Come Join the Adult-Sized Children of the Fast-Growing, 8-Figure E-Commerce Enigma Known as JLS Trading Co.
Why Should I Work for JLS Trading Co.?
The short version is that you will be working with a company that legitimately cares about your happiness, you’ll be able to learn and grow rapidly, you’ll get high levels of flexibility that are basically unparalleled, and you’ll get to participate in building a company that intends to make the world a better place. You don’t believe me? See what our employees think here.
What’s JLS Like?
You Can Be Yourself. You don’t have to put on a fake, professional face. You can just be yourself. You can talk shit to the CEO (highly encouraged), and no one will think anything of it. You don’t have to dress up, or use formal language, or pretend to be something you’re not – you can just be you.
Major Opportunities for Career Growth. We don’t want to settle for just being a small business – we plan to be doing 9 figures annually in the next few years. We promote quickly once we identify talent. It doesn’t matter what your credentials are – it matters what you get done. If you’re smart, capable, and ambitious, then we will keep giving you more responsibility (and money) until you say uncle. We’re trying to get huge, and if you want to make a difference and be continually challenged with new opportunities, you’re gonna like it here.
Full-Time Remote. Work from home 100% of the time. Imagine never having to commute again. Get long stretches of deep, focused work, then play with your dog, all while not wearing pants. Note: This doesn’t apply to inventory/manufacturing jobs, though we wish we could figure out a way to make it work.
Flexible Work Hours. This doesn’t apply to all jobs (warehouse/production jobs by their nature have to be more scheduled), but in general, we don’t care if you work 10 hour days 4 days a week or want to catch up on the weekend, so long as you put your hours in and get your work done. Kid sick? No problem. Need a personal day? You got it. Want to start your day at 10 AM like our founder, who also takes a nap every day (he claims he works late, but I’m skeptical)? This is the place for you.
Complete Work/Life Balance. If you’re routinely working more than 45ish hours, you’re gonna get a friendly talking to. We want you to be operating at 100% capacity, which means that you need to rest.
Strongly Anti-BS. Anybody in the company can (and is expected to) tell the CEO when he is wrong. There are no bureaucratic or BS rules getting in the way of getting work done. In fact, it’s mandatory to tell the CEO to go fuck himself within a few weeks of getting hired (seriously).
No Micro-Management. Once you’re trained and have demonstrated you know your stuff, we are pretty hands-off. In fact, if you need external management to stay on-task and motivated, we probably aren’t the place for you.
No Dress-Code. I suppose you technically have to wear clothes, but I can’t say that anyone has tested this rule yet, so it may not officially exist.
Health Insurance. Get access to our (pretty darned good) health insurance from the day you start. Or if you’re outside the US, then get reimbursed monthly for finding your own health insurance.
No Assholes Allowed. We try very, very hard to screen out toxic people before they get in, but in case they slip through, we fire them quickly. Imagine never having to interact with dickheads at work? How nice would your life be? We legitimately offer that.
No Incompetent People Allowed. We also screen VERY heavily for competency, so you will never have to interact with someone who is an obvious idiot. No toxic or stupid coworkers? Could it really be? [Yes]
Supportive Environment. We don’t operate via intense stress or unreasonable top-down deadlines. Everyone wants you to be successful – internal politics are at a minimum here. Everyone works hard but is 100% happy to help you if you’re running into trouble.
Lots of Raises (for People Who Kick Ass). We do our absolute best to get ahead of things and give raises preemptively, so you don’t have to ask for one. It’s not unusual at all for someone to receive 2+ raises per year.
Regular Feedback/One-on-Ones. Feedback is really, really important here. Every employee in the company does a planned One-on-One with their manager weekly or semi-weekly for some roles. We don’t bullshit – when you’re fucking up, we tell you, so you have a chance to improve. And when you’re doing well, we do our best to tell you.
We’ll Invest in Your Training. We want everyone in the company to get better constantly. You’ll be learning new things all the time, and are strongly encouraged to invest time every day to learn new things, improve your system/work process, and just generally try to make your life easier.
Paid Maternity/Paternity Leave. We’ve even started letting people skip meetings during labor!
Self-Funded So We Can Do What’s Right for Us. We don’t have to answer to anyone but ourselves, so we can make the right decision for the long-term health of the company vs trying to get big too fast or cut corners to appease some selfish investor.
