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The Internet

Will Working For Porn Website Ruin an IT Career? 84

Posted by Cliff from the looking-before-that-leap dept.
An Anonymous Coward asks: "I used to work for one of those big web services firms, but it went bankrupt, and now i've been looking everywhere for a semi decent PHP programming job. I recently got an offer from a local porn site to do all of the programming for their site, including creating a whole automated publishing system for them in PHP. I also got an offer to manage the NT Servers at a medical office. Now, if I work for a porn site, will I ever be able to work for a traditional website again? Will this be a black mark on my resume? Has anyone here ever worked in the adult area of the internet? As mainstream, regular sites keep cutting staff, will more and more of us have to work for the seedier side of the internet?"
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Will Working For Porn Website Ruin an IT Career? More

Will Working For Porn Website Ruin an IT Career?

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  • Assuming you are male (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rw2 ( 17419 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @03:56PM (#2615116) Homepage
    The better question would be, would I ever want to work for mainstream companies again!

    Ok, here's what I would do. See if they'll use you as a contractor. Doing so has certain monetary and philosophical advantages that should lessen the stigma in the eyes of future employers. If you can concurrently get another client or two then you will be in an even better position.

    • Absolutely on target. I did work for a porn site for a while, between "regular" gigs. I did not want to have checks from their payroll account, for a lot of reasons (one of which was the divorce i was going through....).

      I did work as a contractor, consulting for project fees. So my work wasn't anything but standard piece work in the eyes of the court, and others. As a graphics guy, I figured that a pixel was a pixel, some were just pinker than others.

      Do you want to isolate yourself from the two-faced employers out there who might reject you because of a porn site job? Then do two things. First, get a dba (Doing Business As) registered in your state. Better yet, incorporate a sole proprietor corporation. Then you are a company, not an employee. You are an employee of the corporation,and the corporation is the one with the seedy contract.

      Second, get paid from the site's owner account. Every porn site has at least one parent company with a tame sounding name. Much better to work for "Take Six Enterprises" than "Hot Horny Sluts". If possible, get the contract done so their shell pays your shell. You are not trying to hide money from the IRS, just make it look better on your resume.

      Remember, if you are a coder, you are writing code, not licking nipples. What I mean is, if you are programming something, then the application is your product, not what data is fed into the app. Most porn sites need the same kinds of things that any other site needs, like shopping carts and secure transactions, multimedia object feeds, etc. It's all in what you call them.

      Yes, Virginia, there is life after porn, and if you are careful about the details that are public (like on your resume), then the HR managers who get their knickers in a twist over "morality" issues won't be the wiser.

      Just a friendly note from a "survivor"...

  • You don't get to see a link to a pr0n site on the front page of Slashdot everyday =)

  • a moral decision (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cornflux ( 168139 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @04:00PM (#2615142)
    You're obviously sensitive to what other people will think and how it will affect your career. But, maybe, the best idea is to consider it on a moral basis, for yourself... take everything else out of the equation for a moment.

    Take the "Mom test." (Would you be ok with telling your mom what you do? Where you work?)

    • Re:a moral decision (Score:3, Interesting)

      by aozilla ( 133143 )

      Moreso, this is almost certainly a question which will come up in future interviews. If I were hiring someone who had worked for a porn site, I would want to know why s/he thought that was morally acceptable. I'd certainly give more leeway to someone who had a somewhat reasonable justification (even if I didn't personally agree with that justification), rather than someone who ignored morality and did it "just for the money".

      If you personally do not believe porn should be accessed by minors, what is your company doing to stop minors from accessing it? Does your company treat its porn actors properly? What is the net effect of your company on society? Positive? Negative? Neutral/Chaotic? If you believe the net effect is negative, I suggest you look for a different job.

      • Re:a moral decision (Score:3, Insightful)

        by xsbellx ( 94649 )
        "If I were hiring someone who had worked for a porn site, I would want to know why s/he thought that was morally acceptable."

        The very fact that an individual worked at a porn site proves the individual believes their action is morally acceptable. Should this not be the case, the individual could have easily terminated their employment.

        My obligation as an employee is to provide services in a matter deemed acceptable by employer. I am under no obligation to provide any justification of my beliefs/morals what so ever and if I was I believe several pieces of civil rights legislation would prove otherwise.

        If I were a possible employer of this person, I would most probably look quite highly on the skills they posses. The individual is obviously used to working in a "for profit" business environment. In short, the kind of person I want working for me.

        "Does your company treat its porn actors properly?"

        Does your employer treat all of its employees "properly"? If not, why are you still working there?

