I just get back from Amsterdam and two of our engineers are leaving Tagged and we have a lot of job openings.

One of the departing wrote an interesting e-mail on leaving which I’ll quote below and maybe it’ll give you an idea what it’s like working here. But first, some open job reqs…

[Tagged Jobs Reqs and farewell after the jump. Read on! It’s worth it.]

Tagged is Hiring

(Note that we have multiple openings for Senior Software Engineers programming in both PHP and Java.)

Senior User Interface Developer

As a Senior User Interface Developer at Tagged you will build social networking features that are used by millions of people just days after you commit your code. You will be called upon to employ the latest and most sophisticated front-end programming techniques to create snappy, intuitive, and usable interfaces.

Do you believe that JavaScript actually requires engineering and computer science techniques, rather than just hacking? Did you write your own JavaScript framework before the likes of Dojo, Prototype, and YUI took center stage? Do you relish in the intricacies of runtime DOM and CSS manipulation to achieve just the right UI effect? Do you live and breathe asynchronously?

If you answered yes to most of the above, then look no further than Tagged.

Minimum qualifications – must have:

• Very strong JavaScript programming skills
• Expert knowledge of CSS and HTML
• Exposure to different JavaScript frameworks, understanding of appropriate uses
• Enthusiasm for startup work
• Good interpersonal skills
• 3+ years of professional software development experience
• BS or MS in Computer Science or equivalent

Minimum qualifications – nice to have:

• Significant exposure to back-end programming
• Knowledge of multiple programming languages
• Contributions to open source software projects
• 5+ years of professional software development experience

QA Manager

The Tagged QA department ensures that our social networking web site is fully functional and fast for the millions of people who visit every day. The startup’s success has been built on rapid and iterative product evolution. As QA manager, it will be your responsibility to support a steady stream of feature improvements. You will develop a testing platform and process compatible with the dual goals of very frequent releases and high-quality output. A combination of automated testing, white-box, and black-box techniques will be called for to meet these business requirements. You will report to the CTO and will work closely with development, product, customer service, and operations teams.

Minimum qualifications – must have:

• Very strong programming skills
• Experience in building testing frameworks and in test automation
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Passion for consumer internet products
• Enthusiasm for startup work and appreciation for business priorities
• Understanding of black-box testing techniques
• Exposure to leadership and management challenges
• 5+ years of professional software development or testing experience
• BS or MS in Computer Science or equivalent

Additional qualifications – nice to have:

• Knowledge of numerous programming languages
• Contributions to open source software projects
• Expertise with SQL and relational databases
• Highly developed Linux/Unix skills
• Proven track record of managing and growing technical teams
• Previous work with large-scale web infrastructure
• IT operations experience in support of production systems

Senior Software Engineer

As a Senior Software Engineer at Tagged you will build social networking features that are used by millions of people just days after you commit your code. Our development cycle is rapid, iterative, and driven by metrics and analytics. We use PHP, Java, and Oracle for server-side development, and make heavy use of asynchronous JavaScript programs on the client.

Current projects include major feature additions, focused product improvements, enhanced algorithms and for personalized search, APIs for 3rd party applications, and automated systems to counter spam, scams, and phishing attacks. We also routinely refactor the core application to improve performance, efficiency, and code maintainability.

Minimum qualifications – must have:

• Very strong programming skills
• Enthusiasm for startup work
• Advanced knowledge of SQL
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• 5+ years of professional software development
• BS or MS in Computer Science or Mathematics

Additional qualifications – nice to have:

• Knowledge of numerous programming languages
• Expert knowledge of PHP/Java/JavaScript or other web-centric technologies
• Knowledge of C/C++, Python, or other languages
• Contributions to open source software projects
• Experience with multi-threaded and/or asynchronous programming
• Experience creating highly scalable solutions, including clustered and/or distributed applications
• Background in physical sciences, mathematics, or statistics

Onto that e-mail…

Temos todos duas vidas

I wanted to let everyone know that my last day at Tagged will be [date redacted]. I plan on moving to São Paolo, Brasil to follow my dreams and my heart. You may be saying to yourself, “Wow! What made you decide to make such a big change?.” Or now you may be saying, “Wow! How did you read my mind?” Well, let me tell you a little story…

It all started about three weeks ago. I was sitting at work, much like you are right now, just doing some testing of our latest kickass app, Meet Me, clicking away:

No… No… No… Yes… No… Maybe… NOT IN HELL… No… Yes, Please!… No… etc.

when BAM!!, the feedback arrow turned green and lo and behold, I got a match! I must admit, it felt good. I was instantly hooked and I craved more. I had worked here for over a year and had never really messaged anyone on our site, but in this case, something compelled me to do so. There was a little voice inside my head, possibly Johann’s, whispering, “Trust the algorithm…trust the algorithm.” Or, maybe it was V—’s, I’m not sure. Well, trust it I did, and before I knew it we were messaging back and forth every day, then twice a day, and sometimes even 3-4 times a day.

So, I’ve decided to move down there to give ourselves an honest chance and will be taking [description of new job in Brazil redacted]. For those of you who are curious, her name is V— and her profile page is [profile page of hot Brazilian girl redacted]. Her “About Me” is blank, but I can assure you that she likes reading, long walks along the beach, and reading on the beach—not necessarily in that order. I’m sure J— can tell you the exact day/time that we met, so that when we tell our grandkids the story I can get it right, to the nanosecond—Oracle-Date keeps nanoseconds, right?

A while back, D— and I were joking about how Tagged should fully fund the first legitimate date that an employee at Tagged got with a member of the site. I know you guys were all silently pulling for G.B. to finally pull it off, but sorry buddy, I guess I win this one. Pay up, Greg. H—, you can include the check for $1365—I assume flight/hotel/dinner are included—in my final paycheck. Thank you, I appreciate it.

I guess you could say I am a victim of our own success.

It has been a great year and a half and I cannot believe how much I have learned and how much the site as improved in that time. I am sure this trend will continue and good luck continuing all the success and awe inspiring growth we all have put together. [Contact information redacted.]

Trust the Algorithm and keep in touch.

OK. This email got a lot longer than I intended, but I’d like to cap it with one of my favorite Portuguese quotes:

Temos todos duas vidas. Uma a que sonhamos, outra a que vivemos.

Tchau e boa sorte,

R—

R— makes me LOL, you better too

So if you want to end up in the beach reading books with some hot Brazilian girl, then you should send your resume to me (terry chay) tychay [at] tagged [dot] com and (Mark Jen) markjen [at] tagged [dot] com stat.

And, if not, after this e-mail, I think I overheard Greg telling Johann to change our algorithm to prevent us from losing all our engineers… 😉

I’d write more but I have to go to our 60 million page views per day celebration. 🙂

Parting shot.