Hire me! (The Find Work Thread)

Last week I was told to take a few days to think about a job an agency wanted to put me forward for. I sent them an e-mail over the weekend with my decision. E-mail today saying the job had been filled. These agencies are chancers. I have doubts if there ever was a job and they were just looking to get more CVs on the books.

Sorry for the job losses, to all involved. That sucks.

I have a feeling it's a rough time to be in the game industry, with THQ down and GPG gasping for breath.

It's definitely a stressful industry to work in, I think I average about 2 years or so at a company. Or should I say averaged? Not really in games anymore, but we'll see if I last longer than two years =)

Which studio are you at?

I understand the love of games and everything, but I don't know how you do it long term. Developers, QA, etc all make more in boring industries and don't deal with insane crunch time.

I've been in the game industry for almost 16 years now. I'm getting tired of studio closures and layoffs (I've been laid off four times so far). It wasn't so bad when I was single but now I'm engaged I have to think of my long-term future, which is tougher now that I'm older.

I've been thinking seriously of a career change but going back to school for a year and starting from the bottom is not an ideal choice. What makes it difficult is that my fiancee is a Japanese national and after we get married and I sponsor her for her Permanent Residency in Canada, she isn't allowed to work until her application goes through (which can take six to twelve months). So possible career changes for me is joining the Canadian Armed Forces (since I have an university degree I can apply for their officer training program) or the Canada Border Services Agency.

I feel for you, I have half as many years in the industry and just as many layoffs =)

Edit: On the other hand, my dad has worked at the same place the majority of his life, but has had his salary frozen for over a decade.

Doing workplace first aid training. Chapter on how to treat "minor wounds" includes such trivial injuries as partial (and full) amputation, eye protrusions, and other assorted black-knight injuries. All of which were detailed in full-page colour photos of actual worksite injuries.

Same here, 8 years and now 5 layoffs. Good news, though! There's an indie studio in Carlsbad that apparently liked my Skype interview today so much, they're actually flying me out tomorrow morning for an on-site. They've said they're willing to match my previous salary while I telecommute for 3 months, and bump it up 10% if I move out there. Keeping my fingers crossed!

I will not let employment setbacks hold me back. I have the e-mail of an agent I spoke to a few weeks ago. I plan on getting onto her first thing in the morning. She's with a much bigger agency so I'm holding out hope for the moment. Hopefully now that I know what professional exams I want to follow it'll help me a bit.

I got an in-person interview.

I GOT AN IN-PERSON INTERVIEW. AHHH.

I haven't had one of those since like... September. August? I have no idea. It's been a long long time.

I felt really underqualified during the phone interview but apparently they didn't feel the same so maybe I'm finally on my way to my first big-girl adult job!



Also, to the recently unemployed: I know that feel. Welcome to funemployment, and good luck hunting!

Congrats on the interviews Alligator and MatthewF.

I've read quite a lot of descriptions of the usual job application methology in the US, and to me it sounds very difficult.
I guess you'd get used to it, but phone interviews and the like I'm not sure I could handle.

(Not that it really matters for me personally since I've only been employed in three places and two of them basically headhunted me... it's complicated.)

I wouldn't call the application process itself difficult to navigate; it's pretty straightforward for the most part. Apply for the job, get phone a phone screen (really basic interview, usually HR only), in-person interview (more thorough; involves the department you are applying for). Depending on the company, there might be different components to the interview (I've had "two" in-person interviews at a time, one by HR followed by the supervisor for the position for example).

The hard part for me seems to be convincing people that my inexperience is not a barrier so for the love of Pete please give me an entry-level position already! Though it also didn't help that the market I was in last year was supremely competitive due to the limited number of positions available that I was even remotely qualified for.

