Aceasta lista nu este nici pe departe completa, in schimb sunt lucrurile care mi-au ramas in minte pentru ca s-au repetat de foarte multe ori.

Asadar, cum sa nu aplici pentru un job:

1. Do your research inainte de a scrie email-ul.

Cu cine vei comunica? Ce produse are compania respectiva? Ce clienti? Ce proiecte? Cati membri sunt in echipa? Ce varsta au membrii respectivi? Cum sunt oamenii din compania respectiva? (foloseste Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Bloguri si orice alt canal de comunicare pentru a ii gasi)

2. Citeste anuntul de angajare si fii sigur ca indeplinesti toate conditiile.

Daca nu indeplinesti chiar si o singura cerinta, nu aplica, pentru ca exista un motiv pentru care a fost scrisa. Sau cel putin, informeaza-te ca este ceva ce poti sa asimilezi foarte rapid, si nu va constitui un impediment major. Daca esti Graphic Designer, nu aplica pentru o pozitie de Web Designer de exemplu.

3. Nu trimite un email gol, fara text!

Chiar daca incerci sa fii scurt, sa nu scrii nimic si sa atasezi doar fisiere, desi intentia poate fi buna, este interpretata gresit. Asa cum anuntul de angajare a fost gandit si conceput cat mai concis, in aceeasi masura raspunsul tau trebuie sa fie cat mai concis, fara a lasa potentialului angajator necesitatea de a iti cere mai multe informatii pentru ca nu le-ai dat.

4. Nu trimite un email lung.

Incearca sa fii concis si sa incluzi doar informatiile necesare. Nu repeta ce este in CV. Acest prim mesaj este sansa ta de a fi mai personal.

5. Ai grija la formulare.

O formulare de tipul “Stimate Domnule Director” adresata unei persoane nepotrivite (ca varsta de exemplu) denota lipsa unui studiu asupra companiei si a persoanelor cu care vei interactiona. In acelasi mod, o abordare peiorativa nu este de dorit.

6. Verifica ortografia.

Un mesaj incorect gramatical nu te va ajuta sa treci de primul email.

7. Verifica fiecare link.

Retrimite-ti tie email-ul inainte de a il trimite angajatorului. In felul asta vei putea verifica daca totul este corect.

8. Trimite linkuri la portofoliul tau online (nu atasa fisiere .rar).

Nu trimite fisiere .rar sau proiecte care nu pot fi rulate printr-un singur click.

Cel mai potrivit este sa trimiti un link la o pagina web, care sa contina aceste fisiere. Ideal este sa ai site de portofoliu, si lucrari in el.

9. Nu minti asupra experientei tale.

Daca mentionezi 10 tehnologii, atunci in portofoliu trebuie sa ai macar cate un proiect care foloseste fiecare dintre aceste tehnologii, sau pe toate combinate. Multi candidati au mentionat cunostinte impresionante, insa nu au fost capabili sa prezinte un portofoliu cand le-a fost solicitat.

10. Lasa loc de buna ziua.

Raspunde la orice email primesti, fie ca este vorba despre un task, un refuz sau mai ales chemarea la un interviu (confirma ca poti sau nu poti veni).

Indiferent daca primirea unui task pentru a iti testa cunostintele te-a facut sa realizezi ca nu poti sa te joci cu focul, ori ca ai fost respins, sau chiar acceptat, asigura-te ca raspunzi la orice email primesti de la potentialul angajator, intr-un timp scurt.

Este posibil ca in momentul de fata sa nu corespunzi cerintelor, ori sa ti se para ca este nedrept sa fii testat pentru a valida cunostintele pe care afirmi ca le ai. Cu toate astea, industria online este foarte dinamica, si sansele sunt foarte mari ca pe viitor sa interactionezi intr-un fel sau altul cu aceleasi persoane din compania respectiva, si sa fii respins tocmai pentru ca nu ai lasat loc de buna-ziua acum.

