Productive... sort of
I sort of wish I'd written this entry yesterday. Yesterday I would have been all light-hearted and upbeat and productive-feeling. Today I feel a bit more worn out and less optimistic. I hate that this journal has become a problem catalogue, but meh. What can you do?
This week I've been getting in contact with a few recruiters. One I've worked with before and two that were recommended to me by a friend. It's very interesting, we have some leads, but it feels to some extent like I'm slowly eliminating the possibilities. I mean, I look at my list of companies I've already applied to and it seems like it's most of the major MMO players. Yesterday I was looking at a job that would have been conveniently located, but that I wasn't particularly excited about. Turns out one of my old recruiters apparently showed them my resume six months ago and they passed on it, without me ever knowing. It's not a huge loss, but it still makes me feel a little down.
Most companies seem to have a system wherein if they don't hire you for one job, even if you were one of the final candidates, they're unlikely to look at or consider you again (at least for the next year). There do seem to be some notable exceptions to this, but it contributes to the feeling I'm getting where every rejection cuts off a major door.
I'm also getting the feeling that I should have been more aggressive with more studios right after GDC. At the time I was spending a lot of time thinking about and working on design tests for the studios I was most serious about (and who were most serious about me), but I could have spared some time to follow up with more of the other studios. I heard from one recruiter that a few of my fallback studios have finished their hiring for this quarter, which makes me feel bad for not chasing them earlier. Ah well, I can't do everything, I know. If I don't have an actual offer by the deadline for the cheapest GDC Austin pass, I'm going to buy one. Worst case scenario I can't go and have to get a refund.
I'm also going to try to play a bunch of non-WoW, non-Japanese games, made by studios who I think I'd like but who I'm not as familiar with as I should be. I also have a blog that is almost-ready-to-start. I've realized something else - I really have to condition myself away from what I call "the refresh cycle." I have to mentally condition myself to believe that playing video games for companies I'm interested in is MORE productive than "miscellaneous internet." The problem is that often I'm working on something that is very taxing and specifically important, intend to take a ten minute break to clear my head, and end up miscellaneous internetting for an hour.
One of the recruiters I just started working with also requested some writing samples. This is great, but I'm having some trouble figuring out what to submit. Everything I have seems too project-specific, but I'm a bit uncertain as to how to create samples from scratch. Right now I'm just polishing a few of the quests and docs I find the most approachable outside of the context and lore of a specific world. I may try to come up with some good scripts in a non-fantasy setting eventually. Based on how I feel contemplating my portfolio right now, I should probably make fixing it a major priority.
I've been asking for tons of favors these last few months and I hate to ask for one more, but if anyone is willing to look over some of the stuff I've prepared for my portfolio and offer a brutally honest critique of its quality, I'd appreciate it. You don't necessarily have to be a games person, (as long as you have some vague idea of how RPGs work). This will probably be an ongoing project for the next few months.
This week I've been getting in contact with a few recruiters. One I've worked with before and two that were recommended to me by a friend. It's very interesting, we have some leads, but it feels to some extent like I'm slowly eliminating the possibilities. I mean, I look at my list of companies I've already applied to and it seems like it's most of the major MMO players. Yesterday I was looking at a job that would have been conveniently located, but that I wasn't particularly excited about. Turns out one of my old recruiters apparently showed them my resume six months ago and they passed on it, without me ever knowing. It's not a huge loss, but it still makes me feel a little down.
Most companies seem to have a system wherein if they don't hire you for one job, even if you were one of the final candidates, they're unlikely to look at or consider you again (at least for the next year). There do seem to be some notable exceptions to this, but it contributes to the feeling I'm getting where every rejection cuts off a major door.
I'm also getting the feeling that I should have been more aggressive with more studios right after GDC. At the time I was spending a lot of time thinking about and working on design tests for the studios I was most serious about (and who were most serious about me), but I could have spared some time to follow up with more of the other studios. I heard from one recruiter that a few of my fallback studios have finished their hiring for this quarter, which makes me feel bad for not chasing them earlier. Ah well, I can't do everything, I know. If I don't have an actual offer by the deadline for the cheapest GDC Austin pass, I'm going to buy one. Worst case scenario I can't go and have to get a refund.
I'm also going to try to play a bunch of non-WoW, non-Japanese games, made by studios who I think I'd like but who I'm not as familiar with as I should be. I also have a blog that is almost-ready-to-start. I've realized something else - I really have to condition myself away from what I call "the refresh cycle." I have to mentally condition myself to believe that playing video games for companies I'm interested in is MORE productive than "miscellaneous internet." The problem is that often I'm working on something that is very taxing and specifically important, intend to take a ten minute break to clear my head, and end up miscellaneous internetting for an hour.
One of the recruiters I just started working with also requested some writing samples. This is great, but I'm having some trouble figuring out what to submit. Everything I have seems too project-specific, but I'm a bit uncertain as to how to create samples from scratch. Right now I'm just polishing a few of the quests and docs I find the most approachable outside of the context and lore of a specific world. I may try to come up with some good scripts in a non-fantasy setting eventually. Based on how I feel contemplating my portfolio right now, I should probably make fixing it a major priority.
I've been asking for tons of favors these last few months and I hate to ask for one more, but if anyone is willing to look over some of the stuff I've prepared for my portfolio and offer a brutally honest critique of its quality, I'd appreciate it. You don't necessarily have to be a games person, (as long as you have some vague idea of how RPGs work). This will probably be an ongoing project for the next few months.