We're hiring - Print and Production Specialist

This is an unusual job advert from an unconventional company. If you are looking for a rewarding career that offers wide-open space to explore; and plenty of opportunities for learning and personal growth, please read on. However, if you are looking for an easy 9-5 job or to make some quick cash, this job is definitely not for you.

Your role

This job is Dunedin based. It begins at 20 hours per week with the possibility of becoming a permanent position.

First round of applications close on 12th Jun, 2017.

Your job is to make the products our customers have ordered and your performance will be evaluated equally on the following four dimensions: quality, speed, problem solving and continuous improvements.

The key responsibilities are:

1. Print customer photos through our large format printer, using Photoshop and our in-house software. Perform basic photo enhancement tasks like red eye removal or level adjustments.

2. Cut the print sheets to size, using kraft knife, roller cutter or our high precision robotic cutter.

3. Mount the prints onto foamcore and install artworks into pre-made frames. Packaging and shipping.

4. Manage inventory. Update our internal tracking system, order new stocks and come up with strategies to improve the inventory KPIs [6].

5. Suggest, implement and review improvements to the production process.

Will you be a good fit?

1. Are you familiar with basic photography concepts like exposure, contrast, colour balance, resolution etc? If your friend comes to you and says the photo print is too dark, do you know what you need to do to help her? If she complains to you that a print is too pixelated, do you know where to check?

2. Can you spot small details before any of your friends do? Do you feel a job is not done until all the details have been taken care of? Does it bother you if you have to use a poorly made product on a daily basis?

3. Are you confident with your hands? Do you love to make things? Will you operate well under stress?

4. Are you comfortable with technology? Do you feel confident that you can quickly learn the custom software we have developed in house? Can you see in your mind’s eye ways to improve software and existing workflow to get things done more efficiently?

If you answered yes to most of the questions above, that's great. Please read through our company culture. Just like personalities, there are no arbitrary right or wrong, but these are how we think and behave. You will only be flourishing if you happen to share the same set of values as we do.

The Company

HappyMoose was founded in 2014 [1] to create interesting photo print products for the New Zealand market. It was an unusual industry to enter because most people believed that very soon no one is going to print photos anymore. And it was even more unconventional for us to focus on NZ only while good percentage of the NZ business community believe in export or die.

Our performance so far?

We’ve been doubling our revenue every year, with no external funding except supports from our families, the local business community, plus tons of hard work and decent amount of coffee.

HappyMoose, as a brand, has established itself as the place to go for fun new photo print products. We introduced a wide range of products that were the first in the New Zealand market. Our customers love us and they are happy to pay us premium price to get their own photos printed by us. As of 1st of March, 2017, we have 21,152 people following us on Facebook. Our main marketing effort is to encourage our customers to share photos of our products on Facebook. [2]

HappyMoose, as a business, is designed and operated as a vertically integrated company [3], we design and engineer all products in house, leveraging our combined strength across multiple disciplines: product design, software developement, photography, digital printing and system engineering. Our software driven, increasingly automated production system gives us an unfair competitive advantage over other established players. We are proud to say that our productivity is at least 3-5 times higher than anyone else in the industry.

Our core values

We have a small set of company values that describe who we are and how we operate. We believe that these values are what make us unique and we look for candidates who also share these values with us. So please take your time to go through the list below.

1. Think and, not or.

   This is the meta value and that’s why it starts with #0. As you’ll see, each core value below is presented as two seemingly conflicting behaviors. For example, it’s often considered a truth that creativity must come at the cost of disciplined engineering process.

   We reject these false dichotomies [4]. We believe that in order to build a healthy and sustainable business, we have to excel in both. Weak in either one will lead to an unstable business that’s doom to fail.

2. Brutal honesty delivered kindly.

   No dodging or glossing over problems and challenges, but also not being a dick.

   We consider it this company’s core responsibility to respect, challenge and grow our people. Be honest, upfront and firm about our thoughts and feedbacks.

   On the same time, always treat people with appreciation, courtesy and respect. The world we are living in can be a shitty place and this company is our own opportunity to improve it and to leave it a better place.

3. Come up with crazy ideas and execute them well.

   Out of box creativity combined with operational excellence.

   Crazy ideas are what capture customers' attentions, allowing us to expand our customer base more efficiently. Creativity is what makes the work more fun and it’s also how we leave our own marks on the world.

   Be proactive. Taking the first step and pursue your own ideas without waiting for permissions. Share inspirations. Build prototypes. Idea leads to more ideas.

   We equally believe in the critical value of getting things done to the highest standard, make them available to a market as wide as possible, at an affordable price to as many customers as possible.

4. Have a strong back and an open heart.

   We work long, we work hard and we work smart.

   We expect paratrooper accountability from each other. We deliver what we promised, whatever it takes. We believe that there are no silver bullets, but a lot of lead bullets to go through [5].

   The combined force of internet and software is transforming every aspect of the industry. There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy but it will certainly be fun. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. Failure is accepted so long as it yields new lessons.

   We don’t measure ourselves against other competitors but against where we were yesterday. We see the long term competitive advantage of this company not in how much money we have in the bank, nor our assets, nor market share, but in our ability to constantly excel ourselves [8].

Still with us? Wonderful! Let’s chat!

Please send an email to [email protected] and tell us

1. Why you are the perfect fit for this position.

2. What skills or experiences you’d like to acquire in the next 18-24 months. [7]

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Footnotes

[1]: A very early interview published on the idealog magazine: http://idealog.co.nz/tech/2014/12/happymoose-mobile-app-built-dotting-father-print-and-send-moments-his-firstborn-grandparents-living-overseas Much have changed since then but some of the early visions and why we started the company still remain the same.

[2]: Go to the guest posts section on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/happymoosenz/posts_to_page/ and see for yourself.

[3]: Vertical integrated company has its own strength and weakness, if this concept is new to you, here is a short article for you to enjoy: https://www.dropbox.com/s/f7112c6lzhp4vai/vertical-integration.md?dl=0

[4]: False dichotomies, also known as false dilemmas, is a type of informal fallacy. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma

[5]: The concept of silver bullets vs. lead bullets is first crystalised by Ben Horowitz in his blog post: https://a16z.com/2011/11/13/lead-bullets/

[6]: There are 5 basic Key Performance Indicators, aka KPIs, to an inventory system: https://www.dropbox.com/s/li2oiph67ok6dcf/kpis.md?dl=0

[7]: We have a different set of ideas on the employment relationship in the internet age, which is best explained with the tour of duty metaphore. To learn more, check out this slide show: http://www.slideshare.net/reidhoffman/the-alliance-a-visual-summary

[8]: 10-star experience design by Brian Chesky from AirBnB. https://www.dropbox.com/s/cin3w60wt4u3fgg/Brian%20Chesky%20on%20Designing%20a%2010-star%20customer%20experience.md?dl=0