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devilmouse posted:I like when people ask LOTS of questions during interviews, not just at the end. A free-flowing conversation is usually best, but I always ask if they have anything else they're curious about at the end (as well as giving them my card in case they have followups later). It shows they want it to be a good fit for them and not just a job in general. I've seen this backfire a lot as well. Many interviewers have a fixed amount of time (an hour) and a set of standard questions they plan to get through in that time. If they can't get through their questions it often looks negative on the person being interviewed.
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Feb 1, 2013 03:25
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Hughlander posted:I've seen this backfire a lot as well. Many interviewers have a fixed amount of time (an hour) and a set of standard questions they plan to get through in that time. If they can't get through their questions it often looks negative on the person being interviewed. Huh, none of the companies where I've interviewed (on both sides of the table) ever manage to stick to the allocated times. I've talked to candidates for 2+ hours before, having a grand ol' time all the while, and I've had my interviews bleed into lunch, then into games, then into drinks, and so on. Having a rigid set of questions seems unfortunate. =(
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Feb 1, 2013 03:28
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Job interview questions are always about strengths, motivation, and fit.
Your questions should also focus on strengths, motivation, and fit, but from your perspective.
THEIR TURN This 20-question worksheet will cover nearly all of the questions that could be asked of you in any job interview, excluding "clever" questions and technical questions about your discipline. If you are prepared with answers to each of these questions prior to the interview, you'll have a much easier time. Strengths (Can you do this job?)
Motivation (Will you love this job?)
Fit (Can we tolerate working with you?)
Most people are terrible interviewers and even worse interviewees. You'll probably be asked a fraction of these questions, but you should ensure that your answers are honest, accurate, and up to snuff. A former CNN bureau chief told me that there's an acronym for high-quality answers: SECS. That stands for Statement, Examples (up to three), Conclusion, and Shut Up. In broadcast interviews, succinct answers are extremely important, but even in job interviews, getting to the point and getting your message across in a timely manner are also critical. When you're preparing for an interview — any interview — organize your answers with this acronym. YOUR TURN While the questions you should ask vary depending on what you already know, what you've been told, who's on the other side of the table, and what you want to know, here are some examples. Some of these questions belong to two or more categories. Strengths (Why should I take this job?)
Motivation (Will I love this job?)
Fit (Can I tolerate working with you?)
You should never ask about compensation. Leave any discussion of compensation until when/if you receive an offer. When you receive an offer, that's when you should negotiate. If you are asked about compensation, answer the question "what do you think we should price this job at?" and give them a range that sounds appropriate for the company. Salary.com and Glass Door are useful for determining that range. You can ask about conditions, however, by asking questions about communication and expectations. For example, asking about how your prospective department fits within the larger organization, how your prospective team is structured, who reports to who, the degree of communication between your prospective team and other teams, and what you will be expected to accomplish in some time frame will reveal insight into working conditions. So, this is probably the longest post I've made in this thread. I hope that helps. Adraeus fucked around with this message at 10:36 on Feb 1, 2013 |
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Feb 1, 2013 03:29
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devilmouse posted:"How fast are your iteration times between hitting save on a file and seeing it in-game?" This is an amazing question. Its always nice to know ahead of time what your day to day builds are going to be like. I know in my interviews, I have asked about attitudes towards crunch, since even if I am willing to crunch when needed, I want to make sure the company values my time outside of standard work hours.
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Feb 1, 2013 03:35
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devilmouse posted:Huh, none of the companies where I've interviewed (on both sides of the table) ever manage to stick to the allocated times. I've talked to candidates for 2+ hours before, having a grand ol' time all the while, and I've had my interviews bleed into lunch, then into games, then into drinks, and so on. Could be the companies, could be the discipline. At EA, SOE, and WB (note the size of all 3 I suppose.) It was planed out for the full day: 9:00 9:45 HR. 9:45 - 10:45 X <bathroom break> 11:00 - Noon Y Lunch - Team Lunch 1:30 - 2:30 Z etc... Also engineers tend to be creatures of habit and will often ask the same set of questions because they felt in the past it was able to give an accurate picture of the candidate.
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Feb 1, 2013 04:52
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Adraeus posted:
I used to think I was good at interviewing, but now I feel wanting.
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Feb 1, 2013 09:52
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Hughlander posted:Could be the companies, could be the discipline. At EA, SOE, and WB (note the size of all 3 I suppose.) It was planed out for the full day: Yeah, we always had a plan like that at Turbine (pre-WB) and Zynga, but we never followed it... Over time, I just learned to tell HR to schedule me for like 1.5 hours at the start with designers and then another optional hour or so at the end of the day. For people outside of my department, I'd just ruin the schedule if we were still talking. Knowing if someone was competent was usually a pretty quick 30 minutes, but figuring out if they'd fit with our team (and wanted to work with us) could take much longer. Now that we're off on our own, our "interviews" seem to have become all-day (or multi-day in some cases) eating / drinking extravaganzas punctuated by a few hours of game-playing here and there.
