Tell Me About Yourself...

I had my third interview with my prospective company in Australia the other night and it was a trying experience. The first two have gone extremely smoothly to say the least. They were challenging but I felt I had held my own and passed with flying colors which made me more and more confident that I was on my way.

The other night was not so smooth.

The guys I interviewed with were very nice, professional and engaging. They asked really good questions and listened well and treated me with respect. I was not too displeased with my performance overall but I felt it lacked the same stellar tempo that the first two had had.

Being that it is winter in The Land Down Under, there seems to be a flu pandemic running rampant through the studio at the moment. I interviewed with two guys who were both really sick and coughing allot. That can be a real problem when you are on a speaker phone with two guys that are like, 10,000 miles away on a shoddy phone connection to begin with. I kept having to have them repeat questions as while one was talking the other was coughing so loud it just made it impossible to hear. Then, while I was answering questions it there was a constant hacking in the background that made it impossible establish rhythm and concentrate.
It was not the worst interview in my life, I have had a few of those, but it was not the icing on the cake I had wanted.
This all underscored the fact that although I wowed them in the first two, this is not set in stone at all. I still have work to do.
For anyone that reads this, I have interviewed allot in the last few years and have had some great ones and some really, really crappy ones, the best you can do is to prepare ahead of time, ask yourself the really hard questions first, write the answers down. It is not about memorization but about exploring the questions and being prepared to talk about yourself and more importantly, selling yourself.

I have some general rules for interviews:

1) Be prepared to sell yourself. "Tell us about yourself" is one of the most common openers. They don't want to hear about surfing, they don't want to know about your ear wax collection, they do want to hear where you have been and what you can do for them!!!

2) Never say "I can't" If you are applying for as an animator and they ask if you can model (even if you can't) just say yes. Just be prepared to learn it if needed. All aspects of game development are worth learning. I am hoping that any 3d artist has some modeling experience and if you don't you should, be prepared that they might ask questions about it.

3) Ask them what they are looking for. This will give you an early indication of what they want, how to tailor your answers and if you are just wasting your time...

4) Never complain about anything. Interviewing and dating are very similar, if you take a girl out for the first time, you don't want to sit through dinner hearing about how bad her ex was or how awful her salad is.

5) Brainstorm... You are applying for a job in games and you should be prepared to talk about games. I don't get people in the industry that don't play games, it is like film makers that are not into movies. I used to be like that until I had a very demanding lead who did me a favor and berated me for not playing games, "it's your industry stupid"... Make a list of all the games you play and the games you are interested in. Same goes for all aspects of an interview, find what you think they will target and brainstorm it on paper just to get you thinking about it.

6) Dignity. Remember, you are interviewing them too. Do they treat you with respect? Are they on time? Do they pay attention and participate in the interview? If they are not the greatest people in the interview they are probably not the greatest coworkers either. I interviewed at a major, major developer once. I sat around a table with five guys and the art director was a total dick. Someone asked if I was married which I replied that I was and that my wonderful wife was from Mexico City. They guy started ranting about how much he hates Mexico and how dirty Tijuana was. (news flash: TJ is not real Mexico) This was a huge turn off for me and I tuned the rest of the interview out, I was absolutely not interested in working for and reporting too, such an insensitive prick. I even had an interview once where they had been out to lunch for someone's birthday, they were an hour late and drunk! Nope, move on...

7) Stay on message. It is great to have something in common with the interviewer but keep your eye on the ball. If they surf and you surf great, but don't let it rule the conversation. You are there to further your career, not to gab about waves. Wow them with your skills in the industry, then take them out for a beer and talk about surf.

8) Research the people you will be meeting with. When HR schedules the interview, if they don't tell you who you are meeting with, ask. Then type them into Google and see if you get a hit. Linked In and Moby Games are great for this, you can find out where they have been, what they have worked on and more. Nothing goes further in an interview if you can let them know that you cared enough to take the time to look them up. "I read you worked on _____ ... I really dug that game, because..." Everyone likes their ego stroked, I don't advocate ass kissing but it helps to let them know you are prepared...

