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Bit-tech is expanding and recruiting!
Author: Tim SmalleyPublished: 8th February 2008
You could be working alongside us in the bit-tech offices!
This will coincide with us moving into new (and bigger) premises than we are currently based in now.
We are looking for a full-time Staff Writer to join the editorial team on bit-tech.net, taking a step into the fast-paced world of technology journalism. Applicants must have a solid passion for the technology industry as well as extensive knowledge of current hardware and technology trends.
In addition, the candidate must be capable of communicating with our readership in an accurate, informative and engaging manner while complying with tight deadlines.
Duties will include writing detailed and thought-provoking hardware reviews, features and commentary on the latest technology. Previous experience in journalism isn’t necessary, but a good work ethic is. The successful applicant will be given full on-the-job training and a solid career path.
The position will be based at bit-tech’s new offices in Ascot, Berkshire, but a degree of both domestic and international travel will be required.
If you think you’ve got what it takes to join the bit-tech team, send a current CV and a covering letter to vacancies@bit-tech.net. A full job description (if required) is available on request.
You can ask questions either via email, or in the forums.
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Comments (89)Stats: 0.141 seconds
Good luck though to all that do.
:)
...please?
Hehe. Good luck finding someone, though I doubt it'll be hard.
Nice to see Bit expanding, now I just need to expand my spare time to be able to keep up with all the articles!!!
Good luck to whoever applies.
(yes, that is officially expressing some degree of interest, though as I'm at work right now it wouldn't be the most appropriate time to write in for full details)
It's ridiculous. To the point where you nervously laugh at the sheer lack of reason. £5.50 for 20 cigarettes?! And i live in the NORTH where things are meant to be cheap!
Really top-class recruits for this sort of work aren't easy to find (unless like Joe, who was floated down river in a reed basket by his wild Siberian wolf family) so we're always keen to hear from anyone with enthusiasm and knowledge; you can gain experience but rarely the other two.
No? Oh well, Good luck to the winning candidate though.
Sam
Now hoping for the best :D
HRHR classic vid ;)
hint, hint
stray what?
see what I did there? ... OK, I'll grab a taxi for one. :'(
*Wins extra points for being a Regina Spektor fan.*
:D
I wish I got one :p
I envy you lucky guys living in UK.
Have mine.
Work experience can be really helpful to people wanting to get started in this job. It's what I did - just a letter of intent sent to the editor at Pc Format.
1 for 3, I lose.
Good luck to those who do try for it.
That is the application process, once you leave... see Ryan's video.
Good luck to whoever gets the job - and remember, Bindi only bites when he's provoked. Or when there's a vowel in the month. Or when he feels like it.
...or maybe not... :p
Could be an awesome job, though.
That is cheap. Here they cost about 3 times as much.
Though on the living side of things though; Ascot is unfortunately within the band of 'other-London' prices. London's notoriously expensive, when compared to the rest of the UK, but the problem is that most of the areas surrounding London are almost as bad. For instance, comparing prices for a nice flat in Birmingham to one in Reading.. You're paying £100-200 more PCM.
But I'm sure the pay at Bit's more than adequate
Unless you happen to be an industrial park fetishist then I wouldn't expect you to.
It's generally quite a bit more expensive than the States but it makes up for it in other ways - healthcare insurance is optional over here, etc. It's not as bad as San Fran, but Greater London is up there on the scale of things.
It's not that bad. I pay 650 PCM for a one double bedroom flat. Ascot is expensive, Bracknell isn't.
Can't account for you living in the lap of luxury or anything, but most of the flats around here are quite nice.
So it wasn't far-off as an estimate.
That sounds about right, but it's only £100 less than my mortgage!
:(
too bad I ...
1) just found my first decent job ever, and dont want to quit right away
2) live in the Netherlands, so the commute would be a true buzzkill
3) would have to start the first series of columns with the title: "Xtra takes a closer look at what's buzzing below his desk". I don't have the nessicary knowledge in hardware.
Other than that, i'd be perfect :D
I can offer:
Innate love for anything with either buttons or wires on it.
Life-long interest in journalism and the required love/hate relationship with deadlines.
More curiousity than is healthy for a cat.
The ability to write understandable, informative and yet unboring texts.
Will require very little cheesecake in return.
If you guys are interested in letting me do the above series of columns, or have other uses for a dirt-cheap parttime columnist in the Netherlands, don't hesitate to let me know.
Otherwise, just mod on!
Oh, and just to let you know, i am really halfway serious about this. I'd love to do some writing for Bit-Tech. :)
I'm currently doing a masters though and so won't be able to apply. :(
You think its worth firing a CV in anyway for future possibilities?
Seriously though good luck to all the applicants :)
The offer is awfully tempting, I only live around the corner too in my other house... well, Virginia Water/Wentworth isn't that far away ;) Maybe if I didn't take up my degree again... mmm, decisions decisions.