        "What is the net effect of your company on society?"

        And just how does one determine the "net effect" on society??????

        The only difference between the Taliban and the puritanical rightwing moralists in the United States is the day of the week they pray on.

        • Re:a moral decision (Score:2, Interesting)

          by aozilla ( 133143 )

          The very fact that an individual worked at a porn site proves the individual believes their action is morally acceptable.

          My questions wasn't if the individual believes their action is morally acceptable, it was why.

          I am under no obligation to provide any justification of my beliefs/morals what so ever and if I was I believe several pieces of civil rights legislation would prove otherwise.

          And likewise I am under no obligation to employ you as long as my reasons are not related to disability, religion, national origin, race, color, or sex.

          If I were a possible employer of this person, I would most probably look quite highly on the skills they posses. The individual is obviously used to working in a "for profit" business environment. In short, the kind of person I want working for me.

          Skills are an important factor, for sure, but I want to hire someone who is going to to be reliable and consistent. I want someone who is likely to follow his/her terms of employment, regardless of whether or not s/he is likely to get caught, and that means that 1) the person is morally opposed to breaking contractual agreements and 2) the person is not likely to break his/her morality whenever it is convenient or profitable. These questions go to 2).

          And just how does one determine the "net effect" on society??????

          It obviously isn't a mathematical formula, it is a guess, but it is a guess that many people make all the time. When the FSF decides whether to release a library under the GPL or the LGPL, it is making an educated guess about which will have a more positive "net effect" on society. Either will have both positive and negative effects, but in each case the FSF has made an educated guess about that.

          The only difference between the Taliban and the puritanical rightwing moralists in the United States is the day of the week they pray on.

          I'm not sure the relevance of that comment. Are you accusing me of being a puritanical rightwing moralist? Moralist perhaps, if you meant "One who follows a system of moral principle" (dictionary.com), but according to your comment at the top, everyone always follows a system of moral principle, so everyone would be a moralist. As for right-wing, I voted for Nader in the last election (and wanted Gore to win). As for what day of the week I pray on, I don't. And as for your comparison, I'd say you missed a few differences (such as harboring suspected terrorists).


          • This is slightly off topic, but it's something I've been curious about for a while.

            > And likewise I am under no obligation to employ you as long as my reasons are not related to disability, religion, national origin, race, color, or sex.

            Part of this is easily understandable. One has no control over one's national origin, race, color, or sex (trans- and michael jackson-type surgical procedures aside).... Because these are "coincidences" of birth, physical characteristics which the individual had no choice about and therefore it's utterly wrong to discriminate against someone for such things which they have no control over.

            On the other hand, something like a robbery conviction _does_ reflect on the person in question, because they had control over their actions.

            But why is religion included? Religion has no physical connecdtion to one's birth circumstances or DNA, and is simply a set of beliefs and activities one _chooses_ to accept or practice. And since adhering to these precepts IS a personal choice, why _can't_ we hold the individual responsible?

            • But why is religion included? Religion has no physical connecdtion to one's birth circumstances or DNA, and is simply a set of beliefs and activities one _chooses_ to accept or practice. And since adhering to these precepts IS a personal choice, why _can't_ we hold the individual responsible?

              IANASCJ (supreme court justice), but I would think that "religion" in this law would only apply to private home worship practices. Even with disabilities, you can still discriminate as long as your discrimination is based on ability to perform the job requirements.

              In any case, as far as I'm concerned companies should be able to discriminate against anyone for any reason they choose. As long as the government cannot discriminate, there will still be jobs available, and as long as all people have a right to life, freedom, and education, those companies which do the discrimination will be the only losers in the long run. I agree with you that it's immoral to discriminate based on national origin, race, color, sex, and even religion (and disability if it doesn't make the job nearly impossible), but I don't think it should be illegal, mainly because it is pretty much impossible to enforce.

    • Re:a moral decision (Score:4, Interesting)

      by SirSlud ( 67381 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @06:08PM (#2615973) Homepage
      The Mom test is about values that may (of course, or may not) have changed. I should hope the millions of gays out there didn't use the "Mom Test" as the acid test in determining whether or not to be gay.

      And since he's considering the job, I'm pretty sure he's weighed against his own values too. Ironically, I hope more 'normal' people get swept up into the porn industry .. there's no doubt its a seedy industry, but the fact that it might 'tarnish' a resume is a pretty good example of why the current attitude will keep it that way. :) We'll never get rid of porn (just ask many well adjusted, mature friends of mine who sate the exhibitionist in themselves by being amatuers), so why not accept that, and try to make it a cleaner, safer, and more socially acceptable industry for all involved?