I think it's the fact that they screen people over the phone that catches me of guard - I think that is something that would not usually be done here - you'll either get called into an interview or they'll just ignore your resume. (Or very rarely, reply back with a rejection)

If I apply somewhere in person, I usually don't get a phone screen, but that hasn't happened for me in quite a long while. The last time I didn't have a phone screen was when I had an interview as the result of a career fair in college. Likewise, for my last job, I only had a phone interview and no in-person interview in order to get into the organization. They pull 200+ people from across the country for each of the five campuses every year (that's rougly ~1000 nationally) and it would be cost prohibitive to do in-person interviews for any number of candidates.

There's also the aspect of the fact that this country is gigantic so if you're not applying somewhere locally, a company is more likely to conduct an interview on the phone first before deciding if it's worth their time and money to fly a candidate to the job location.

If you're local many places will simply bring you in and skip any sort of phone screening.

Or at my work, the interview process is thus:

- First you get the phone screen
- Then, you go through a round of interviews with 4-5 people, including the hiring manager. Each interview is about an hour
- Then, if those 4-5 people all liked you, you go through an "as needed" interview with the director/group manager of that org, another hour.

If you're looking for a job internally, substitute the phone screen with a "informational" which is between you and the hiring manager face to face. It's supposedly used so that you can ask the hiring manager about what the actual job is like, but usually ends up being a mini interview.

I just got my interview details. I'm meeting with four people, which is the most I've been around at once (I've had three people before, but it helped that I already knew them since it was for an internal position). I'll be Meeting with QA, Operations, Production, and Plant managers. Hoooooly shit I am terrified now.

It doesn't help that they're all dudes. Even their office manager is a dude. fuuuuuuuuuu

As someone with zero hiring authority but heavily involved in the interview process, I really like using phone screens. Granted, my interviews are all for developers, so I use that to find out who really knows their stuff. You'd be amazed (maybe not) how many 'professional developers' don't know the simplest things. Anyone who knows what they're talking about (which should be 100% of the resumes I select) should sail through the questions with ease. Sadly, we bring in maybe 25% of those people for real interviews.

Having panic attack while reading this thread, remembering interviews for jobs I didn't get, and now castigating myself horribly. Stupid brain.

So, I'm in the San Diego airport right now for my red-eye back to Austin. I've been awake for nearly 20 hours, but you know what? I don't care. I got the fucking job. YEEESSSS!

Also just read that today THQ failed to sell Vigil Games, only their IP (this was my previous employer). Vigil is done. THQ is done. I feel so sorry for the friends I made there that had been at the studio for 5+ years. I have some phone calls to make when I get out of bed tomorrow.

One of my buddies works at THQ, and I'm pretty sure he's toast too. Shitty day all around.

I've been trying to find something to help with the bills while I continue to grow my site and haven't had much luck. I would like to make more connections writing for other sites besides Gamasutra but it doesn't seem like anyone is hiring or if they are looking for people, it's for writing free blogs. Is there some kind of job search site that caters to game writing, or is just bugging every major game site the only way to go?

Volition and Relic may be the only ones that make it out somewhat intact. Vigil shut their doors yesterday. Everyone filed out. Just a little over a month ago, we were all assured that things were fine by THQ president Jason Rubin. The whole time he probably was planning the auction. You can't set something up like that in a day or even a week.

The two-faced bullshit by the people who were supposed to be running these companies is what kills me the most. Just a few days ago, my buddy was confident that THQ would be sold as a single entity and that everything was going to be fine.

I think he worked for THQ proper and wasn't working with a specific game team, so I daresay he's gonna be one of the first out the door.

All but a handful of people at THQ proper are gone. There's a small skeleton crew left to help with the sales, and even they'll be gone by the 25th. It's over.

Oh yeah, that's basically what i suspect, I just haven't heard it from him yet.

This was him 3 days ago.

Congrats, MatthewF!

