A typical project would be the development of a new version of TeamSite, such as the recent release of Version 4.5, which introduced Java and XML-based templating to simplify data entry. Projects generally range from 3 months to 9 months.

When asked what new technology the company was investigating, Jia responded, "We are creating leading edge technologies to solve content management challenges in B2B, B2C, and wireless markets."

The company provides major medical, dental, and vision insurance, along with life, accidental death, and short and long-term disability insurance. It also offers a 401(k) plan, a stock purchase plan, incentive bonuses, and generous stock options. Further benefits include a "Stop and Smell the Roses" program that organizes a monthly activity for employees. "One afternoon," says Gary Wimp, Vice President of Human Resources, "a bus showed up and took everyone to the circus." Other activities have included a family barbecue on the patio and the afternoon off for all employees to play baseball.

Business dress is very casual; jeans and shorts are ok. Hours are flexible. Travel is limited. Interwoven has offices in Chicago, Austin, Atlanta, and metropolitan Washington, D.C. There has never been a layoff. The Engineering team had zero percent turnover in the past year.

Interwoven's culture can best be summarized by statements from CEO Martin Brauns, who said to new employees at their full-day orientation, "I promise to keep, teach, and uphold the essential Interwoven values. These include open, honest, straight-forward communication, respect for colleagues, a laser focus on results, and a commitment to making our customers wildly happy."

The company's flagship product, TeamSite, is designed to track versions and manage all web content. It allows both technical and non-technical contributors to help build and contribute content to a web site. Key to this product are ease-of-use, scalability and an open systems architecture. Says Jia, "This is about scaling an operation from one person creating a web site to many people collaborating. Companies can use any of their own content creation tools since [Interwoven's products] work with all of them, whether they are from Microsoft, IBM, or Netscape." Interwoven licenses the software and provides training and consulting services.

Interwoven differentiates itself from its competitors, companies like Vignette, by being the only company to focus exclusively on content management software. As a result, Interwoven is free to partner with a number of companies that complement its software. Asera, for example, provides software to help companies manage marketing, selling, and product support across distribution channels. Earthweb is an online marketplace for technical products and services. GlobalSight, Idiom, eTranslate, LUZ, SDL, and Uniscape provide globalization and localization services that complement TeamSite's latest release, which supports multi-byte characters, facilitating web site translations into French, German, and Japanese. 2Roam is a wireless web Application Service Provider (ASP) that will help Interwoven's customers move selected pieces of their web site onto wireless web devices.

The career path for engineers starts at Member of Technical Staff (MTS), then Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Director of Engineering, Vice President, and Senior Vice President. In addition, the consulting and training divisions have paths for technical consultants, technical account managers, and sales engineers. Current engineers on staff have, on average, a Masters degree in CS or EE and five to eight years of experience.

Jia looks for "two very simple things - smart people and nice people." On the technical side, candidates should know more than one system if they are working on integration. If they are working on the client or server side, they "need to know how to build a scalable server or sexy user interface." Jia seeks out candidates who learn quickly and have excellent analytical and trouble-shooting skills. Further, "[being] team-oriented, flexible, and focused are very important personality traits."

Interwoven does hire entry-level professionals. Wimp says that in a typical interview, a problem will be presented "to assess problem-solving skills and how to navigate through unknowns."