Recruitment

Chapter 86 Recruitment

Whether it was the fury of Milwaukee's management, the annoyance of Nolan Bushnell, or the rage of Don Valentine, Ethan Jones could easily have imagined these reactions.

After all, he released the message to provoke people. In this situation, if he doesn't imagine the enemy's indignant reaction after receiving the message, or imagine how they would jump up and down, then what is the point of his act of releasing the message?

He wouldn't do anything that wastes public resources!

Since he's using public resources, he has to make himself feel good!

And after imagining it—

Hehehe~

Ethan Jones let out a long breath and immediately felt refreshed.

After enjoying himself, Ethan didn't forget his business. Now that the company was established, it was time to set up the necessary framework. However, even though he had lived two lives, he had never actually managed a company before. So, he simply copied Atari's company structure, temporarily setting up four departments: administration, finance, production, and sales.

The first thing to be established was naturally the administration.

Recruiting for administrative positions is neither particularly difficult nor particularly easy. Although the job doesn't usually require highly specialized knowledge, the diverse range of tasks involved makes it incredibly complex in practice.

Therefore, Ethan wants to hire several employees with good communication skills and patience.

If it were a normal recruitment process, this one department alone would take Ethan a lot of time. Before the Internet, recruiting was really troublesome. It involved either publishing job postings in newspapers and magazines or communicating with local human resources service companies. This communication model, which couldn't overcome the limitations of time and space, would really frustrate people in the modern era.

This is so inefficient!

Fortunately, Ethan was located in the Stanford Industrial Park.

With the Stanford Startup Office nearby, you can simply make a request to the professors, and you'll have a shortlist of job seekers after the initial screening.

After a quick selection, I asked the teacher to notify them to come for an interview.

The next morning at nine o'clock, seven job seekers appeared in the lobby of Kismet company.

After speaking with them one by one, Ethan selected two of them.

The first one is Damio Dean, an undergraduate student from Stanford's School of Engineering who just graduated this summer. He is a tall, thin young man. He was chosen because he openly expressed his love for Snake Game during the interview.

Ethan was deeply impressed by the richness of his vocabulary and the sincerity of his tone.

Of course, what impressed Ethan even more was that this guy directly stated—

"Oh Ethan! I've spent at least five hundred dollars on Snake Game!"

"I've played it at least two thousand times!"

"Although I haven't finished the game yet, I will continue! Because I believe I have the ability!"

Yes! Ethan also believes that such a passionate gamer would definitely be competent in administrative (security) work!

If anyone expresses dissatisfaction with the game here, he doesn't even need to say a word; this guy can kick the troublemaker out!

The second is Julie Noble, an undergraduate student at Stanford's School of Humanities, a blonde, blue-eyed girl.

What impressed Ethan about her was her major on her resume: philosophy.

Ethan was intrigued by this major, and when he asked her why she had chosen philosophy, the girl said—

"Because my parents and family are devout Protestants, they taught me from a young age to dwelt reverently in the holy light. At the same time, I also received an education at school, where teachers told us that we live in a free country and everyone possesses free will. When I accepted both of these ideas simultaneously, I became confused. If we are a free country where everyone can have free will, then why do my parents guide me to believe in certain things? And if we are not a free country where parents, friends, and teachers can freely instill all sorts of ideas in us, then why do our teachers tell us that people are free?"

"I don't understand this, but I want to understand it."

"So, when I applied to university, I chose to study philosophy."

"Because I want to know, are our thoughts pure? Do we truly possess free will?"

Ethan was stunned by these words!

Then he mentally gave it a thumbs up.

To be able to recognize the difference between freedom and non-freedom in America in the 1970s was truly impressive.

Such a person, who is good at finding fault, is definitely suitable for an administrative position.

She's very meticulous!

Having made the decision, Ethan then presented them with a contract to sign.

Weekly salary of 200, annual salary of 9,600.

Although it seems much higher than the median income of over five thousand, if you really want to calculate it, it's just the industry average salary.

