Hire me! (The Find Work Thread)

I had two interviews last week -- one with a studio in Halifax and a local Vancouver studio (the latter doesn't pay as well as my last job -- I would be looking at around a 25% pay cut at least).

Being in the game industry for the past 14 years I've been laid off four times (I got laid off in 2002 (10 months before getting a new job), 2008 (five months before getting a new job), 2011 (got a new job within three days), and just last month). At the age of 41, I'm getting wary of the unstability of the game industry, especially now that I'm engaged. The video game industry is still young so I don't know if I can have the energy to be in it for the next twenty years or not.

Part of me is thinking of a career change while I'm still relatively young -- I thought about joining the Vancouver Police Department but my poor eyesight is a no go.

I had a fight with my fiancee about looking at another career, which could possibly mean taking at least a year off to go back to school to upgrade my skills, even something else art related since my skills and experience is based around making video games.

You don't need to go back to school, especially for art. Art is one of the few fields where passion and dedication make a bigger difference than formal education.

I'm not saying an education in art is worthless, just that it's not a prerequisite to success.

Well, I mean going back to school for certification, for example drafting. An ex-coworker friend of mine got laid off again and again so she left the industry and got into architectural and civil drafting by taking a 10-month program. She got a job as soon as she graduated.

I have noticed that people seem to be putting a lot of weight on having certifications. One of the mailing lists I'm on a guy was talking about how he wrote most of the questions for an IT cert exam, but hadn't bothered actually taking it since, you know, he wrote it, but that most HR people could not wrap their heads around that and if he didn't have the cert, they wouldn't even call him in for an interview.

I was also told recently that if you can do data visualization, that's a big thing people are asking for these days. It was recommended that I take a course in that and in mapping and start my own business. But I am a coward when it comes to big career changes like that so that will never happen.

I dunno if anyone has mentioned Kixeye, but they're in SF and have been hiring like crazy. Still lots of room there. Lemme know if you want an intro.

Thanks I appreciate it.

I have an ex-coworker who's the Director of Shared Creative Services (was an Art Director there) at Kixeye. He more or less offered me a job there but that means moving to SF. I would normally take up the offer but my fiancee is Japanese so I don't know how much paperwork it would be to get her to move to the US.

I thought about joining the Vancouver police but all the police forces, including the RCMP, require uncorrected vision to be at least 20/40 in one eye. My eyesight is horrible without my contacts. The VPD is very well paid and has one of the best pension plans in Canada. Another option I'm looking into is either the Canadian Armed Forces (with an university degree I can enroll in their officers program) or the Canadian Border Service Agency, neither require good uncorrected eyesight. Both have pensions and decent starting pay.

Well, you marry her, she's a citizen. I mean, if yer a citizen.

Are you sure about that?

Not sure how it works in Canada, but green cards come with a marriage in the US. Unless something has changed, recently, you marry someone, they get a green card. Maybe not a full citizen I guess. Takes a few years, but from what I understand, marriage is the easiest way to get a green card! Buddy of mine did it with a woman a few years ago and she got citizenship, he got.... uhm.... a little bit of sex?

I'm a Canadian. I would have to get a work visa. My concern is about her. I would marry her and apply to get her a Canadian Permanent Resident (equivalent of a Green Card I guess).

As a married couple the paperwork for U.S. residency is fairly straightforward. It's expensive, and she may have to wait a couple of moths for a work permit, but if you're gainfully employed she'll work her way through the system without much trouble.

Apply for the jobs that you want. If a US firm makes you an offer, they will have someone in-house to help manage the sponsorship for you and your wife.

Yeah, plus, Kixeye seems like a rad place to work. The guys I know that got hired there were Erlang programmers, so they're very good developers. Kixeye also hired Kurt Larson, an amazing audio guy who was the front man for the Information Society. The two Erlang programmers also teach kids to program for free on weekends at themade.org.

Oh, and also, Kixeye ships code every single god damn day. Agile is not a strong enough word to describe them. They're big on teams controlling their projects, and sometimes even the admins get to have input on gameplay. It's a good place to work if you want to be somewhere where things get done and a lot of code gets cut every day.

Isn't Kixeye that one with the juvenile CEO and the sexual harassment problems, or am I confusing my gaming devcos?

Juvenile senior marketing VP, apparently? I haven't heard anything about sexual harassment problems, but there's definitely a certain reek of "GAMES FOR MANLY MEN AND WOMEN WHO ARE AWESOME ENOUGH TO BE ALMOST LIKE MEN" in their promotional / hiring videos.

Also, the "our attitude is just our kind of humor, DEAL WITH IT" thing reminds me of Brad Wardell.

Nope, turns out that was the one.

It came up here a while back in the aforementioned Wardell thread.

The juvenile CEO thing was a misattribution and they appear to have come down on the people involved in that story with a firing-for-cause hammer. So it looks like the confirmed stuff boils down to "probably sexist working place with certainly-super-infantile marketing VP". Joy of joys, eh?

Right, I forgot to amend that it looks like the CEO actually seemed to be a good guy after the shit hit the fan. Nonetheless, I'd be shocked if the 4 people who got fired were the only bad apples. A caustic corporate culture takes a lot more than just 4 dudes to create.

So in a month of looking for jobs before Christmas I would find about one position a week. In the single day in the New Year I found one position almost straight away.

It's an entry level accounts position, but with a good company who have set a quite healthy wage level, indicating they're not out to take advantage of the current economy. The thing is, I don't have a huge amount of experience in this area. It is entry level, but I imagine there's going to be a lot of people applying with experience and/or basic qualifications. The only experience I have with accounts is doing the journals for a small non-profit. While this would be similar in theory, I'm wondering how to approach the interview should I get one. I have a business degree but it's not in this area (marketing/digital marketing/IT is my kick.) However, I have genuinely been thinking of re-skilling in this area. Do I tell them outright that I've been looking to go into this area, that I enjoyed it in my previous job and would be especially impressed if there was opportunities to do qualifications outside my job but supported by the business?

