Lunchtime of the Cold Sales Marketer
Current mood: amused
Category: Life
So, on Friday the morning crew hit up "Paradise" Food Court out in Foothill Ranch for lunch (which is at 11am since I'm morning crew now). While this passle of gamer nerds was seated and eating, a lovely young lady approached us and immediately hit her sales spiel at full stride trying to get us interested in spa services. Us. Gamer nerds. Spa services. How wrong could you be?
Anyway, we politely said as a group that we are indeed all dorks who play cell phone games for a living and are not really the type to use spa services. Undaunted by this she pursued a different tack, and said that our girlfriends might love the services and that Valentines day was a mere 2 weeks away. Us. Gamer nerds. Girlfriends. How pretty much wrong could you be?
At this point Nick offered her some of his nachos, which distracted her off topic for only the briefest moments before she began to describe what services our 3 visits for $55 would get us, including facials, aroma therapy / sensory experience, and... "back facials". Us. Gamer nerds. Back facials. Of course we laughed.
Eventually, though we made her laugh a lot and we were her "favorite" group so far that day, she got the message that girlfriendless gamer nerds don't want back facials and flitted away in search of new prey, leaving us much happier than we were before. Thank you Cold Sales Marketer girl. You made my day.
Currently
listening
:
Franz Ferdinand
By
Franz Ferdinand
Release date: 20 April, 2004
Square 1... it seems I’m here regularly...
Current mood: discontent
Well, I'm back among the working class. I'm working at a mobile game comany called Javaground. It's a rapidly growing company in an expanding sector of the game industry, so there's plenty of opportunity for advancement. I'm going to need it, because unfortunately, I'm back to square one on my career path yet again and I'm a QA wage slave. Meh. It pays the bills and will give me some breathing room. I plan on giving this a couple of months to see what shakes out from this anyway because the opportunity is there and it is keeping me here in California where I really would rather stay anyway. However, being back in QA has given me an interesting work schedule, which is making it impossible for me to have a social life of any kind during the week, so if anybody wants to do anything involving me it will have to be on a Saturday or Sunday.
P.S. I'm not actually listening to Winger. It just so happens to be what's playing at the moment on the greatest internet radio station EVER. That's right, Pirate Radio 100.3 is alive and well on the the web, bitches!
Currently
listening
:
Winger
By
Winger
Release date: 25 October, 1990
Life in this modern era...
Current mood: determined
For those of you who don't know, I am without a job... again. The game industry can be a harsh mistress and contract workers are generally the first to go when finances start going south. It goes with the territory and is hardly surprising, but it has taught me a valuable lesson in selecting opportunities in this business... and that is NEVER BE A CONTRACT WORKER. So, taking this to heart I began my job searching in earnest over a month ago.
I've never been good at working my contacts, but I've put out feelers and such when a contact has been appropriate for a position. However, at the level I'm currently at the positions are few and the competition would seem to be fierce, as is wont for somebody attempting to make the switch from QA to production and maintain it. We'll see what shakes in the coming weeks. I have had some interest but nothing concrete so far.
However, in my search so far I've come up with a few observations:
- Technology is a wonderful thing. It has allowed HR departments / recruiters to use complex database systems for job application and resume submittals online, making things easier to track and sort through. It has also allowed them to forego the provision of contact information to allow applicants to follow up on a submitted resume. For many jobs I've apped to, the best I can do is "log in" and see if the position is still open. Kinda takes the Human out of Human Resources... >_<
- Gamasutra is a wonderful website. I see many positions posted on it. Sometimes I'll see a position I've applied for posted on numerous different days, sometimes a week or two apart. Which is cool, considering I hadn't even gotten the courtesy of a "thanks but no thanks" response.
- I'm actually quite serious about how awesome Gamasutra is. Companies that don't use it are truly missing out.
- Waiting for news of any kind is the worst.
- My WoW characters are improving tremendously.
- There are 3 nexuses for the game industry. Cali, Austin, and the Seattle area. So given the competition for jobs at the AP level (and the relatvely short time I've officially done the AP job), there's a high probability I will have to move... again... out of state, no less. I'm praying for Seattle if I have to go anywhere.
- Getting let go in late September / early October is a real pain in the butt. For most publishers, either everything is already shipped or in the last stages of crunch for shipping this holiday season. This means that positions aren't readily available, because they're either filled, with harried and frantic people to be sure given this late date, or the company is entering the traditionally slow phase of the cycle and is either not looking to hire or actually looking to trim down.
In the end, I've been in the biz for more than a decade, and that's got to count for something. The smart company would see me as the deal of the century, highly-experienced overall with a bargain price-tag. In the end, regardless of what happens I've made two decisions already that will permanently change my approach to this industry. First, the contract work decision described above. Never again. It's too unstable. Second, I've picked out a few developers that make the kinds of games I like to play (and who by chance have people I know, like, and respect already working for them) and I'm keeping my eye on them, with the intent on eventually getting one of them to hire me on. I'm done being a rudderless ship afloat in the unforgiving sea of this industry. I'm now a man with a plan, and I'm stubborn enough to see it through.
Currently
listening
:
Skid Row
By
Skid Row
Release date: 25 October, 1990
evil
amused
sleepy
discontent
mischievous
determined
giggly