      Sadly enough, most of the people who wouldn't hire you because you worked for a porn site have probably subscribed to one at one time or another. I'm quite good at getting people to feel comfortable about talking about sensitive subjects, and I've met very few males that havn't resorted to 'creative meaterial' to help their right hand when they're between parteners (not literally of course ;) Women are taught that porn is bad for women (and it is, these days, in many many ways), but in keeping it an underground, men-dominated industry and the demand only male oriented, we'll never encounter the neccessity to make it a proper and equal industry. In fact, I've met a number of females who wanted porn, but simply could not find suitable material for all the male oriented noise out there .. the local woman-oriented sexuality store (toys/materials/etc) owes me some referral money, but it's sad that guys are raised to be more accepting of pornography as an acceptable inspiration to sexual release.

      On a side note, Suicide Girls (the website he mentions) looks very cool, tho. Catering to specific cultures and communities is another thing the pornography industry could do to work away from it's sleeze-factor cash-grab image. We all have different tastes, and mainstream pornography does very little to aknowledge the different tastes and interests of the population.
      • The Mom test is about values that may (of course, or may not) have changed.
        Yeah, opinions change... but, morality has a tendency to move slower. Logically, it makes a better reference for analysis/judgement.
        We'll never get rid of porn ... so why not accept that, and try to make it a cleaner, safer, and more socially acceptable industry for all involved?
        There are a lot of issues that use this same argument (i.e, take out 'porn' put in 'x'), but it requires the assumption that it is morally acceptable to begin with. For many, porn just simply doesn't fit in 'x'. (I realize some may have a hard time understanding that... so, try something like x = incest, x = war or x = polygamy.)

        • Re:a moral decision (Score:3, Insightful)

          by SirSlud ( 67381 )
          I hear that. I know the subject just begs for rhetoric, but I think you've illustrated why it isn't the black and white case some of us wish it was. It's just frusterating .. like homophobia, the intentions may be there (purity, preservation, respect, etc ... ), but it always boils down to making sure we're eating, sleeping, loving and fucking. :) I figure that as long as the human race keeps doing that, why not let the 'immoral' 3% 'waste their lives' according to some. These are, after all, the principals I thought these western democracies where build on, no? :) I realize I may just be preaching to the converted, but I just find it hard to believe that you're free to waste your life (accoring to me) on being a hardcore (no pun intented) Buffy fan, but not on pornography or loving men or [insert intolerance here].

          Of course, if I had my way, big budget hollywood movies would be illegal for their propensity to chip away at cultural and tolerant values, and offer the lower common denominator brainfood, so I know its all subjective. Funny tho, I like how mindless entertainment and sexual allusion is valued in our world (look at Maxim), but mindless erotica is not. You'd think mass market depictions of women being sub 120lbs is worse on our more female's populations self-esteem than porn (what little ends up in front of the eyes of women) is. At least one keeps your sperm count high .. ;)

  • Alternative Ideas (Score:3, Interesting)

    by uslinux.net ( 152591 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @04:00PM (#2615148) Homepage
    I don't know that it will directly affect whether or not you would be hired by a future employer, but it may indirectly affect your chances (either good or bad), particularly if a future employer (or manager) is for/against those sorts of things.

    Lets look at resume-type questions: Would you be going in as an employee or contractor? What is the official name of the company (suicidegirls.com or "Digital Entertainment Network" for instance)? What work will you specifically perform?

    In all seriousness, if you're a contractor working for another company, you may be able to get away with only naming you contract company and some general terms of your employment (eg "manage 50,000 user accounts using PHP and MySQL" rather than "manage 50,000 adult memberships").

    I don't think most employers would necessarily look at it as a black mark, but people are people, especially when it comes to those management types, and sometimes obvious "flags" on your resume like that might have a impact.

    • Re:Alternative Ideas (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ameoba ( 173803 )
      If my friend can translate "managing a McDonald's" into "supervising small crews in the production of consumables for JHB Enterprises" (JHB = company owning the franchise), then you shouldn't have a problem. Considering that pron is one of the most profitable sectors of 'net business, you should have no problems making it look good.

      Mention the high trafic of the site, and how you kept security locked down (most ppl don't have a moral problem stealing porn, and since there's no physical item being delivered, it's hard to trace, so it's quite common.)
    • That's a good point, and it widens up the scope of this a bit. For example, in my case I was working for a medical company a few years ago doing video imaging stuff of, well, open wounds. ("Open sores", actually, though the software was proprietary nyuk nyuk nyuk...) (and no I'm not kidding -- I really did look at pictures of open sores all day...).