How Much Will I Learn?
So, so much! We can almost guarantee that you’ll learn more in your first 6 months than you did during your entire school career. We have literally thousands of internal training documents, and spend lots and lots of effort helping people learn new skills.
If you want a taste, then here is the founder’s list of publicly available documents. There are another 1,500+ things only available to JLS folks, and we add 50+ new things per month on average.
Basically, if learning is one of your priorities in an employer, then we are absolutely the place for you.
What Is JLS’s Mission?
In short, we want to be the best place to work on the planet (for a particular type of A-Player).
We’ll know we’re successful at achieving this goal when:
1. We have the right people on the bus and they’re in the right seats.
2. Everyone in the company lives by our values.
3. Our people are extremely happy and wouldn’t dream of working anywhere else.
4. Our customers love us.
5. We’re having a ton of fun.
6. We’re making a ton of money.
All of these are necessary but not sufficient requirements for success. This business doesn’t exist to make the founder rich, though that will hopefully be a happy side effect! We legitimately want to achieve all of these things and won’t be happy unless all of them are happening simultaneously.
What Are Your Values?
We’ve spent a lot of time developing our values. We enforce them strongly, so if you don’t 100% agree with these, then we aren’t the place for you. Here they are in detail, and here they are in poster form:
Do You Have a Detailed Company Vision?
Can I See Some Interviews with Your People?
For sure. See JLS Employee Testimonials.
Why Is Your Website Ugly? You Do Realize It’s Not 1999 Right?
OK first off, ouch. I’ll have you know that the founder’s college roommate’s teenage cousin spent A LOT of time designing this. She tried her best, damnit.
Second, most corporate websites are just plain terrible at their primary purpose: communicating information. One-page (or two in our case) websites are actually very effective at achieving their limited goal of communicating the information we want to communicate. I’ll bet from this single page, you’ll learn more about our company than the last 10 companies you looked at put together, even if your eyes bleed in the process!
Further, we don’t want to trick anyone into thinking that we are a company that prioritizes aesthetics over functionality. We are practical people with practical concerns, so if you need a fancy (and expensive) office space/corporate website/indoor plumbing to be happy, we probably aren’t the place for you. Update: Karen from HR made me say that we do actually have indoor plumbing. She’s no fun.
What’s the History of the Company?
Here is a carefully-crafted, undoubtedly white-washed history of the enigma known as JLS Trading Co.
Can You Share Employee Feedback from Your Annual Company Survey?
See some key results and direct feedback from current employees here (including their criticisms – we really mean it when we say there’s no BS). Some responses have been removed for including personally identifiable information or if it wouldn’t be appropriate to share the feedback publicly, but otherwise, results are posted as-is. This is probably a very informative tool for hearing what real-life employees have to say about us.
Are You Hiring?
If we are hiring, then you can see our active jobs here: Link.
If we don’t have any jobs that look right for you, don’t worry. We are always looking to add smart and capable people to our team. You can fill out our General Application Form, and we’ll see if we can work something out.
Alternatively, if you just want to be informed when there is a new open position at JLS Trading Co., feel free to sign up for our Open Positions Newsletter and we will make sure to send you one of our highly trained messenger pigeons. Yes, pigeons! Have you looked at this website? What did you expect?
Can I Work Remotely (Even World-Wide)?
For office/knowledge-work jobs: 100%. In fact, we want to be a remote-only company as much as reasonably possible, if only to save on rent because the CEO is cheap AF, but more so because working remotely is on-balance so much better for everyone involved. Imagine never having to commute or wear pants ever again!
Most of our employees are in the USA, but that doesn’t mean it has to be that way. We currently work with people in multiple US states, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, the Philippines, Russia, Argentina, India, Mexico, and more (we’re too lazy to update this list as we grow, FYI). We legitimately don’t care where you live, as long as you’re fucking awesome at your job (and really fucking nice).
Unfortunately, the geo-flexibility and work from home does not apply to inventory/production-related jobs, where we have to have you on-site, since you have to physically interact with product. I’m sorry – I wish there were some way to make it work.
But for computer work, we 100% encourage/demand that you do it at home. We’ll buy you a laptop and give you money to get your home office set up, too.
How Many People Do You Have?
