The Investigative News Network (INN), a network of 100+ nonprofit news organizations, is looking for two summer apprentices to join our news apps and technology team.
Unlike many traditional internships our apprenticeships are fully paid positions where you'll work closely alongside our regular team members on real projects for our members and consulting clients.
You will not be making coffee and running errands. You will however contribute ideas, build stuff, work on real projects, ship code and write about your experience on our team blog. We're also committed to helping you learn, develop your skills and leave with projects ready to show to future employers.
Sound good? Read on.
A bit more about us: as a team, we exist to support the work of our member organizations, many of which are small nonprofits with limited technology resources. We focus primarily on problems that we are uniquely suited to tackle at a network level, for example:
- Hosting and supporting about 40 member websites using a WordPress-powered platform/framework we've built and maintain - http://largoproject.org
- Building open source tools to support members' editorial work and presentation needs with the goal of making their work look as great as any of the largest for-profit newsrooms
- Providing general technology consulting, training and developing resources to help increase the overall level of tech knowledge and ability across the network
You can read more about us here on our team blog and check out our projects on github.
For Summer 2015 we're looking for two apprentices: one more focused on WordPress development and one more focused on design.
The requirements and responsibilities for both are flexible, but here are some skills/technologies/attributes that would be helpful to have:
- Some familiarity/experience with user-centered design and standards-driven web development (HTML/CSS, JavaScript, one or more server-side languages such as PHP, Python or Ruby)
- Able to work independently (particularly important for remote candidates) and communicate effectively with other team members and (where applicable) with member organizations and clients directly
- Some experience with version control systems such as git(hub) and WordPress (particularly theme design/development)
- Willingness to write about your work, create/improve documentation and contribute to the team blog
- Ideas for what you'd like to learn/make/accomplish during your time with us
Additionally, for the design position, it would be helpful to have:
- A strong attention to detail and understanding of fundamental design principles
- Experience designing with HTML and CSS and familiarity with responsive design
- Experience working with vectors/SVGs
If you don't meet all of these requirements but still think you'd be a good fit for our team don't hesitate to apply. Generally we are looking for someone driven to make things better and you don't necessarily have to know all the things yet (we certainly don't).
Typically for our apprenticeships we prefer a 6 month commitment working 20-30 hours a week but the schedule and length are flexible, particularly for summer positions.
This is a paid (hourly) position (typically $15/hr) and remote candidates are fine (our team is distributed with members in Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City (MO) and Columbus (OH)).
INN is an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to creating a workplace where diversity is valued. In addition to federal law requirements, INN complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities.
To apply: send resume/portfolio, brief cover letter (email is fine) explaining what you'd like to get out of your internship with us and links to recent projects you're proud of to [email protected]. Please indicate which position (WordPress development or Design) you are applying for.
Open until filled, but for priority consideration please apply by Friday, January 30, 2015 at 5pm ET.