We’re hiring! As we grow the company, we’ve got openings in engineering, design, and operations. You can read all about them here:
We’re still small (14 people as of this morning) and moving fast. Every time we hire someone amazing, Glowforge gets a little better. Actually, a lot better - at our size, each person here makes a tremendous difference.
And if you know someone who’d might be interested, please tell them about us! As a bonus, if you refer someone to us who’s underrepresented in technology jobs and they ultimately come to work here, we’ll write you a big fat referral check.
One of the coolest things now is that we’re starting to hire customers like YOU. A few of you may remember that at the end of our open house, someone livecast the making of cool little stand-up acrylic creatures. That was @Kusmeroglu, who you’ve probably seen around the forums. She came by just because she wanted to see what she had ordered. And then it turned out she’s a ridiculously talented front end software developer. And now today is her first day here at Glowforge.
Please join the team here in welcoming her! And shoot us your resume - we’ve got lots more work to be done. Oh, and every interview comes with a free tour & demo.
Congratulations @Kusmeroglu. I have contemplated applying myself, but relocating is daunting (Though @dan has mentioned elsewhere that GlowForge offers relocation)
How about reps from different states? Is that something you guys are thinking about? Maybe tech, help install and etc. Makers like me who are doing this for living with geeky and friendly attitude might be a benefit
Congrats @Kusmeroglu !
If I hadn’t just started a new job, and if you weren’t across the country, I definitely would! Now to find people so I can get a referral bonus!
Thanks everyone! It’s been really neat to buy a Glowforge, find out that they are hiring, think to myself ‘Wow that would be a dream job’ and now here I am. I feel very lucky!
If only I lived nearby…I’d definitely apply for one of the software jobs. But I don’t think my wife would appreciate me moving our family to another country simply because I thought I could get a cool job.
Gotta admit, I was looking at job openings the same night after I saw Glowforge at the New York Maker Faire- talk about a dream job!! If only I wasn’t still planning on going back to grad school- it’s hard to justify moving across the country only to move again in another year or two! Maybe after I get my masters, hopefully you’ll still be hiring
Applied as soon as I learned about the GF because I really wanted to help make this technology a reality and democratizing desktop fabrication tech is basically what I live for. Unfortunately, at the time there was only a Mechanical Engineer position available. Although I have plenty of experience working in the startup setting and have built just about every type of fabrication robot imaginable (and a few new ones that we invented at the lab) I don’t have an engineering degree so was very obviously not hired. However, if there is anyway @dan thinks I could help you guys on or off the payroll just let me know! BIG congrats to @Kusmeroglu, you’re definitely going to love the new job and helping to release a wonderful new product.
“I don’t have an engineering degree so was very obviously not hired”
In this day and age if a company is still “disqualifying” people for employment because they didn’t choose the path of student loan debt… They are missing out on a lot of talent that exists out in the world. A degree is not a guarantee of proficiency in the workplace.
Unfortunately, that is still the case. Qualifications matter, and a life sciences Ph.D. means nothing at a hardware company. The nascent maker movement promotes just-in-time learning but still doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to reward that sort of risk taking.
Each hiring manager makes their own decisions here, but speaking generally, experience doing thing X is just as good as an equal amount of time in school studying that same thing.
Do you need an Accountant who also loves to Bake?! hahaha
I’ll even throw in my hubby who’s an Electrical Engineer as a bonus!
(Not sure how helpful we would be…)
Seriously, when I first hear about Glowforge, I spent a few hours researching coding boot camps. I figured that one of these days Glowforge would be hiring more. Yes, that was pipe dream, but it was a fun evening of dreaming of a different life. And I really did plan my vacation around going to Seattle to see birthplace of the Glowforge. Congrats @Kusmeroglu. Enjoy the fun!
Hiring someone without a degree is not a poor hiring decision. Were that true… i would be unemployed. =)
My “training” is in Industrial Design. I started out life as a draftsman (and I am likely part of the last generation to ever do a drawing with an actual pencil). Then as life tends to go… I became an Acoustical Design Engineer (yeah… way out of left field). Now for the last ~20 years I’ve done vendor support specializing in Enterprise UNIX and block storage protocols. I don’t have a degree in any of this stuff and I’ve still worked for several fortune 100 companies making a good living.
These days… I am doing the Startup Thing. Not sure about glowforge but if Dan’s presence here is any indication… it’s like most startups and it’s not 9-5. You get out of it what you put into it. There is a lot of time/effort/sacrifice that goes into working at a Startup but if everyone goes at it with the same drive/dedication/attitude… that’s what makes Startups successful and profitable for all. And Dan being here all the time and seemingly working insane hours… that’s actually a GOOD thing. The best companies (at least from what I have seen) are where the leaders don’t just ask the employees to do the heavy lifting but are willing to do it themselves and lead by example.
I tried engaging on twitter yesterday (as the page on the policy invites questions and suggestions on twitter), only for Dan to publicly attack me today over my questioning of this policy. I’m not here to post about customers being publicly attacked by Dan. My questions weren’t answered, so I’m posting them here in the hope that Glowforge will answer them, and that having more than 140 characters to ask can provide some context:
What will Glowforge do to widen the minority employment pool versus poaching from the existing puddle?
How will Glowforge avoid sending the message that people who don’t qualify as minorities are worth $5000 less than people that do?
My rationale behind question one is that putting a $5000 bounty on minorities may improve your own company’s diversity, but doesn’t in itself help others in those communities get into your industry. I get it, you have a perceived immediate diversity issue in which your current networks have failed you, but paying a bounty won’t help widen the pool versus say, offering scholarships or working with industry minority organisations. I encountered a similar thing in one of my companies a while ago where the minority pool is tiny and we took the decision to go out to academia and industry minority groups, with which we’ve had less than perfect success but it’s an ongoing process and we’re trying. Diversity is hard, really hard and easy to get wrong, hence my question.
Question two relates to the concept of perverse incentives. The minority applicant doesn’t get the extra cash, but the referrer does. However, this risks sending out the message that Glowforge is not interested in hiring people from the majority of the available recruitment pool. It also suggests that Glowforge may not hire on merit, but on attributes unrelated to a role and outside of a person’s control. Neither of these issues may be real, but both of these may be perceived by potential applicants, and the question relates to how you manage that perception.
When taking both into account, I hope you can understand the possibility that people may read into Glowforge’s intentions very differently to the manner in which it was expressed, and I wanted to know what steps were being taken to ensure that glowforge doesn’t lose applicants. I say this as both a customer who wants you guys to have the very best people regardless of attributes, and as an employer of a similarly sized company in a similarly male-dominated but different industry who is genuinely interested in how you approach this.
I hope this finds you well and as intended in the positive manner of open discussion at Glowforge’s invitation, and not as an attack on your policy. I can’t believe I feel I have to write this, but this is I guess where Dan and I are personally right now.
However, if there is anyway