Jobs

Tech content specialist - MATLAB

I like to puzzle about the best way to explain something. When I was a builder, I'd give my crews cut-lists and assembly instructions produced by Autocad LISP programs. At first they thought it was crazy but in the end they had developed a deeper understanding about building.

I went on to different kinds of teams where well crafted code contained within it the explanation and by 2AM we were using every available machine at BU to run our MATLAB simulations: models of the brain for memory, vision and recognition.

As a teacher, you are not really creating a team but more a positive atmosphere where everyone supports everyone else and students felt comfortable taking risks. It was here where I really tuned in on how stage my writing and speaking to optimize understanding in the class in front of you.

I am interested in the job. I like writing and puzzling out how to meet the needs of my audience. Please consider me for this position. You might find one of my class websites useful in assessing my writing. Try: http://www.pathboston.com/hum3. As evidence of familiarity with programming languages you could check my repository at https://github.com/mckennatim.

Thanks for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Tim McKenna

Content Specialist

Fortunately for you, Boundless is like a 360° mullet: party in the back AND party in the front. We need you to design and build rich HTML5 web-apps that change the way college students learn. This beauty contest has a serious talent portion, so our platform needs to both look pretty AND flow seamlessly while delighting students with innovative, interactive learning tools.

We take a thoughtful approach to the front end. We continue to move further down the HTML5 app path, and invest heavily in tools that make us productive. Backbone/Spine. ExtJS/Sencha. CoffeeScript. SCAML (like HAML, but w/ Scala). SASS (Of course, how can you make front-ends without it??) And it's not just software that keeps us productive: all engineers have standing/sitting desks, Apple laptops, cinema displays, and head-phones so you can focus and GSD. And infinite coffee—that's a big piece too.

You're a straight shooter. Like us. Since it's high noon, here come the bullets:

Manage Content Creation Process

Manage a team of in-house domain-specific Content Managers Help source, train, manage, and evaluate independent freelancers Help manage and optimize the content curation process. Continue leading ongoing optimization and improvement of the process, with eyes on how to increase quality and efficiency Maintain detailed real time analytics and metrics of status of project, including efficiency, status, and quality Product Development Support

Lead the Product Development of the internally created Content Management System Interface with product development about user experience and learning features Input on front end product development and user experience Development of additional features to support and improve the learning experience Desired Skills & Experience

Ideal work experience includes:

Managing an in-house team (3+ people) Experience working with dozens of outside freelancers/contractors Very strong analytical skills (Advanced/Expert in MS Excel) Product Management with digital products Entreprenurial experience a plus Excellence working in a digital-only environment (no paper) Incredible work output, like a force of nature, or like The Beast from X-Men Adventurous and entrepreneurial spirit, like Indiana Jones, and ability to work independently without detailed direction Craftsmanship and incredible attention to detail Fun and sociable personality that adds to team culture —Team Boundless

I'm looking for my next thing and am curious where you are going with this. So you have this system and workforce for culling content and aligning it with different texts. So you get to some critical mass of users and material and you index the hell out of it. Then what?

I suppose you could jump in do something with the questions, problems, open responses. Or you could tackle the presentation. Go beyond video clips and create some simulated environments for each discipline that ease the acquisition of difficult concepts. Or socializing seems a reasonable play. A Stackoveflow for Biochem, students competing to help each other out.

What you are doing now and all your future possibilities are very interesting to me. And your space looks cool and its eminently bike-able, in the city and near the water. I'd love to work at your company.

We used to have ping pong tournaments at lunch when I was building. Cost me a fortune in hourly wages, but it was worth it, pumped everybody up a bit.

I have some problems. Coming from mainly teaching high school seniors I think textbooks are a big part of what's wrong with education. You get enough editors satisfying enough editorial boards (TX, CA NY) and you end up with lifeless prose devoid of passion, controversy or voice. Do you really want to mimic bloat? That TIMSS study out of BC tells us we have the fattest textbooks in the world; algebra 1 in Taiwan is 1/4" thick. And we know they do better than us. But you don't do high school and college texts are better.

I don't exactly know what I am applying for. I meet a lot of your content manager specs but find the front-end possibilities for creating something fantastic pretty limitless. I will mold myself to the job at hand. I am flexible and generally can out-work most people I have ever been around.

Please take a look at my blog and resume and linkedin.

Thanks for your consideration.

Tim McKenna (857)498-2574

So if you’re comfortable wielding Javascript, HTML/SASS through enough backend MVC to create & deploy compelling features, let’s talk, we've got a lot in common!