9) Be yourself. If you have to change who you are to fit in to that environment, then it probably is not the place for you.

10) FIRM HAND SHAKE AND LOOK EM' IN THE EYE!!! This is so important to me. It shows that you are confident and know your value. It is a bit different for women and it there are some cultural issues as well but if you are a guy with a limp hand shake, move on. Same goes for people who look at the table the entire time.

11) This one goes to eleven... Dress for sucess. The games industry is a very casual work environment but it does not mean that you are not a professional. Definitely don't wear a suit or look corporate at all but a nice pair of pants (no jeans!!!) and a nice shirt and shoes will help your confidence and help sell you as a product. Don't be that guy that has it all except the good taste to dress well. In my opinion if an artist can't dress himself, he can't be a good artist. Just buy one good outfit and put it in the closet just for this reason.

These are just my thoughts on interviews, take them or leave them. Hopefully, I didn't blow it and I will get a call back for the next stage...

Good luck!

AQIS

Australia has the distinction of being one of the hardest places on earth to bring a pet to. Actually it is not that hard if you READ THE INSTRUCTIONS and DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Getting a head start is essential which is why I just dropped $650.00 in microchips and blood tests to get a head start in the event this actually goes down. I was surprised to hear my vet tell me about people that just gave him the paperwork to fill out or thought it was too complicated and just left their pets behind. On the flip side, he told me that he had a couple recently that moved to Australia with 2 cats, 2 dogs and, two horses. yow, talk about expensive. Already the cats alone are going to be about 2 grand by the time we get done with it.
The arm of the Australian government that grants access for pets is the AQIS or Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service. They run three Quarantine centers in Australia being; Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
Just getting ready for Quarantine in Australia is a big operation and i will try and explain below a snippet of the first step in getting them over there. All cats (depending on country of export) must go through 180 days of Quarantine and a mandatory 30 day in country. Which means that the clock starts ticking on the day the blood test is taken. We have four to five months of home quarantine then they are off to the land down under for 30 days in Sydney.

1) All pets must be micro chipped. This is actually a great thing as chipped pets can be tracked. Now my little guys have their entire lives and medical histories on these chips that are embedded in their skin. It is a bit Orwellian to say the least but they will have to deal with that. Heck, I scoop their poop, I can chip them too.

2) Vaccinations must be up to date, we do this anyhow so we are good to go. Meow.

3) RNATT (Rabies Neutralization Antibody Titre Test) blood must be collected and sent to a USDA lab at Kansas State University for testing.

4)These tests will be certified by a USDA veterinarian, signed and stamped for approval.

5)At this time I can apply for a permit with AQIS for import into Australia.

6)Import permit number will be received.

7)Call AQIS with provided Import Permit and reserve a quarantine space for said cats.

8) At this point I will be using a pet travel service to handle the logistics from LAX to Sydney.

I have started the process and am at step 3 and waiting on the results for the blood tests. I am feeling nervous that if this whole thing falls through as in I don't get offered the job or the offer is not in our range than I have dished out $650.00 all for not. I am hoping that is not the case. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was supposedly a great card player, never gambled but only took calculated risks and I feel at this time that it is a well calculated risk. We will see....

Intro to the Roo

I am mulling over a job in Brisbane Australia. The good news is that from what i have read, the city kicks ass and the surf in the surrounding areas are nothing less that epic. We will be living in the city but at least if i have to drive 40 miles to surf, it will be damn good surf. The job sounds insane, it is a good move for me professionally and the people that I have talked too have been very cool. Another bonus is that i will be able to walk to the gig, which after living in San Francisco for ten years without a car and then living in Southern California for five years with a long commute,sign me up. This blog will be my record of the job acquisition, the move and my wife and my acclimation and adventures in the land down under... More to come...