Gawker: valleywag, ioda

Finding the worst-entry level job in tech: Round Two

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:00:00 EDT

We're on to Round Two in our worst-tech-job contest. We've whittled down 10 terrible gigs down to five:

Follow the link for each job to see a picture of their locations, a list of key responsibilities, first hand accounts of why each job is so bad and how much they pay. Then, come back here and vote, below.

(Photo of Arrington and Scoble by Brian Caldwell)

Pick your career poison: temporary Google database admin vs. IODA intern

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:40:00 EDT

The last matchup in this round of our worst-job tournament: temporary database administrator for Google, contracted through WorkforceLogic, vs. content acquisition intern, IODA. Given the compensation disparity between these jobs — IODA doesn't pay its interns, while WorkforceLogic reportedly pay database admins as much as $70,000 — it seems like a no-brainer. Remember, though, just because WorkforceLogic will deploy you to the Googleplex, that doesn't mean you'll ever be a real Googler. Not to the Stanford and Harvard grads munching on their Bacon Krispy Kreme burgers. At least at IODA, you'll deserve the scorn heaped on you by the paid wage slaves. Pick the worse fate, below.

Some Facebook employees consider themselves so underpaid that they resort to cheating the company, but by a margin of 60 percent to 40 percent, readers think it's better to work there than MySpace, according to our last matchup.

Guess how much tech's 10 worst jobs pay

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:00:00 EDT

To come up with the estimated pay for tech's 10 worst entry-level jobs we spoke to former and current employees, HR reps and friends of friends working these jobs. But still, some of our commenters expressed disbelief over the salary estimates. "80 grand for an entry level job? Time to apply and kick those whiney losers out! Let's see how they feel about their new job bagging groceries at the Safeway," wrote mwbeeler. Loakim said:

Boo fucking hoo. I clicked through about 4 of those and if they are representative, then getting paid 60-70K right out of college at an "entry" level job is nothing to complain about, regardless of the "tough" working conditions (ceiling too low? CSR work? no windows? cubicle? oh the torture!!). I spent half my life to get a Ph.D. and will barely be making that as an asst professor at a major research university.

We like our estimates, but we're willing to bow to the wisdom of the crowd, or the madness thereof. Save for IODA's unpaid internship — no point in guessing there — we've created a poll for each job. Take your best guess.

By the way, if you actually work one of these jobs, create an anonymous Gmail account — or Yahoo Mail, if it's the Google job — and tell us the real number.

Review the job's key responsibilities, first-hand accounts, and how much we estimated it pays.
Is this your job? Let us know how much it actually pays.

(Photo by eston)

Tech's 10 worst entry-level jobs

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 20 May 2008 22:00:00 EDT

Soon America's most bright-eyed graduates will enter the workforce and make their workaday homes in cubes at Google, MySpace, or Amazon.com. And they will suffer not just the indignity of having to work for a living, but also the dispiriting realization that a job at a cool company isn't always that hot. These employers, and the others hiring for tech's 10 worst entry-level jobs, listed below, will look spiffy on a resume someday, but for now the only good these jobs promise the world is the pleasant feeling you and I can share knowing we're not the ones stuck in them.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should note that I wouldn't have been able to get any of these jobs out of college. I didn't finish with a 3.8, do a year of service in Nicaragua or file any patents during my sophomore year. But the worst part of this list is the fact that the people taking these jobs did. To paraphrase Dan Lyons, there's something distinctly evil about the way Google and the other companies listed below hoard the world's best and brightest and put them to work on creating more efficient text ads or, worse, tasking them with taking phone calls from angry customers.

Follow the link for each job to see a picture of their locations, a list of key responsibilities, first hand accounts of why each job is so bad and how much they pay.

(Top photo by star5112)

Content acquisition intern, IODA

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:59:55 EDT

Content acquisition intern, IODA
Key responsibilities:

The Content Acquisition Team are the people responsible for reaching out to independent record labels and signing them to IODA so they can make their music available through iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody and dozens of other download services.

Why so bad?

A former IODA employee tells us:

When I worked at IODA [a digital music aggregator] I think the worst job ever was being an encoder. Those dudes hated it. Just ripping CDs all day and filling the information to the database.

Estimated pay: unpaid internship. Apply!

Next: Customer Support Specialist, Fox Interactive, MySpace division

(Photo by tmd)