We’re Hiring

Hackaday has been expanding into all kinds of new areas. We find ourselves stretched a bit thin and it’s time to ask for help. Want to lend a hand while making some extra dough to plow back into your projects? These are work-from-home (or wherever you like) positions and we’re looking for awesome, motivated people to help guide Hackaday forward!

Contributors are hired as private contractors and paid for each post. You should have the technical expertise to understand the projects you write about, and a passion for the wide range of topics we feature. If you’re interested, please email our jobs line, and include:

  • Details about your background (education, employment, etc.) that make you a valuable addition to the team
  • Links to your blog/project posts/etc. which have been published on the Internet
  • One example post written in the voice of Hackaday. Include a banner image, at least 150 words, the link to the project, and any in-links to related and relevant Hackaday features

What are you waiting for? Ladies and Gentlemen, start your applications!

73 thoughts on “We’re Hiring

  1. How does the flow of work go? Are contributors expected to be on the lookout for our own hacks, or is this a shared effort? Are we allowed to write about our own work? Is posting under a pen name acceptable? (I share a name with a famous person)

    1. We have a tips line that helps out a lot with finding story leads (thank you to everyone who sends awesome project links there whether they’re your own or something you found online) but we do depend on writers to also bring in their own leads from their areas of interest.

      We generally do not allow pen names. Writers should stand behind their work.

      I not familiar with the other “not a space lizard”, perhaps they’re not as famous as you think?

      1. This is not very palatable.

        “…do not allow pen names.”

        It’s the internet age… there be whacko’s out there! Safety compromised to provide a microscopically higher quality of work for the benefit of the employer? “Writers should stand behind their work.” has more a ring of “Writers should wear a shirt with target over their heart.” I can easily see an employer trade that tiny increase in “appearance of integrity” for an employee’s safety. Integrity is the Managing Editor’s responsibility and should do it by proper managing rather than forcing integrity through the writer’s fear of the random public. A writer’s qualifications can be advertised without divulging name, address, and daily schedule IF the employer has credibility of their own.

          1. Once again someone brings up a valid point, and once again Benchoff shoots it down as absurd.

            You guys have a serious privilege problem. And if you think that “stand by their work” is the only concern or the highest concern, good lord you have no idea how privileged you are. But I guess that’s what makes it privilege.

            Hang in their Biomed, and keep speaking out for those who won’t, even if it falls on deaf ears at the boys club of Supply Frame, there are many hackaday community members who share your concerns and are either too afraid to speak out, or tired of doing it and getting yelled at and ridiculed by Benchoff, etc.

          2. Oh look, we have ourselves a voluntary victim, how’s that victimhood working out, suit you? Feel good? Get your masochism jollies all pumped?

          3. Hey uh, brother Benchoff? If you’re listening, I do actually have a serious but fun idea for a series of articles for you following a project through the stages of the Kübler-Ross model, but I would want to be under a pen name. I have this funny idea that for hacks to be truly honored, their source must not be relevant.

    1. Brian is actually an A.I. and was not hired but developed.
      Remember this D.A.R.Y.L. film ?
      B.R.I.A.N. contains I.A., got it ?
      I heard it means Best Real Intelligence of Artificial Nature
      So please stop spreading the FUD, I’d love to read his source code.

      1. Brian is coded in assembly language for a custom CPU emulated on a NES emulated in RetroPie on ARM emulated in QEMU on x86 emulated on a Z80 emulated on a 6502 emulated on an Arduino Uno emulated on an ATtiny85 with (slow) external memory. So you won’t be able to understand the source code.
        And that’s why it takes a lot of time to write good posts. Because of this, the ATtiny85 was overclocked to 666 tetrahertz and most emulators were tweaked to randomly skip instructions. This resulted in crappier posts with lots of typos and no sense at all.
        Perhaps one day the ATtiny85 will overheat and explode… and someone will replace it.

