Saturday, November 28, 2009

Just an update on things ...

Hi all ...

This term is feeling like it is going slower than the others. It seems like there is more work involved. I have A's in College Writing II and Cinematography, but have jsut slipped down to a B+ in my Sequential Drawing and Visual Narrative class. There is so much to know about storyboarding! Who knew? I normally have my class schedule for next term by now, but nothing new has been psoted yet. It may be because of the long break for Christmas. I will tlak to my advisor next week and see what he has to say. I also had a migraine last week and ended up in the ER over night. Thankfully I have my wonderful caring wife who takes care of me. We hada nice quiet Thanksgiving with mother and stepfather as well as a friend of mine from the next city over. Word tot he wise -- when ordering a precooked Thanksgiving dinner, ask if "precooked" means if the meal is warm and ready to be served when you pick it up, or if everything has been cooked, frozen, and needs to be reheated. Give you one guess what happened to us!

Something interesting Ihave been doing. I have been researching Game Companies to see see what they have for job openings, and to see if they have any internships or anything else that I might be able to do until I get out of school with my degree. I also noted where they are located. Meredith will be happy to note that there are about 3 of them so far that are located overseas in the UK, someplace that she and I both agreed would be fun to live. I included some notes that I jotted down for each. Here is what I have down so far:


Game Companies

Hiring Opportunities and Locations

11/27/2009

Nintendo – contracts out to a company in Redmonton, WA. Will only take local applicants. http://www.nintendo.com/corp/tester.jsp

Bioware will only take local applicants in Austin, TX. https://jobs.ea.com/jobs/jobposting.aspx?refresh=1&postid=a0z50000000I9hS

SIDE NOTE: IGDA WEBSITE -- http://www.igda.org/qa

Atari Games – nothing listed for quality testing, but does have other jobs listed. http://www.atari.com/careers

Blizzard Games – offers multiple internships for different game titles, especially in 3d character modeling/animation. Located in California. https://blizzard.taleo.net/careersection/2/moresearch.ftl?lang=en&radius=1&jobfield=6160134073&portal=101430233&radiusType=K

Activision – offers internships/co-ops through accredited colleges. Will even pay for relocation. http://www.activision.com/index.html#careersen_UStype:university

SIDE NOTE – GAMASUTRA.com for listings

Gearbox Games – located in Plano, TX. Nothing listed for interns/co-ops. Nothing listed for quality testing. http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/jobs/

NC Soft – has locations in TX, WA, CA, and England. Has multiple job listings and types. Some quality testing and some internships. http://us.ncsoft.com/en/jobs/

Square Enix – located in CA. Has quality testing and must be local. Prefers someone who speaks Japanese. http://www.square-enix.com/na/careers/

THQ – has multiple job listings, some of them through Volition – Inc. http://recruiter.kenexa.com/thq/cc/CCJobSearchAction.ss;jsessionid=3204FDEC0E656BF896DB141C4537032E?command=CCSearchAll&ccid=bupJEdUjsTs%3D

Sega – has multiple job listings in multiple locations, but NOTHING listed for quality testing or internship. http://tbe.taleo.net/NA4/ats/careers/jobSearch.jsp?org=SEGAUSA&cws=1

Rainbow Studios – in Phoenix, AZ. Few jobs listed, nothing for quality testing or internship. http://www.rainbowstudios.com/employment/index.php

Capcom – does not have many jobs, but does have an internship. Located in San Mateo, CA. (WARNING – ask.com autofills San Mateo with COUNTY JAIL and COUNTY INMATES) http://www.capcom.com/us/?careers

Traveller’s Tales Games – located in Maidenhead, UK. Has multiple job listings including quality tester, but must be local. No interships listed. http://www.ttgames.com/jobs/

Ubisoft – programming jobs only. No internships or quality testing. BIZZARRE website. http://www.creatorsofemotion.com/home.php?param=en-us

505 Games – located in the UK. No career information listed.

So, anyway ... I have to finish getting ready for work. Next week I have 2 job shadowing opportunities with people in the standard tech areas of State Farm. I just wnat to keep my communications open with them in case anything falls through for me. I al have been keeping touch with Erwin. He tells me that State Farm jsut hired a person to work solely with 3dsMax. We are going to see if the 3 of us can set up a monthly meeting with each other.

Well, off to work!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Well this is exciting!

It was an interesting day at work for me on Wednesday. I had signed up to attend some training, and it was supposed to start right away when my shift started. It was in the building next door, and when I got there, no one was there. I went back to my desk and quickly checked my schedule and saw that something was scheduled for me, but didn't take a long look because I was running late and had to run back to the other building. Still, no one was there. I got back to my desk, and the lady sitting across from me asked me if I was going to the Developmental Fair because she was and didn't realize that she was scheduled for it. Checking my schedule again, and sure enough, it was the fair I was scheduled for, and not the training. At the fair, I got to stop off of booths put up by other departments at work and see if there was any other department that interested me. Of course, I stopped by the Creative Services Department and got invited to Brown Bag Lunch-n-Learn that will give even more information about their department and give me a chance to network. One thing that Erwin told me about and they reinforced is that some of the jobs will require that I present a portfolio of my work. I haven't quite gotten to a point yet where I feel that any of my work is portfolio quality, but I am still working on it. I also got some information on both sides of the ITSS (Internal Technical Support Systems), and it was really exciting stuff. For starters, the people at the booth recognized me as the person who installed all of their computers over a year ago. The felt that I would fit in really well with them just from my experience as is. I told them that I didn't even have a degree or any certifications, and one guy laughed at me and said his degree was in agriculture. He suggested that I set up some job-shadow times and go sit with their groups and see if I could do it. The other exciting part is that there are two sides to ITSS, one for hardware and one for software, and for the software side the point of contact was someone I worked with for my entire time in the kiosk. I attended meetings with her so I have hopes that perhaps I might be able to get in on a developmental opportunity with her group, and possibly on full time (I am currently only part time, and making less than what I would make within adifferent part of the company). Meredith asked if I would be happy doing helpdesk sort of work, and I told her that if it meant full-time, having all of my evenings off with her, and getting paid more, I would be more than happy to do that for our little family.

So ...

My supervisor was not in on Wednesday, so I need to talk to her first before I can start communicating with these other people and see about setting up some job shadowing and such.

Keep your fingers crossed!

As for school, things are going great. In the first three weeks of this term I am at 97% or higher in all three of my classes. I am excited!

Anyway ... will write more later!