Dear IndieGamer Community, please help PopCap fill a couple key roles

[vechey]

My names John Vechey, and I'm Director of PopCap.com (the site, not the whole company). I'm focused on all of our direct to consumer business.

We're having troubling finding good people for two non-gaming positions:

Web Graphic Designer (http://www2.openhire.com/onlinejobs/jobs/submit.cfm?fuseaction=dspjob&id=23&jobid=112233&company_id=15658&version=1&source=ONLINE&JobOwner=967017&level=levelid1&levelid1=15237&parent=Web%20Development&startflag=2&CFID=14872893&CFTOKEN=17e8c70-cd5e38ae-7333-4a6c-9b43-537e19f74a37)
and
Web QA Tester (http://www2.openhire.com/onlinejobs/jobs/submit.cfm?fuseaction=dspjob&id=23&jobid=104957&company_id=15658&version=1&source=ONLINE&JobOwner=967017&level=levelid1&levelid1=15236&parent=Software%20Testing&startflag=2&CFID=14872893&CFTOKEN=17e8c70-cd5e38ae-7333-4a6c-9b43-537e19f74a37)

You'd think it'd be easy to find either of those people, but we keep getting resumes and resumes and none of them are up to snuff.

So I thought I'd post here and ask you guys for some help. Does anyone know someone? We're not looking for game tester or game graphic designers, but I figure maybe someone can help.

[Mark Fassett]

As far as your QA position goes - I think you are offering too little money for the requirments that you have stated. I worked QA for a long time (7 years in various companies around Seattle), and my first QA job, back in 1996, with NO experience was equal to your minimum compensation.

Even if your compensation matched your requirements - you would still have a tough time finding someone that fit all the requirements. When I worked at InfoSpace - we had a tough time finding people to fill QA positions, as anyone with enough qualifications didn't really want to work QA.

[vechey]

I know what you're sayin' about asking for a lot of experience. I do think we have a good range there though, and the salary will change depending on what experience / skills that the person has.

[Pyabo]

First of all, let me say this: I applaud the fact that you are advertising the compensation range in your job ad. I *hate* when job ads don't do that, because then I might be completely wasting my time if I find out you're not willing to pay what I'm worth.

However... Mark is absolutely correct. You are offering way too little money for the experience requirements. That may be turning people off. If the salary will change depending on experience, as you say, then you need to advertise that fact. Bump the pay to 50-65K and then maybe you'll start getting some worthwhile applicants. Anyone who wants to do QA work can easily get a job at Microsoft getting $30-35/hr through a contracting agency. Why would they work for 20-30K less?

Granted, I for one would rather work at PopCap than Microsoft... but not at that cost!

[Dan MacDonald]

Been a while since I was at the old msft, and they aren't really known for their competitive salaries. Back then someone with limited experience (and a knack for logic problems) could land them self a lvl 56 test position. Even a few years ago this was paying 45-55k, this was a few years ago too.

If you look at the leaked compensation chart http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/library/MSCompGu.jpg
you can see what the current payscale is for a lvl 54 tester (entry level) and a lvl 56-57 (more experienced, self driven etc).

If I was single and looking for a job I might be inclined to work at pop cap over Microsoft, despite the pay differential. Maybe it would be beneficial to list total compensation (including employee benefits) instead of salary range then you have some wiggle room to negotiate salary in.

[Bmc]

I know someone who'd be perfect for you web design job except he wouldn't be willing to relocate to Seattle.