There’s a real job that involves getting paid to watch Netflix

Life


There’s a real job that involves getting paid to watch Netflix

By Helen Booth

7 years ago

If you love binge-watching shows like Stranger Things, The Crown and Jessica Jones, we’ve found your dream job

From being paid to drink gin to receiving an actual salary for cuddling kittens all day, there are plenty of jobs out there that prompt us to start drafting a quick cover letter in our heads.

And here’s another one to add to the list – Netflix apparently pay a team of 30 staff to watch their content all day long, and ‘tag’ it according to its subject matter, factual information, and credits.

One of those staffers is Sherrie Gulmahamad, who serves as an originals creative analyst – or, as the job is otherwise known, a ‘Netflix tagger’.

Gulmahamad, who works at Netflix’s headquarters in Los Angeles, recently shared an insight into her working day in an interview with Fast Company. She revealed that she often watches up to 20 hours a week of Netflix shows, movies, and specials while on the job, then it’s her responsibility to tag each item so that it’s correctly categorised and searchable on the Netflix platform.

“Our job is very much like being a librarian and making sure things are classified accurately, but you also have the broad knowledge base of how TV shows or movies are related, and if they look good together in a row on our site,” says Gulmahamad of her team. “Netflix looks for someone who has both skill sets, plus a passion for innovation.”

In the same interview, Gulmahamad says that she joined Netflix all the way back in 2006, when the company was still sending DVDs in the post. At that point, the launch of its original content was still quite a few years away.

Fast forward to 2018, and Gulmahamad now hires new colleagues herself – but any vacant roles have (unsurprisingly) become increasingly coveted now that Netflix has vastly expanded in both size and influence.

So, it’s the job that everyone wants, and we’d have to move to LA in order to do it. But at least we know who to send our CV to, right?


Image: Getty

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