11. Nu te contrazi/certa/ironiza/lauda.

Pe bune ca s-a intamplat. :-)

Am doua exemple “eu nu am spus ca nu o sa ma ridic la rangul de profesionist”  si “daca X si Y au spus ca lucrarile mele sunt bune, pentru voi nu sunt suficient de bune?”.

Ambii candidati au fost respinsi in clipa 2, si marcati cu X  pe viitor, ca in renumitele poze. :-)

12. Nu trimite un portofoliu care sa nu fie al tau.

Daca vei fi chemat la interviu, va trebui probabil sa ai si codul respectiv la indemana, asadar mai devreme sau mai tarziu se va afla ca ai mintit, si nu vrei sa incepi cu o minciuna, pentru ca e si modul in care vei termina jobul.

Cel ce candida pentru job, a trimis portofoliul persoanei care l-a recomandat! :-)

Trimite doar lucrarile cele mai bune din portofoliul personal, iar daca nu ai, nu trimite nimic si fii sincer.

13. Nu trimite mass email la mai multi potentiali angajatori.

Intotdeauna dau reply all si il resping si pentru noi, si probabil si pentru ceilalti angajatori. Aplici pentru un job oriunde, sau aplici pentru un job aici?

14. Verifica CV-ul.

Nu trimite un CV incomplet. Nu folosi un model de CV European. Adauga strict informatiile care ne-ar interesa. Ataseaza o poza, uneori ajuta. Mentioneaza numele tau. Pune un link la site-ul personal daca ai, chiar si la contul de Twitter.

Asigura-te ca ai un cont de Twitter, Facebook sau site personal. (esti prezent online?)

15. Fii sigur ca iti doresti acel job.

Un job implica responsabilitati si integrarea intr-o echipa inchegata. Primele saptamani sunt cele mai importante pentru a face acest lucru, dar si cele mai grele.

16. Fii modest

Mereu va fi cineva mai bun ca tine. Este important sa fii constient de acest lucru, si sa ramai modest. Este un domeniu in care fiecare dintre noi invata ceva in fiecare zi, nu este posibil sa le stii pe toate, si asa este firesc sa fie.

Daca aveti si alte sfaturi, as fi foarte bucuros sa le citesc si eu!

Sper ca aceasta lista sa fie folositoare celor care vor aplica la un job pe viitor. Succes tuturor!

Schimbarile care se produc sunt majore, si suntem foarte incantati de sansa de a fi ajuns pana aici.

In prima parte a anului am punctat urmatoarele obiective:

1. Am lansat site-ul Vuzum.
2. Am deschis un birou in Spania.
3. Am avut onoarea de a fi recunoscuti international cu un prestigios premiu FWA pentru unul dintre proiectele noastre.
4. Aproape am dublat echipa (in urmatoarele zile va fi completa).
5. Am depasit 100.000 utilizatori pentru Flabell si Themesbell.
6. Am inceput (sau terminat) proiecte pentru clienti mari, cum ar fi Nicorette, TUMS, Zeabsorb, Max Clarity si multi altii.

In a doua parte a anului, avem urmatoarele obiective:

1. Vom lansa Vuzum mobile.
2. Vom scoate Vuzum din Beta.
3. Vom lansa Blogvio in Beta. (momentan in QA privat)
4. Vom lansa Eclipo.
5. Vom lansa Yocli, aplicatie iOS pentru iPhone.
6. Vom deschide un birou in Londra.
7. Vom lucra la V2 pentru Flabell si Themesbell.
8. Vom continua sa lucram cu aceeasi pasiune pentru proiecte de orice marime. ;)

Este un an important pentru noi, un an in care facem pasi marunti spre urmatorul nivel.

I have seen so many bad designers lately, that my eyes hurts.

On the other hand, I can easily imagine new concepts that are fresh, interactive and playful, and can sketch them on paper, but I’m missing the tools part. So I’m a bad tools person. :-)

I’ll get good at this, as soon as Mobile is checked on my list as well. I’m not very good with time, got too much on my hands, but that is always a good thing.

At Vuzum we’re trying to remix our skills this year, so Flash devs will play a bit with iOS, Web devs will do the same with Android, and myself will try a bit of each + some design.

