

Ask HN: Adult industry coder wants to transition to mainstream/startup scene? - jimbojonez

I&#x27;m 31, front-end full stack developer and for the majority of my career, 6-7 years, I&#x27;ve been coding for a company that primarily does adult sites. Now I&#x27;d like to transition to mainstream&#x2F;startup companies as I&#x27;ve simply outgrown my previous position and lost interest in that area.<p>How should I approach prospective employers giving possible discrimination will be rife? Should I be honest about my work experience and hope for open mindedness or perhaps make something up to cover the tracks? I&#x27;m also considering starting afresh and rebuilding a SFW portfolio, I imagine 6 months of freelancing should cover it.<p>Developers of HN: giving the vastness of adult stuff on the web I&#x27;m sure there are fellow developers here who have worked on adult based sites. How do these projects&#x2F;contracts transition to your resume and job interviews?<p>Employers of HN: what is your take on this?
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bsder
Anyone who knows tech knows that adult websites were at the forefront of video
technology, monetization, recurring building, interactive web, security,
content creation, etc.

Wear it proudly. Some companies may turn their nose up at where you worked,
but I suspect it will be more than offset by those who are actually intrigued.

Your only danger is likely HR droids screen your resume out, but once you get
past that. I bet you are more likely to get interviews than less.

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jmspring
I recall seeing a posting on Craigslist years ago that was for a backend /
infrastructure developer for a porn site. The amount of data being handled and
the technical challenges were really quite intriguing.

I suspect there are similar front end challenges in the space.

There are definitely companies out there that won't care where you worked.
Portfolio, that I can't speak to.

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tapsboy
If you have exhaustive experience with video, I am sure a lot of "mainstream"
media companies in NY could be interested. Start off as a consultant with
small gigs, so you avoid the corporate HR

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taternuts
If I were an employer (I'm not), I'd be extremely interested in some of the
problems you've faced/overcome. Average "time of stay" ( _giggle_ ), how you
optimized for user behavior/patterns and such on a site that doesn't see the
normal user patterns for somewhat bandwidth heavy content, etc. Let's be
honest here, no one goes back to an adult site that isn't fast when the
content is almost always on another site that will be.

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bigtunacan
I've worked with 2 people that worked in the adult industry previously. One
was a software developer, the other a project manager. Both were up front
about their job history and transitioned successfully into jobs outside of the
adult industry without any real issues. They both were very talented at their
jobs and were excellent hires. The developer is now an IT Director at a
startup that I will leave unnamed.

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relaunched
There's nothing to be embarrassed about. If I were interviewing you, I would
hope you would frame your experience in terms of what you did, that was
technically interesting, as opposed to the nature of the site...but, obviously
don't lie about anything. I'm positive that I wouldn't care anyway.

Also, small startups are filled with guys that watch porn and are pretty open
minded.

Good luck!

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jamestomasino
I'll echo a lot of the sentiment here. The adult industry tech area is often
well ahead of your mainstream counterparts. Anyone would be lucky to pull you
in. I'm sure you'll face a little bit of animosity, but it will likely be
minor in comparison to the extra interest you'll get at the interview table.

Good luck. As an employer, I'd strongly favor someone with your coding
background.

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iSloth
Don't try hide anything from a potential employer as that just makes you look
embarrassed, and the experience that you have gained from working in that
industry should be a positive due to the technical challenges that it
presents. If the company can't see that then just carry on looking. Good Luck!

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theli0nheart
I'm hiring right now and really don't think it matters.

Send me an email at dan@lionheartsw.com and I might be able to get you a head
start on that portfolio building.

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jpanganiban
if you've worked on a major porn site makes it a plus on your resume. means
your code _actually_ scales.

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BorisMelnik
most people that really know what they are doing in internet marketing etc
knows that adult / pharm is the best of the best. don't be shy about it, just
don't highlight it.

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jesusmichael
Back in the 90's I build an API that enabled the owners of adult content
(Larry Flint Publications/Playboy) to deliver current and updated content
(images) to adult website owners and retain the digital rights of the content.
I built one of the original payment gateways and video rendering engines. All
for porn.

When I went out on my own. I had to beat the offers off with a stick. I ended
up at a High End Management Consulting outfit and finally in the valley doing
tech M&A. Adult is on the cutting edge of lots of areas, especially revenue
generation.

I'd be upfront about who you worked for and focus on the projects and how you
tackled the unique issues of the industry and the solutions you built. Not the
industry itself.

