I started Authentic Jobs six years ago with the intent of connecting companies and creative professionals to make a better web. Little did I realize the company proper, Authentic Jobs Inc., would be one of those who — not once but several times over — made the connection with creative professionals.

Myles, easily the most pleasant and skilled engineer I’ve ever worked with, was found through a freelance listing I posted to the site. He’s stuck with me for nearly five years now in a part-time role.

Ben, who deftly architected the advanced HTML5/CSS3/jQuery stuff found under the hood of our site, was snatched a couple years ago through another freelance listing. His business partner, Marc, later joined the fray. A few other contractors, also found through freelance listings, have come and gone since.

And I’ve met countless people through email or at conferences who have made connections both ways, as well.

Foodie Feast

Recently I posted a listing for a Front-End Developer (archived copy here). If successful, this will be the company’s first full-time hire. Nerves and all that for me, for sure.

Here are the results from my listing:

• 71 people applied
• 27 of those applicants (or 38%) were archived in a folder titled “Not Qualified” due to lack of experience, time zone, etc.
• 5 (7%) were archived in a folder titled “Contractors”. They were seeking contract or freelance work, rather than full-time work.
• 31 (44%) were moved to a folder called “Qualified”. Their skills and experience, at the very least, seemed to match what I was looking for.
• 8 (11%) were placed in a folder called “Shortlist”. These are the candidates I’ve begun following up with.

I was quite pleasantly suprised — very surpised, in fact — at the volume of qualified candidates who applied. Authentic Jobs has always been focused on quality over quantity, and so 71 applications for a single listing is pretty atypical.

I’ll say that again: It’s unlikely you’ll receive as many applications as I did if you post a listing to Authentic Jobs. However, it’s 100% likely you’ll have access to the same great pool of candidates. Whether or not they apply is, of course, another story.

Why They Applied

In retrospect, here’s why I think so many applied: I didn’t restrict myself to local candidates. This easily accounted for the majority of the volume. Only about a dozen of the applicants were here in Florida.

The location for this position was listed as “East Coast, Florida even better”. I don’t have much choice, as Sarasota (and Florida in general) isn’t exactly a hotbed for web talent. But having worked with several remote contractors over the years and having spent some time in the role of remote contractor myself, telecommuting is second nature to me. In fact, it really deserves to be second nature to any company doing business on the web.

Note, however, that I wasn’t looking for anyone in any time zone. Having done the contractor thing for some time now, I’m familiar with trying to schedule calls and coordinate development over multiple time zones. It’s not easy, especially when urgent needs arise. For that reason, I was open to candidates only in the same time zone as myself.

Additionally, I think we’ve got a great product. It’s a product, a brand, an app that people believe in and can rally behind. And it’s one that works well for its customers. Several candidates mentioned having previously gotten jobs or freelance projects from Authentic Jobs.

Takeout

So, what are the takeaways here? Obvious, I’m sure. You’re likely to see a greater number of qualified candidates if you’re willing to consider applications beyond your commuting boundaries. Of course, it isn’t mandatory for finding great candidates through Authentic Jobs or similar services (two of the candidates on my shortlist are here in Florida). But it’s certainly helpful.

Equally important is having a product, a brand, an app that those of us who invest our careers in can be proud of. Ours is not an industry begging for work. There’s no shortage of it right now, and that means we have the fortunate privilege of being a little picky and choosy when it comes to jobs and freelance projects.

Final takeaway? I sure wish I could have used Authentic Crew during my search, as it would have greatly aided in the process of acquiring, filtering, reviewing, and messaging candidates. Soon, Cameron. Soon.

–Cameron Moll, Founder

tl;dr – It’s that time again for our annual New Year’s promotion. Visit one of our listing partners for a discount code.

Long version – Get a jump start on hiring new employees and finding freelance contractors with our annual New Year’s promotion: 50% off any listing. But there’s a catch. You’ll need to visit the tweet streams or websites of our listing partners to find a discount code. (Hint: It’ll look something like TWELVE___.)

We typically offer a discount this steep only twice a year, so take advantage of the promotion while it lasts. Expires midnight on January 12.

One of the reasons we’re hiring a front-end developer (position is now closed) is the need to finally wrap up Authentic Crew, a project that’s been in development for quite some time but has been second in priority to operating and maintaining our flagship site, Authentic Jobs.

In 2012, we’re resolving to launch version one of Authentic Crew early in the year. We’ve spent many hours discussing things with the right people and crafting the right experience to help companies and web professionals connect with each other.

For web professionals, your profile on Crew will provide an at-a-glance snapshot of your skills, work experience, endorsements, and portfolio:

Your profile will be a “living” profile, curated by you from places you’re already actively using: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and partners such as Behance and Forrst.

For employers, you’ll have access to matching candidates for the listings you’ve posted to Authentic Jobs, as well as an easy way to communicate with them:

Sign up to be notified when it’s ready. And try not to chuckle at our signup page in need of an update accompanied by an experienced front-end developer. (Hint hint.)

Happy New Year, everyone.

An early Christmas present for us, and a surprise to boot: The Authentic Jobs iPhone app has been featured in the iTunes App Store, in the section titled “Great Free Apps” (iTunes link).