BTW, that position for an excellent designer is still open. But if you apply, please be excellent, otherwise you will waste my time, your time, and everybody else’s time in between.

In other words Photoshop, Illustrator and front-end development are things of passion to you, while theory, sketching and creative thinking are things of hard work.

[Updated]: I think it makes a little bit of justice to post a sample. Although the design is not impossible to achieve, the way you can interact with it is fresh, and if you ask me, unique – how many times have you seen this concept before? This is where the actual work is, and then the execution.

Congrats to all the good guys at Vuzum and to our partners at Plat4M!

We’ve been working for months on this project, and the FWA award is a recognition of our skills and effort! Now, let’s party! :)

Daniel
I’ll be sure to contact you if I get any flash work (which I haven’t in a long long time though)

Peder
(finding an available Flash Developer before the mobile boom) … but it was our final thing that made me decide never to take part in a flash project again.

Peter
They want to completely rewrite the website from Flash, in html5.

I can continue with many examples from our best customers, but I’d rather not. If the market does not require any Flash work, I guess that’s when things will get worse for Flash Development in general – even if it keeps being used for writing games for the web, that’s not good enough to support as many Flash Developers as there are now.

What to do in this case? Don’t put all your eggs in a single basket. Start playing with Objective-C and Java. Mobile is the new kid in town. And if Flash survives, than you got multiple skills, and that’s only a good thing.

Privit din punct de vedere al interactiunii cu utilizatorii, exista doua tipuri de design:

• static
• dinamic

Cel dinamic isi schimba forma si functionalitatea in raport cu modul in care utilizatorul interactioneaza cu el. In ultimul deceniu, din lipsa unor tehnologii suficient de puternice, acest tip de design a fost implementat de cele mai multe ori in Flash.

Design-ul static pe de alta parte este reprezentat de elemente care, indiferent de modul in care utilizatorul interactioneaza cu acesta, isi pastreaza aceeasi forma si functionalitate, singurul lucru care se schimba fiind continutul.

Fiind vorba de interactive designer, voi continua sa discut doar despre design-ul dinamic. Acesta cuprinde tot ceea ce tine de design-ul static (usability, teoria culorii, grid design, etc.. ar trebui sa stiti cu ce sa completati aici), dar adauga in plus o serie de elemente care trebuiesc luate in considerare ulterior. Cel mai important aspect de care trebuie tinut cont, stiu ca suna tamp si ma repet, este faptul ca este un design interactiv. Adica elementele isi schimba pozitia, iar tu designer-ul, decizi cum se intampla acest lucru. Practic aduci un element din punctul A la punctul B. Trebuie sa tii cont de modul in care se desfasoara tranzitia (timp, acceleratie, pozitie, rotatie, etc..) si de elementele peste care s-ar suprapune (daca nu ai avut grija sa le adaugi intr-o zona potrivita, trebuie ca si aceste elemente sa isi modifice pozitia la interactiunea utilizatorului).

Un exemplu: imagineaza-ti un meniu “MENU”, si sub el un logo. La roll-over decizi sa afisezi submeniul, nu in dreapta sa, ci sub el. In acel moment ai o problema: logo-ul, evident. Fie il muti definitiv din pozitia respectiva, fie il tii acolo dar la roll-over peste MENU ii schimbi si acestuia pozitia, forma, etc – tu decizi. Poti de exemplu sa il faci transparent, ca sa ii perimiti pastrarea pozitiei.

Un bun UX designer, sau interactive designer, va avea grija ca cele doua stari A si B ale elementelor sa arate bine, iar interactiunea, respectiv tranzitiile de la o stare la alta, sa dea proiectului unitate (adica nu este indicat sa folosesti foarte multe tipuri de tranzitii).

Exemple frumoase de interactive design se pot vedea in marea majoritate a aplicatiilor pentru iPhone si iPad.

In incheiere

Noi suntem in cautarea unui bun ux designer. Daca iti plac provocarile si intelegi ce responsabilitati ai avea, atunci asteptam sa ne contactezi.

