

Penny Arcade web dev / sysadmin job posting - harto
http://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/9887522?trk=job_nov

======
mattdeboard
> We’re terrible at work-life balance. Although work is pretty much your life,
> we do our absolute best to make sure that work is as awesome as possible so
> you at least enjoy each and every day here.

Sigh.

edit: oh haha I get it, it's a joke:

> \- Annual Salary: Negotiable, but you should know up front we’re not a
> terribly money-motivated group. We’re more likely to spend less money on
> salary and invest that on making your day-to-day life at work better.

I was disappointed til I realized no one in their right mind would be asking
someone to get worked to death for low pay. See? Joke!

edit 2:

C'mon this is probably one of the worst job listings I've seen in my handful
of years looking at developer job listings. This cannot possibly be serious.

In addition to the "We're gonna work you to death" and "We're not gonna pay
you what you're worth", there's also the awesome addition of "We don't have a
plan and it's basically up in the air what you're going to be doing every
day":

> Flexibility adapting to deadlines, changing schedules, priorities and
> unpredictable events in a fast paced environment.

And don't forget that you should be highly experienced, multidisciplinary
wizard who won't mind doing desktop support:

> the (dreaded) GENERAL IT for us here that need help configuring a firewall
> for a dev kit, etc. Sorry, I know that’s the WORST, but it’s absolutely part
> of the gig.

This is legit, at least they're being up front with it instead of springing it
on the poor schlub who gets hired.

~~~
nlawalker
Are you familiar with Penny Arcade? The author's not kidding when he says
it'll probably be the most competitive opening they've ever had. They could
lower the desired experience just a little bit, offer this as an unpaid
internship and they'd still get more applications than they could handle.
There are people who would would essentially replace everything in their
entire lives to work there - it's about the culture, the people and the
access.

~~~
mattdeboard
Yeah I'm very familiar with PA and a big fan of the strip. Less interested in
the auxiliary work though.

I get what you're saying and you're probably right, but it seems almost
malicious to take advantage of someone's fanaticism so boldly.

~~~
zorpner
It's absolutely malicious, and what's more, they already know that:
[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/25](http://www.penny-
arcade.com/comic/2010/1/25)

~~~
htilford
I'm reminded more about their actual reality show that ended with a job
[http://penny-arcade.com/strip-search/](http://penny-arcade.com/strip-search/)

------
patio11
The video game industry is generally _much_ less explicit about the fact that
they are structurally dependent on exploiting enthusiasts to work for them for
below-market wages until they are burned out and replaced by younger, cheaper
enthusiasts. So props for transparency.

Career advice: Like video games? So do I. Buy them. They're cheap at
programmer salaries and will, when used as directed, very rarely ruin your
life. The same cannot be said of burnout-inducing jobs.

n.b. Structural realities of the video game industry are common knowledge but
you can take a grizzled old hand -- say, a 30 year old engineer -- out for
coffee if you want to hear about what a typical development cycle looks like
at a company you love.

------
fruchtose
Job requirements:

* Ability to move in a fast paced environment, at a speed of 180 mph or greater.

* Demonstrated physical capacity to produce calefaction directed from eyeballs, at or exceeding 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

* Signed note from esteemed scientist showing capability for producing X-rays (preferably 5 nanometer wavelength) from eyeballs or eye sockets

* Affidavits testifying to eidetic memory.

* Ability to physically resist and rebuff projectiles, including but not limited to arrows, baseballs, rocket propelled grenades, bowling balls, and bullets between the range of 1 and 50 caliber.

* Established reputation for instantly understanding and speaking any language sufficiently established by a human culture, after initial exposure.

* Distinguishing characteristics: Faculty for achieving flight, and resourcefulness.

Are these job requirements impossible? Absolutely not! They are laid out
explicitly, so the list is perfectly reasonable. Being up front makes all the
difference here.