Just saw what the starting wage is for the career I was thinking about going into. It's about 2/3rds what I would consider the minimum living wage. Welp!

Continuing here since I derped and posted in the wrong thread to begin with. Whups.

UPDATE: I got a cold-call from a recruiter asking me to come in for an interview on Thursday. Tentative WHEEEEE because doing research into the company it seems the position is commission-based sales, which I am not at all interested in getting into. I may just call back tomorrow to verify and decline if that's the case. Not worth driving 45 minutes to their central office for an interview for a job I know I'm not suited for and don't want.

This is separate from the other company that has contacted me, which is a lab QA position for a document security company (they develop the technology used in things like passports and large currency notes).

I'm reposting this because my wife suddenly has a lot more time for freelance work. *sigh*

After having my hours cut at the restaurant I currently work at, I had an interview at a Korean French (yeah, I know) place today, which turned out to actually just be an opportunity to immediately offer me the job and go over what their deal is. A bit more upscale, slower pace, closes one to two hours earlier than my current place. MUCH more interesting food. I'll be making less money, but I think the slower pace and getting home a lot earlier will help my mental health a lot. I'm to damn old for these downtown weekend turn-and-burn nights.

I still hate the restaurant industry, but I've gotta do what I've gotta do.

One of the first upscale meals I really had was in Cincinnati (technically across the border in Covington) at a French/Vietnamese fusion restaurant called Pho Paris. Definitely an experience that helped me expand my appreciation of fine dining and different foods. I know that it's hip to hate on fusion cuisine, but when done right it can be fantastic.

One of my first dates with my fiancee was at a Japanese-French restaurant. The chef-owner went to school in Paris to learn French cuisine and here in Vancouver with its high Asian population and love of different ethnic foods fusion cuisine is quite popular.

French/Vietnamese is actually a legitimate cuisine in its own right, since it's an off-shoot of the French influence on Vietnamese cuisine from their colonial days. The French introduced the baguette, which is a staple of Vietnamese fast food (bahn mi) and other dishes, where the baguettes are used for dipping. They also have pates and other similar food.

French and Vietnamese isn't necessarily fusion, as Vietnam and vietnamese food still maintains quite a bit of French Indochina influence, like the banh mi. There's still a pretty sizable trade in buying young french wine, aging it in wood, and selling it back to the french.

That's the case here. The chef is korean, but was trained at the CIA and worked in a bunch of high-end french restaurants in NYC before moving here. He's vehemently opposed to fusion, both the term and the concept, and insists that while his korean dishes pick up a few french (and other) influences and vice-versa, the individual dishes are still solidly korean or french, respectively. He calls it "mosaic".

What? No! Don't pass up an opportunity to make a good impression. You can always decline the job offer for a vague reason, and plus you may find out about other positions when you're sitting at the table.

Sure, but you can't say that without knowing what the food was. It really was a fusion restaurant in the truest sense of the term. The dishes that came out were very much classic French technique with strong elements of Vietnamese flavors.

A rose by any other name...;)

Last Friday I received a message via LinkedIn from an HR manager about possibly working for a local Vancouver studio and asked me when would be a good time next week (now this week). Since I would prefer to stay in Vancouver I was interested and responded back to her. It's now Tuesday and I have yet to hear back from her to confirm when would be a good time to have (I assume) a telephone interview.

I know it's only been two days but after being unemployed for six weeks and only two other companies showing interests I'm getting rather anxious. Piled on top of the stress is that my fiancee is flying back this Thursday to Japan for three months.

This is polar opposite of the last time I got laid off back in November 2011 when I got a job offer an hour after my interview (three days after being laid off).

Can I just say that I am super excited to have FOUR local applications turned in for just one week?!

I FEEL LIKE IT IS RAINING JOBS HERE

My temporary contract kept getting extended until I was offered the chance to apply, test and interview for the position permanently.

I am now permanent staff here at Ye Olde Service Desk at the college I once attended years ago (to work on my BA in English, oddly).

Thank you for the vague karmic boost, Hire Me! thread.

HOLY MILKSHAKES I JUST GOT A PHONE INTERVIEW!

Took me five months before I got one of those in Cali AND I HAVE ONLY LIVED HERE FOR A WEEK

I think I'm about to pee myself in excitement. It's with the company I've wanted to work with most and for the position I feel most qualified to do, out of all my applications. I MUST EXUDE CONFIDENCE.

I'm flying out to Halifax next week for a third interview to meet the leads and producers.

If anyone is looking for an IT job in the following fields, let me know. Financial services industry, and job is in Milwaukee, WI area.

Business Intelligence (BI) Developer
Senior BI Developer
Network Manager
Telecommunications Analyst
Security Analyst
Infrastructure Project Manager


Thought I'd mention these here in case it can help a fellow BFer.

I read "exude" as "extrude" and suddenly imagined a slug-like being tentatively extending a highly specialised confidence organ.

Well, just got let go. One of our business's core principles is "continuous transformation" which apparently means "let a bunch of people go every January." They've done it for three years running now.

So, anyone know of any openings (preferably in the Boston area, or virtual/WFH type gigs) for someone with people and project management experience in an educational setting? I'm thinking a hiring/recruiting manager would be a good next step for me, since that was like 75% of what I did in my old job.

I just got toasted as well. It is not a good time to be a THQ employee.

Condolences, guys.