      When I talked to recruiters, it was strongly suggested that I write my resume in such a way that the gory parts about the job were downplayed while the technical aspects that I wanted to expand upon in future jobs were highlighted. I even referred to that employer by their initials rather than the full name (which has "Wound" in it), just to cut down on the uncomfortable interview questions (for the interviewer, not really to me).

      But now, I'm starting to find bioinformatics interesting, so I'm doing the opposite with recent versions of the resume. I don't hide the nature of that job or the name of the company, and I make it clear that I am comfortable working in a medical environment. It's already landed me one job, albeit a temp one, and I'm hoping I can go further with it.

      The point is, having an uncomfortable spot on your resume can be both good & bad, depending on where you want to go and who you want to work for. As one commenter noted, having pornsite experience isn't at all a bad thing if you want to keep working for pornsites -- they are profitable after all. And if you don't want that sort of job in the future, then just downplay it.

      Either way, the idea is the same: have an idea of what sort of work you want to find and what sort of work enviroment you'd like to be in, and then draft your resume in such a way that you draw attention to the areas that such a job would find as strengths. No "black mark" is fundamentally a problem if you can use it to your advantage somehow.

  • Brilliant. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Snowfox ( 34467 ) <snowfox@[ ]wfox.net ['sno' in gap]> on Monday November 26, 2001 @04:07PM (#2615188) Homepage
    A better question would be -- "Is this a good way to get a link to my porn site broadcast to a million lonely guys with fat wallets?"

    If this had been a front page story, methinks Anonymous Coward might be retiring by now.

  • The real question is... (Score:3, Funny)

    by imrdkl ( 302224 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @04:08PM (#2615191) Homepage Journal
    What kind of fringe benefits are they offering?
  • There is nothing that says you need to tell future employers where you worked. If they ask what you were doing at that time, you may have been unemployed, or if you are working on two projects at once only give them one.
  • Lesse... porn... high-res pictures... streaming video...

    translates to BANDWIDTH to me. There's a reason a lot of hosting services won't carry porn, and not necessarily the obvious one.

    I'd think that future employer that deals with high-bandwidth, load-balancing applications, would want someone with technical experience in that area.

    Then again, I wouldn't put PORN in large print on my resume -- stress the tech.

    • I agree. Refer to it as "adult entertainment". It's not like you're sitting there "enjoying yourself" all day. There is a lot of technical work that could be done: content management systems, caching systems, payment processing/secure transaction processing, user account management software, etc.

      I worked for a Miami-based company that provided Spanish content; I speak enough Spanish to say "I need a beer". I had NOTHING to do with content... just like you (most likely) won't either. My day was spent developing utilities, games, etc for the website and making life easier for the content editors.

      The adult entertainment business is a BIG market online. There's a load of bandwidth being used and a load of money to be made/lost. Even though the content is kinda embarrassing (for lack of a better word), it's still a big business that requires strong technology and skilled programmers.

      -just a though
  • Right or wrong, it seems to me that it would be quite a stigma on your resume. There are plenty of people out there who see porn as Inherently Wrong and will hold that against you as soon as they see it, whether or not they should. God knows I've worked with enough Bible thumpers who let their devotion to God get in the way of their business sense.

    Do it as contract work if you can.

    Then again, there are worse places to work. "Please don't tell Mom I work for Microsoft. She thinks I'm a piano player in a whorehouse."

  • ... as working on bringing Boong-Ga Boong-Ga [wired.com] to market.

    - Freed

  • Link in the question? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RadioheadKid ( 461411 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @04:22PM (#2615303)
    I have to wonder about this question, IMHO either its a plug for the pr0n site or this person is not too smart. If you were about to take a job at a company, would you really want to advertise the fact that this company is looking for PHP programmers, on a site (/.) that has a lot of people that know PHP reading it. Furthermore, this could also be a clever scheme to try and find PHP programmers for the site, either way, its very suspicious to me that the URL is actually in the question..
  • Perhaps I misread, but yes. Yes, working for porn will ruin an IT career.

    I'd at least get some cigarettes and whiskey in the deal.

  • How much did this article cost? (Score:5, Funny)

    by duffbeer703 ( 177751 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @04:33PM (#2615397)
    I would like to advertise my business on Slashdot. I realize that the banner ad business is in freefall, but I would like to look into article-based advertising solutions.

    What sorts of rate plans are available? How much does a personal endorsement by CmdrTaco cost?

