[TriLUG] job opportunity

[Jason Tower]

as some of you may know, i started my own business about two years ago:

http://www.trilug.org/mailman/htdig/trilug/Week-of-Mon-20020902/010193.html

i've had fairly steady growth since then and now have more work than i 
can handle on my own.  as such, i'm looking for someone who is 
interested in a unique job opportunity.

if you're looking for a nice relaxing 9 to 5 job then stop reading right 
now.  if however, you're interested in getting in on the ground floor 
with a linux/open source focused company, then read on.  you would be 
employee #2, that's about as ground floor as it gets.  my current 
client list includes everything from individuals with a single windows 
PC at home to hosting companies with an entire rack of linux servers.  

sound interesting?  here are some of the pros:

- work from home = no daily commute.  you gotta like that.  you'll have 
to travel to client sites several times a week but rarely during rush 
hour.
- flexible hours (i don't drag my butt out of bed until at least 9am 
most days)
- casual dress code (long pants are generally frowned upon)
- shockingly little bureaucracy, red tape, or office politics
- monthly company bzflag tournament
- distinct possibility of a "vice president" title, impress your friends 
and family who never thought you'd amount to anything

it's not all peaches and cream though:

- no health insurance, 401(k), or other "big company" benefits (at 
least, not yet)
- unpredictable workload (might be very light one week, heavy the next)
- customer says jump, you say how high.  even at 2am.  on sunday.  
christmas sunday.  and you're hung over.
- compensation might be a tad, uh, non-traditional
- difficult to blame problems on other employees
- no opportunity to steal office supplies

so what kind of person am i looking for?  the ideal person would fit the 
jack-of-all-trades mold, with the following skills paramount:

- reasonably proficient with windows (as a desktop, not a server.  we 
don't do windows servers here at cerient technologies)
- solid understanding of tcp/ip networking
- of course, good all around linux skills
- the ability to learn on the fly and adapt to different environments
- most importantly, and i can't stress this enough, strong customer 
service skills.  this is absolutely critical.

in addition, there are few areas where i'm relatively weak, so the 
following would be looked upon favorably as they would compliment my 
skills:

- web/html/php/cgi (take a look at my pathetic website for proof of my 
weakness in this area)
- perl/python/other high level scripting language

sound interesting?  i think its fair to say that it will be unlike any 
job you've ever had.  this ain't IBM or glaxo.  if you'd like to apply, 
the next step is simple: convince me you're the right person for the 
job.  sell me on yourself.  surprise me.  demonstrate that you have 
what it takes to excel in a non-traditional setting.  the future is 
calling!

jason tower
cerient technologies
jason at cerient.net

ps - any and all .doc files sent to me will be promptly directed 
to /dev/null.  you have been warned.