In summer of 2010, I was broke and needed a job. Walking the sunbaked streets of Montreal’s downtown, I called up old friends hoping for a lead. I was in luck: a buddy told me a “porn company” was hiring customer service reps. “They pay 15 bucks an hour, and it’s super chill,” he said.
Long before it was called Mindgeek, the company was Manwin Canada, a name that, at the time, didn’t ring a bell. From an internet cafe, I sent in my CV. I had only ever held low-level service jobs. But I had edited a friend’s indie zine and put that at the top of my work experience.
A couple days later, I got a call from an enthusiastic woman at Manwin who told me they were impressed by my résumé and asked if I would be interested in a more senior…