  • Excessive code and excessive nudity (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/220/ [freshmeat.net]

  • Porn on resume (Score:3, Informative)

    by sben ( 71467 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @05:11PM (#2615628)
    Ignoring the question of whether the submitter was asking a real question or just advertising.... I once interviewed someone who was working at a porn site. Some notes:

    * The site seemed somewhat reputable, which was a bonus, or at least not a minus. (I wouldn't hire anybody that seemed not to worry about working for an exploitive, illegal, or otherwise "over-the-line" site.)

    * He didn't highlight the fact that he'd been working for a porn site, but didn't disguise it at all, i.e. visiting the corporate site listed on his resume made it clear what he'd been doing.

    * The basic fact that he worked for a porn site didn't bother me particularly, though my boss had some (moral) concerns.

    * I think that, regardless of the above point, if he'd had the skillset that matched the position he wanted, we would have hired him. It could be that working in a "backwater" of the industry gave him an inflated perception of his skillset....

    Your milage may vary, of course.
    • Yeah, I'm late to this, but I'll post it anyway...

      The basic fact that he worked for a porn site didn't bother me particularly, though my boss had some (moral) concerns.

      This is the one that got to me - you'd think that someone who had a moral problem with porn would want to hire this guy to get him OUT of the porn business. If people who have a moral issue with porn will never hire anyone who's been associated with the porn biz, it just makes it more likely that more people will stay in the business, helping it to grow. :/
      • you'd think that someone who had a moral problem with porn would want to hire this guy to get him OUT of the porn business.

        The reasoning went more along the lines of (vast amounts of paraphrasing here) "I'm not sure I'd want someone with the loose morals of a porn site developer to be working for me".

  • Ruin? No. Make it harder? Yes. (Score:3, Informative)

    by AtariDatacenter ( 31657 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @05:22PM (#2615689)
    Especially if you live in the bible belt. Good luck finding a manager who won't be wrestling with moral issues... and that is if you are darn good. It can close quite a number of doors to you (simply because of what the manager perceives / believes) and only opens up a limited number of doors (other porn sites).

    But if you're hard pressed, and nowhere else to go, by all means, do what you have to do to live, as long as it is legal.

  • Short Answer: Not Unequivocally (Score:4, Informative)

    by Spud Zeppelin ( 13403 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @05:26PM (#2615708)
    Personally, I've always been of the opinion that from a technology perspective, the porn websites have been out in front of the rest of the industry (mostly out of necessity). So, I would consider it comparable to, if not possibly better than, other industry experience when evaluating a prospect. Plus, how often as a manager to you get the opportunity to look at porn as part of your job? *grin*

    But, I'm not everybody. I tend to hire people (and I've hired four in the past year) based on qualifications, and qualifications alone (although being able to communicate clearly does count as a qualification, so to some extent personality is a factor). Other people and/or organizations might have a problem with it; I would expect that a fair number of the companies, managers, and clients I've done work for over the past several years would, in fact. So, evaluate it like you would evaluate any other position. After all, the flip side is that by some people (hippies, for example), working for a DoD vendor like General Dynamics or Raytheon might be considered a black mark as well. Bottom line is, YMMV. The better question to ask yourself is what kinds of companies you'd like to work for in the future; if your answer consists mainly of the buttoned-down, straight and narrow, you probably should pass, but if it's more of the freewheeling, fast and loose sort, you may want to give the site a whirl.
  • ...try having the fact that you were once the owner of one on your resume...
    Actually I cover it up well, siting the things I did for the company, and the fact that we had a name that didn't sound like a porn company from the name...thats what I would stress in this situation do they have a "doing business as" name that would be more acceptable on a resume? No one says yuu have to provide URL's when you move on, and in fact in my case because the company failed I CAN'T....although once when one of the other partners went to an interview he gave his prespective employeer the URL...the results were funny...
    • I did some freelancing work for one, and one day a female recruiter rang me:

      "You mention here you did freelance work. Do you have any URLs I can give clients?"
      "Well, I do, but they're actually adult sites..."
      "Oh, wow! I always wondered who did those, you see so many of them, but no-one ever admits to it! How cool!"

      *chuckle*

  • I've read a few articles in the last 6 months about how a lot of techies in California are going to work for porn companies. After being laid off they are finding jobs in the porn industry doing sys admin and programming jobs.

  • Yes. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by jd ( 1658 )
    Simple enough. Unless you're in Italy - and even there, it can still destroy a person - you are never advised to go into any industry which could back you into a corner.


