Penny Arcade web dev / sysadmin job posting

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.

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.

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:

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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.