We’ve expanded the marketplace to cover themes as well, since we’re very familiar with how WordPress has grown in the past years. Due to too much work on our hands, we’ve been focused on delivering top notch solutions to our clients, rather than focus on Themesbell. That is planned to change in 2011.

We’ve also been hard at work on our third and fourth products – Blogvio, which will bring interactivity to blogs (we’re not sure it’s going to be Flash at this moment, we look very closely to how the market is changing) and Eclipo, which will help you track your clients and your projects.

We love doing client work, we really do. It’s exciting projects that start with proper briefs that attracts us the most. But on the other side, we also try to grow by expanding our attention into products, to avoid a linear growth limited by the man power.

2011 is the year of iPad 2, as Apple calls it. We think it’s another great year for mobile, and sooner than later we’ll put our energy into Android and iOS as well. We’ve already started with that, but so far we’ve done baby steps. But mobile is in our minds for the short and long term as well.

We’re looking for an amazing designer to join us on our journey. You must be really good at what you do, as we are. If you’re that person, please write us an email and we’ll continue from there. Remember this is a challenging job, and we’re only looking for the best.

Speram ca pana atunci sa punem si Blogvio si Eclipo sus, precum si versiunea Vuzum pentru mobil (design-ul arata excelent!). Un pic de retusari la site si blogul sus, si il scoatem si din beta.

Lucram ca niste furnicute, dar rezultatele se vor vedea. Deocamdata e secret, dar suntem foarte tari, pe bune. :)

1. The biggest achievement must be that we’ve got our first big client, as a direct result of launching Vuzum’s website. We hope we get to be discovered by many more people once we’ll be out of beta. We’ve come a long way since 2008.
2. In less than a week I’ll be flying and moving to Spain, A Coruna. We’re opening our first international office, hoping to be closer to our customers from that part of Europe. It’s going to be a new experience for me, so wish me luck on that! It’s going to be a new experience for our team as well, as we’ve been used to work in the same office. :)
3. I spent the entire month of January learning Objective-C and I’ve got my BS in Computer science on my first iOS app. That’s two shots in one take. We slowly but surely focus our attention on iOS and Android. Mobile is one of the big plans we have in 2011.
4. We started work on our newest R&D project, Eclipo. It’s a small start-up that will help us track our clients, projects and payments. Once we consider it to be ready for public, we’ll make it available to everyone as well.
5. In less than a week Flabell will turn 2 years, and we’ve already passed the revenues generated in it’s first year of existence, in the last two months of 2011. :-) We’ve got big plans with both Flabell and Themesbell, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. It’s good to see Flash has great momentum, despite Apple’s rant.
6. We’ve got an excellent team at Vuzum, as well as new faces. Great guys, well equiped. On that note, it’s a strange feeling to have no Windows base stations as working computers. We use MACs and Linux only. I’m wondering what’s your configuration. It seems Windows is not reliable anymore as an operating system that stays out of your way.
7. I’m planning to purchase the iPad 2, especially if it will have support for Flash!  What do you think? Wouldn’t that be a blast?! :)

I’ve basically set myself the goal to focus on nothing (almost nothing) else than learning iOS, building the first App (for iPhone) and presenting it to the CS University, as part of the final exam in a month. (you basically get to do a project you can pick, as long as it’s related to software)

Vuzum is amazing but it took almost all of my time, so for January I’m kind of part-time. I’ll answer my emails, but please be concise and expect a delay in my response time.

Other than that everything is great! We have a lot lined up for 2011! :-)

I will leverage my skills to become the key to every department of my company, yet realize that hiring experts can be the secret to my success. I will be a fervent and intelligent user of technology, to conserve my two most precious assets: time and money.

My secret weapon is knowing how to cut through bureaucracy. My size makes me faster and more nimble than any company could ever be.

I am a laser beam. Opportunities will try to cloud my focus, but I will not waver from my stated goal and plan—until I change it. And I know that plans were made to be changed.

I’m in it for the long haul. Building a business that will last separates me from the opportunist, and is an investment in my brand and my future. Surviving is succeeding, and each day that goes by makes it easier still for me to reach my goals.

