News Valve employee handbook released

Gamers have been offered a rare insight into the operations of Valve with the publication of its employee handbook.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2012/04/23/valve-employee-handbook/1

 

for the most prat working overtime?

 

Why was I reading the quotes from the handbook and "Cave Johnson" was the voice I heard in my head?

 

Ha ha yes, question is, why wasn't I?

 

Ah, so this is why Episode 3 is taking so long. I say bring on forced overtime!

 

I have finally worked out what I want to do in life...

Work for Valve. Even if it is partically exaggerated it still sounds like my kind of place to be.

 

Am I alone in thinking this sounds like an awesome place to work? Probably impossible to get there though, I bet the interviews are hell.

[edit] Obviously not ^^

 

@Snips I could also hear his voice, but it wasn't until I read your comment that I realised who it was! :-D

 

The thing to remember when comparing this to us mere mortals is that Valve attracts the very best of the best.

The company is so small and their employees are so likely to be effortlessly brilliant in everything they do they don't need things like a hierarchy, chain or command or line-management.

For every other developer, and probably every other company in the world, this simply wouldn't work. All power to them for doing it differently, but it's a management style that would very much only work for them.

 

I'm with Parge... this explains a lot...

 

Valve actually sounds like an epic business to work for!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I was reading all those bits with the Vault Tec voice in my head...

Day 1 - Induction then straight to G.O.A.T.

 

"We're just throwing management at the wall and seeing what sticks!"

 

This mentality is one of the reasons I left my old career and went back to school. At Valve, and many of the best studios, people aren't there because it's a job that satisfies their financial needs, but because they are passionate and driven about their work. I dream of a place where management doesn't concern themselves with whether people are doing their job, because internal motivation does so much more than they ever could to promote success. When I've been working on a project for class (PHP yuck!) for hours, I don't watch TV to unwind, I grab a book on whatever topic has grabbed me recently (currently reading Game Physics Pearls; recommended!) and work on my own projects. If I can find a place full of and run by people who feel the same way, I'd work there until they wheeled me out under a sheet.

 

Doesn't anyone else think this is a bit scary? Basically, you have to figure out what to do with your time all the time. If something goes wrong, you literally have no one to blame but yourself!

That said, sounds like an epic place to work and I assume they only hire people who know what they are doing Love their outlook on overtime though!

 

So this explains why Half Life 3 is 8 years and counting.

 

Yes. Gabe (or someone else high up at Valve) addressed this sometime last year, saying that the folks at Valve were just having more fun messing around with Portal 2, TF2 hats, CS:GO and all that to give two goat turds about HL3.

The optimist in me thinks that might be to

Spoiler

flesh out some sort of meaningful integration between the Portal and HL worlds, now that the Borealis and Aperture Labs are a plot point in the HL universe.

But I could be wrong and they're just having fun at us fanboys' expense.

 

This reeks of a propaganda PR exercise.

That said, the things they talk about aren't exactly unheard of, my friend's brother did some work experience at google HQ in Zurich and experienced pretty similar stuff to what they describe.

 

Sounds like most software companies only taken to the next level. A lot of the ones that advertise placements here are always comparing their work environment to google like playing consoles at lunch, poker tournaments, work from any location dressed as a banana if you so desire. My biggest concern is the company structure. From experience in projects it doesn't work. I know horses for courses but its actually enough to put me off working for the company