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Feb 1, 2013 16:03
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that sounds pretty nice. My interview in NY was a 6 hour whirlwind of about 12 people followed up by a hurried taxi to the airport where I barely made my flight
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Feb 1, 2013 16:34
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I applied for Sound Tester at Gameloft Montreal, and I'm still waiting to hear back. I currently live in NB (next province over), and have stated many times that I'm in the process of moving, and would be able to in the event that I was hired. I've emailed the recruiter (and a friend has spoken directly to her at MIGS in November), so they're aware that I'm not IN Montreal right now, but do you think that would be a reason not to hire me? They never once said 'Well, we'd prefer it if you were already in the city to begin with.' My cover letter (as well as emails) have mentioned that moving isn't an issue for me whatsoever. I've been a full-time sound designer and composer for a casino company in NB for almost 3 years, and have taught FMOD at a local college for over a year. While sound testing definitely is different, I have the chops, and then some. REALLY hoping I get the job, as I want it to lead to other things in the company. It's just been two weeks since I applied (did so when the position was posted), and I'm getting nervous 
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Feb 1, 2013 16:36
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So I guess I'm officially a designer now. I pitched my first game today and it went pretty well. Much better than I was expecting. Still looking for my full time CM replacement but our marketing person is going to be picking it up in the mean time. QA to designer in 6 years. Not bad. Could be better.
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Feb 1, 2013 18:13
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Monster w21 Faces posted:So I guess I'm officially a designer now. I pitched my first game today and it went pretty well. Much better than I was expecting. Still looking for my full time CM replacement but our marketing person is going to be picking it up in the mean time. Congrats! Having made a similar transition about 6 years ago, I can say you're in for a wild ride. What kind of pitch did you make?
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Feb 1, 2013 18:35
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Comte de Saint-Germain posted:I used to think I was good at interviewing, but now I feel wanting. To be fair most game interviewers are so bad they wouldn't know what to do with someone who was actually good at doing interviews.
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Feb 1, 2013 19:55
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Monster w21 Faces posted:So I guess I'm officially a designer now. I pitched my first game today and it went pretty well. Much better than I was expecting. Still looking for my full time CM replacement but our marketing person is going to be picking it up in the mean time. Congratulations 
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Feb 1, 2013 19:59
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Monster w21 Faces posted:So I guess I'm officially a designer now. I pitched my first game today and it went pretty well. Much better than I was expecting. Still looking for my full time CM replacement but our marketing person is going to be picking it up in the mean time. Awesome, congratulations! I'm still going to tell everyone not to go into QA if they want to make games, though. 
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Feb 1, 2013 20:57
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Apparently Trion is doing mass hiring over the next month, so it's a likely bet I've gotten the job. Here's hoping that if it does come through, it'll actually become a full-time position.
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Feb 1, 2013 21:00
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It's February now, so I'm posting up the link to the GDC goon Meet thread again: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3529459 We've got a whole side-room rented out, so don't be shy with the reservations. 
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Feb 1, 2013 21:12
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Monster w21 Faces posted:So I guess I'm officially a designer now. I pitched my first game today and it went pretty well. Much better than I was expecting. Still looking for my full time CM replacement but our marketing person is going to be picking it up in the mean time. Welcome to the club! I started in QA as well. Feels good
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Feb 2, 2013 01:27
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miscellaneous14 posted:Apparently Trion is doing mass hiring over the next month, so it's a likely bet I've gotten the job. Here's hoping that if it does come through, it'll actually become a full-time position. Careful. They just laid off about 37 people in the RWC office. Who's to say they won't do it again if Defiance doesn't do as good as they're hoping.
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Feb 2, 2013 11:42
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:I applied for Sound Tester at Gameloft Montreal, and I'm still waiting to hear back. I currently live in NB (next province over), and have stated many times that I'm in the process of moving, and would be able to in the event that I was hired. I've emailed the recruiter (and a friend has spoken directly to her at MIGS in November), so they're aware that I'm not IN Montreal right now, but do you think that would be a reason not to hire me? They never once said 'Well, we'd prefer it if you were already in the city to begin with.' My cover letter (as well as emails) have mentioned that moving isn't an issue for me whatsoever. Do not take what I say for granted but I worked at the Gameloft Montreal office for 3 years almost 2 years ago (and still work for them, though on the opposite side of the planet now) and what I remember is that we had a lot of recently arrived immigrants from all over the world, sometimes hired oversea directly. Europeans, Asians, Americans, there were a lot of different nationalities at the MTL office and it was pretty cool hearing all these languages around us. I don't know the details but I'm pretty sure GL took care of the work permit/visa/immigration paperwork for everybody (at least they do where I am). And we're not even talking about a different country here so I think you should be fine!
