Chutzpah (job stuff)
by at 11:22 PM
So, on the first day of my job, I have already managed to become the de-facto audio lead (in addition to platform graphics lead), thanks to having a great idea on how to take advantage of the first game's design (and the design of the Nintendo DS's audio engine) to drive the music as an integral, emotion-enhancing experience rather than just being the add-on that it would normally be. (I strongly feel that games which make the music part of the game are always going to have a deeper emotional impact and just plain be Better.)
Also, I was extremely lucky to get this job — not just because of the "OMG I'm a game programmer!" bit, but because of the chain of events which led to me getting it.
- A search on monster.com for "OpenGL" showed a nondescript "game programmer" job at an undisclosed company in NYC. I was already positive I didn't want to work in the games industry, but I submitted my resume on a lark anyway.
- The lead programmer responded to my submission with a slightly different job description. However, this ended up in my spam filter.
- A couple days later, I was skimming my spam filter for something else I was expecting, and happened to notice, totally randomly, a response to my resume submission.
- This new job description he sent me seemed quite a bit more interesting. So I replied. He scheduled the phone interview.
- The phone interview went very well, but I had absolutely no idea what sort of salary to expect. The figure I had in mind was pretty big. During the phone interview, he asked me what my salary requirements were. Hedging my bets, I said, "Well, I'm honestly not familiar with the New York job market or the standard costs of living, and the number salary.com gave me sounded a bit high." Luckily, he replied by telling me the actual salary, which was quite a bit lower than the number I had in mind. I bit my tongue.
- During the in-person interview I almost screwed the pooch by kind of dwelling on the low-ish salary, but had enough sense to recover by saying, "but if there's growth potential then I'm very interested anyway." I still somehow got the job. Even though the company president himself had some pretty major reservations because of some of the topics I seemed to dwell on during the in-person interview. (But this morning when he told me about those reservations I think I managed to satisfy him, telling him that I was just trying to cover my own ass because I'd been in difficult situations with these issues before.)
- I was then hired as the platform graphics lead (and subsequently forced myself into the additional role of audio lead) at an UbiSoft-affiliated experimental mobile gaming studio.
Comments
Most jobs I've gotten have had similarly lucky aspects. The dotcom I worked for before we got bought was the best job I ever had. I came close to not even interviewing. It was at the height of the boom and I had two offers already. The headhunter talked me in to another interview because "it couldn't hurt". I go, and it is in an absolutely scummy area. (Seventh and Mission for those who know SF.) I think to myself "Well, I'm not so rude as to bail on the interview but there's no way I'm going to work in this sort of area!"
And then I took there offer. Of the other two offers, one was "keen.com" which now does phone sex and psychic hotlines. The other went belly-up a year after offering me a job. The job I almost didn't interview for and almost didn't take? Best team I've ever been on (I'm still with them) and for the two years we were a dotcom, best job I ever had.