I pledge to know more about my field than anyone else. I will read and learn and teach. My greatest asset is the value I can add to my clients through my efforts.

I realize that treating people well on the way up will make it nicer for me on the way back down. I will be scrupulously honest and overt in my dealings, and won’t use my position as a fearless bootstrapper to gain unfair advantage. My reputation will follow me wherever I go, and I will invest in it daily and protect it fiercely.

I am the underdog. I realize that others are rooting for me to succeed, and I will gratefully accept their help when offered. I also understand the power of favors, and will offer them and grant them whenever I can.

I have less to lose than most — a fact I can turn into a significant competitive advantage.

I am a salesperson. Sooner or later, my income will depend on sales, and those sales can be made only by me, not by an emissary, not by a rep. I will sell by helping others get what they want, by identifying needs and filling them.

I am a guerrilla. I will be persistent, consistent, and willing to invest in the marketing of myself and my business.

I will measure what I do, and won’t lie about it to myself or my spouse. I will set strict financial goals and honestly evaluate my performance. I’ll set limits on time and money and won’t exceed either.

Most of all, I’ll remember that the journey is the reward. I will learn and grow and enjoy every single day.

Want to read it all? It’s written by Seth Godin, and you can get it from here.

Notes:

1. We decided to use Flash only where needed, so it won’t be a full flash website, as we originally wanted. We offer a wide range of services, so it’s probably best to allow our customers to view the website on any device and platform.
2. There will be a separate version for mobile, so you should not take that into consideration for the desktop version, when providing feedback.
3. The structure is pretty much set, we don’t plan to add or remove any of the sections that are now in the layout.
4. The focus is on the work. We try to keep it as simple as possible for any user to get in touch, enjoy some work or find out about us.

If things go well, what we call Blogvio, will be up by the end of this year, in beta.

The web has changed a lot since we decided to build this project. Flash is regarded as a dying technology by some, HTML5 is the new cool thing, WordPress has grown considerably, and some of it’s competitors have either shut down or sold. All this affects in a way or another how we move forward, but the idea remains the same: Blogvio brings interactivity to blogs.

This is (will be) the smartest and fastest way for people to share content in a visually pleasing manner, and it still looks like we’re the only ones taking this challenge in our hands.

We had the opportunity to work with excellent people (and some of the other category), we had amazing clients and challenging (long) projects, some lasting for as long as we’ve been known as Vuzum. The most exciting part of all this though, remains the fact that we’ve grown to a team of seven, we’ve changed offices once, and we have exciting plans moving forward (such as opening an office in London in the near future, launching our company’s website, drinking more beer).

So it looks like what started as a simple idea (Blogvio), has evolved into two different start-ups (Flabell, Themesbell) and a company where we do amazing client work. I want to thank all our clients for the chance to work on some of the most awesome projects on the web, but also to all the guys and galls that had passed our office doors! Here’s to more years of internet awesomeness! Here’s to Vuzum! (me opening up a beer) :)

So I’m an ignorant when we speak about… cars for example, but I’m a mad passionate when we speak about online.

I had enough time to learn in the past year, that the most difficult task in this business is to work with people. Technical solutions are easier to implement, than to get the right people to care and get involved in a project, with the same passion as you do. So, if you plan to build a successful business, make sure you prepare yourself to meet all kind of people. This will make you stronger, and help you grow a thin skin. Having a thin skin, you’ll be able to fire fast. This is something you must learn the hard way I’m afraid.

There are many people who will not only be ignorant with what they are working on (even if you provide them the means of living), but try to harm you while doing it. These are the frustrated kind, the ones you need to avoid the most.

The good part in all this story, is that no matter what, you get to know good people too, and with them, it’s worth all the risk, and it’s easier to move forward. Emi, next time listen to your intuition, and fire fast.

I realize each time we look for highly talented people for our team, the place where we get the most responses from is our University.

This is one of the reasons our new office is located at less than a 10 minutes walk from the University, so we can be close to the people that want to join us.

We’re hiring!