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Feb 4, 2013 04:58
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Senso posted:Do not take what I say for granted but I worked at the Gameloft Montreal office for 3 years almost 2 years ago (and still work for them, though on the opposite side of the planet now) and what I remember is that we had a lot of recently arrived immigrants from all over the world, sometimes hired oversea directly. Europeans, Asians, Americans, there were a lot of different nationalities at the MTL office and it was pretty cool hearing all these languages around us. I don't know the details but I'm pretty sure GL took care of the work permit/visa/immigration paperwork for everybody (at least they do where I am). And we're not even talking about a different country here so I think you should be fine! I appreciate this, thanks. 
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Feb 4, 2013 05:33
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Apparently 5 years at the same job is a cue for recruiter aggro. Any tips for politely saying "thanks, this offer looks neat but I really am content where I am" without burning bridges for the future? I've been doing fairly tailored mails where I look up the person and the company and comment about their ongoing projects so they know I'm an actual human being who read the stuff, but that's a 5-10 minute process and it's starting to add up. Are more generic responses ok? HR concerns in my old field were very touchy and needed gladhanding so I don't want to gently caress up.
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Feb 4, 2013 23:51
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Anyone at DICE? I'm heading out there tomorrow for the go karting and poker game.
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Feb 4, 2013 23:55
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wodin posted:Apparently 5 years at the same job is a cue for recruiter aggro. Any tips for politely saying "thanks, this offer looks neat but I really am content where I am" without burning bridges for the future? I've been doing fairly tailored mails where I look up the person and the company and comment about their ongoing projects so they know I'm an actual human being who read the stuff, but that's a 5-10 minute process and it's starting to add up. Are more generic responses ok? HR concerns in my old field were very touchy and needed gladhanding so I don't want to gently caress up. If the mail from the recruiter was generic, you can feel free to ignore them entirely or reply with a copy/paste of "Thanks, but I'm not looking for other opportunities at this time. If my situation changes, I'll keep you in mind." or some variant thereof. For the recruiters that were intro'd via a friend or something more personal, I might write something a little more specific ala "Hey, your company looks neat, and I loved working with Friend, but I'm happy where I am and not looking for anything right now." Short form, don't worry about it. Trust me, your experience will do far more for your if you ever want to change jobs and the recruiters will stumble over themselves to get a piece of you.
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Feb 4, 2013 23:59
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wodin posted:Any tips for politely saying "thanks, this offer looks neat but I really am content where I am" without burning bridges for the future?
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Feb 5, 2013 00:32
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FreakyZoid posted:I always just say exactly that. Happy where I am, not looking at this time. ... unrelated - App Store question. Am I right in thinking it makes zero sense to get my iTunes Connect-side data translated, if the game itself still has (very limited) English in it? I assume I'd need to translate EVERYTHING to list in another store?
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Feb 5, 2013 00:36
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Gamasutra game dev survey is up on their site now. I've never bothered filling it out before. I also feel bad for bringing down the average.
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Feb 5, 2013 14:38
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Iron Leg posted:What kind of pitch did you make? Can't really say at this point but it's a departure from our titles to date while playing up to the strengths of mobile platforms and our experience to date.
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Feb 5, 2013 14:40
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Monster w21 Faces posted:Can't really say at this point but it's a departure from our titles to date while playing up to the strengths of mobile platforms and our experience to date. to date
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Feb 5, 2013 14:56
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Recruiters are used to being turned down, don't sweat it.Resource posted:Gamasutra game dev survey is up on their site now. I've never bothered filling it out before. I also feel bad for bringing down the average. If nobody below the average filled out the survey then it would be artificially high. Fill it out and let them decide how to interpret the data.
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Feb 5, 2013 14:56
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I can't say much (this is about all I can say) but we've finally released info on our new Skylanders game (that I'm working on!) We're all really excited about it here at VV http://www.destructoid.com/next-skylanders-lets-you-swap-parts-to-form-new-toys-243951.phtml http://www.forbes.com/sites/andyrobertson/2013/02/05/skylanders-swap-force-announced/
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Feb 5, 2013 15:04
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Resource posted:to date I'm sorry, I'm not looking for a relationship right now. treeboy posted:I can't say much (this is about all I can say) but we've finally released info on our new Skylanders game (that I'm working on!) We're all really excited about it here at VV I wasn't one for the first two Skylanders but that magnetic robot looks awesome.
