Description:
Do you believe in user-focused, web standard design and development, driven by simplicity?
Kublax is a financial services SaaS start-up based in London, looking for a motivated UI person to help deliver a compelling product for a venture-backed project.

This is an opportunity to play a significant role in a forthcoming site relaunch, using page layouts, storyboards, site grids and interface demos to create a compelling site experience. You’ll be working with the product manager and visual designer to create a user experience with a high wow-factor, so your background should include a blend of creative and technical competencies.

Your technical proficiency and real-world experience should show in your portfolio. You should also have 3+ years experience developing frontend interfaces, be able to create mockups, and be a great communicator.

In return, you’ll have the opportunity to work on a visible web product with a talented team in London.

Responsibilites:
• Interface design
• Helping to finesse storyboards, page layouts, site grids and interface demos, prototyping.
• Knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of modern front-end technologies & approaches (XHTML/CSS, ActionScript, JavaScript, AJAX, DHTML, etc.) and the curiosity to tinker and play.

Required experience:
• 3+ years experience in front-end web development
• Experience translating comps and wireframes into flexible and usable code templates
• Strong working knowledge developing cross platform/browser compatibility (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.) for dynamic web applications
• Hand coded (X)HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Please provide evidence of progressive techniques, separation of markup, presentation and behaviour layers in your front-end code including use of unobtrusive JavaScript
• Experience in developing web applications with rich client interfaces using AJAX, drag and drop, and other DOM Scripting techniques
• Familiarity with JavaScript frameworks and animation libraries like Prototype, Scriptaculous and JQuery
• Knowledge of SEO best practices
• Experience with SVN and Java
• Excellent verbal, writing, visualization, and presentation skills

Desirable:
• Experience of Google Web Toolkit

To Apply:
E-mail your cover letter and resume to sridhar AT kublax DOT com
Subject header must have UI WEB DEVELOPER-LNDN.

Absolutely no recruiters or offshore development teams please.

Position Advertised: SEO Analyst
Segment: Corporate Banking
Business Unit: FNB Online – PCM
Grade: Grade Cs
Role: SEO Analyst
Remuneration: Salary depended on experience and qualifications

Overview of Role

The SEO Analyst is a position designed to support the efforts of the search engine optimisation team. This person is responsible for assisting with the production, implementation, and development of our search engine optimisation services. We’re looking for a motivated, creative, and analytic thinker to join FNB Online, in Fairland, Randburg. As a Search Engine Optimisation Analyst, the person’s primary goal will be to increase natural search engine traffic from key search engines for our FNB Internal Stakeholders. The person will also assist with the implementation of a SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and Web Analytics strategy.

Key Responsibilities:

* Audit content published for search engine optimization compliance
* Create detailed search engine optimization recommendations for assigned sites
* Track and report search engine referrals, keyword rankings and other SEO/SEM traffic metrics for assigned sites to stakeholders
* Implement strategies for attaining high rankings for relevant, high-volume search terms
* Be an expert in your space by staying on top of current SEO/SEM news, search engine feature changes, and algorithm shifts.
* Research, create and assist with a long-term SEO/SEM strategy for the channel that complies with best practice standards and will drive sustainable traffic.
* On-page optimisation, including detailed site assessment and comprehensive recommendations.
* Off-page optimisation, including development and acquisition.
* Website structure, page structure and internal linking structure.
* Advice on implementation and page code.
* Page copy and keyword optimisation.
* Monitoring and reporting.
* Keyword research.
* Competitor and back-link analysis.
* Work autonomously to identify areas of opportunity and improvement.
* Follow company policies and procedures.
* Complete any ad hoc report, or duty as required by the business needs.
* Demonstrate an active interest in advancing the success of our clients.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

- An SEO/SEM qualification (Required)
- Understanding and Experience in Web Analytics (Required – at least 1 year)
- A tertiary qualification with a marketing background (Advantage)
- Understanding and Experience in the Web 2.0 environment (Required – at least 1 year)
- MS Office Word and Excel Advanced user (Required)
- Report writing Skills (Required)

Personal Qualities

* Able to work with a diverse and distributed team.
* An adept and proactive communicator able to build relationships at all levels, able to deal with others with tact and good judgment. Responsible, inclusive and approachable.
* Drive and desire to contribute to the success of the company’s strategy and goals
* The ability to multi-task and plan effectively, especially regarding the introduction of new work to suit existing schedules is a must, as is effective self-management.
* A proactive and pre-emptive problem-solving approach, requiring a diligent mind and an eye for detail in all aspects of business.
* Intelligent and perceptive. A creative and original thinker with the ability to generate innovative solutions and suggestions to meet a wide range of business challenges.
* Positive and enthusiastic, displaying a genuine passion for meeting new challenges. Inquiring and analytical.