We’re thrilled to be featured alongside Nike, Etsy, TED, and Stamped, and we’re encouraged by the positive reviews that have been coming in.

Update: The app has now passed 15,000 downloads in its first two weeks. Rejoice!

A mere four years after the first iPhone went on sale, we’ve got our first app. We think it might have been worth the wait. (We’re super pleased with how it turned out.)

Head over to the teaser page or download the app in iTunes.

The app contains a few unique features we haven’t yet implemented on the site, such as favorites, listings by location, and a company directory based on active listings:

The Gonçalves Brothers

Instrumental in the design and development of our app were the Portugal-based Gonçalves brothers. As regular users of the site, André and Rui came to us with the app nearly 75% completed. They wanted to build the perfect app for themselves, and it ended up being the perfect app for the Authentic Jobs audience at large.

After settling on an agreement, we worked with André and Rui to finesse the final 25% and polish the many interaction details found throughout the app. They were fantastic to work with, and any praise for the user experience of our app should be given to the two of them. (Give ‘em a shout out: @andre_goncalves & @ruiaureliano.)

Go forth and grab a copy of the free app. Happy job hunting!

P.S.

That’s Cameron’s actual iPhone 4 on the teaser page.

That’s the amount you helped us raise for charity: water. Those are real dollars meant to help real people lacking clean drinking water. Absolutely amazing.

True, we didn’t reach our goal of $35,000. But you generously contributed a very substantial amount of money nonetheless, and it’s $1,618 more than last year. All who contributed deserve recognition, and they can be found at the bottom of our campaign page.

In particular, we’d like to recognize one donor who gave $4,400, by far the largest amount contributed. StyleHatch, proprietors of unique, premium Tumblr themes, redirected funds they were going to contribute to their own charity: water campaign and put them towards ours. This came as a surprise to us, and we’re both honored and humbled.

Lastly, the winner of the limited edition Colosseo will be announced later this week, signed by Cameron Moll and Scott Harrison. Having worked closely with Scott, we can confidently say charity: water appreciates your efforts immensely.

Cheers, thanks again, and here’s to another successful year of supplying the most basic component of human life: water.

Note: Unexpectedly, our campaign terminated around 6pm Eastern time yesterday. To allow donations to flow in through the end of the night, we were given the option to extend the deadline to December 1. So, if you didn’t have a chance to donate, you can still do so.

We’re officially 6 years old this week (September 25 if you’re curious), so we’re celebrating with a week full of savings:

• Post a job to our flagship site, authenticjobs.com, and you’ll enjoy 50% off any listing
• Post a job to our UK site, uk.authenticjobs.com, and pay just £1.00 as we continue to cultivate and grow our UK audience

On top of that, post multiple jobs and save an additional 10-20%. Every job listing includes our money-back guarantee.

Happy birth savings day!

If you haven’t made time yet to help fund the development of freshwater wells in developing countries that so desperately need them, now is the time to do it.

Contributions have slowed to our charity: water campaign, as expected after the initial rush to contribute. So to help put a little renewed fire under us all, we’ll randomly select one individual who donates $20 or more to charity: water to receive a limited edition Colosseo poster ($299 retail value) signed by Cameron Moll, the poster’s creator and founder of Authentic Jobs, and Scott Harrison, founder of charity: water.

Make your contribution of $20 or more by Friday, September 30 to enter the draw.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Jacob Souva, winner of the poster draw. “Just moved into a new house, with a new office,” he tells us. “I have the perfect spot.”

Last year you helped us raise $21,386 for charity: water to celebrate our 5th birthday. This year we hope you’ll help us raise even more.

Help us celebrate our 6th birthday by raising ብር600,000 Ethiopian birr, roughly $35,000 USD, for charity: water. The birr (ብር) is the unit of currency in Ethiopia. With a local partner, charity: water plans to serve 100% of Northern Ethiopia with access to clean, safe drinking water if they reach this year’s goal. And they’ll do that by purchasing a FS 250 drilling rig.

To convey our message with a little more creativity than just a blog post, we’ve created this nifty long-scrolling, parallaxified mini-site:

Nothing overly technical nor fancy, but we hope it’ll help spread the word.

You’re welcome to donate whatever your budget can afford, but we invite you to donate an amount that helps us celebrate our 6th birthday: $26, $66, $106, or even $600.

With your generous contribution, you’ll wish us a happy 6th birthday, but more importantly, you’ll help provide clean drinking water to Ethiopia. Galatoomi!

High six! We’re turning six this month. Once again, we’re passing on the cake and presents to team up with charity: water as we kick off our month-long birthday celebration.

Authentic Jobs’ founder, Cameron Moll, will be at charity: water’s headquarters this Wednesday, September 7. He’ll be live-blogging/tweeting/etc-ing to say thank you to all of the incredible individuals (that’s you) who contributed last year, raising $21,386 for charity: water. And, of course, to ask for your generous contributions once again.

Our goal for this year’s campaign is even more ambitious, so mark your calendars, open your wallets, and help us bring clean, safe drinking water to nearly one billion people without it across the globe.