Here is our live breakdown because we got tired of manually updating this page. As of Summer 2024, around 30% of our folks work in the warehouse getting things out the door, and the rest work remotely doing office/marketing/other stuff (like making sure the founder knows he’s an idiot). Around 2/3 of our remote/office staff work outside the USA.
Where Exactly Are Your People?
We told you already that you could be anywhere in the world, but we know it’s hard to believe. So, we put together a map of the approximate location of our employees.
Are You Fashion Forward?
You bet your ass:
What Are the Hours Like?
Production/inventory jobs have stricter start times than others (it’s the nature of the beast unfortunately), but almost all other jobs offer flexible hours. We don’t care exactly when you work, so long as you get your work done. If you want to start at 7:00 AM, fantastic. If you want to start at 10:00 AM, by all means. If you want to go to the gym at 1:00 PM, good on you. If you want to go see your kid’s T-Ball game, well… Bring beer because those are just awful.
As long as you’re absolutely crushing it, we basically don’t give a shit when you clock in or out (some jobs have tighter work windows though).
In our humble (but obviously right) opinion, there are three types of people:
1. People who cannot possibly be effective regularly working 60+ hours per week
2. Liars
3. Cocaine addicts
So, for us, hourly full-time employees are expected to work a minimum of 38 hours per week and full-time salaried employees are expected to work around 40-45 hours per week. If you have to go over that number regularly, you’re gonna get yelled at.
Is There Opportunity for Advancement?
Oh man, is there ever. Our ambitions are limitless (see the vision for more details). We aren’t just growing with GDP – we are trying to grow 100% a year for basically eternity, which categorically means that if you’re smart and capable (like really smart and capable), then you will never want for more opportunities. Presuming you are damned good, then you will get as much opportunity and responsibility as you want (and maybe more than that).
If you want to advance probably 10x faster than a normal corporate job, we are the place for you.
Is the Company Actually Growing Fast?
You Decide. Our Revenue Growth:
2014 – $354k
2017 – $3.3m
2020 – $10.6 (2020 was…interesting)
2023 – $17.6m
We share revenue numbers to increase the chances that high-quality people don’t think that we’re full of shit. All this growth means that there are lots and lots of opportunities for capable, ambitious people. Plus all financials are shared with all employees on a monthly basis so everyone knows exactly where the company is at – the No Bullshit value is just that: No Bullshit.
Where Do You Store Your Male Models?
In multiple locations around the warehouse:
Employee Testimonials
See our reviews on Glassdoor, Indeed, and Google. You can check out the survey results above for more direct feedback from employees. And whoever gave us a 4 star on Upwork, just thank you… -_-‘
From John P:
JLS has been the greatest place to work in my life. I love working here because I am challenged on a daily basis to do new and interesting things, I am given the freedom to figure out how to do those things, and I know that I can trust in my very reasonable and thoughtful management team. It’s a new company with a lot of opportunities, in the sense that, we’re always looking for a better way to do things, so as somebody that likes to think of new methods and test them out, I’m very happy because I can try new things and new ways of doing things.
From Ben W:
I previously worked in corporate America and never had any idea how what I did impacted the company’s success. Now, I am working in a company where everyone from the owner to the newest hire meets weekly to review individual and company successes, failures, and lessons learned. Knowing why what I do matters while working with smart people in a culture that pushes me to improve myself on a day to day basis has been a revelation, and I look forward to continuing to take part in the growth of the business for years to come.
From Drew B:
JLS has by far been the best place I have ever worked. My work/life balance has never been better, and everyone seems to genuinely care about my personal happiness. My job history has spanned a wide variety of businesses and industries. I have even run my own business. It wasn’t until I came to JLS that I realized how important a good culture fit can be. We expect a lot out of each other, and we work hard at being a unified team.
What Is Turnover Like?
Voluntary turnover is super low. Like super, super low. And some of the people who left actually came back. The things that cause people to be asked to leave are:
1. Values non-fit. We joke around a lot, but we take our values very seriously.
2. They can’t do the job. We are stringent that you have to kick ass. We will absolutely give you the opportunity to make mistakes and learn, but if you’re not a smart mofo, then we’re forced to act for the good of the group.
However, because we’re a high-feedback environment, you will absolutely know ahead of time what your boss thinks about your performance and what you need to do to improve.
