I’m writing this post at 4:30 on a  Friday afternoon at ReadyTalk. The engineering team is winding down from a busy week. There are numerous activities going on and I can’t decide which one to join.

In deciding what to do, I carefully take into account where is the easiest place to go without being pegged by a million darts on the. Nerf wars are a very common occurrence late in the day in ReadyTalk Engineering, but on Fridays they seem to take on a life of their own.

So, I think to myself…The closest option would be the 2^nd Floor Great Room where there is an intense session of Rock Band going on. With a number of our engineers coming from a musical backgrounds, it is always a pretty impressive showing. Rock Band is also great practice for the Battle of Bands that is supposed to take place between our Sales  and Engineering.

My second option would be to stop off in Team Room A to get a first row seat for a secondary jam session that’s taking place. Several of our engineers have grown up perfecting the art of strumming the guitar…all they need now is a lead singer to join the group! Let me know if you are a viable candidate.

My 3^rd (and safest option), would be to stay right here at my desk and join in the Open Arena game that takes place every Friday. The only problem with this option is that I have no idea how to even start playing that game. All I know about it is there a lot of people and a lot of guns involved.

My 4th and final option would be to join a couple engineers on an afternoon jog. The only problem with this is that my idea of a jog is a light run/walk around the park and most of the engineers idea of a jog is  similar to a full sprint around several blocks.

Looking over my options I think I am going to grab a beer off the fresh keg that was just delivered from Wynkoop and get ready for my try out as the lead singer in Team Room A.

If you interested in trying out for the lead singer spot or any of our open engineering positions http://www.readytalk.com/about/careers-readytalk please e-mail me directly at Catherine.harrison@readytalk.com.

This week’s Inside Edition with ReadyTalk Engineering highlights a day in the life of our UX Design Engineer, Pete Kinser. Pete has been with ReadyTalk for almost 4 months and brings more than 10 years of experience in the field to the team. He has been an awesome addition, and even though he did go to theUniversityofMissouriwe have high hopes for him here at ReadyTalk.

Inside Edition with Pete Kinser:

•  Describe a typical day for you at ReadyTalk
  My day usually begins by grabbing a quick snack in the kitchen (banana, almonds, green tea and the occasional yogurt). I settle into my desk and chat with the other UX guy at ReadyTalk. Generally, we regroup over what’s happened the day before and talk through potential design solutions for various projects. The bulk of my day is spent meeting with various teams to learn about new projects, to understand potential roadblocks and to contribute to the development discussion form a user experience perspective.

• Why do you think ReadyTalk is the #1 company to work for in Colorado?
  There’s a sense of shared optimism in the work we’re doing. No idea is too big or too small. The teams are focused on executing at a high level. The customer is always the priority.

• Tell us about your favorite day at work….
  My favorite day at work is full of tests. Usability tests. Working with users to better understand how our designs work, or don’t, helps to bring a lot of insight and energy to the design process. Being able to integrate user feedback into our designs helps build highly useful, usable and desirable products.

• If someone were interested in working on your team @ReadyTalk what advice would you have for them?
  Love what you do. There’s a lot of passion with the walls of ReadyTalk. I’d wager most people invest time outside of ReadyTalk to continue to learn about their discipline. We’re engaged with our professional organizations, actively pursue continuing learning opportunities, and contributors to the knowledge bases for our communities.

Catherine Harrison is part of the ReadyTalk Recruiting Team (AKA the Beaphins). She has been seeking out the top talent in the industry for 5 years now. Finding the geekiest engineers in the industry to join the ReadyTalk team is her top priority. When she is not on the prowl for Geeks you can find her hiking, rafting, snowboarding, and camping…anything outside!

ReadyTalk Recruiting is busy getting ready for the New Year! We have a number of positions open and are looking for the top talent to fill these roles. We are primarily looking for Quality Assurance Engineers, specifically those with a good understanding of development and some exposure to Automation.

In addition to QA Engineers, we are looking for an Engineering Manager who is passionate about building teams around individuals who want to develop great, cross-platform software that gets used and embraced by customers.

And finally we are always looking for Software Developers for our Core and Conference Center teams. Check out the deets below! If you or anyone you know is interested in learning more please contact me directly at Catherine.harrison@readytalk.com OR my colleague Katie Green at katie.green@readytalk.com.

Beside focusing on finding the top talent RT Recruiting has had a very busy week within the community. Tuesday night we helped sponsor the Denver Java Users Group holiday party with a couple of our Software Engineers…. On Wednesday, we headed over to East High School  here in Denver to help prepare high school seniors with job interview techniques and resume tips. We learned about this awesome opportunity through Goodwill Denver. You can learn about other volunteer opportunities @GoodwillDenver. And on Thursday, we headed up to CU Boulder and delivered hot pizzas to the Computer Science lab where students were cramming for finals. The pizza was gone within 2 minutes of setting it down! It was awesome. I forgot how much college kids LOVE pizza…AND free food. Check out Katie getting ready for Finals with the rest of the CU Students…

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Holiday Season and we will see you in January!

ReadyTalk recruiting has had a couple of very busy weeks. We are excited to have 2 new engineers on board who joined our team on Monday, October 17. Marina Karpiak is joining our Core Team as a Quality Assurance Engineer, and Mat Branyon will be helping Matt Klich in supporting our entire engineering team as an Application Infrastructure Engineer.

After contributing to the blog for a couple of weeks we realized that we never fully explained the importance of what we do and why we do it. First off, as many of you know the Denver market has become a very competitive place to find the TOP engineering talent. What we have learned is that for the most part, the best employees are already employed. It is our job to first find the top talent, and then share with them what we have going on in the engineering cave here at ReadyTalk. Our job is to make sure that as many people as possible realize what an awesome place this is to work, and the opportunities that await them when they get here…20% time and Labs, Nerd Book Club, Shame Donuts/Fame Donuts, Scotchtoberfest, Friday afternoon Open Arena competitions, beer brewing, Guitar Club, afternoon jogs, office planks, Moscow Mules …and much, much more!

As soon as we catch a candidate’s attention, it is our job to get them in the door. Working for ReadyTalk has made our jobs VERY easy…typically speaking, once they are in the door they are hooked. They want to know how they can get their picture on Famedonuts.com OR be the next winner of the Evil Genius award that is handed out at the end of Labs.

If YOU are interested in learning more about ReadyTalk Engineering please contact me directly at Catherine.harrison@readytalk.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @RTRecruiting to get the inside scoop on what is going on in engineering, along with the most recent job opportunities. We look forward to hearing from you!

Catherine Harrison is part of the ReadyTalk Recruiting Team. (AKA the Beaphins) She has been seeking out the top talent in the industry for 5 years now. Finding the geekiest engineers in the industry to join the ReadyTalk team is her top priority. When she is not on the prowl for Geeks you can find her hiking, rafting, snowboarding, and camping…anything outside!