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Feb 5, 2013 15:06
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treeboy posted:I can't say much (this is about all I can say) but we've finally released info on our new Skylanders game (that I'm working on!) We're all really excited about it here at VV My youngest cousin absolutely loves the skylander games. He was "teaching" me how to play the other day 
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Feb 5, 2013 17:33
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Anyone have the Feb '13 issue of Game Developer and feel like taking a picture/scan of a page? Apparently, there's a tiny article about us in it but all of our subscriptions are being delivered to the old office space (and being consumed by the Zynga black hole). I'm looking for the: Game Developer Magazine Contents posted:Good Job! By Staff
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Feb 5, 2013 17:54
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Chernabog posted:My youngest cousin absolutely loves the skylander games. He was "teaching" me how to play the other day My nephews are super into Skylanders, so I'm officially the coolest uncle ever to be working on the franchise. I'm also the "Uncle who works at [Nintendo]"apparently they actually existed even if your friend was a lying bitch when he was telling you about the secret he knew in Pokemon blue.
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Feb 5, 2013 18:39
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Had an interview earlier today with a really exciting startup for an equally exciting role. They seemed impressed with my CV and we seemed to "click", building on my early optimism from emailing them Wednesday and being invited for interview the next day. They mailed this evening thanking me for coming, saying they had a few more people to see but I should hear by the end of next week (which might feel like a lifetime) and asking for salary expectations. That seems a little tricky, I don't want to sell myself short, or to go too high. It's a well-funded place, but all the same it's not like an Activision is airdropping tipper trucks of money on the place. Shall I perhaps just say what I was earning in my last job and say that I'm keen enough on the place I would consider a lower offer? Or is that an invitation to be lowballed? Part of the problem is also that I have no good frame of reference, this is a new role and the remit isn't fully defined yet, and being a small place it's possible it will grow into a number of things.
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Feb 5, 2013 22:40
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BizarroAzrael posted:Shall I perhaps just say what I was earning in my last job and say that I'm keen enough on the place I would consider a lower offer? Think about how much it would take to make you happy, factoring in how much you want to work there. If you're desperate then that's going to be a factor. But there's no point in lying by choosing a figure that's not enough for you because you think they'd be more likely to choose you over some other guy, because pretty much the best case scenario there is that they do choose you but you won't be earning enough money.
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Feb 5, 2013 22:58
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BizarroAzrael posted:Had an interview earlier today with a really exciting startup for an equally exciting role. They seemed impressed with my CV and we seemed to "click", building on my early optimism from emailing them Wednesday and being invited for interview the next day. Is it in the Midlands by any chance? If it's who I'm thinking of ask how much you'd want I reckon.
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Feb 5, 2013 23:00
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BizarroAzrael posted:Had an interview earlier today with a really exciting startup for an equally exciting role. They seemed impressed with my CV and we seemed to "click", building on my early optimism from emailing them Wednesday and being invited for interview the next day. What is the role? Can you research similar roles and find a good expectation? Have you performed a similar role? Do you need to relocate/increase your commute or incur additional commute fees? What is the impact of the job on your current salary (or previous salary). Figure out your costs of taking the job before you just talk about numbers. If things are going well for you right now (they sound like they are) a "bad" number from you isn't going to kill that, so don't worry too much about the specific number. Figure out your baseline needs and your desired wages, and don't let them know your baseline needs. Do not give them a number lower than what you would accept. If you give them any number (ie, previous wages) it is very likely they'll give you that number. Worst case scenario, if you can't find data or salary negotiation gambits, just say that you're understanding of their nature as a startup and can be flexible within reason, and see where they start it out. This is probably your best bet if you're unable to do due diligence on the nature of the role. This is a startup - are they offering stock options? You can mention a target number that is higher than what you would need to live comfortably and then mention that salary can be flexible if there is additional compensation such as stock options, etc. Never say you're willing to accept lower. It shows you don't have confidence in yourself which will turn into them losing confidence in you. Instead, negotiate for accepting "different" as above - either specify stock options, signing bonuses, relocation expenses, commuter/cell/etc coverage, etc. Sorry, these are kind of stream of consciousness but I'm trying to dump this out before lunch is over.
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Feb 5, 2013 23:01
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BizarroAzrael posted:
It's an invitation to being labeled as desperate, which is a pretty big turn-off when hiring.
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Feb 5, 2013 23:10
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I'd rather ask the employer to give me a figure or range first about what they expect to pay someone in this role, rather than volunteering that info first. Worst case their number is lower, and you can negotiate up. Best case, their figure is way higher.
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Feb 5, 2013 23:21
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