Pro's And Con's Of 'In Industry' Hiring?

[steven619]

We have done it both way...kind of BI I guess.

We have tried a PAID search option...poor results.
We have tried hiring insiders and also newbies.

It's hard..very hard..
Our best luck has been CraigsList, newbies.
With full disclosure that they will see hot naked men.

I understand, and expect, that the person you hire will be motivated enough to create their own sites. This shows me that they are interested in the marketplace more then just 8-5 M-F. Yes, I run the risk of them learning the secrects of HTML and marketing but I also gain in the fact that if they are motivated they will be going above the standard duties and teaching us new things. NDAs are great but in moderation. We all learn off of each other and continue to do so. We just treat them very well and hope they stay with us a long long time. Of course, I reserve the rights to change my mind at a later date.

But I would hire a newbie that is good at areas that you need. Then train them for the rest of what they need to know.

[haganxy]

i've been watching this post to see what people would say. although i have comments on both pros and cons of hiring within the industry, i'm just gonna address the pros.

i'm using my own personal experience as an example when i was hired on with worldwidecontent.com and later on by pridebucks.com. by that time, i had already 5 years of experience in the adult entertainment world, including sextracker, babenet, 2000charge, etc.

PROS:

1. they didn't have to explain to me what: DVDA, V8, Gonzo, etc..meant..I already knew.

2. i was able to bring in a few in a few orders to worldwidecontent.com when i started because i already had connections/friends in the industry and knew they needed content.

3. problems with MPA? NATS? CCBILL? WTS? EPOCH? i have worked with these companies in the past and already had ICQs and emails and contacts with these people....already knew how they operated and how they worked.

4. need a custom script written? no worries, i probably already have one written somewhere and can re-use most of the code.

and more general...i can't count the number of times i'll be asked if something could be done or how it should be done...and i'll say something like "well, back at (whatever company), this is how we solved the problem..what do you think?"


i also think there are cons to hiring in the industry, but that's another story.

[dannyz]

Well I'm someone that started out working for a big AVS company and eventually became a Webmaster. I made that AVS company thousands of dollars as an employee, and even more money when I became a Webmaster (and they continue to make thousands of dollars a month off me from rebills every month). So I think even if someone does end up learning the trade and your secrets, if you treat them right they may just end up using that knowledge to make you a whole lot more money even if they don't remain an 'employee.'

The other thing I've learned with our employees is, if it takes too much time to train them (and I lose too many of my hours), it actually causes me to lose money and if they aren't bright right off the bat they never will be. I personally like people with specific skill sets that I can put to work right away with minimal training. I've wasted too much time on employees in the past when it became obvious they just would never get it. I'm learning to be like Donald Trump and say 'you're fired' quicker LOL