Why Aren’t You on Social Media?
1. The founder refuses to upgrade his mobile device from his TI-83 and LinkedIn stupidly hasn’t released an app for it yet.
2. Have you, like, ever been on social media? It’s awful.
3. We keep getting kicked off of Myspace for being “too emo” which honestly just makes us even more emo.
4. We probably will at some point, but mostly we’re just lazy.
How Many Meetings Are There?
As few as fucking possible. We do everything we can to encourage people to just email vs doing a quick chat or a meeting, so there are very, very few set meetings in the company. Amongst the worst feedback a manager can receive is that they regularly hold meetings that could have been an email. It’s pretty nice to not have to sit through useless, bullshit meetings and just have to read the founder’s useless, bullshit emails instead.
Who Is JLS Not For?
This is a good question. JLS is probably not for you if you:
– Want a stable job that doesn’t change very often
– Like the security that comes from working for a very large company
– Don’t enjoy building things, and all that comes along with that
– Don’t believe that everything can be optimized, for basically forever
– Don’t enjoy discovering the truth through friendly back and forth discussion
– Care about status
– Don’t like really considering other people’s feelings before doing things
– Don’t like wearing multiple hats
– Don’t like dealing with ambiguity/the unknown
– Don’t like being in a place that is very careful about not wasting resources
– Thrive in a political rather than a results-based environment
– Don’t enjoy letting your guard down and just being yourself with your coworkers
We are definitely not for everyone. We are effectively a startup that is trying to be a giant company, which clearly has trade-offs, but if all of that isn’t a deal-breaker for you, then why not take a shot and apply?
What Kind of Car Does the CEO Drive?
Well first off, the CEO refuses to leave the house/put pants on, so there is some internal debate as to whether or not he actually exists.
But when he does leave the house, he drives his sexy AF 2004 Toyota 4Runner. Probably don’t ask him about the cars though, unless you want a 30-minute lecture on why high-mileage Toyotas are hands-down the best value on the planet.
Do You Believe in Work-Life Balance?
The above never happens at JLS – we instituted a rule saying you can’t stab people in the head a long time ago. Sometimes we amaze ourselves at how generous we are.
Work/Life Balance is one of the core benefits of working at JLS. We want happy, productive employees who work hard, but enjoy their lives outside of work. See the “Hours” section above for more details. Pretty much, as long as you’re getting a lot of shit done, we’re never gonna sweat you on hours. If you’re sick, take the day. If your kid is sick, take the day. We 100% believe that family and friends come first and that no one can live optimally working 80 hour weeks.
If you want to kick ass at your job while still having a really good work-life balance, then JLS is very likely the place for you.
How Are You Funded?
We are 100% self-funded. There are no venture capitalists pulling the strings. We answer to ourselves, and can do what’s right for the long-term interests of the company and all of its stakeholders versus just optimizing for saleability.
Are You a Cult?
No no no… We are an organization that promotes love.
Are You Planning to Get Big Then Sell the Company?
We are planning to get big, yes, but we have absolutely no plans to sell. The founder views JLS as his life’s work. We may eventually sell off individual assets, like product lines, but there is absolutely no intention of ever selling the whole company. You don’t need to worry about private equity MBAs coming in and ruining everything, the founder does that all by himself.
Do You Give Raises Often?
We very, very rarely have to have someone ask for raise to get one. Seriously. We do our absolute best to get ahead of it. Cheaping out on good people is not a recipe for long-term success. If you’re kicking ass at your job and taking on more and more responsibility, then a raise is basically inevitable. We’ve had people who have had their salaries nearly double in under 6 months because they proved to be so awesome – this is not typical but it’s definitely possible. We want you thinking about how to kick ass, not how to pay the bills.
Do You Have Nap Facilities On-Site?
Do you think this is amateur hour? Of course we do:
How Will I Be Evaluated?
We want everyone to know exactly what they have to do to be successful. Every employee has a detailed list of the behaviors and outcomes that constitute success. You’ll have a weekly One-on-One with your manager, regular feedback (if you could be doing anything better), and an official quarterly evaluation. This is definitely not a place where you only get feedback once a year.
Is It True You Have to Tell the CEO to Go Fuck Himself?
That. Is. Absolutely. Completely. Ridiculous.
