Adult companies are also less likely to offer other benefits such as private health insurance and share options, according to Harte-Bunting. "The vast majority of porn companies don't offer share options," he says.
Another challenge of working as an IT professional in the adult industry is the lack of technical awareness among those running adult sites, says Sims.
"Clients always seem to want a lot of movement or flash, which instantly is going to have a detrimental effect on any search engine rankings they achieve," he says. "Also, clients seen to think uploading huge 'straight out the digital camera' images to their site is a good idea, when obviously it isn't."
6. Can working with controversial content affect your job prospects?
Insiders agree that working for an adult company could affect business
opportunities in other industries, but there are ways to minimise the
risks.
"There is definitely a danger, particularly if someone is very religious," says Alexander. "I have dealt with it by keeping the two parts of my business separate, for example, I don't talk to corporate clients about my work with adult companies."
"We keep the fact that we design such sites low key and rely on our Web site rankings to bring in work for those that are specifically looking for that type of site. All our 'adult sites' are actually nothing more than 'titillation' to be honest, Mr & Mrs Smith who want to put some photos on a Web site is more our line of work than anything hardcore," says Sims.
But Mark Heath, a commercial director at UK recruitment consultancy Computer Futures, disagrees that working for an adult company is likely to affect job prospects.
"I wouldn't have thought that it would be too detrimental to their prospects unless they started the business themselves, the vacancy was with a religious organisation or they had it on their CV as a hobby," says Heath. "I would have thought that it would make them stand out a bit actually and be an interesting topic of conversation during the interview."
Harte-Bunting is of the same opinion. "If you've done porn and have taken your clothes off that has a dramatic effect on your employability, but [working] at a porn company has no impact," he says. "Even in the US, Christian conservatives are a vociferous minority. Most employers in Silicon Valley don't give a damn — they just care if you can do the work."
Talkback
this is a good article
I like porn and i liked this article
I agree with the author
I'm not sure I'd tell anyone if I had a job in the porn industry -- might look dodgy on the CV,
Here's a suggestion for those interested in getting a job in the adult industry, check the older webmaster resource sites like ynot.com, klixxx.com and others.
I am an adult webmaster, and while I do my own coding, seems like once a week someone posts to a discussion board, "I need a webdesigner or programmer for my site."
Those resource sites are good too, for tutorials to teach how to set up a well designed site. Adult sites are different from regular e-commerce. Get a rep for good design and you'll have a good second income.
Of course you can't tell your grandmother, lol.
Telling people you work in the porn business is ok as long as your job title isn't "Fluffer"
great article, one of the biggest problems is the UK mind set, for example, newspapers will not allow you to advertsise jobs in the adult sector as they see it as seedy, yet they allow escorting adverts, insane... The adult industry is far from seedy and offers some very good jobs ranging from tech jobs up to highly paid stars..
We find our stars by word of mouth, people telling people we are good to work for... We would love to advertise like tescos or vodafone, yet we can't, hopefully this imbalance will change and people who want to work in the adult industry will find it easier to get the job they want..
www.traceysvideos.co.uk
I have worked in theadult industry for years.
Its such a shame it is still seen as dirty & seedy.
Its the small, narrowmindedness that has allowed it to become a haven for drug criminals & people traffickers.
Get rid of the taboo's bring it out in the open and these evil criminals have nowhere to hide
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im portugues and its hard for me to find a job as a porn actor :( what should i do
As a generalisation probably quite accurate.
I am founder and CEO of one of the largest adult orientated companies in the world. My comments are:
1) If you are only offering normal conventional adult material it is much harder to make $$$’s nowadays unless you are an exceptional individual. However, I still know many new start-ups who earn far more as an adult webmaster within one year than they ever will in the corporate world. If your good and know how to do it, then you will still make serious money. The emphasis being ‘good’ – but then doesn’t that apply to any industry? ;)
2) If you offer rich new media – then it is still a high growth market and there is plenty of money to be made. However, only big budget guys have the opportunity to develop the technology to develop rich media applications. (eg. Live video streaming that handles millions of customers, rich media for mobile, ipTV etc..)
3) Although there is still stigma associated with the adult industry it is not as bad as people make out and things are changing. There are a few public companies on USA and European stock exchange who are 100% porn companies. The number of porn companies going IPO is increasing and their market cap is similar to conventional companies – highlighting its acceptance to corporate investors and the public. There is significantly more public companies that derive 70-80% of their income from porn, but simply don’t highlight it ;) …eg Hotel entertainment systems providers, mobile payment processors & content suppliers etc..
4) I would not agree that the big adult companies pay lower than corporate world. It’s just that 90% of adult companies are small. I know quite a few adult companies pay top $ for highly qualified staff, and offer both share options and health insurance ;) High valued branded porn companies are run just as corporately as any blue chip company.
5) One thing you forgot to mention …some adult companies you get to work on world first innovative projects. We were probably the first company in the world who solved DDOS attacks with a budget less than $250,000, and then later helped one of the largest banks in the world to solve theirs ;) We also developed the worlds first live video chat applications for 2.5g and 3g mobile phones, we also developed the worlds first hotel in-room live video chat system etc. .. You also get exposure to some very high traffic ecommerce systems – experience hard to find in a lot of companies, even very large multinationals.
6) It is true that people perceive an issue with working with adult companies, especially corporate career minded, but these are a minority and most understand the commercial aspect after their initial concerns. I have never known a techie being declined for a job because they previously worked in a porn company. Strangely, from my experience the people who have the biggest issue with working in porn related companies are male programmers ;) Women tend to have less of an issue than guys (from my limited experience of interviewing and recruiting a few hundred techies, sales, designers etc. in the adult industry). I frequently receive CV’s from c-level executives of global billion dollar corporations begging to join our company. (doesn’t mean they have the skill set for our type of business, but highlights that it is not as big a barrier as people perceive and we offer comparable salaries to the corporate world)
7) Don’t forget the corporate world had a big stigma with gambling companies 6 years ago in the UK before it became mainstream on the internet ;)
I just found this article as i have been working as a print/web designer for the adult industry for the last three years and am now looking to move on to another company.
It certainly is frustrating though as my portfolio for the last few years is littered with adult design material that would greatly impress the right potential employees but of course sends anyone else off in exactly the wrong direction - ie, far away from looking at all the naked ladies and appreciating the work for what it is.
This job itself came from friends of friends - before now i was freelancing and happened to produce some adverts for a phonesex company, which where noticed by an advertising agencies and details passed on to my current employer - but now, it seems cold calls and maybe a little word of mouth might be the way forward as there sure as hell arent any relevant posts up on planetrecruit or jobsite today....
Very good article!
For all of you who want to work in the Adult Industry now check http://www.adultexpertise.com
Very good site where you can promote yourself to the adult industry for free :)
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hi can u post me where do you work in adult filming and how to get there
I'm not sure I'd tell anyone if I had a job in the porn industry -- might look dodgy on the CV,
via Facebook
22 November, 2005 19:16
I'm not sure I'd tell anyone if I had a job in the porn industry -- might look dodgy on the CV,
via Facebook
22 November, 2005 19:16
forget to leave my email address guardian25angel@gmail.com
Possibly more acceptable now than admitting you work for a bank!