    Your morals matter, sure, and the morals of those you care about do, too, but this isn't about morality, per se. It's about always leaving yourself with viable options. And, frankly, once you get into the dark underworld of the Adult Industry, you're not going to have any.


    And it is an underworld. Whether you think that it should be, or not, is not important. What matters is that it is. It is a VERY high-stakes industry, with VERY high cash-flows, VERY little regulation of any kind, and absolutely no incentive to play fair, when playing dirty makes the big bucks.


    As an IT person, you'd be behind-the-scenes and therefore expendable. And there's no real reason to assume that would include a pink bit of paper. Once you've produced your 100% stable, 100% secure, 100% dazzler of a site, what the hell do these people need to keep paying you for? Some concrete shoes, or a car mishap, and they can keep the site of the century, without the overheads.


    Of course, there's no reason to assume your employers would be unscrupulous. After all, it's merely money. The competitors would probably feel much the same... you hope.


    And once you do decide to leave, what then? You think you're going to get a glowing reference? When a poor one might get you back, at a discount?


    Oh, and never forget the honesty with the pay. When sites are willing to defraud customers of large sums of cash, through credit card fraud, you think that they will always be sincere about paying you your wages? A bit here, a bit there, and you probably won't notice, but it'll make them a tidy extra bit of tax-free cash. Well, not quite tax-free. You'd be paying the tax for them.

  • Resumes are funny things. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Some things look awesome on them, some do not. Sometimes when there is a gap in the time line it's a big deal, other times it goes completely unnoticed.


    First things, first, as mentioned elsewhere. Could you in good mind work for a company like that. Could you do so and not have any problems at all? Not mind telling your mom? If you can't and your back isn't against the wall (ie: need job now) then forget it. Sleeping at night is a nice ability to have.


    If you've got no moral objections then there is the resume issue. Will it be "suicidegirls inc?" that pays your check? Or will it be "naked sluts inc?" or "Horizon Entertainment Inc?" Clearly you can see the difference.


    Will you be a contractor or a full regular employee?


    Will you be in the code or will you have to have a lot of hands on experience, so to speak, with the content? I've built e-commerce sites where I had no idea what they were selling. It may not seem like much but content doesn't have to be part of the job if you're not a graphics designer.


    Is this something that pays the bills until a new php job shows up or are you thinking about making this part of your long term plan? Huge difference on the resume. If this is an 18month gig then it can melt off in to nothing on the resume after a couple years. If you're there for 5 years then it's harder to hide. Employers will want to know what you've done for the last 5 years.


    I would think that you could get away with it and not have it harm your career too much or at all. It depends on how long you work there.
    It depends partially on what you go after next, you may not be able to point future employers at your site to show them your work, which isn't terribly uncommon in web work. I've lost jobs because I did a lot of PHP on an internal site and didn't have something I could show them. Is your resume full of experience and skills and education already? The degree from MIT and the 5 years at MS and the other jobs kind of outweigh a typical 18month job if they are there, if "Worked at beasitality.com for last 18 months" is half of your CV then you might want to think twice about it.


    Do you see yourself working at a place like that, not having any problems with it and then working at a place that would have problems with it and not minding that? Let me explain, I try to be as professional as the next guy and I don't really care or judge my employer too much, I'd have a big problem if they judged me a lot though. Suppose I like porno and my employer is ultra-non-porno for some reason; I can respect their opinions and point of view, after all we're not in the porno business but if they judged me because I liked it then I'd probably have a hard time there even if it had nothing to do with my work. I liken it to being an election volunteer with the Greens and then because you know how to do that and it's your career, getting a job as an election volunteer with the reform party and not minding it. Most of us couldn't do it and would mind the differences in policy.

    • Re:Resumes are funny things. (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      funny thing about pron sites, is that they normally are owned by a corp (liability concerns on behalf of the true owners). ive done contract work for 5 pr0n sites so far (word of mouth from owner of first site to second site, second site to rest of sites), and they are all paid via parent companies. geodesign, DKIS, nextgen ICS, YAICF, do any of those sound like pr0n hosting sites? (only one of them is btw)

      if the parent site hires you on, its normally not a problem, you did consulting work on a high bandwith server cluster and its all good. (btw, some pr0n sites have some UBER high end servers, im currently working on a site build up on a cluster of 6 dual athlonMP 1800 systems for dynamic content creation)

  • Hmm (Score:1)

    by tkrabec ( 84267 )
    last i heard Porn is one of the industries that is actually making money as a whole on the net. People will always want porn PERIOD. I agree it is a great place to work and learn. There is bandwidth that you get to work with, there is the cutting edge in "advertising", search engine "loading", cookies, tracking of users.

