Dogs of Culture

Career Opportunities

A busy, fast pace environment where learning, experimenting and teamwork are valued. To run with the dogs, super strong skills are a must.

communicate | interact

WEB DESIGNER
Applications Due: January 2nd, 2007

STUDENT WEB DEVELOPER (part-time)
Applications Due: January 2nd, 2007



Graphic and Interactive Designer

$45,000-$55,000 per annum

We need you if:

  • You are a graphic and interactive designer
  • You have an incurable passion for colour, typography, and usability
  • You 'live design' like we do
  • Your portfolio shows all of the above.

What is Barking Dog? A great place to work. A talented group of committed people developing online and offline strategies, products, and communication messages, focused on visitor engagement, accessibility, and usability.

There are no titles on busines cards here. Our studio is highly collaborative. We come at projects from every angle, including yours. You'll talk directly with peers and clients, brainstorming ideas, freely offering and receiving advice.

Your primary work: creating highly functional, highly useable user interfaces for web sites and web applications, working closely with production staff to translate user experience into Flash or XHTML/CSS.

Your tools will be the best. We use the latest from Adobe. That means you must be well versed in Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat and Flash. If you dabble in AfterEffects or ActionScript it's a good thing.

Why Barking Dog? We are small team, with big ideas. We've been working in the top tier of our industry for 11 years. We are committed to online. We started as a web design/development shop and we remain a web design/development shop. We don't try to be all things to all clients.

Our vision: make the world a better place by inspiring people to interact in new and exciting ways.

We're honest, hard-working, and fun.

The fringe benefits: The partners at Barking Dog care about the staff. We make life easier with free on-site daycare, matching RSP contributions, a self-administered wellness plan, 15 personal days off a year to start, and compensation for those choosing to use public transit to get to work. Plus, you get to do amazing work while living in an amazing city.

To apply please send your resume and at least five URLs of projects in which you played a lead design role to design@barkingdogstudios.com.

While you're at it, tell us about yourself. One page would be great. We look forward to meeting you.





Student Web Developer (part-time) - Position Overview:

We are currently searching for a part-time (student) programmer to join and learn with our team. You must be proficient in PHP and/or ASP(.net) with a minimum of 1 year of experience in the webdev trenches and have the URLs to show for it. Bonus points to those who can reprogram their VCR to run PHP/ASP. Our usage of web technologies ranges from dynamic Flash/PHP multimedia to large multi-user content management systems to complex web applications to something nobody's tried yet.

Okay, so now you're thinking 'that sounds like me' - but do you also have skills in JavaScript, CSS, C#, VBscript, HTML, MySQL, and MS SQL? Do you take pride in your code and document, document, document? Do you know your way around a UNIX CLI? If so, then you should bookmark this posting.

But wait there's more... Can you communicate your thoughts in a way that impresses your co-workers and mangers? Is juggling work (12-15 hours a week) and school 'no sweat'? Does working with 'designer types' make you want to add more colour to your dorm? Are you passionate about the internet and the pursuit of the unknown? If your answer is a resounding 'YES', then you should APPLY for this position!

Question and Answer Time:

  • Who are we to make such demands of a candidate? Visit our web site and find out.
  • What would this dream job pay? $16/hour and flextime.
  • What makes this job different? Cool co-workers, challenging projects, casual dress, funky work environment in historic building in downtown Guelph and an office filled with laugher (no really). The potential for future employment - student positions commonly become full time positions during the summer and after the student graduates.

Your window of opportunity closes Janurary 2nd, so don't delay in sending that resume and sample project URLs to code@barkingdogstudios.com. No postal mail please.



The following section outlines general skills and traits that all members of the Barking Dog Studios team will possess and develop in their positions.

All Barking Dog Team members aspire to:

professionalism:

  • value honesty and respect in all of your relationships - with clients, your colleagues and the company in general;
  • professionally represent BDS in your day-to-day interactions, maintain personal networks; and participate in professional organizations;
  • have a committment to the BDS ideals and beliefs as well as an interest in developing the work/reputation/culture of BDS in the years to come;
  • adhere to legal requirements relating to software, image and font licensing, copyright, privacy legislation and any confidentiality agreements in place;
  • show enthusiasm for and contribute to the overall BDS culture and team activities.

teamwork:

  • have superb communication skills, allowing you to work effectively with colleagues, clients and partners;
  • demonstrate high motivatation, organization, and ability to co-operatively work on large scale projects and/or independently on smaller scale projects;
  • take ownership for your responsibilities and role within projects and the team; research and ongoing improvement:
  • have a passion for creative thinking - investigating new ideas and processes and discussing possible areas for improvement (on projects, or BDS in general) with team members;
  • stay abreast of emerging ideas/applications and continually improve your skills and knowledge of concepts, practices, and procedures within web design and development;
  • pursue and take advantage of any training opportunities provided, and read professional publications and online resources;
  • take on a knowledge focus and embark on self-directed learning/research.

general skills and tasks:

  • participate in brainstorming sessions, concept reviews and post-project reviews to provide feedback and guidance to your colleagues;
  • focus on details and also consider the 'big picture' for business/requirements concepts and project functionality;
  • ensure top level strategy, design and end product is fully tested and meets or exceeds overall quality requirements;
  • show meticulous attention to detail - and a committment to ensuring it;
  • logically work your way through questions, solving problems/challenges;
  • display a superhuman ability to monitor a multitude of details and complete tasks to high level of accuracy;
  • juggle several concurrent projects, each with varying timelines and requirements;
  • be able to manage your time and estimate the amount of time required for completing work, allowing you to deliver ALL projects/tasks on or before deadline;
  • develop a personal methodology to achieve a sense of focus and concentration in a busy, often distracting environment, while being available for questions/interruptions/project meetings;
  • an understanding of both MacOS X 10.4 and/or Microsoft Windows Vista operating systems;
  • assist with preparation of project requirements and documentation - acting as an advocate and advisor for your area of expertise, starting right at the planning stage, to ensure that all projects exceed expectations.

FAQs:

What makes Barking Dog unique?

Our passion for and comittment to the online medium. We were founded as a web design/development shop and remain a web design/development shop. We don't try to be all things to all clients, like many agencies or marketing firms. We're currently celebrating our eleventh year -- which in this industry is rare.

Who is behind the company?

Our team. We are a talented team of nine that work very collaboratively across our various disciplines of project management, design, layout, and programming. The team is led by three business partners, Julia, Dave and Chris, all original founders of the company, who also are actively involved in the day-to-day project work.

What is your business a) philosophy, b) mission?

Our vision is to make the world a better place by inspiring people to interact in new and exciting ways. In terms of a more day to day mission, we are actively engaged in developing online and offline strategies, products and communication messages. Visitor engagement, accessibility and usability are our three areas of focus.

What do you offer your clients?

We offer all of our clients top quality end-products that focus on achieving their business objectives, and in some cases go beyond these, to engaging and inspiring their audiences. We work with our clients to help them allocate their resources in the most effective way possible, helping to prioritize where time and dollars should be spent to best accomplish their online objectives, including planning towards future phases of projects. As individuals and as a company, we're honest, hard-working and also fun.

Do you offer telecommuting?

As a company we believe that space you're in and the inter-personal relationships you have with the people you work with have a lot for do with the health and culture of a company. We understand that most people lead complicated lives, so we allow for some flexibility in working for home when needed, but encourage a fairly structured work schedule.