Hi, my name is Tim. I work in the Labs about half of the time.
I'm actually not in the Labs though. I'm helping writers out with projects that they need to work on designing and building those.
But the other half is a lot of process development, reading ISO documentation until my eyes bleed.
I've been working here since July of 2022.
I think my favorite part of working here is the variety because it kind of feels like I'm
working at Skunkworks. There's a lot of stuff that's on the go and there's also a lot of freedom
to do the weird stuff that nobody else would be able to. If I want to do a project in this
direction and I can see a clear path, I don't necessarily have to defend it.
I can just go ahead and do it and get it done and it's so cool.
The worst part about working at LMG is probably the interdepartmental politicking,
trying to navigate the fact that I am in a new department that needs to integrate with
departments that have existed the entire time the company has and trying to find our place here
and trying to find my place in that department. That's been kind of tough, scatterbrained.
But in a very weird way, Linus has a weird on-off switch where he is off-camera, very focused,
very driven, get things done, get them done quickly. When he's on camera, it's like he perks up and
everything gets ramped to 12 and it just becomes very, very fast-paced. Let's get this done,
but in a much more fun way. Linus is exceptionally lucky.
He is very successful and a lot of that is to do with the hard work that he's put into it,
but he also hit it big. He's very lucky. It's still a job.
We do a lot of really cool things and we do a lot of very top shelf tech things. We had to have hands-on
experiences with stuff that potentially nobody else will and that's really cool. But at the end
of the day, it's still a 9 to 5, 30 sort of, I have to make this happen by the end of the week
or it's not going to happen and there's a lot of pressure associated with it, especially with
embargo videos. We have a lot of people that come after a video and are like, why couldn't
you test this? Why couldn't you test this? Those are totally valid and I understand them,
but we couldn't because we had time constraints and it's still a job and I still have to go
home at the end of the day. It's not staying here until midnight every night because I enjoy it
unless it's something I really, really want to, but that's tough.
Can we relocate to Calgary? Is that an option? The number one thing I would change about the
company is I would change our workday from 7 to 3.30 or 7 to 4. I think that would be a big
net positive improvement for me, but I also recognize that that's not something that everybody
else is going to want. I started working at Linus Media Group because Gary phoned me and asked me
when I could start working and I was like, sorry, who's this? And we went from there.
I had sent in an application from the first, this is going to change the future of the channel
video about Labs back in December of 2021. I think that came out and I hadn't heard anything
for months and months and then in May of 2022, Gary called me and he's like, hey,
I've got your application. I'm wondering if you want to come work for us. I'm like, who's this?
And we had basically, it felt like not an interview, but more just a discussion about
when I could start working more than anything. And then we had a second call about how it would
work with some of the personal situation I had to navigate around school and moving to Vancouver.
And yeah, I started like a month later. It was really neat actually. I think I made Gary anxious.
He asked me specifically, if you had A plus B and they equaled C, would you say anything?
That was, that was the substance of the question. Not even, not even, there were things there,
but he said A plus B equals C. And I'm like, are they supposed to equal D? And he,
he just kind of stammered and stuttered and was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that, yeah. And I'm like,
I guess if they're supposed to equal D, then I would probably speak up about them equaling C,
but also maybe they're supposed to be processes that indicate that C is an optimal answer. And so I
would be advised to not say anything. I don't know. He's like, that's what I was looking for.
Okay, cool. And I think he probably gave me the job out of anxiety, because if I was him, I would.
The last place I worked was an engineering procurement construction company or EPC.
And it was a massive multinational mega conglomerate. And this doesn't even like begin to compare. So
working from a place that has tens of thousands of employees to a place that has just over 100,
I think, like this is startup vibes compared to that with, I know the owner of the company
and have like spent time working with the owner of the company. That's nuts. That's not even comparable.
There have been a call put out on teams for a bunch of props, essentially, for the backpack
shoot for LTTstore.com. And I had brought a bunch of D&D equipment and miniatures and Dyson stuff
and left them in the bedroom set so that they could shoot that. And they did that day. And so at
the end of the day, I went back to the bedroom set to go grab my stuff so I could go home. And
the door was closed and the lights were off. And I opened the set and Linus is standing there
pulling up swim trunks. He's basically buck-ass naked. And I'm standing there, never met him before,
never seen him in person, slack jaw, just like, uh, he's like, can I help you? As he's pulling up his
swim trunks. I'm like, hi, I'm Tim. I'm from the Labs. I need to get behind you. And he's like, oh,
okay. And so we did this weird kind of funky dance in the bedroom set. So I could go get my
stuff. He's basically standing there. He's never seen me before. He doesn't know me from Adam.
And we're just like, kind of staring at each other. And it's all weird. And we start to have a
conversation. He's like, oh, you're one of Gary's group. That makes sense. And then he just leaves.
He goes to his swimsuit shoot. And I'm just standing there like, what just happened? Am I about to
get fired? Don't write your cover letter using chat GPT. Yeah, I'm currently going through
applications for hiring for folks right now with a bunch of positions that we have for the lab.
And I have, I have at least, at least one that I know of for sure, and a bunch of other ones that
I can see have markers. And I haven't sent any of them through any, any chat GPT check programs,
but I'm sure that I would find a few. If you really want to work here, write a letter that
indicates why you want to work here, right? If it's something that you would be passionate about
and you feel that you would be the best fit for, explain that in your own words. I don't want to,
I don't want to hear a bot's version of it. I want to, I want to hear it from you. At the end of the
day, we, we're still just human, right? Like we're creating content and you're consuming that content.
And we're hoping that you're enjoying it because we're putting, we're putting our best foot forward.
But we, we're also trying our best, right? And so there's, there's going to be a level of, of
making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. And I think if I could say anything to our viewers,
I would hope that they understand that, you know, I, I read their comments and what they,
what they say, I take to heart. And so if they can put forward constructive criticism,
then I really appreciate that because it allows me to learn things and get better at my job and
make things in the future that they'll want to watch and things that they'll enjoy.
I've never actually seen Gary do any work. Maybe that's why he's not getting paid yet,
but like, he's got like stacks of coloring books that are finished. So like, I don't know.