Now Hiring

We are looking to hire a few more staff members, but we’re not prepared to jump into any quick decisions. Thus, we have come up with a set of criteria that we feel any potential reviewers must fulfill before we consider hiring them:

  1. They must possess an adequate knowledge of web standards, accessibility and web design.

    We’re not perfect, but cross-browser compatibility, as well as cross-resolution compatibility in your own site is a must. Going beyond that, your own site must be visually attractive. Images are not a must, as all of us here love the use of CSS, and well-done CSS-only layouts make us jump up and down with joy.

  2. Their English skills must be impeccable.

    We place a lot of emphasis upon spelling and grammatical accuracy here at Umb-Rella Reviews. We correct all spelling and grammatical inaccuracies in a reviewee’s site, and thus, the reviewer must be fluent enough in English to pick apart any small errors. Fluency in another language (enough to review a foreign-language site) will be regarded highly.

  3. They must be able to complete a lengthy detailed review within a reasonable time.

    We know how long writing good reviews can take…we’ve been known to slave all day on a computer, only to have half a review completed. With this said however, we feel that one review every two months (give or take, depending on outside influences), is more than fair. Most reviews are between 2000 to 4000 words, and we do expect a quality review of that length.

  4. They must be easily contactable.

    We need reviewers that we can rely on. We need to know that if we were try to get in contact with you, that you would respond within two to three days. This means that we must have several different methods of getting in touch with you, whether it be through email, MSN, or even commenting on your blog/site.

The Procedure

With that said, if you feel that you will be able to fulfill these criteria, then we would like you to complete a sample review for us, following our reviewing method :

First Impression
Layout
Content
Final Comments

You can see our expectations for each criteria on our rules, guidelines and criteria page. Also, you may want to read a few of our completed reviews to see what we aim for and our reviewing style. It is a good idea to remember that we will never intentionally put down or demoralise any webmaster/mistress. We will endeavour to follow every criticism with a suggestion on how the problem can be resolved or improved. While we expect you to be brutally honest and pick apart any flaw in a site, we do expect a certain amount of tact. Don’t simply say “Your site is crap, start over from scratch”. Provide example coding, links to tutorials, spelling/grammar corrections, etc.

If you are unable to select a random site for review, you may either review Tracey’s site Chrasy, or even a personal/blog/fan site off yoursite.nu, a reviewing community. Once you’ve completed the sample review, you can send it to us through the Umb-Rella Reviews email as a .txt attachment. Include your name, email address, website URL, and any additional information you think necessary (e.g. Any previous reviewing experience, etc.).

We will contact you after a few days to let you know whether you’ve been accepted as a reviewer (it is generally a joint decision between all current staff members). If you were successful, then you will be placed on what we term a ‘probation’, where Amanda will monitor your first four reviews before they are published. If she feels that they need to be edited, then she will make the necessary changes, and inform you of the reasons why she edited what she did, so that you can keep that advice in mind when you write your next review.

If after the initial four reviews, the current reviewers feel that you have the necessary reviewing abilities, then you will be made a full-fledged reviewer with access to all of Umb-Rella’s resources. If after the first four reviews, we feel that there is still room for improvement, we will either, a) extend your probation period, or b) terminate our relationship with you altogether. This will be decided on a case-by-case basis, and on the severity of the ‘problems’ with your reviewing ability.

For further information, email us your sample review, and we’ll take it from there!