Will Working For Porn Website Ruin an IT Career? 84
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?"
Assuming you are male (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
a moral decision (Score:4, Insightful)
Take the "Mom test." (Would you be ok with telling your mom what you do? Where you work?)
I can think of cases where it would be a PLUS (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Excessive code and excessive nudity (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:a moral decision (Score:3, Insightful)
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:I can think of cases where it would be a PLUS (Score:2, Insightful)
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
Yes. (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Re:a moral decision (Score:3, Insightful)
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
Might be a good righteousness filter (Score:3, Insightful)