I’ve been in search of a great prototyping tool for a long time and finally have come across one; Balsamiq. It allows a team to quickly produce application mock ups to represent UX and UI concepts. The part I really like is that it visually represents the application as if you drew it by hand with a pencil; this has the psychological effect of forcing you to look at what the UI represents rather than the look and feel. You should already be doing prototypes for your applications because developers are VERY expense. Take a look at it and let me know what you think.

We’re looking for a mid-senior level ASP.NET developer for a full-time role for a client in southern California. This is a brand new, funded start up focused on social gaming, personal finance management and personal improvement. This is a rare opportunity to be a part of a kick ass team from the very beginning. You’ll be working with the latest technology .NET 4.0, ASP.NET MVC, SQL 2008, TFS 2010, jQuery… If you’re up for it, email me your resume at biz@tadlockenterprises.com.

Requirements

• 4+ years experience with web development using ASP.NET; ASP.NET MVC experience is a huge bonus
• Very proficient with JavaScript (jQuery) and CSS based layout
• Solid understanding of C#/.NET; .NET 3.5 experience a bonus
• Understanding and appreciation for UI design and user experience (UX)
• Working knowledge of Photoshop would be nice
• Able to work independently in a fast paced startup environment

The company is located in the Los Angeles / Orange County area.  Compensation is competitive and includes salary and early stage equity.

I just received an email from a friend who works at Amazon. They are bulking up their team and have a bunch of open roles. If you are interested and are good (seriously), send me an email at biz@tadlockenterprises.com and I’ll forward it on. If you get the job you will owe me dinner.

I hope this note finds you well. For the past few years I’ve been working in the Third Party Merchants space at Amazon. This group is responsible for about 1/3 of unit sales and will generate several billion in sales this year. This group is also one of the fasted growing businesses within Amazon. In 2010 (and beyond), we will be launching many large, complex, new features to accelerate our growth. As a result, we need to hire several talented and passionate technical folks to help us succeed. We are looking for the following skill-sets:

- Software Development Engineers (10)
- Technical Program Managers (5)
- Senior Manager, Technical Program Management (1)
- Senior Operations Manager (1)
- Quality Assurance Manager (1)
- Database Administrators (2)
- Software Test Engineers (4)
- Senior UX Designers (2)

All of these positions are located in Seattle.