Tindie is the best place to find unique hardware. It’s hardware sold by it’s creators; you can’t just go out and buy it anywhere. The ideas for those creations, the design and engineering that went into them, and the background on both sellers making and buyers building is the story that makes Tindie special. It’s time to make that story a lot easier to discover.
Tindie has a Blog (which you should be following) and is now looking for its scribe to fill those pages. As a writer for Tindie you share the excitement of trying out the newest sensors, making things move, or even just the magic of that first simple blink. You will seek out amazing parts and people to highlight. In a few articles each week you’ll engage and energize the Tindie audience, highlight the cutting-edge new arrivals, and lead in brainstorming new builds.
Have I just described you? Then please apply to be a writer for Tindie. Email Tindie’s jobs line with the following:
- Tell us about you. How did you get into building hardware? What are your educational, hobby, and professional backgrounds.
- What direction do you think the Tindie blog should take?
- Please choose one item offered by a seller on Tindie and write a sample article about it.
The position pays per article written. This is the first time Tindie is hiring a dedicated writer; it’s an opportunity for you to shape something new and amazing.
The link “Blog” links you to the front page. I think you meant to link it to blog.tindie.com
Fixed that. Thanks
Asking writers to submit a “sample article” about a Tindie item is kinda shitty practice. They should accept articles that the writer has already written on other publications rather than ask people to do unpaid work just to be considered.
Disagree.
When I’m hiring at my company, I always ask the candidate to do some small task related to the job. For writing positions, we give a specific assignment, “write an introduction for this video.” For programmers, they are given a series of programming exercises. For salespeople they get the Jordan Belmont equivalent of “sell me this pen.”
It is not “a shitty practice” for an applicant to do a small task. If fact, as an applicant, I would be concerned if I wasn’t asked to do such.
The “shitty practice” would be posting the submitted posts without compensation. (Which I have no reason to suspect Tindie would.)
Oh, I have no objections to some sort of test as part of the process. But asking for it upfront (before an interview) shows no regard for your applicants’ time.
Oh, of course they wouldn’t. They’d never do something like that. And I have a bridge to sell you.
Having recently performed a similar task for Mike here at Hackaday I don’t see that as a problem. It’s standard interview practice and shouldn’t take too long. I am not sure my working for Hackaday would allow me to apply for this post but if I did I wouldn’t see under an hour spent writing a piece to be time wasted. You have to prove you can do it and with their subject matter.
It would be a problem if they then used the pieces written by applicants on their blog without attribution or payment. But given that their whole business model is about enabling small-scale creativity I’d be astounded if they did that.
As I said in my other comment it’s fine for an interview, but shitty to ask it for every applicant (even those who will never make it to the interview stage).
Thanks for those who already responded to this comment.
I feel like a writing sample is a rather small requirement. The right person for the job will have no problem completing it because they will be excited about the subject matter. Michael suggests this is unpaid work, but couldn’t you say that about applying for a job and doing an in-person interview where you would need to take time out of your day?
As for the suggestion that we might publish an article without compensation (more importantly this implies it would also be without the author’s permission), that is ridiculous. The good will of our community and our writing/editing staff is paramount. Burning those relationships by publishing writing samples would be a horrible decision.
When you get an in person interview, the employer and usually some of the coworkers also show up. They would only do this when they are down to a handful of candidates as this cost them time too. I went to a few out of town interviews and they offer to fly me there and pay for my transportation. Early in my career, I often bring my own projects for a show and tell, so they know what I can do.
No one ask to to do free work. 2 of the places actually ask me to write a test.
“2 of the places actually ask me to write a test.”
Does this mean they asked you to write a test they could apply to other applicants?