(quietly digs out his CV)
*sniff*
Always worth a shot, but if you're not interested the position right now then please send it after someone is hired just to keep things simpler for Tim.
I thought the working trend was to have more flexibility, and to work from home these days? Nevertheless good luck.
Everyone asks that question (including me initially) but the benefits don't show up until you actually work together as a team in an office. The first point is that we're a professional business and we don't work from bedrooms (I don't think I'd want all the kit at home these days anyway) - we have somewhere that manufacturers can actually come and visit if they want to show us new products or to talk to the guys on the 'other' side of the business (i.e. advertising sales). I don't think any web publication that works from home has the same facilities in that respect.
Aside from that, which you're probably referring to when you talk about "validation or legitimacy", the benefits are massive and it enables us to work much more dynamically - I don't think I'd go back to working from home.
All of our kit is on hand. We can actually talk to each other when we want to, not when the person you want to talk to picks up the phone. We can collaborate on reviews and articles very easily - we just sit down and talk it through together in our meeting room... or in the case of games, just sit and WATCH the guy playing it... or, hell, even have a go yourself!
It's also just more efficient by orders of magnitude. If we were working at home, I can assure you that you wouldn't be seeing as much content as we're producing today - there simply wouldn't be the kit resources and space to do so. Example: I'm doing some testing for a graphics card review and I want to run two systems side by side to get the testing done quicker - I can pick up a bunch of components that are pretty much exactly the same from the shelf. If I was working from home, I'd have one of everything I needed... with the rest shared around amongst the other staff.
I don't mean to offend, but what we're not really looking for is a student that's still at university. The reason for this is that I don't believe that a student will be able to commit to the travelling side of things, first and foremost.
That said, it really doesn't matter to me if the successful candidate has been to university or not though - the important thing is that they have the knowledge, enthusiasm and passion and are able to write reasonably competently (probably a result of being at university, FWIW). The last one is the least important, as you can teach someone to write as long as they have a reasonable level of competence, but you can't teach them enthusiasm and passion.
Of course, knowledge is teachable, but it takes years to build up the stuff I'd expect you to know about.
I don't suppose there is any more info on the job in question, namely the important things that people hate to talk about... salary.
£650 pcm sounds damn cheap if you ask me. My one bed flat is just over £1200 PCM and it's so small there isn't room for anything else in the bedroom, not even a double bed as the room is only 4.5ft x 7ft.
Hell, i'd even consider moving to the UK for it!
Quoted for
turtlestruth. When I was at university and after I graduated I did freelance journalism for a number of places and, although I never really got a lot of money or exposure for it, I can tell you how much more complicated it is than working in an office. You can't meet up with people professionally (especially not when you live with your parents), you don't have access to the same resources and you can't co-ordinate properly with editors, writers and so on. Working from home also immediately means that people will be working from homes that are abroad, which makes things incredibly difficult because of time zones and other commitments - no offence to Brett because he works his arse off, but I think he'd be the first to admit that having to fiddle around with time zones etc can be a pain when all he wants to do is chat to Tim without waking him up (not that Tim ever sleeps).To me though, the most important benefit is integrity. If Tim, Bindi and I were working from home then there'd be no way to show that any real testing had been done - not even to each other! For all Tim might know, I could have just read a walkthrough for The Orange Box and written my review based off that. Because we were in the office, Tim knows that I played Portal and Ep2 end to end and so forth before I even started thinking about the review. We're also opened up to others opinions and that brings our reviews more weight and depth.
A centralised office affords us a lot more than legitimacy - it makes Bit a better site and lets us have professional facilities like photography studios as well. To me, purely as a reader, it's the reason I prefer bit-tech over a few bedroom sites I could mention.
Besides, working with Bindi, Tim and Hiren is a load of fun and the creative atmosphere we have downstairs brings a lot to my writing if nothing else.
... because we're a professional publication with payrolls, accountants, photo studios, testing environments, development servers and so on and so forth - unlike other smaller, unprofessional sites that run out of bedrooms and caravans and who don't do it as a full time job even though they like to pretend they do ;) :)
kitty likes to scratch
This soooo reminds me of the AOL guy that was fired a few years back because he was programming, and not watching porn (he was a content manager). Cracked me up
(anyways, just sent off a request for more details)
The consoles are currently in a room which has a wall made of glass and faces the office so that everyone can see me play. At my desk, Tim and Bindi work directly behind me. It's why i have a rear view mirror on my monitor.
I agree with what's being said about working in an office. There are times when I write my reviews that I'd love to be able to talk to Joe or Tim just to bounce ideas of someone else, or to confirm my ideas with another person. Quite often I'll look at what I've written and wonder whether I'm being too harsh, something that probably wouldn't happen in an office environment.
So, office working is the cheesecake.
No problem ;)
this has got to win the best first post award.
http://rsty.org/images/fired.jpg
YOU'RE FIRED
Expect a new face to pop up in the coming weeks and possibly some more official details from Tim later.