'At Twitter, The Future Is You:' Employees Spoof Corporate Recruitment Videos

 

In an effort to create the "best/worst recruiting video of all time,"spoof on the corny corporate recruitment video of yore, reports Mashable. In it, they poke fun at such classic corporate tropes as employees being really enthusiastic about coffee, employees sitting up very straight at their desks and employees pointing at flying words like "product management!" Twitter employees Ian Padgham and Jeremy Briggs made "At Twitter, The Future Is You," a "Man this is a sweet job, but working at Twitter isn't just a sweet job. It's a way of life. A way of life that's like a sweet job," one of the videos' stars says to the camera after getting off of a call with Lady Gaga.

But it's not all jokes, much of the information, which is delivered with about as many fake smiles as a face can reasonably take, sums up exactly why people would want to work for the communication transforming micro-blogging platform.

"Olivia from recruiting" says, "At Twitter you get to work on small teams working on projects that affect hundreds of millions of users." The camera then cuts to a "real engineer" who talks about how much he likes his job until he is cut off mid-sentence by our star who says, "Boy, I wish I didn't already work here so I could apply for a job."

Our review of the 3 minute clip: If it were funnier the whole thing might be enjoyable instead of coming off as an extended humblebrag. Yes, Twitter is ultimately trying to get people interested in positions with the company. But it's a bit off-putting because it ridicules an old-fashioned corporate lifestyle that seems to have little to do with people's perception of the Silicon Valley social media company.

The best part is Twitter CEO Dick Costolo's deadpan portrayal of himself. Costolo steals every scene he is in, which unfortunately amounts only to two. He makes a nice cameo as a dry erase board drawing.

The assignment was part of Twitter's Hack Week, during which employees take time out of each day to work on ideas for improving Twitter. According to the Twitter blog, the week-long event is designed to "actively promote innovation through experimentation around the company." Many of the ideas will become real live additions to Twitter, although as the blog states, "Some of what happens in Hack Week will stay in Hack Week."

Actually want to work at Twitter? Click here, and then check out the "recruitment" video below.:

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