    Also if the site is good (at work cannot check it yet:) then you will proabaly have a job for a long while.

    -- Tim

  • Resumes are dynamic, not static documents. You should always produce custom resumes for every job you are trying to land instead of the same piece of one-size-fits-all document. Sometimes listing a porn tech job is absolutely the right thing to do like if you are applying for something that requires tech heavy skills. The same things goes for a non-porn job. If you are applying to work for the Moral Majority, you wouldn't list it. An non-tech example would be *NOT* listing on a resume that you were the CEO of a Fortune 500 when you are applying to be a secretary.

    Good porn sites frequently use some of the most sophisticated web technologies around. Someone having been a geek at a porn site wouldn't prevent me from hiring them. Someone having worked for a site that provided poor customer service, failed to pay its bills or generally was disreputable would keep me from hiring them. These are not the same thing.

  • Very funny. But... (Score:4, Informative)

    by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @08:35PM (#2616718) Homepage Journal
    Everyone finds this topic a source of laughs. Well..

    Does anybody recall that opinionated cam-girl Malice, of beautydestroyed.com (currently offline)? She lost her dotcom job when her employers discovered her web site and she refused their demand to shut it down. I suspect they were less bothered by her erotic pictures and stories (pretty sporadic and low key in any case) than her anti-religion and nuke-the-world rants.

    Illegal firing, you say? Probably. Problem is, lawsuits are expensive, time-consuming, and not, on average, profitable.

    Bottom line. There's a lot of social prejudice out there. And most kinds of prejudice are perfectly legal. For that matter, even victims of illegal discrimination rarely have much recourse. I can't offer hard numbers, but there are surely a lot of people out there that will simply ignore a resume that mentions porn.

    • I'm getting quite tired of this dependency on "the law". It feels like everyone's become lazy and gutless in the past few years. It used to be that if someone screwed you badly and you had no clean way of getting revenge, well you'd just walk up to the smiling prick and claim some physical retribution upon him. Yes, I am suggesting that you play dirty when the 'nice' methods fail. It's ugly, but sometimes it's the only way to change people.

      When a high-ranking suit tosses you aside like trash, and 'the system' prevents you from finding justice, you just have to take it into your own hands. Diplomacy can go a long way, but some people have 'risen' above humanity and reason, someone needs to knock them back down to earth. How many times have we heard or felt "Sue me, it doesn't change a thing".. it is sadly true, sometimes you just don't stand a chance in court or on paper.

      Giving someone a good healthy beating (without being overly gratuitous) is natural defense. Didn't you learn as a kid that if someone throws you a punch, throw one back ? When that punch is non-physical, you should equally reply with a crippling non-physical blow. For example, if I had been this Miss Malice, I would have quite gleefully defaced the ex-employer's website and exposed them for the simple-minded bigots they are. They can't call it slander if it's the truth. The bottom line is : if someone screws you hard in this fast-paced industry, screw them better. We all hate idiot crooks, why should we sit still and tolerate them ?

      (go ahead, mod me down. I'm one of those aggressive types who likes to fight for what I believe in. Don't you ?)
      • You've just openly advised people to commit violent crimes. Better hope nobody follows your advice. You're legally liable for the consequences.
        • I'm legally liable for squat. This is a discussion forum. If I tell someone to jump off a bridge and he/she does so, it is their responsibility and theirs alone (as long as I didn't trick/drug them).

          Besides, I didn't tell anyone to "commit violent crimes". I merely used the traditional beatdown as a metaphor to justify my personal opinion. What you should have understood was "Kick them where it hurts : their image/wallet/reputation/human resources". Don't you know what happens when an extrovert person gets unjustly fired or just badly treated ? They talk to others, they 'convert' their coworkers. Some of those coworkers may find another job because they don't want to be the next victim of executive abuse. Quickly enough, the entire business is on its knees, having lost all the good people who deserved better. And that's what I mean by giving them a beating. A corporate beating!

          If you think using actual violence in this day and age will have any positive result whatsoever, then you may be the one requiring legal aid. We've got plenty of guns already, what we need is brains.
          • OK, I took some of your remarks too literally. But you are liable for the actions of people who do things you advocate. The Southern Poverty Law Center [splcenter.org] has won millions in civil penalties from people who advocate hate crimes. This particular organization probably wouldn't care about somebody beating up their boss. But the victim himself could sue you.

