What's it like to work remotely for Linden Lab?

I hear this wonderful question a fair bit, and I emphasize remotely in the title — most companies, even high-tech ones, will only hire for onsite, in-office positions. Not every person or every job is well-suited for working remotely from home, or as Pathfinder Linden (John Lester) and myself prefer, "networked" (since "remote" can sound… well, too distant!).

But ah, we're special. We really are.

You see, Linden Lab didn't just establish a virtual world where people can connect across the globe, no matter how physically distant — we "eat our own dog food", and try experiments in remote work for ourselves that I'm hopeful will scale and be adapted by other companies, like Cali & Jody's ROWE. This is the epitome of leading by example.

My answer to "What's it like to work remotely for Linden Lab?":

It's wonderful! Yes, I could gush sentences like "amazing opportunity" and how grateful I am, but let me fill you in with why. I've always worked from home, since I was in Canada to my move last year to Stateside. Communication has never been a problem, and since voice chat became available, company meetings have been easier. Many company meetings are done inworld, and so is collaboration as-appropriate. For example, Team WindLight once went on a "shader safari", a virtual field trip to different SL locations to test how content looked with the new atmospheric renderer. (Remember that whole "local lights are too bright?" debacle? That was part of it!)

More about communication

I'm not a person who needs "face time", altho I certainly understand how important that is to some. I'm an unabashed eccentric who gets a lot out of reading the rhythm of someone's IM chat (or voice) and gauging the flow of the conversation, and what walk we're going to get out of our talk. When I get inworld, I get extremely immersed — there are no ringing phones or taps on the shoulder to disturb me, save my wife serving lunch. Infrequently, I'll be on internal IRC (which some depend on to do their jobs) or take a Skype call (pardon, won't add you — company-only). This hyper-attention leads to better productivity and results, and is definitely a main pillar why I get so much done. Again, I need to proclaim the blatant: it isn't for everybody, but it's worked well for me since I started as a Resident (customer) — that's almost 4 years (my SL "rezday" is 2004-09-15).

I'm passionate about Second Life's avatar-centricity. That means over the years (as my experience has grown), I've led by example (there's that phrase again), served as a template others can build on, and shown what's possible with our computer-generated characters, our digital personas, and to some, our idoru. Through avatars, I've repeatedly demonstrated both who we are — and who we wish we were and will become, if that makes sense. Unlocking human potential through this magnificent tool. Sounds lofty, but it's really a day-to-day exercise. Avatars can lower inhibitions and reveal our true selves, and if used positively, that's of course a superb thing. I tend to be very colorfully-dressed at meetings, and you can see some more of my outfits here. Can you spot me here? Credz to Bub Linden for this web banner (from 2006).

But I'm really not fond of meetings on the whole. I understand when they're necessary, but I tend to prefer a quick-notes recap I can peruse in minutes, since there's a lot I need to get done. I'm a fan of how colleagues like Pastrami (Program Manager) and Don (Studio Director) have brilliantly run meetings: tight with no waste. Communicate with clarity, define next steps, and move on. Here's what their avatars have looked like, respectively:

My days start early, around 4 AM, end fairly late, and I work Mon.-Thurs., altho it seems like more than that because I love being inworld. My hours have changed over time, and I previously did a more standard workweek, but this simply works better and gets great results. Second Life, to paraphrase Robin Harper (VP of Community & Support), is the ultimate busman's holiday. She was one of the very first Linden Labbers I ever talked to — I met her in a giant purple dragon's buttocks — and ended up being interviewed by, and her compassionate influence has shone over me to this day. (Always treasure where you come from.) Yes, the interview process happened entirely over the phone and inworld, with obligatory paperwork done through a mix of email attachments and snail mail.

Company culture?

Exceptionally superb. (Some might say, "You couldn't answer with anything else or you'd get fired", but why would I work at a place that sucks?) I've worked alongside a multitude of diverse and passionate people at LL — I haven't worked with everyone in the 250+-strong company, but have corresponded with at least 90% at one point or another. It's safe to say everyone knows me, or will soon; apparently there's this funny pattern I've noticed where new hires who haven't been inworld much yet quiz me on tricks of the trade, and I love it. And that's a lovely gateway to conversation.

If you're curious about working here, I'd suggest being familiar with a long range of personality types, because we have all sorts of backgrounds. (Some of it draws from the liberal San Francisco attitudes.) I'd earnestly say I'm on the more unorthodox end of the scale, but it's easy to get along with me. Of course there are disagreements over ideas which make for stronger end results (the weak get thrashed, all Darwin-like!), concerns, worries, etc… that's human and inevitable. Above all, this is a business about people, not freakin' Robotrons. (Altho robot avatars are tres kewl.)

Yeah, I've found Linden Lab to ultimately be a friendly (as in "Friendly greetings!") and welcoming place to work. We're still fairly "flat" organizationally, altho expanded hiring is creating more groups/restructuring and our new CEO is being the change! Mark Kingdon (CEO, aka M Linden), is beautifully open about his vision for the company — pictures of him and Philip (ex-CEO, Chairman of da board) @ SLCC almost look like brothers. (Thx rikomatic!)