------
fishtoaster
I feel like I'm supposed to find this funny or angering (given the context of
being posted on HN), but I'm not really sure why I would be. They're being up
front about the demands they'll put on an employee, and they think they can
find someone who will do it. More power to them. Any developer willing to
relocate to seattle and meeting those requirements should have no trouble
getting a higher-paying or easier job, so if they take this one, it can only
be by choice.

I wouldn't take it, but I'm not so presumptuous as to assume everyone wants
the same things in life as me.

~~~
mattdeboard
I assumed it was posted because whoever posted it thought some people here
would be interested enough to apply. If it was posted as angst bait, well,
whoops,I fell for it.

------
asmosoinio
The link was not working for me while logged in in LinkedIn. Shows up fine in
an Incognito Window.

Copy&paste for others wondering what the fuss is about:

\----

Job description

 __ __PLEASE NOTE: YOU HAVE UNTIL DECEMBER 20, 2013 AT 9:00 PM PST TO SUBMIT
YOUR APPLICATION. PLEASE FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER AT @RKHOO FOR UPDATES IN CASE
EMAIL GETS SENT TO SPAM FOLDERS, ETC. __ __

Given our audience and the job at hand, this could potentially be the most
competitive position we ever hire for. We 're looking for a web developer /
software developer / sys admin to join our small family. We’re a team of 15-20
people that essentially run Penny Arcade proper, the online store, our
fulfillment center, the PAX shows, Child’s Play, PATV, and a bunch of other
smaller things that no one ever hears about. We rely heavily on outside
partners and vendors, but as far as managing and helping run/deploy the
technical infrastructure to most of the things we do, we rely on one person.
That person is you.

So yes, we run lean. Most of us would say maybe a little TOO lean, but being
pushed to your limit is part of the job. I'm not saying that to try and scare
you away OR impress you, but it's in both of our best interests to understand
and set expectations properly. If you have boundless energy and desire to work
on both creative AND sometimes tedious work but in an environment that just
might change your life, perhaps this is the opportunity for you.

We are quite literally looking for a person that can do four jobs: Web
Development, Software Development, Sys Admin, and the (dreaded) GENERAL IT for
us here that need help configuring a firewall for a dev kit, etc. Sorry, I
know that’s the WORST, but it’s absolutely part of the gig.

So yeah, we know that’s a lot to ask of a person, but all of us here work
tremendously hard to do a lot of things, and if you’d like to be at the
technical epicenter of it all and don’t mind having a really bad sense of
work-life balance, this is the job for you.

Desired Skills and Experience

General Requirements \- You need to have a crazy-person level of attention to
detail. \- Strong project management skills, organizational skills and time-
management skills. \- A motivated self-starter who can overcome or workaround
issues independently. \- Flexibility to travel up to 30% of the time. \- You
should have no problems working in a creative and potentially offensive
environment. \- Flexibility adapting to deadlines, changing schedules,
priorities and unpredictable events in a fast paced environment. \- The
ability to communicate and work well in a team environment as well as on an
individual basis. \- Must have the ability to prioritize tasks and balance the
immediate and long term needs. \- You should have no problem appearing on
camera. \- It’s rarely we call on it, but if something breaks in the middle of
the night, you are expected to be on call to address that issue 24/7.

Some things you should know about this job.

We’re terrible at work-life balance. Although work is pretty much your life,
we do our absolute best to make sure that work is as awesome as possible so
you at least enjoy each and every day here.

And here are some other things we’re using to weed people out. It’s not fair.
I know. Life’s not fair.

\- A BA/BS or greater degree in Computer Science or a related field \- A
minimum of 3 years in development and project management, preferably in a
professional workplace \- Strong experience in PHP, MySQL, Javascript (jQuery
and AJAX), CSS, Apache \- Strong experience in one of Java, Python, Ruby, or
other object-oriented language \- A history of running and configuring
multiple-server environments, including load balancers, web
accelerators/caching systems, and databases \- A history of running and
configuring multiple server environments, load balancers, and varnish. \- You
should probably be a fan of Penny Arcade. Probably. Yeah.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

\- Annual Salary: Negotiable, but you should know up front we’re not a
terribly money-motivated group. We’re more likely to spend less money on
salary and invest that on making your day-to-day life at work better. \- Full
Medical, Vision and Dental \- 401k (SEP) retirement contributions (2% of
annual income per year) \- Holiday pay \- Periodic bonuses \- Flexible
vacation time \- We're willing to relocate you if need be Send me your resume
via the linked in system. If you don't submit your resume, I won't look at
your application. Sorry - I gotta streamline the process.

About this company

Based out of Seattle, Washington. If you are applying for this job you should
know all the nuts and bolts to us already.

------
Rantenki
If this job offering came from just about any other company, we'd be
snickering about how clueless their HR department was. Actually, we'll be
snickering anyhow, but it's surprising to see it coming from PA. This reads
like PA just hired EA's HR dept.

I have no doubt that PA is a cool place to work, and the people are probably
nice, but this job posting is pretty cavalier about the fact that you're going
to be overworked, underpaid, and life isn't fair, so tough.

------
sanskritabelt
Yesterday my opinion about Penny Arcade was 'jesus christ that one dude is an
asshole' and now I have a much more sophisticated opinion, namely 'jesus
christ both those dudes are assholes.'