      1. Be more Jedi or Zen or something.

        You choose how you react, your choice to be offended or belittled, or feel hated.

        Brian in full countertroll mode is great entertainment.

      1. Some elements of grammar are a matter of popular opinion (plus language changes, slowly, over long periods of time) but some are just wrong. I, like anybody else, make my fair share of mistakes. The difference is I own them and try to make improvements in the future rather than keep making them and having them slip past multiple editors and then not listen to the remuneration free commenters who point them out over and over again.

    1. When I worked for a publishing company I noticed that there were these grumpy older people in the office called editors who took care of that. Often one could hear their mumbled rage along the lines of “… polishing shit …”, but the system was very effective and not much got passed them, then there was the autistic guy who could spot a missing punctuation mark from across the room, nothing at that level ever got past him. Ah humans with skills, do you remember those, back when computers were big and beige?

      1. Not my joke, but seems to fit in the context…

        A writer and an editor are going through a desert. They’re really parched. They come upon a pristine pool of water. The reporter jumps right in. The editor, on the other hand, drops his trousers and begins to urinate. And the reporter says, “What are you doing? What are you doing?”
        And the editor says, “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m making it better.”

  2. Maybe we scared them off with the anger at the no more 3.5mm ports talk.

    I’d love to write for hack-a-day but feel I couldn’t output enough, and have no real experience. (Writing for blog posts just feels kind of meh and never filled me with excitement because I never felt like anyone might read it.

    I might have a good at writing up guides to run gentoo linux on _anything_ and move on from there…

  3. I think plenty of people write great personal blog posts just to get the community’s opinion and get a conversation started. They not only cover their work, but highlighting others as well. Money is not the prime motivator here. I think most, given the chance, especially considering large audience, would write these small HaD blurbs for free. They just might not be as pointlessly verbose.

    It is my humble option that most HaD “articles” waste too much of the reader’s collective time attempting to be colorful, typically in vain. Readers get frustrated at their time being wasted, and/or the apparent lack of editing, and/or technical inaccuracies, and/or the pretentious attitude. That’s a large part of why the comment section is what it is.

    Instead of paying another couple writers to do the same, how about publicly offering to ALSO take free article submissions which might be ‘dry’. I’m sure the Hemingway inside Brian might disagree, but I wold argue most readers aren’t here for the articles, but rather the collection of content. How about just a straightforward description of the project, maybe why it’s cool, a link to the content and links to related projects. No fluff.

    These articles could be in lieu of a tip submission.

    As compensation, maybe also offer to link to the author’s personal website or something like that.

    Just spend a little time editing the submission, selecting or making an image and everyone wins.

    …who am I kidding, this is HaD. There’s no time to edit, just publish it.

    1. Please join my project: https://hackaday.io/project/20075-improve-hackaday

      There is a very diverse makeup of the hackaday community, but only a very narrow very specific type gets all the love from supplyframe. The goal of this project is to improve that, and make the hackaday sites more inclusive of the community.

      At this time the project is empty, and I’m a little embarrassed about that. There’s so many things I’m not entirely sure where to start. It also helps very much for me to know I’m not alone, and for supplyframe to see that there are many of us. If people join, I’ll write up formal stuff.

        1. The last thing I wanted was for anyone to figure out the project was empty. I tried to hide it so well by saying as much as well. A rational person might see a project about improving inclusiveness and think that it meant people were actually going to be included, but you see right through my “talented troll”. Bravo. You should win a prize. The hackaday prize! I mean if your commentary isn’t making the world a better place, I don’t know what is.

  4. In traditional media, rates for free lance work were (are?) published. May I suggest that you do the same? They used to print entire books listing publications along with topics and rates.

    I’m potentially interested, have a 5000+ volume technical library and a 1500 sq ft workshop. I don’t maintain a blog and have no interest in doing so. The closest I’ve gotten is on hackaday.io, but that project died when I saw how many Chinese variants of the concept existed, My comments (e.g. on Elliot Williams’ article on Aliasing) should give a pretty good idea of my writing abilities. I got a BA degree in English literature before going on to graduate work in the sciences.