I could go on and on with stories from work because I have so many nice things to say — I'll save those for the future, maybe in a folklore.org kinda way. We'll see, eh?

With working remotely, no commute time means I wake up, shower, have breakfast, and dive in. It's all very rapid-response. Excellent, you know how much I hate waste. I usually get 1 or 2 tasks done before email, because my inbox is overflowing and compulsively checking for new messages is a timesucker. (All that Lifehack and Lifehacker comes in handy.) I've gotten better at prioritizing over the years, and each day, I attempt to document and share at least 1 new tip — a lot of these have made their way into general productivity posts or even SL video tutorials.

By the way, sometimes I get asked about what's the biggest regret/mistake I have. (Crap Mariner posed this most recently.) I don't have any single "BIG I F***ED UP!", but I have many little slivers which cut, and have to do with when I didn't write something down or share a piece of knowledge onwards, saving someone else time & trouble in the process. It really pains me to see others suffering when a simpler solution exists, and that's a core motivation behind why I've grown into this Resident Enlightenment Manager role; I'm on the Community Initiatives Team headed by Everett. I'm thankful to each & everyone who believed in me. Gosh, it's just such an ideal fit for someone who obsesses over helping others have a usefun (useful + fun) time!

Accountability? Responsibility? Ownership?

You've been wondering (and shame if you're not) about how I demonstrate progress: with my position, it's very easy, since it's public-facing. Community interactions (like Office Hours which I co-founded with Pathfinder) are available for all to see (and attend), and infact, I hope they get publicized more! One can never have too much coverage of broadly beneficial accomplishments. My video tutorials are very public, as are my wiki contributions. Furthermore, I share many snapshots documenting what I've done in Second Life on Flickr, something I've never regretted. I hope sending them to the "outside world" will get non-SLers curious about joining us. If you feel the slightest twinge interested in taking pictures of your SL, do it. Even if you don't use your pictures, someone else will — on their blog (as this post proves), in their book, whatever. It's all part of our history. At Linden Lab, we also have internal tools like the JIRA project-management system (you may be familiar with the public Issue Tracker, which is a simplified rendition of it) and in-house data warehousing and webdev tools to see how far we're coming along on projects. There's a lot of other stuff too (which I might get into in the future), but you get the "big picture"!

I like to show off as much as possible, not because I'm a narcissistic, egomaniacal gloryhog, but because I believe strongly in personality marketing and I enjoy proving IT REALLY HAPPENED. (And therein lies the coupled dilemma of "talking about doing vs. doing it", outside the compass of this post but let me know if you're interested in explaining further.)

More revelations

I've not yet visited the "head office" in San Francisco, although I've seen plenty of pictures. My Mentor, Melissa (in Marketing, who's given me a better understanding of how PR @ LL works and has gotten me involved in related projects), has been encouraging me to come. I've been to the Seattle office twice, and no exaggeration, there's a gross disproportion of awesome folks working there I got to know in months leading up to my first visit. I've met a little more than a dozen Lindens in "first life", and it took me a little while to adjust to the increased bandwidth and richness of their voices, not to mention quicker texture load times… and the FPS is wicked, LOL! But like certain Hollywood actors, I'm actually very shy, introverted, and quiet unless I get encouraged to speak… see how the power of Second Life turned me into a social magnet?

Check out Jake's "remote work" expertise

Now, I should point you to some MOST EXCELLENT RESOURCES WHICH SHOULD BE SPREAD LOTS!!!! Jake Simpson (Jake Linden, thx Opensource Obscure for the pic) who's engineered some great stuff at LL and has extensive experience working on games (like The Sims 2), put together:

• a Remote Workers presentation which uses Linden Lab as a springboard for broader advice. It's got audio & slides, and he's also written
• a very detailed and insightful article for Gamasutra, should you prefer more texty tidbits.
• Also from Jake, check out his "Game Job Interview Questions" article in the newest Game Developer mag, and
• visit Jake World, his personal website.

I'm thrilled he put all this together so you could learn from his experiences — he's got a candid and no-nonsense style which I admire.

Please rememberthe above comes from my limited vantage only, and aside from linked goodies like Jake's, clearly isn't the writing of anyone else. See my disclaimer.

That being said, there's more I could go on here, but I'd like to unleash your participation — have questions? Let me know in the comments, and I'll do my best to indulge your curiosities (as I tend to do). I can't reveal any company secrets that would cause anyone else distress or embarrassment or induce my firing, but we've seen, there's a lot I can share. Slap whatever buzzwords *cough* transparency *cough* you want here, I just hope it gives you a better understanding of what it's like to work at —  in the virtual sense, with very real results — Linden Lab.

And if you're curious about working at Linden Lab, check out current employment positions! (And yes, that is me on the right between BigPapi and Kona Linden. )

Wait! Tell me more about what you've done @ Linden Lab!

YOU SO LUCKY! I just started up a VisualCV… it's like a resume, but better and not boring, because you can put multimedia in it and jazz up tha stylee. Click to get my yearly highlights:

Tagged as: General, Pictures, Stories, Work