jenkins, Sales Representative (Careers 2.0)

London

Todd originally hails from Boston (UK not US!) but now lives in London. He’s looking forward to transferring his sales skills to Stack Exchange! He really enjoys trying new foods and new restaurants, and he has a great love of the outdoors and adventurous walks. Apart from enjoying friends’ company in London’s nightlife, he does try to keep very sporty, although he admits shamefully that his two favourite sports are the two he’s the worst at (tennis and swimming). Todd is also a huge fan of Liverpool Football Club!!

Shikha Malhotra, Account Executive (Careers 2.0)

London

Shikha grew up in Brussels / Belgium and has an Indian background. She has been living in London for over 6 years, and is super excited to join Stack Exchange’s growing UK sales team. During her spare time you will find “DJ Shake” mixing the latest Bollywood tunes with a mix of French hip-hop and Arabic flavor, reading books, and learning to play the “Dhol” (Indian drum).

Pawel Michalak, Sales Representative (Careers 2.0)

London

Pawel is from Poznan, Poland and has lived in England for 7 years. He studied journalism and PR, and used to play handball (the best European sport ever!) quite seriously. He’s upgraded to playing football (the best international sport ever!), and can be found on London football pitches falling over, or screaming “Go Arsenal!” in support of the best football team in the world. You might see him on the road scooting cheerfully on his Vespa between angry Londoners stuck in traffic. He’s very excited about starting at Stack, as you can see here (CTAPT means START in Russian).

Bryan Ross, Web Developer (Careers 2.0)

Denver

An LA native, Bryan Ross (everybody just calls him “Ross”) moved to Denver in 2010 after being chewed up and spit out by the rock music industry. A self-taught developer of 15 years, he has an unhealthy interest in language design, expensive keyboards, strong coffee, and music. When he’s not nitpicking about the merits of various programming acronyms, he can usually be found writing, recording, and mixing in his home studio.

Derek Still, Sales Representative (Careers 2.0)

New York

Derek spent the first three years of his career in equity sales & trading, and is excited about making the move to a growing firm with unlimited upside like Stack Exchange. He grew up in Philadelphia, spent summers in Cape Cod, and moved to the concrete jungle in 2010. Outside of the office, Derek spends his time traveling, rooting on Philadelphia sports teams (Go Birds), listening to the Grateful Dead, and hanging out with his brothers and friends.

Visit our careers page to learn all the reasons Stack Exchange is a ridiculously awesome place to work. Want to see your face in our next new hire announcement? Here’s who we need:

Web Developer (NYC or telecommute)

Senior Product Designer (NYC or telecommute)

Sales Representative / Account Executive (London)

Sales Representative / Account Executive (Denver)

Sales Representative / Account Executive (NYC)

Senior Account Executive, Digital Ad Sales (NYC)

Community Manager (NYC)

Community Manager (telecommute)

Customer & Sales Support Agent (London)

Customer & Sales Support Agent (Denver)

Inbound Marketing Manager (NYC)

Marketing Manager, EMEA (London)

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When we launched Careers 2.0 back in 2011, we set out with a goal: make the job search process better for the millions of programmers who visit our site every month. Part of achieving this goal is educating employers about what you want from them. In the past, our annual user survey helped us help companies change the way they found and hired programmers, while Joel’s book on how to find the best technical talent and his talk on how to stand out and attract top talent are a few other examples of how we’ve worked to educate tech companies on what you really want.

Today, we’re taking this one step further:

Announcing the Employer Resource Center on Careers 2.0

Employers are having a really hard time getting programmers to work for them — hardly a day goes by without another article, blog post or Tweet attesting to this. A study last year found that as many as 93% of employers find a disparity between the technical skills required and the level of the talent they’re able to find while recruiting. As a result, talented programmers are in incredibly high demand, putting you in a position to demand the best jobs, perks, and benefits.

In the Employer Resource Center, we offer advice on best practices, recruitment news and trends, case studies and product guides to help employers with developer hiring. We’ll be updating the content regularly (mostly via the new Careers 2.0 blog), so check back often! If you have any tips you think employers should know about hiring developers, please leave a note in the comments below.

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