Take five with Arash Afrooze from Hiretheworld.com

February 7, 2011 - Computing Science alumnus Arash Afrooze is connecting mid-sized businesses to up-and-coming graphic designers. His company Hiretheworld.com won the 2010 BC Innovation Council New Ventures competition and will appear soon on CBC’s Dragon’s Den.

Hiretheworld.com initially started as a host site for logo design competitions. Arash Afrooze speaks on his experience at SFU and how Hiretheworld.com has evolved:

1. When did you first become interested in Computing Science?

I was very interested in computers in general, always wondering how such a tiny machine could do so much, ever since my dad bought me my first computer when I was nine. I started to learn programming and making simple websites and basic applications in high school, when I was 15. When I was applying to SFU, I first chose Engineering Science, since that was the route both my dad and my brother had taken. I started to realize I was more interested in courses that were computer-science focused, such as software programming and hardware programming.

2. Why did you choose SFU for your Bachelor of Science in Computing Science?

When I decided to switch my major and study Computing Science I did a bit of research. I wanted to make sure that the department was just as good as the Engineering Science department. I came to the conclusion that the department shared a lot of resources with the Engineering Science department. I also realized that SFU Computer Science was one of the best in all of Canada and North America. Looking back, I'm very comfortable with my choice.

3. Are there any particular courses or work/study habits you would recommend to students to achieve the same kind of position you are in today?

There are some courses that I believe were essential to my success today. All of the programming, databases and operating systems courses, along with the basics of computer hardware, are absolutely essential in understanding computer science.

My advice to every Computer Science student is to enroll in as many co-op positions as they can. I would recommend students to take on different co-op positions in different fields. For example, if you're interested in software development, try co-op positions in both desktop application development and web development.

4. How did you and Terry Beech [co-founder] connect to create Hiretheworld.com?

I came to know Terry through a friend. Terry was studying for his MBA at Oxford at the time. Our initial product that was launched in September of 2009 only allowed for crowdsourcing of logos. In less than two months, this expanded to include other crowdsourcing projects, such as web design, print ads and any other type of graphic design you can think of.

Coming soon, will be other crowdsourcing contests in the fields of video creation (clips and commercials), sound creation (sound effects, ringtones, jingles, etc.), and ideation (focus groups). On top of that, we have a freelance engine that allows individuals and businesses to hire contractors from over 130 different countries in the world. We provide them with the tools to hire, manage and pay these contractors.

5. What kind of issues have come up for Hiretheworld and how have you addressed them as the Chief Technology Officer? 

The main issue that we've had to deal with is the fact that in a contest, not everyone gets paid for their efforts. In order to compensate our designers, we have created a very complete profile and portfolio system that allows designers to showcase their talent. Membership is also free of charge to our site. Therefore, many new and up-and-coming designers use our services to enhance their techniques and talents. Our freelance engine allows our designers to work on a contract basis, which means guaranteed income.

Technical questions:

6. What kind of content management software do you use?

We don't use any content management software. When I first started to gather requirements for Hiretheworld.com, it was clear that we required a very fast and scalable web application.

We use a very lightweight, customizable and scalable framework, called CodeIgniter (CI). CI is a relatively new framework, but has many benefits and, in my opinion, is one of the best PHP frameworks available. Using CI, I have been able to synchronize our Wordpress blog and PHPBB forum databases to our user database, thereby creating a central authentication system.

7. What technical aspects make the site challenging to maintain? 

The very first, and biggest challenge for any web developer, is browser compatibility. It's very important to understand that our users come from different backgrounds, and use different systems and browsers. Our job is to make sure that no matter how someone accesses our site, they get the same experience. Browsers all behave differently; therefore it's very important to program with standards, make sure all the pages are W3C validated.

Another challenge is page speed. It's not hard to develop an application that just works. It is however difficult to develop an application that uses correct algorithms and is very efficient. Aside from server side coding algorithms and techniques, I use many techniques to optimize our pages. 

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Quick Facts

Student profile:  Arash Afrooze, SFU Bachelor of Science alumni, major Computing Science
Student course plan:  Four programming, three hardware, two database, one operating system, and two web development courses.
Company profile:  Hiretheworld.com started in September 2009
Hits per day:  17,000
Framework:  Created using CodeIgniter
Blog:  Created using Wordpress
Forum:  Created using PHPBB