Valve’s Handbook for New Employees

Even though I haven’t been blogging very often in the past few weeks (busy working on some pretty awesome things), and I don’t usually write about non-Microsoft stuff on this blog, I just had to share this. It’s the Valve Handbook for New Employees. Yes Valve, the most awesome games company in the world.

I had the privilege of visiting Valve’s headquarters in Bellevue (near Seattle and Microsoft) a few years ago and it was one of the most surreal experiences. I felt like a kid on the Willy Wonka factory tour. Their incredible corporate culture shines through this quirky and entertaining document. As an aspiring startup entrepreneur, it’s an inspiration.

Oh and don’t miss out on the glossary at the end of the documentation where you’ll find some gems like,

14-Year-Old Boy—If you see one running your project, don’t worry. That’s actually 57-year-old Josh Weier (see Josh Weier). If you have any extra stem cells, give them to him! He bathes in them daily

Australia—A place that’s either very near or is New Zealand where more than half of Valve’s employees were born.

WFH—Working From Home. What to do if a single snowflake falls out of the sky

Credits to @felipez who I saw tweet about it

4 insightful thoughts

  1. Cool, i read about this manual yesterday! Thanks so much for sharing it.
    I don’t wanna stir up the hyve btw but they are asking for it! On page 22 the employee in the cartoon is wearing a Half-Life 3 t-shirt! OMG! Can’t wait till E3!

  2. They’re missing a bullet point on page 52, under “What Is Valve /Not/ Good At?”
    – Counting to three.

    Sorry, but you know we were all thinking it. 😉

  3. One thing probably overlooked in that manual was the “hours” part.

    Why I like this is that in Valve they actually frown upon long hours, in that you’re encouraged to not work long hours as it they feel it burns the person(s) out to quickly.

    Not a lot of IT companies do that.

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