I decided to write a list of the things that I had to do today, as I’ll be flying to Brussels tomorrow, in a business trip.

I filled 4 post-it notes with the things I had to do, so for my future reference (and yours), here you have them:

1. Find out what currency they use, and if you credit card works there.
2. Find out what power outlets they use.
3. What language do they speak?
4. Double check to see if you have money on your card, and take some with you, just in case.
5. Papers – do you have your passport or ID card with you? Where are your airplane tickets? What about the train tickets, if you need to reach there by train?
6. Make sure you know exactly how to reach to the airport, and what time you must be there.
7. Business trip? Purchase a gift for your new business partners. They would do the same if they would visit you.
8. Do you know your own phone number? Not the mobile phone number. :-) Write it down somewhere, as I did. :-)
9. Long trip? Put some music on your iPhone/iPod, and some movies on the laptop. Get a book as well.
10. Do you know how you’ll travel inside the country you’re visiting? Which train will take you where?
11. Find out about places to visit – Trip Advisor is a good place to start.
12. You’ve got a lot of devices with you, make sure you get the chargers as well.
13. The camcorder needs a cassette? Purchase it.
14. Get some sleep. (so you don’t lose the train/flight)

Hope this helps. I definitely needed to have these written down.

And you’ll know you need to stop what you’re doing, and do something about it. Being part of a start-up is the best way to boost up your creativity and skills (any kind of skills). Whether you design or code, sell or consult, blog or research, whatever you do there are people who need someone with your skills in their team, for the greater good.

It’s no wonder that Americans do it so well. The best companies on the web today, Google, Apple, Microsoft, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Vimeo.. to name a few, had passionate co-founders and excellent teams behind them. You simply cannot succeed by yourself, unless you have the skills, the money and the networking – which frankly, when starting a business, are a difficult resource to get.

I heart my team! I learned to take the best from people, and now we’re ready to take on any challenge. We’re working well together – I know we still have to prove ourselves.. Blogvio is coming ;) – and I couldn’t expect less from such amazing people.

Together we have vision, we have skills, we have patience, we have resources, we have delighted customers, we have opportunities and hopes, we have projects we can be proud of, we have dreams that otherwise would be impossible to achieve. I could never code as Vlad does (bringing MediaTemple down if he has to :P), or design as Stefan does. I’m also a haunter, for which I partnered with a farmer (by Seth Godin). Andrei is patient when he needs to, so this makes him an excellent problem solver. I guess answering hundreds of emails per month doesn’t make me too friendly sometimes, I admit it. :-)

Finding the right people is difficult, because you’re the one that is actually found. Once the chemistry works, amazing opportunities will sit down before you, and it’s only a matter of picking the right ones and solving the puzzles.

So tell me, how is your team like? Do you plan to change the world and have fun while trying to do so? How’s it going so far? :-)

It was such a good day for science! I remember I spent several weeks with my two partners, brainstorming, trying out different combinations based on our initials, or combinations of words formed by our names (that was a stupid idea!), or just combinations of words with no meaning.

I spent too much time reading about brands and naming, so I was keen to reject whatever idea wasn’t as high as my expectations were. I wanted it to be perfect, so we took our time to discover something we all agreed it’s an amazing find.

The horror!

The most painful moment when you find a good name, is finding out it isn’t available.

There are billions (many zero00000s) of websites out there, but even more domain names. We all know these have an owner ready to get rich. :-)

So trying to find a good name, becomes a very difficult task nowadays. The name must be easily pronounced and remembered, it must be brandable, it must be unique and most importantly, available online and offline.

Zbang! Idea hits me.

I couldn’t believe nobody though of such a combination since … the internet. Or better yet, this word didn’t exist before I invented it (dictionary)! How amazing is that!? :-)

The idea hit me when I was thinking about what we’ll be doing as a company. I knew that I am very picky and details are what I’m picky about. So the focus will be on the details. We’ll look closely at them, we’ll zoom to view any detail with precision.

Got the name from my last sentence? I said we’ll zoom to view the details with precision. View zoom. Vuzum.

Cool name, right? :-)