Developer Contest Winner Builds HeroJobs.org for Veterans
Time to read: 1 minute
February 01, 2012
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Earlier this month CTO of the United States Aneesh Chopra announced new startup partners and programs around Obama’s Summer Jobs+ initiative while visiting Twilio HQ.
In the spirit of DOers, our CEO Jeff Lawson proposed a lightning round developer challenge to support the Veterans App Showcase. This event featured a special visit from Dr. Jill Biden, Second Lady of the United States, and was set to happen in less than 24 hours.
The challenge? Build a Twilio app using the Government’s National Resource Directory and pass a government security clearance, all before 9am the next day. Taking on this challenge and getting full government clearance was developer Tony Webster of San Francisco.
The Winning App: HeroJobs.org
Using the National Resources Directory to access the veterans job opportunity database, Tony built an app to help veterans find jobs nearby based on their Military Occupational Specialty powered by Twilio SMS. Visit HeroJobs.org, enter in a ZIP code, cell phone number and military job duty descriptions, and you will receive texts with new jobs as they are posted.
Tony made the impressive DOer effort to complete before the next-day 8am deadline. It wasn’t just for the glory and the chance to meet the Second Lady of the United States, Tony felt a civic duty to support. On his blog he states:
“Veterans face many problems when they return home, and finding a job in a tough job market and economy is certainly at the top of that list. The jobs presented to veterans from HeroJobs.org are from companies that have made a commitment to veterans, and the veterans get the advantage of knowing about the jobs first.”
More About This DOer
Tony is a designer, developer and data hacker in San Francisco. You can read his blog at www.tonywebster.com and follow him on Twitter @webster.
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