I Am an Engineer. Is JLS the Place for Me?
We are still early days when it comes to building an engineering team, but we think you’ll find that you’ll like it a lot here:
– The CEO understands the maker vs manager schedule
– The CEO has been the de-facto head engineer and IT guy for his whole life, so his chance of “getting it” is much higher than normal
– Full-time remote work, so you can work when and where you want (no cubicle or open office bullshit – fuck that noise)
– No/minimal interruptions – we loathe unnecessary meetings and recognize that the only way to get a lot done is long stretches of deep work
– Engineers are treated with respect and admiration
– We are committed to passing the Joel Test
– No politics – personal considerations will not outweigh the technical considerations
– We won’t fight you on using whatever technology you need – within reason
– We’ll invest in your training and education – buy whatever books and courses you want on the company dime
– No crunch
We want to make a worker’s paradise, which certainly includes engineers. We think you’ll like it a lot here.
What Type of Toilet Paper Do You Provide?
Now I know you’re thinking, what kind of weird fucking place advertises the toilet paper they use, but we believe it’s actually a good indicator of if a company cares or not. We’ve all used that horrible 1-ply junk that isn’t even fit for prisons. Because we care about our employees, we use the thick, rippled Cottonelle (or equivalent – we choose whatever the best option is available at Costco when we go). And now you get to say to people that this random company tried to convert you to applying for a job by saying that its toilet paper was good. What a time to be alive!
Is This Utopia?
Life is definitely really nice here, but no, it’s not utopia or some socialist paradise. It is a pretty great place to work, and for nearly everyone who works here, it’s the best place they’ve ever worked by far, but I don’t want you to think that we’re perfect. Everything is a constant work in progress. We are lead and staffed by people, and people are imperfect. Emails still get missed, tasks still get dropped, and the CEO still randomly flings feces from time to time. We’re human here, but we are also doing our absolute best to be great to each other. It’ll be a never ending process, but damnit we’re trying.
Why Do You Swear So much?
My gut reaction was to say, “Because fuck you. That’s why.” But I stopped myself. From our Values Document:
Professionalism impedes communication by putting an invisible wall between two people. It’s so much harder to communicate effectively if you have to couch your language in corporate-speak. Let your guard down and be real with people. If you can’t joke around with your coworkers, what’s the fucking point?
Also:
I Applied, but I Haven’t Heard Back. What’s the Deal?
If you applied straight through Indeed.com (or similar job site) and not through our custom process (it would be a “ApplyToJob.com” URL), then we have not seen your application. We try to make it clear to apply through our custom link, and not through the website, but sometimes people miss it (it’s literally the first thing in the job ad, though).
If you did apply through our custom process, then please check your spam. We do indeed respond to everyone but often, our emails go to spam, which is really annoying. If you still can’t find a response, please email us – I promise we are not purposefully messing with you.
Why Is Your Careers Page so FUCKING Long?
You should see our onboarding documentation! You ain’t seen nothing yet.
We really want you to know what you’re potentially getting into. The founder has been called many things – the most humble person on the planet, guy who gets paid by the word, tax evader, etc. But he has never been called out for getting someone invested into something under false circumstances. We want you to know exactly what kind of people we are, so that you can decide for yourself if we’re the right place for you (we think we’re pretty great, but we’re also definitely not for everyone).
Our hiring process is hard, and if you’re potentially leaving a good job to come here, we want you to be quite sure that you’re making a good decision. So, we write a lot!
Plus, who would watch Lord of the Rings (Extended Edition) and wish it were shorter?
Is This Seriously a Real Place?
Yup! And it’s not even a pyramid scheme! I know it sounds too good to be true, but it’s okay. Many of our employees thought the same way at first. Plus, get this: the owner just started paying everyone with money instead of Pizza Hut coupons – we’re big time, people. Concluding video from the CEO to convince you. I guess the best 3-word-definition of JLS (which is written by a candidate) is:
How Do I Apply?
Glad you’re interested! Near the bottom of our posts on the various job boards, you will find a link to an application form. Open that link, fill out the form, and you’ll be in our system. We get back to everyone, so please check your spam folder if you haven’t heard from us. Good luck and thank you for your time!
Other Questions? E-mail us: Careers@JLSTradingCo.com