My name is Jake. You probably already know me. I'm the writing supervisor for the Linus Tech Tips
team. That means I get to yell at people and make sure that they're doing their job, haha.
But only Linus Tech Tips people. And I've been working here February 2nd, 2016. Seven years and
a month. Holy s***. I feel like my favorite part of working here has changed over the years.
I really, like at the start, it was just an opportunity to see crazy technology. I never
would have been able to see or even think about seeing. And it's kind of transitioned into,
I don't know, just making videos is so much fun. It's so different. You get to inform the public.
You get to be an authoritative figure in the media. You get to do all these things. But I guess it kind
of, when you boil that down, it just comes to cool tech, I guess. I think the worst part about
working here is for a long time my direct report was Linus. And he is the most stubborn person
I've ever met in my entire life. And that's even considering I work with like 70, 80 other
very opinionative techie people. I have very opinionative family members that are all like,
oh, I'm well educated. I went to university. And Linus is still the worst in that regard.
But I mean, there's some weird things that people don't consider. I never even really thought
about it. It was like, oh, it's always so cool to like get recognized in public. And I'm not saying
that it's a bad thing. It's super cool to meet people in public and just to see people that are
just so stoked about what we do that they'll yell at you from across the parking lot.
But it is weird. And I don't know if it will ever get normal being in Chipotle and being like
somebody leaning over your shoulder, like, oh, you get chicken in your burrito. Just Linus
get that? What's it like working for Linus? I don't know. Linus is pretty set in his ways.
I don't know if he's changed much. He still likes to use Windows when it's not acceptable,
like in a server. He's still is very stubborn. I don't know. I feel like if anything I've changed
more than he has. But also when I started here, I was 15 years old. So makes sense.
The obvious things that have changed in Linus Media Group is when I started, I was number,
I think in terms of employees ever hired number 12.
Now, based on still people that are still here, I think it's like seven or something like that.
Things were a lot more jank. We were way less organized, a lot less processes you had to worry
about. But those are good processes. It's just absolutely insane to see how the company has
grown from, you know, 10 people to 100 people in the span of, I guess it's been seven years,
going from, I think it was 2.3 million subscribers on LTT when I started to now
15 point whatever and all these other channels. And yeah, it's ridiculous. I never thought little
warehouse general labor or Jake would be where I am today, or still working here this far in.
I do miss when things were simpler. It was still the same amount of chaos, like it was still just
as crazy. I do think that the level of production that we had then was easier, but it was also way
lower. Like we would just, oh man, this CPU arrived today, let's just throw it on the bench,
Linus is going to make a video in his office. Yeah, sick. And now it's like, oh my God, there's
like eight LTT writers or whatever working to make content all the time. And that's just one channel.
I definitely know what is the worst thing that has happened over time, parking.
When I used to roll up, man, I could park across two parking spots if I wanted.
The best thing. I don't know, I think it's probably the people. There's just so many
more people to talk about cool tech with. And there's so many different,
everyone here, even the editors, they all have some sort of techy niche for the most part,
whether it be Mark and his old storage medias and cameras and VCRs or, I don't know, like Maria and
her interior design and like fashion design and like, you get influence from so many different
people and so many different walks of life. I'd make a car channel. If I could change one thing
about LMG, I'd make a car channel. The comments are all going to be, yeah, car channel, let's go.
In terms of what people get wrong about Linus Media Group, I think the thing that has been shown to
me the most is that we're just normal people. Like the guy at the movie theater that's like,
yo, Jake, I'm like, yeah, I just work a job. We make YouTube videos. It's just cool. I love it.
But at the end of the day, I'm just sitting at a desk like you. It's not really any different.
We're all just working a job. We get to make cool content that lots of people enjoy,
but at the end of the day, normal people. Linus puts his pants on, you know, two legs at a time,
right? Jumps into them. He's pretty short. You know how it works.
Yeah, there's one thing I could say to potential hires is, yes, it is. It's a dream job. It's a
cool job. It's something that is very unique to this company. I mean, there are other YouTube
companies, but not that many. But it is hard. It is fast-paced. We have deadlines when products
launch. Like it is not a walk in the park. And despite it being, I would say, my dream job,
and it still is, and I wouldn't trade it for the world, it is not easy. But that's what also makes
it super rewarding. So what's an example of a weird story that somebody else has told?
Yeah, but that's not weird. That's normal. Is it not normal? The amount of times I've seen Linus
like show me, like the amount of times Linus has shown me his underwear, it's just normal now, right?
It's a product we sell, you know?
No, but well, yeah, maybe I'm just desensitized. It's been, I've been working here too long. This weirdness is normal now.