    I have plenty to do, so you need to make a better case that it is worth the time needed to submit an application.

  5. No blog here, but I’ve been tinkering with the idea of writing about working on the Digital European Backbone. It would mostly be retrotacular; DTE/DCE, longhaul POTS (E&M signalling), multiplexing, ATM/SONET, etc…

  6. Never, never EVER take a job when the potential employer WILL NOT LEVEL WITH YOU REGARDING COMPENSATION.
    If the employer is too embarrassed by his offering to reveal the pay (the ONLY reason for this information to be withheld from you), you should be too offended to consider the offer. Walk.

    For the umpteenth time in this ‘Comments’ section: What are you paying, Hackaday?

  7. This is Dumb HaD. Consider this:
    The CONNECTED model is (1) Creator unilaterally uploads copyrighted content to HaD without License to publish and a asking price to along with a draft limited license to publish. (2) HaD accepts, counter-offers, or rejects the offer. (3) if the content, and license terms are acceptable and HaD publishes, then the Creator’s paid plus the Creator’s status as a paid contributor is elevated so he/she gets faster vetting on the next contribution submission attempt. There is NO problem with this model as long as HaD behaves honorably and legally. Otherwise the Creator after the face PWNs HaD via Greedy Trial Lawyers.

  8. HaD is NOT “hiring”. I spent 15+ years as a contract scientist/programmer on a total of 5 contracts. One of which ran for 6 years before the company was bought and I signed a contract with the new owner. I was paid *very* well. I have no interest in working for free, hence, no blog. I also don’t generally comment on other blogs.

    HaD is soliciting freelance writers, but won’t say what their rates are publicly or even privately. As “jawnhenry” correctly notes, this is a serious red flag. I’ve got 20+ credit hours in writing, 40+ credit hours in mathematics and 60+ credit hours in the sciences. I’ve got 30 years of professional experience. I’ve even used CP/M and a few dozen other operating systems. My ability to write for HaD is not open to question. My willingness to write for HaD is.

    If HaD wants someone of my ability to write for them, they need to post their base rates. Otherwise I regard the “job offer” the way I do the spam job offers that fill my mailbox from time to time.

    The currently popular business models are scams where some small group skims all the profit while leaving all the expenses to someone who is not smart enough to do the arithmetic. Uber being a prime example. Eventually people will figure out why taxi medallions were created in the first place.

    Publishing is just that. The medium does not make it “different this time”. There is an excellent summary of the situation at The Register.

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/24/medium_five_bucks_a_month_for_nothing/

    The reality is more like the change from loose type to Linotype. The old rules about quality still apply. Ignore them at your peril.

  9. So as far as I can tell, your looking for individuals with verifiable experience, such a portfolio; or example of material similar in format to your current articles/submissions and I take it from your summary that the focus of content is on submissions based on new leads found from research or developed oneself.

    Most notably however apparently you find it appropriate to leave absent any details of compensation in regards to submissions on a even more vaguely explained freelance work position.

    I find it ignorant, as well as insulting to not allow pseudonyms to be used in signing articles.

    “We generally do not allow pen names. Writers should stand behind their work.”

    Yeah. That was insulating. A slap in the face to all anonymous contributions made to the community. I think I will disagree and stand by my convictions that anonymous contributions made by other’s; such as there fine submissions made to 2600 magazine, Phrack and many others over the years, continue to stand behind what they write. Regardless the moniker at the bottom of the article.

    So as a honest suggestion, hire someone who understands publishing to offer writing positions, freelance or otherwise, or simply rename this post to more accurately appropriate title “Volunteer’s Wanted”.

    (And yeah “Private Contractor”? The word of the day today is: “Freelance”)

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