Context: Social media and digital technology offers business powerful ways to interact and collaborate with their customer, channel and employee communities. This speed and flexibility offered by innovative Web 2.0 tools and Social Networking platforms is one of the only remaining avenues for competitive advantage.

The Virtual Works are an 11 year old business that supply outsourced expertise, creativity and engagement systems and management services to help clients build and engage their enterprise communities. We run niche social networks – for business reasons – and offer our clients a REAL rate of return on Web 2.0 platforms. For a live example – check out www.designmind.co.za.

Roles: 4 key functional roles exist at The Virtual Works:
1.Strategy: We help our clients develop community engagement objectives and strategies.
2.Data: We gather and capture profile data and the opt-in consent to engage members.
3.Systems: We configure open source Web 2.0 platforms to help our clients manage their interactive relationships.
4.Engage: We create the content, the value and invent tactics to get community interaction, engagement and commitment – and measure our results.

Social Media Manager: Drive community interaction and engagement to get community commitment – profitably:
1.Design social networks (Strategically – this isn’t a development position! Just be at home with Web 2.0…)
2.Implement widgets / Web 2.0 measuring tools and plugins
3.Implement the strategy/Build community eco-system. Make sure the right people exist inside the network – it’s the only way to trade value for loyalty.
4.Create and Manage content and value distribution. Work with writers to direct the content strategy.
5.Administrate the network
6.Set up moderation processes to keep content focussed.
7.Invent and innovate.
8.Promote, blog and market the niche social network. Liase with PR to make it famous.
9.Analyse and measure. Web analytics. Sales analytics. ROI.
10.Grow the network in terms of member base, interactions and client sponsors.
11.Rinse. Repeat. Refine.

Skills required:
1.Social media / Web 2.0 / internet savvy.
2.Trained in marketing communication discipline. [Degree/diploma]
3.Good communication/writing and presentation skills.
4.Strategic thinking ability.
Personality attributes
1.Results orientated.
2.Over the top passionate about the web as a medium… but clever enough to think strategically though its impementation.
3.Good planner/co-ordinator. Inventive/creative
4.Self starter. No spoon feeding. Take the ball – web with it.
Package: R20k to R25k p/m CTC and a 20% profit share on the community. Run a business, within a business!

www.virtualworks.co.za

Email CV’s and a reason why you’re great to jobs@virtualworks.co.za

I’ve had to run through a lot of agencies and candidates in the last month or so, recruiting for Kindo, and these are some thoughts in no particular order:

As a candidate

DO:

• accept there is lots of good competition; you have to stand out to be noticed
• research on the company you’re interviewing at – it’s polite and will help you with 3, 4 and 5
• send a cv that is relevant to the job spec – java experience won’t interest someone looking for a php person
• learn how to sell yourself and articulate your experience – enough said
• accept you’re going to have to send code to show what you can do – send your best relevant code
• describe what your code is supposed to be doing to there is context – don’t just send a bunch of methods
• comment more than you think you should – esp if you’re going to work in a team or be contracting
• write documentation in the code for something like phpDocumentor – that makes people happy

As a general rule (unless you’re a superstar), your work environment, the people you work with, and the work you’ll be doing, should all supersede remuneration unless you have a specific reason (like a mortgage for example).

As someone recruiting

DO:
Read this first:
http://www.nickhalstead.com/2008/07/01/10-reasons-why-i-hate-recruitment-agents/

• accept that it is going to take up a lot of your time
• have a clear job spec and role description in place to send around
• use your personal network first
• get your agencies to send some cv’s to assess the kind of candidates they have
• ask for source code if you like the cv – you’ll do less unnecessary face to face’s
• expect them to do some filtering and work for you; if not, bin them
• turn your phone off if you want quiet time to work
• agree on terms first, or re-confirm them if circumstances change on your end

Hope that helps!!