Big Blog

A few weeks ago, we quietly put up something that is a helpful resource to all current and future Skype staff — the new [jobs.skype.com](http://jobs.skype.com). We have brushed up the insider view section and added a [blog](http://jobs.skype.com/jobsblog.html), plus added the vacancy keywords. The [feed](http://jobs.skype.com/index.xml) contains the blog entries as well as new Insider’s View posts and of course new vacancies. So if you want to see what’s hot at Skype, even if you’re not up for joining right away, the feed is handy to keep track of what’s happening in Skype’s career-land.

Read more in Riina’s [welcome post](http://jobs.skype.com/2006/03/welcome.html). Oh, and be sure to check out the [movie clips](http://jobs.skype.com/movieclip.html). (There were some problems up to now for some people who were using something older than Flash 8, but it should all be fine now and they work on Flash 7 too.) We’ve published photos of Skype’s life here and there, but I think this is the first time we publish actual footage. Check it out to see what our days look like. There’s currently only a Tallinn office clip, but others are upcoming.

Shopping for a job at Skype used to be a very dull and boring experience — very much unlike how the actual work at Skype is. We’re happy this is no longer the case, as we tried to make a site which captures at least *some* of the fun and energy that’s flying around here.

]]>### Vacancy keywords

One interesting feature of the jobs site is that there’s no “department” or “section” or “location” or any of those categories for selecting a vacancy. This is one of the things I really didn’t like about most career sites including Skype’s previous one — before getting down to actual posts, you’re forced to surf through a zillion categories and have to understand the complex model that the site builders have put in place for you that certainly made sense at the time of writing but is hard to appreciate if you’re just seeking for your next dream job.

Instead of the categories and hierarchical vacancy structure, we figured we’d experiment a bit and tag the vacancies with keywords. The keyword can denote the location, business unit, associated skills or technologies or anything else we feel goes with that position. And you can freely browse across keywords. Just head over to and try the “keyword machine” in the sidebar.

To tell the truth, we haven’t seen anyone publish their vacancies in keyword/tag style. We have no idea if it really works or not, but it sounded like something that might be fun to try, because the last thing we needed was the same old boring jobs site with a minor facelift — we like experimenting. Let us know how you like the vacancy keywords. Do you find them useful or disturbing or confusing or best-thing-since-skype-launch?

### Publish Skype jobs keywords on your site

Here’s a power tip for Skype nerds. If you are a Skype fan, why not put the Skype-vacancies-keywords right to your site or blog or homepage? Just grab this file: and this is what it might be like embedded in a blog post: (this is the actual state of the jobs keywords)

echo get_remote_file(“http://jobs.skype.com/jobs-keywords.html”);
?>

Ok… it’s a bit dull because this doesn’t have the size classes done. (The [jobs site](http://jobs.skype.com/) sidebar has the links properly scaled.) So just add the following to your stylesheet and see the magic.

div.tag-cloud .size-xxs {
font-size: 0.8em;
}
div.tag-cloud .size-xs {
font-size: 0.9em;
}
div.tag-cloud .size-s {
font-size: 1em;
}
div.tag-cloud .size-m {
font-size: 1.1em;
}
div.tag-cloud .size-l {
font-size: 1.2em;
}
div.tag-cloud .size-xl {
font-size: 1.3em;
}
div.tag-cloud .size-xxl {
font-size: 1.4em;
}
div.tag-cloud .size-xxxl {
font-size: 1.5em;
}

Or if this sounds too complicated, just grab the RSS or Atom feed from the [jobs site](http://jobs.skype.com). They contain new vacancies as well as the “Insider’s view” and jobs blog posts.

So… that’s really it about the new site. Talk back to us in the [jobs blog](http://jobs.skype.com/jobsblog.html). Tell us what you’d like to hear about working at Skype. You surely have questions we can’t think of on our own, so bring them forward.