Quixey, the Palo Alto software company that creates search engines for apps, is looking for engineers.

Instead of putting out the call for resumes however, Quixey has come up with an original and entertaining way of finding the best talent out there. Engineers are invited to take a challenge solving the kinds of problems that will demonstrate their skills.

To take the challenge, you must first complete a three practice puzzles. These puzzles include finding the shortest path connecting ordered pairs of nodes in a graph, or finding the greatest common divisor in a pair of numbers. Correctly solving the puzzles may get you invited for a Skype call where you can take the Quixey challenge where you might win $100 for fixing a software bug in less than a minute.

Non-technical people can win $50 if they refer someone to the Quixey Challenge website who successfully completes the challenge.

Screenshot courtesy of Quixey

Whether you nod your head in silent understanding or shake your head in anger, there should probably be no surprise which tech jobs were ranked at the bottom of CareerCam's list of the best and worst jobs of 2012.

While the position of Software Engineer was ranked as their overall number one pick of 200 jobs, due to salary, hiring outlook and working conditions, not all of the high tech positions CareerCam listed came in the top half. In fact, two positions were just barely escaped being listed in the bottom quarter.

Both involve long hours, some heavy lifting, mixed appreciation and of course a screwdriver.

The worst tech job, coming in at #148 out of 200 is the Electrical Equipment Repairer.

The second worst tech job, ranked #142 is the Computer Service Technician.

Of course, like all surveys these rankings are generalizations and don't take into account individual workplaces, pay rates, customer appreciation or job satisfaction.

For a complete listing of the best and worst jobs in the IT industry today, including salary comparisons, check out the article at about.com.

Photo © David Weedmark

If you're looking for work in the tech industry and you're not on Twitter yet, do yourself a favor. Close Facebook, minimize Monster.com for a few minutes, and go to Twitter.

Set yourself up with a free account and then, before you even set up your profile page, type "hiring" in the search field at the top of the page. Then get yourself a coffee because your screen is about to be inundated with job leads.

Yes, many of the tweets with the word "hiring" will be spam messages for work-at-home scams. Many of them will be from people looking for work. Many will be irrelevant to what you do, or based in a country you have no desire to live in. Between these, however, you will find a few gems.

Many recruiters, companies and job boards use Twitter to get the word out. Many others pass on links to their friends and followers on Twitter about jobs they have spotted on other websites.

Of course doing a basic search like this is just the beginning. Stay tuned and sign up for the newsletter for a full examination of how to add Twitter to your job search efforts.

If you love the energy and excitement of working for a cool startup, 6Wunderkinder has announced it has several positions available. They are hiring software developers and quality assurance managers.

6Wunderkinder makes award-winning task management dashboards called Wunderkit and Wunderlist that allows you to share tasks and projects with friends, colleagues and co-workers online.

They are hiring software developers experienced in Windows, Mac OS X, Android, JavaScript, and Ruby on Rails. Besides having some talent and expertise in any of these platforms, you should also have at least two years experience working at a startup company.

The website doesn't specify exactly how many people they are looking for, but over Twitter, a company representative said: "we are pretty flexible, it depends on the # of rockstars out there :) but there are definitely multiple positions for most!"

Sprechen Sie Startup?

There is only one catch: You will have to relocate to Berlin, Germany. Considering that Berlin was rated the second-best city for quality of life, 6Wunderkinder believes this is one of the best reasons to join them. "Ever dreamed of a female head of government? Or a gay mayor in one city?" they write, "Welcome to Berlin."

Other perks include ergonomic chairs, free breakfast, fruit, and a hangout lounge equipped with video games.

Speaking German is not a pre-requisite for these startup jobs, but understanding English is.

Image Copyright: 6Wunderkinder