Well, my situation has gotten a lot more nuts and a lot less hopeful lately. My new boss is in India now recruiting a team to take over for mine, which is probably a good sign huh? On top of that I've been directed to stop writing SQL scripts, which is basically my entire job. Haven't actually stopped doing that yet because it would be disastrous for the company, but that degree of mixed messaging is not a lot of fun. Also just doing the day to day work has gotten a lot harder, because there are now even more people and meetings involved in every single thing I do for pretty much no reason... I think last August was the start of the exponential curve of layers of unnecessary bullshit being added to the work I do, and now I'm at the part of the curve where the line is almost vertical.

Been sending out resumes like crazy but haven't gotten much action lately. I did have a fairly positive meeting with a recruiter last week, so hopefully something might come of that.

Edit: oh that's right, I have a question too. Is it worth explaining the situation to my contracting company to see if they might maybe have something else for me to do? It's in their interest to keep making money off of me after all, but my concern is that they have kind of a relationship with my boss and if they tip him off it might cut off whatever time I have left here, which is the only thing I really have going for me at this point.

You can join the military at 41? I assumed that door was closed, but should this contract ever end (going on seven years now, but they refuse to make it permanent) I would look at it again.

Halifax is a great city though, it's where I'm from. Not as warm as Vancouver but there's still lots to do. It may be smaller than Ottawa but it's sad how difficult it is in the nation's capital when you want to go get something to eat after 10 PM.

HR people live by lists of necessary qualifications, and certifications are an easy way to see that a person meets the qualification. It doesn't matter if you created the language yourself, if you aren't certified that's the end of the line. It's why networking and working contacts in general is so important in the industry, much as I loathe and suck at that. Networking really means "getting around the HR firewall".

Job search lesson - if one of the requirements is "must be able to lift 25 pounds" that is likely not a job you want.

I've had an IT job where that was a requirement, since you had to be able to haul workstations and printers around. I also had to "know" how to use a pallet jack, since we had a surplus room with pallets of CRTs and other outdated tech.

Ultimately that wasn't the career path I went down, but it wasn't because of the physical aspects.

Yeah I was going to say, most hardware/network or entry-level IT jobs have that requirement.

Hmm. Well, never mind then! It's not like it's a problem for me, I just find it a bit off-putting when I see it in a job posting.

I'd be more worried if it was something greater than that, since that would indicate lifting something other than standard office equipment. It's probably just something an HR person put down in a "cover your butt" type of thing.

Yeah, I think it really depends on what the credible application of that is. If it's IT and you might have to lift a computer or if it's a secretarial job where you might have to lift a box of papers, that's one thing, but if it's like a copywriting job and they want you to lift landscaping tools that's a bit weird.

"I do my best writing after a hard day of chainsawing!"

Should you have these qualifications:

Essential Qualifications

• Thorough knowledge of computing principles and computer Infrastructure deployment methodologies normally acquired through a university degree in computer science or a minimum of seven years’ equivalent experience
• Expert knowledge of complex practices is essential to the position. These practices include estimating, project planning and management, risk management, process modelling, data modelling, workflow analysis and design, database design, software design and development, testing strategies, and change management
• Knowledge and experience in monitoring metrics (formal estimation methods, defect measurement, etc.)
• Experience in infrastructure development methodologies, tools, and techniques (systems analysis, data modelling, database design, system design, programming, quality assurance, documentation, change and problem management, etc.)
• Experience in project planning, risk analysis, and project management
• Experience in working closely with business area managers to identify how to apply technology to benefit the University
• Solid understanding of technology and of university business operations and priorities
• Strong team leadership and staff motivation skills
• Strong knowledge of infrastructure security principles
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong negotiating, interpersonal and communication skills
• Bilingualism—French and English (spoken and written)

...along with the desire to live in Ottawa, that position was just posted here. It pays in the $100,000 range (the University is legally obligated to post a list of all people who make $100,000 or more, so we know what the higher ups make). Of course, they tend to just go through the motions of posting these positions for external applicants, when they know full well who they want and will keep it within the union regardless, but anything's possible. Our new CIO was hired externally last year, after all.

But would I have to lift anything?