Web development is quite a wide concept. It could mean anything from webmasters who update a webpage to creating complex e-business solutions. Therefore I'll try to give some insight what do we mean by that at Skype and what kind of people we are looking for.

But first - why this is so important for us. Skype is growing rapidly. About quarter of a million people create a Skype name every day and the number of registered users is approaching 150 million. Such growth has high demands for our info systems, databases, data capacity and connections. All of the above has to be dynamic, scalable, closely integrated, secure and overall in such state that allows changing the way the world comminicates. Often we have to look for solutions in places where no man has gone before and that's quite a challenge (in a good way). We can tackle those challenges only with people who are true experts, who like what they do and who can see things as a whole. If you recognized yourself here please read on.

Usually people start learning web technologies by playing with HTML (hypertext markup language) which is usually associated with webmaster positions. Skype.com is updated every day and available in more than 20 languages which means continous HTML works. If you are good at HTML and interested in working with foreign languages and partners you might be interested in a position in our localization/translation team. Currently there are no openings but if you come across a job spec with keyword localization you know what we mean.

Next level is about developing systems with a web interface. That means users can do something with "top of the iceberg" with multi-layer databases on the background. A good example is Skype web store where you can buy SkypeOut credit.

Work at Skype frontend developers team involves projects with new keywords like XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), JavaScript (script language) and AJAX (JavaScript and XML). If you didn’t need the explanations in brackets see our Frontend Web Developer spec.

Web backend team is dealing with three main areas:

* Payment systems and self-care. For example integration projects with large payment partners, providing payment API interfaces for partners or enabling payments directly in Skype software through a web container.
* E-commerce solutions (Money has to come from somewhere if calls are free, right ) For example product catalogues, Skype web-based functionalities or developing contextual advertising systems.
* Internal tools. For example internal wiki, backoffice functions for all business applications and Bugtracker - the enemy of all code bugs.

If you're interested in programming, developing info systems, software design and architecture, look at positions linked with backend and architecture teams: PHP/Web Based IS Developer and Java Developer.

As systems are complicated we are looking for experienced PHP and Java programmers. A litte less experienced developers with great interest and potential can also apply but basic PHP and SQL knowledge is a must. A great way to start is joining our Quality Assurance team. See our spec for Tester - Web Based IS and Services.

And then there are people with great experience and interest in complicated systems, but who want to go beyond coding. They are more than welcome to analyst or project manager positions which we will probably cover in future posts.

All of the positions covered here are located in Tallinn, Estonia. It's generally quite easy to move to Estonia (as many Skypers have done) when you are from EU. For other regions usual EU restrictions and requirements may apply.

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