A Video Introduction to Brandon Zehm. - 03/19/2007 - 9:43 AM:

The video introducing Brandon Zehm, Novel Project's first programmer since 2003, is currently being processed by Google Video and should be here shortly. In the mean time, I figure it's time to introduce him in a written sense. Meet Brandon Zehm, an independent programmer that e-mailed me early on when I made a public request to talk to programmers living nearby. You might recognize him from a picture I posted on the original blog. Not only is a he an extremely nice guy, he knows his programming languages and has a portfolio to prove it, specifically PHP, Perl, Python, Ajax, some C, and MySQL. While not all of these will be useful to the project, some of them most certainly will be.

The video will do a better job of introducing Brandon than I will be able to in written form here on the main page, but within the next few days I hope to have a profile page where Brandon can introduce himself in a video or two, as well as some background on him personally and his skills. It's interesting to see how qualified the resumes I've been getting are - I'd guess that about 60% to 70% of them would deserve a serious look if they were applying for a paid position in a regular company. At the same time, I get the feeling that many of them are also exactly the types of people that wouldn't apply for a paid position at a large corporate entity - exactly the people I'm hoping to work with. Talented, good at what they do, but with a strong sense of independence and adventure. When you watch the video, I think you'll agree that traditional... well, traditional isn't what we're interested in.

We've gone from one employee to two, now, and it took less than three days. The main delay now isn't in finding applicants, but in taking the time to look them over carefully and strike a balance between project needs and a manageable size.

I honestly think this is going to work. Wouldn't that be something?

Aaron

P.S. Did you know that American Heritage Dictionary lists both "programmer" and "programer" as being accurate spellings of the word? How annoying.