When I first read Valve's employee handbook, I thought the T thing was a bad idea because it killed the chances of people who would probably be really good candidates. But after thinking about it some more, I see where Valve is coming from.
I spent the last decade working as a non-teaching/research faculty member in academia, where the T/R faculty members were (for the most part) either vertical lines or em dashes. The vertical pipes were world renowned experts in their fields, but their fields were niches within niches. They never strayed far outside of their comfort zones, and a lot of them ended up publishing essentially the same half dozen papers over and over for the entire span of their careers. The em dashes had broad knowledge across a large swath of subject matter and made great 1000- and 2000-level course instructors, but they never really became experts at anything and their research output suffered.
I do wonder how many potential candidates have been scared away by the publication of Valve's employee handbook and that image of the Heavy Weapons Guy, though. I certainly have. (I fear my T is too wide and not tall enough, so I don't even bother sending in a CV despite having a desire to work there.)
There's a famous anecdote about the famous science fiction editor John Campbell meeting a fan of his magazine. When the fan mentioned that he'd written some stories, Campbell remarked that he didn't recall seeing any submissions under this fan's name. "Oh, no," the fan remarked. "I haven't submitted them to you because they're nowhere near good enough for that." That's when Campbell exploded and said, "How dare you reject stories for my magazine! You submit the stories to me and I'll decide whether they're good or not."
Even if you don't want to apply and endure the ignominy of being bounced, (though you should just grit your teeth and get bounced; you'll get over it, and "getting over it" is a skill worth practicing!) I'd encourage you to take a current or former employee of Valve out for coffee some day and ask what it would take for you to get a job there. Have a five-minute chat. You might learn something, and you might even be surprised. One of the points that the OP makes is that it's really easy to make a mistake in evaluating your own depth of skill.
Comments
Regarding Valve's T-shaped employees:
When I first read Valve's employee handbook, I thought the T thing was a bad idea because it killed the chances of people who would probably be really good candidates. But after thinking about it some more, I see where Valve is coming from.
I spent the last decade working as a non-teaching/research faculty member in academia, where the T/R faculty members were (for the most part) either vertical lines or em dashes. The vertical pipes were world renowned experts in their fields, but their fields were niches within niches. They never strayed far outside of their comfort zones, and a lot of them ended up publishing essentially the same half dozen papers over and over for the entire span of their careers. The em dashes had broad knowledge across a large swath of subject matter and made great 1000- and 2000-level course instructors, but they never really became experts at anything and their research output suffered.
I do wonder how many potential candidates have been scared away by the publication of Valve's employee handbook and that image of the Heavy Weapons Guy, though. I certainly have. (I fear my T is too wide and not tall enough, so I don't even bother sending in a CV despite having a desire to work there.)
I don't even bother sending in a CV despite having a desire to work there
I am reminded of the story retold on (e.g.) this page:
http://emmalarkins.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html
There's a famous anecdote about the famous science fiction editor John Campbell meeting a fan of his magazine. When the fan mentioned that he'd written some stories, Campbell remarked that he didn't recall seeing any submissions under this fan's name. "Oh, no," the fan remarked. "I haven't submitted them to you because they're nowhere near good enough for that." That's when Campbell exploded and said, "How dare you reject stories for my magazine! You submit the stories to me and I'll decide whether they're good or not."
Even if you don't want to apply and endure the ignominy of being bounced, (though you should just grit your teeth and get bounced; you'll get over it, and "getting over it" is a skill worth practicing!) I'd encourage you to take a current or former employee of Valve out for coffee some day and ask what it would take for you to get a job there. Have a five-minute chat. You might learn something, and you might even be surprised. One of the points that the OP makes is that it's really easy to make a mistake in evaluating your own depth of skill.