STF

TECH Vacancy

Posted Nov. 30, 2021, 9:02 p.m. by Admiral Joe P (Librarian / TECH Chairman / VCmdt) (Joe P)

The Technical Board now has one vacancy that is open for applications. TECH is responsible for the designing, developing, documenting, deploying, and maintaining all application code utilized by STF. It also manages all of STF’s real-world technological infrastructure, including but not limited to servers, domain names, and other network or technological constructs. The individual duties of TECH members are not strictly defined; TECH divides the work it is responsible for however it sees fit among its members.

If you have any interest at all in how any of the enumerated items above function, and are interested in doing work to help the club in anything that might fall under that broad umbrella of responsibility, I would invite you to apply for a position on TECH.

There are more details for what we’re looking for below:

Bare Minimum Statutory Requirements That Are Written Into TECH’s Bylaw

You must not be a current Department Director, Fleet Commander, the President of the Club, or the Vice President. If you are currently holding one of these positions and decide to apply for TECH, you must be prepared to resign that position in favor of working on TECH in the event that you are selected.

Requirements That Aren’t Written Into TECH’s Bylaw, But That Joe Will Insist On As Being Minimally Necessary

You must have been in the club long enough that we can have some sense, independent of your own assurance, as to whether you can be trusted to handle significant responsibility and “power.” In order to do that, I would particularly like to see the following:

  • Activity in the club the during the past 6 months, regardless of member rank or prior membership history.
  • No history of being banned from the club or its resources (being banned from Command temporarily does not count)
  • No recent official complaints about your behavior

Requirements

You must also have “above average” technical aptitude in “something useful”, or the ability to develop that through “somewhat-guided independent study.”

“Above average” means above the club’s average, not the average of all IT professionals in the world. If people in the club are already asking you for help on certain things, you probably are at least above average. If you even play a little bit with any technical type-thing, you are probably above average. Even if you feel like you aren’t above average but you simply like playing with technical type things, then you might actually be above average; people generally like things they are good at doing.

“Something useful” is a potentially infinite list of skills and abilities, but here are a few that I think are probably most relevant:

  • Server-side web application development (both programing languages and frameworks)
  • Front-end web application development (UI/UX, front-end frameworks)
  • Programming languages, especially Python and Javascript
  • Markup languages, especially HTML 5 and CSS
  • Software Development skills that are not tied to any particular technology stack or deployment scenario
  • Software Quality Assurance and Testing
  • System Administration, especially of Linux systems
  • Graphic Design
  • Cybersecurity
  • MOTD Development
  • Discord bot deployment, development or configuration
  • Discord server management
  • Conflict De-Escalation
  • Counter-Insurgency Operations

Some astute readers may note that some of these bullet points are actually repeats of the same things in different words. That’s because I know that some of you will see the fancier sounding terms on the list and think “oh, I’ve never done that before” when you’re actually doing it under some other name, like “playing with Javascript in my spare time to try to make a discord bot,” or “fixing Cale’s MOTD after she broke it again for the eighth time” which would indicate a level of passion most professionals don’t exhibit. So… don’t sell yourself short here. Feel free to also suggest a new item to add to the “something useful” list in your application.

“Somewhat-guided independent study” is what you might have to do if you don’t know something on this list as well as you need to. That will likely consist of me giving you some vague idea what you should read or practice, or giving you a task to do that might improve a skill, and then you doing it on your own and learning from that. I can’t tell you every single detail of every single thing that you might ever need to do, and I can’t run a university-level computer science course just for you (in part because I’ve never taken one aside from an introductory Java course that I mostly skipped).

Nice To Haves

In addition to the list of “something useful”, an ideal candidate will already be familiar with some of the following: the Django web development framework, Foundation for Sites, jQuery, SQL databases, cPanel/WHM, git, Atlassian Bitbucket, and Atlassian Jira Cloud.

Application Process

Please submit an email to tech@star-fleet.com introducing yourself to Matt, Sarah, and myself as if we do not already know you, using any details at all about yourself or your time in the club that you think are relevant. After the introduction, please write on the following topics:

  • How do you meet the bare minimum and minimum requirements?
  • What are you above-average proficient in (or hope to gain proficiency in) that is useful to TECH?
  • Was this solicitation too lengthy? Why or why not? Make a detailed argument.
  • Share with us one strong opinion you have about technology.

Applications will be accepted until December 11. The members of TECH will choose how they would like to interview applicants at any time once their application is received, and may do so as a group or individually. Selection will take place as soon as possible after December 11.

Thanks,
Joe


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