With the signing of the contract, Ethan presented them with a pre-prepared checklist to complete. This checklist included, but was not limited to, customizing the company's storefront sign, purchasing household and office supplies, registering employees for social security, and so on.

Speaking of social security, Ethan is a bit annoyed because the social security contribution is 6.2% for employers and 4.2% for employees. It seems like a small amount, but the contribution base is based on the employee's salary, and there is no minimum contribution base.

Therefore, most employees can only accept the actual amount paid...

Hey!

It's all money!

After handing over the company's mundane tasks to the newly hired administrative clerk, Ethan turned his attention to the finance department.

To be honest, Ethan initially wanted to recruit finance staff directly from Stanford because he thought it would be very convenient. However, after he told Evelyn about this idea, she immediately said that Thomas had already found an accountant for them.

Thomas has already found us an accountant; he's the son of the accountant at our family's agricultural trading company.

"I'm in my thirties, have been in the industry for eight years, and previously worked at a manufacturing electronics company in Mountain View."

Thomas said this man could be trusted because his father had been doing our family's accounts for almost thirty years.

"There hasn't been a single problem. It passed perfectly during previous IRS spot checks."

Since Thomas had already found a suitable candidate for him, Ethan decided not to hold back.

He dialed the number and invited the other party to meet.

He was a slightly overweight middle-aged man named Aaron Massey, who, like most Americans, had a potbelly.

When Ethan asked him what he planned to do after taking over the startup, the guy answered very honestly—

"Boss, although we are a game company, we are essentially an industrial manufacturing enterprise because we are involved in the production of arcade machines. Therefore, I will first establish a production ledger for the company using the mindset of an industrial manufacturing enterprise, which will involve cost accounting."

"From what I can see now, I can handle it on my own, but I believe that we will definitely need to recruit in the future because I have confidence in your game."

They chatted for a while and got along quite well, so Ethan took out a contract and signed it with him.

Since his previous job paid $320 a week, Ethan gave him a raise, bringing it to $400.

Therefore, his annual income is 19,200.

It looks expensive, but...

Finance positions will become more expensive in the future.

This is the United States, and this position involves dealing with the IRS.

After the administrative and financial matters were finalized, Ethan put a halt to the company's recruitment efforts.

There's no need to rush the production and sales processes.

First, regarding production, Ethan had already noticed during his visit to Atari that Nolan Bushnell was using hippies in the production of arcade games and circuit boards. When this socially recognized "beat generation" could handle these tasks, Ethan felt confident.

And sales...

This is even simpler!

He himself is the best salesman!

When the inventor of the Snake Game releases a new game...

That title alone is enough to make countless businesses flock to it!

As the saying goes, if you want to make money, you must first become famous!

Once you gain a reputation, buyers will naturally come to you!

As for delivery?

If possible, he would prefer that the customer pick up the goods themselves.

The apple effect can save costs even more!

"So, all that's missing now is the product?"

After confirming that he had successfully established the company, Ethan retreated to the office on the third floor, which also served as the chairman, CEO, and president.

He sat down in the boss's chair, and the comfortable feeling made him squint his eyes.

After enjoying himself for a while, he took out a piece of paper from the drawer, ready to create a game.

However, after pulling out his pen and writing for a short while, his right hand suddenly stopped.

Because at that moment, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have a lot of choices.

"Ugh... this is starting to give me a headache!"

Ethan gasped, feeling he was contributing his small part to global warming efforts.

On the white sheet of paper in front of him lay three projects—

Tetris (Northern Blocks)

Space Invaders

Pac-Man

Note: ① Atari did indeed employ a large number of hippies to manufacture electronic arcade machines and circuit boards back then. Steve Jobs explained this by saying that the hippie movement was declining at the time, and many hippies needed work, but they didn't have any marketable skills, so their prices were relatively low. Well, how to put it? This was actually just capitalist cost control.

(End of this chapter)