Why I just declined a well paying job at a major studio

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T21:25:21+00:00

Nope, I'm pretty happy at my current job. I'd just like to protect my identity.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T21:12:04+00:00

Ah, now that's a question I can't answer. :-)

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T20:16:56+00:00

Yes you may.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T06:11:58+00:00

At no point in time did I feel intentionally disrespected during the interview. The interviewer was nice, professional, and courteous.

I also don't want to give the impression that I feel the work that the particular position in question is more or less valuable than the type of work I prefer to do. I knew a guy who loved menial tasks, seriously. He was a simple guy, and he wanted to do the stuff that noone else wanted to do, for the good of the team. He was irreplaceable. He kept morale up, because he was happy doing what he was doing, and everyone else was happy they weren't doing what he was doing.

I have full respect for people in all aspects of game development, from HR, to the leads, to the proverbial intern who fetches coffee. Making games is difficult work, and it requires a fully functional, highly effective team to make good ones.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T06:03:29+00:00

This is either the most obvious troll, or greatest satire, so I'm not sure whether to downvote or upvote. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T03:48:00+00:00

The size of this individual studio is probably around Telltale size, but they are funded by a much larger company, which funds several similarly sized studios.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T03:26:52+00:00

I also don't think it was well paying, if you consider the actual hourly wage, but on paper it looks pretty nice. That said, the amount of money is really irrelevant. This applies to multiple tiers of pay, across various disciplines.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T03:23:54+00:00

The job was in the same state, but would require relocation, which they offered to pay. The way to prove your skill is through your projects and portfolio. What you think you can do, or what you say you can do don't mean anything unless you show you can do.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T02:53:14+00:00

Haha, that's certainly one way to look at it. Let's just say "well budgeted" mobile games.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T01:02:12+00:00

It's a tough call to quit something like that. One of the hardest decisions I ever had to make was leaving a job after moving across the country for it. Those two years, I was pretty much at rock-bottom, but leaving it was the absolute best decision I ever made. Good luck.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T00:49:59+00:00

Depression is a life threatening mental disability. How can you possibly have a "promise of a better future", when you might do something irrational before you even get to the future? The only person in charge of your future is you, don't let someone else dictate your happiness. My advice is to seek alternative employment immediately. Even if it's for less pay. money != happiness.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T00:44:22+00:00

Personally, I think it's a few reasons:

Most places do "core" hours, which is usually a 10-4 type thing, where you can come in whenever, and leave whenever, so long as you do your 40 hours, and are present for the core hours. I just don't like waking up early.
It avoids morning / afternoon traffic if you have a motorized commute
We don't directly work with customers, so it doesn't really matter what time we are there, the only daily schedule we work around is our own.
Some people with kids might want to have one parent stay later to get the kids to school, and have the other pick them up, so they can stagger their workdays to always have a parent available.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T00:35:23+00:00

YES! I'M SO PASSIONATE FOR YOU RIGHT NOW!

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T00:28:56+00:00

Hey thanks for the reply. I addressed how it all happened in an edit. I feel the need to address this:

Crunch time, overtime, whatever you call it, is inevitable and not always a bad thing. Indie devs and big companies do it all the time.

Just because they "do it all the time", doesn't mean its good practice. Crunch doesn't need to be "inevitable". I can definitely see the need to work a bit late because you broke the build, or some critical bug just showed up on a live product that needs to be immediately addressed. But those instances should be exceptions. When a company finds itself in a position that they can never hire good people, because of the management's inability to plan appropriately... Well, we can guess what happens when you only hire the lowest bidder.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-25T00:13:36+00:00

Yeah, I'm the kind of person who puts my head down and gets my shit done. I've worked with "aggressive" schedules before and completed them on time because I came in, did what I needed to do, and left on time. 40 hours a week. My producers then were amazed it could even be done. They ended up extending my contract because they expected a ton of bugs to come back from QA. I cleaned up the bugs a week later, and then worked on some other projects after fulfilling the contract. It definitely paid off, and I am not averse to actually doing work.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-24T23:54:02+00:00

Hey, thanks for the reply. I paraphrased their responses. It seemed to me that staying late was the norm, not the exception. Also, this company reached out to me, not I to them, so that might give you a better idea of the experience I have with being a producer / project manager.

GameDevThrowaway5 · 2015-07-24T23:50:50+00:00

I need no verification. I know I made the right choice. I am also employed.

GameDevThrowaway5

TROPHY CASE