  • Might be a good righteousness filter (Score:3, Insightful)

    by wfrp01 ( 82831 ) on Monday November 26, 2001 @10:05PM (#2617071) Journal
    Having porn related work on your resume might help you avoid working for places run by uptight ninnies. That might not be a bad thing.

  • I've seen people not-hired bc they did porn sites (Score:3, Informative)

    by harlan ( 39333 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2001 @01:34AM (#2617792) Homepage
    Two summers ago, I worked at a company that made dynamic webpages for real estate companies. Before I left, they asked me to help interview people to help replace me. Of all the people whom we interviewed, the person who seemed to suit job best happend to have previously worked for a porn site.

    Myself and all the other programmers recommended him, because he simply was the best. The managers themselves admitted that many porn sites probably are more technically advanced than the stuff we were doing, and that he probably was very skilled, but they felt that they didn't want someone like that representing their company and interacting with clients.

    They hired someone else, less skilled and less fit for the job over it.

  • MIT Media Lab (Score:3, Funny)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Tuesday November 27, 2001 @01:53AM (#2617840) Journal
    Well then, we need to wonder about the future careers of the folks at this website:

    Erotic Computing Group - Mit Media Lab
    http://ecg.media.mit.edu/ [mit.edu]

    [smile]

  • ... it'll make you go blind :-)
  • I love porn. Many employers (especially in large corporations) forbid watching porn while at work due to the fear from law suits about sexual harrasment. Now, with this job, not only you're allowed to watch porn, it's a part of your job. I bet that if you're considering working for such a firm, you love porn as well. So, this job just sounds great to me :-) As for future employers, my own philosophy says the following: I am who I am. If an employer won't hire me on the base of a fact like this in my resume, I don't think I would like to work for such a narrow minded employer. So, if you ask me, go for it! :-)
  • Son, you are on the way to top management. Public musings about the 'right thing to do' but go for the evil, short term, greedy hit.

    Porn is not OK - it turns people into meat. Young people get pulled into it - a young girl is having a rebellious week and here life is forever ruined.

    Everyone has a justification. Porn destroys people.

    Porn people are predators, pure evil.
    • Oh come on. That is the typical bible thumper attitude. How about many of the people that enjoy what they do ;) and get paid for it? They are voluntarily there (concession, many are). Think of the lonely person who is looking for a way to vent sexual frustration, shouldn't there be an easy way to do this and not get chased by puritans? I could continue to rant, but it's simple: Porn is not evil. But as long as the church or government wants control it will always have a clasp on our genitals.
      • Sure its evil. People get pulled into the porn life style - prostitution, cocaine, exploitation. I used to manage a whorehouse - I have seen it all first hand.

        Evil sociopaths get the money. Ugly things happen and lives are ruined.

  • scam? (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Seems a bit dodgy to me this posting, an advert perhaps? if you follow the link to the site you see they post in their news that "one of them [techies[ must have written to slashdot because lo and behold, there is a story on there that mentions us." Sounds all very innocent and true..

    But right below is a news story which says, "Go to some of your favorite sites that have links to other sites. Write them and ask them to link to suicidegirls.com. Send me a list of all the sites you got to link to us. On Firday at 12:00pm PST I'll check those sites in my log of refferal traffic and the 5 people who sent us the most traffic will get a piece of SG gear of their choice in the mail."

    Sounds like this is just what that user did, which makes the enquiry look far from genuine and moe like a sad attempt to win some porn site's ts-hirts...;)
  • I don't have enough emperical information to say if a porn job will ruin your career. What I can tell you is that I've had several jobs that have required some rather extensive security and background checks. They were high tech, well paying, bleeding edge jobs that have helped my career in many ways.

    Not all security clearances are the same. Some are easy, some are very strict. Mine were strict. I suspect had I worked for a porn company, I would have never received the clearances needed for such work.

    Another thing to consider, your current job just doesn't impact your resume.

    For example, you need to know yourself well enough to determine whether or not working in such a culture will have a long term effect on your personal life. For me, it probably would. I would think it very difficult to work all day with various media materials, then go home to a wife and daughters and look at them without such imagery colluding my vision.

    Then there are various applications for loans, civic groups and other such places that require/want to know where I work. Will they reject my application ? Again, I have no idea, not enough information ... just a hunch that it would.

    There are social issues. If you're not married, how will your date respond. Some might be cool, some might not. Depends on what you're looking for in a partner. There are neighborhood issues. Sure, I'd be real popular with the guys in the 'hood ... but I doubt my kids would be allowed to play as moms on the street get the word.

    These are all guesses ... so your mileage may vary.

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