~~~
robdrimmie
Khoo, the CEO (generally less in the public eye), is actually the third
asshole. Krahulik and Holkins are the artist asshole and writer _,
respectively.

_ no comparable foot-in-mouth public displays of assholery, but if you think
the other two are, you are very likely to think he is too

~~~
sanskritabelt
I am always willing to update the asshole registry.

------
anonymoushn
Does this come with a free dickwolves T-shirt and lecture about how transwomen
are men?

------
downer96

      We need someone young, naive, with stars in their eyes 
      going gaga over internet fame about a website they'll 
      never have any creative input on, unless they swear a 
      blood oath to never take credit for an idea that already 
      aligns with our PG rated middle school sense of humor.

------
jetdillo
I feel you should always give somebody props for brutal honesty vs. hiding the
truth, so good on ya Gabe & co for at least laying it all out up front.

This reminds me of being in the running for a job at WOTC some years back, not
being terribly fanatical about the card game, but wanting to move to Seattle
to be with friends. The job was very similar, a sysadmin+build-our-
website+fix-the-printer AND bring-me-coffee(NOW DAMMIT! NOW!) type gig, but
back in the mid '90s when web developers were about as rare as a VengeVine
card.

Things kind of fell apart when they wouldn't even match my salary at my (then)
current job nor cover relocation. The guy I was talking to kept trying to talk
past that impress me with how cool it would be to work for them and how that
would MORE than make up for such mean concerns as a paycheck scaled to the
size of the job and cost of living.

In the end I failed to be sufficiently impressed and politely turned him down,
which he scornfully assured me would be a career-ender(and what's up with
that?--why do these things always seem to end with "You'll never work in this
town again!!!" type closings ?).

To the young fanper(s) sweating over their resume for this job: Think VERY
carefully what it would be worth to you to have PA as a line on your resume
and where you intend to go with this all once you get there.

"Creative" companies seem to be like this a lot. They're used to dealing with
artistic, creative people who need a LOT of self-validation and are willing to
be treated like crap just for the privilege of being treated like crap by a
specific person or group of people. They just assume that everybody in every
field of effort is the same and tend to get very bent out of shape when you
push back at them or just even have boundaries and requirements.

------
kar1181
Hrmm which one to believe?

'We're not a terribly money-motivated group'
[http://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/9887522](http://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/9887522)

'I developed humor as a defense mechanism. Now I drive a fucking Mercedes.'
[http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/15-09/mf_...](http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/15-09/mf_pennyarcade?currentPage=all)

------
josephkern
Possibly the most realistic job posting I've read.

------
BryantD
The next time you wonder why a major online game launch didn't seem to have
exercised the proper care for quality, redundancy, and the other factors that
go into keeping your site up -- go back and re-read this job posting.

