TWENTY YEARS, only a few tears
Translation of an article by Tim Schafer, a famous developer who contributed to The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. Author Psychonauts, BrĂĽtal Legend.
He talks about the beginning of his career, about how he tried to get a job and eventually got into Lucasfilm Games.
Today was the twentieth anniversary of my stay in the gaming industry. Twenty years! Next year I'm going to take my career on her first legal booze. But this year, in honor of hemisesquicentennial (more here , I did not specifically translate the word so that the meaning of the sentence is not lost - Approx. Ln.) Of the jubilee (which is actually 75 years old, but sounds much cooler than “Vigintennial”) I decided to get some historical documents so that all of you could laugh at how unsuitable I was to this work, how lucky I was to get it, and how I would be upset if this had not happened. Also, I hope that it will encourage those who are looking for work. If I can get a job in the gaming industry, then ANY can. (Not in my company, of course. I will never hire people who are not qualified like me! I was just lucky to find people who are smarter than me so easily.)
')
Let's start with failures.
Yeah, right. I was rejected by Atari in 1989. Remember, this was not the company called Atari today. For me, it was the company that made the greatest computer of all time, the Atari 800, in addition, all my favorite childhood games. Working there was an incredibly nostalgic, but not well thought out dream. Fortunately, destroyed by the ruthless Rhonda Allen. Thank you, Rhonda.
But the Atari refusal was not the only one. Take a look:
Even I can not believe that I tried to get a job in Hewlett-Packard. But look, once I read that when Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. started, he worked at General Electric during the day, and at night he wrote short stories. If it’s good for KVjr, it’s good for me. I imagined that I would put on my workwear, take one of these giant slide rules, and depict an engineer all day. But at night, I would put on my tweed jacket with elbow patches and drank tape while I was pounding on an old Smith-Corona typewriter. (Well, actually, I didn’t have such fanciful fantasies, but I had romantic ideas about writing.) Fortunately, I was not a good engineer. Thanks, Carol Campbell!
My job search became depressing. I piled up a letter with refusals. Most of them were from works that I did not even want. I refused a company that makes software for the compilation of library catalogs. Snubby nothingness! I bought a tie for this job interview! I stroked the trousers.
But one day, one bright summer day, I walked through the building of the employment center and saw it:
This is the original ad for the job “Assistant Designer / Programmer” in the gaming unit of Lucasfilm. The job that I later got settled inside was called “Scummlet”.
I immediately called David Fox and made illegible notes you see during the conversation. I told him how much I want to work at Lucasfilm, not because of Star Wars, but because I love Ball Blaster.
“Ball Blaster, huh?” He said.
"Yes! I love Ball Blaster! ”I said. It's true. I broke the joystick while playing this game on the Atari 800.
“Hmmm, the name of the game is Ball Blazer.” Said Mr. Fox briefly. "It is called Ball Blaster in the pirated version."
Oops.
Caught in the act. It's true - I played the pirated version. I admit it. Now, if you played the pirated version of one of my games - do not blame yourself, because I did the same with games from Lucasfilm Games when I was in high school. Of course, if you use pirated versions of two or more of my games, then this is a completely different case.
The rest of the conversation was not much better. But in the end, David told me to send my resume along with a letter describing my ideal work. Since I decided that I failed the interview, I had nothing to lose. Therefore, I made a letter in the form of a pseudographic adventure. I drew pictures on my Koala graphics tablet and printed it all out on an Atari 800 matrix printer.
I have told this story many times, but I have never shown the letter itself. So, the WORLD PREMIERE that will necessarily become the standard template for all letters about job search in the future.
I will note some things:
1) I'm an amazing artist.
2) I read The Crying of Lot 49. (A joke for those who are “in the subject.” Only clever people will understand it.)
3) Hey, some graphic adventures have glasses, right?
4) How could I know in 1989 that there would be a Rubik's Cube on my table? This is strange.
What is even stranger is:
You cannot imagine how excited I was at a rate of $ 27k per year. I was so excited that I put an extra hump of the letter “m” in the signature.
I still worry a little when I look at this letter. Pay attention to the old school Lucasfilm logo. I was so excited about all this talk about dental insurance and vacation. Dental insurance! Almost like a real job! I will not work on databases! I will work for the company that made Ball Blast — I want to say Ball Blazer, Rescue on Fractalus and Koronis Rift! Oh, and Star Wars!
Thank you, David Fox, for hiring me even though I failed a telephone interview. And thanks to everyone I worked with for the next 20 years! I have always been lucky enough to work with great people and, generally speaking, my career in the gaming industry is one of the luckiest. Thanks to everyone who helped me on this journey and, especially, to everyone who played games!
And everyone who is now busy looking for work - good luck! Do not do what I did. It worked only in the 80th!
He talks about the beginning of his career, about how he tried to get a job and eventually got into Lucasfilm Games.
Today was the twentieth anniversary of my stay in the gaming industry. Twenty years! Next year I'm going to take my career on her first legal booze. But this year, in honor of hemisesquicentennial (more here , I did not specifically translate the word so that the meaning of the sentence is not lost - Approx. Ln.) Of the jubilee (which is actually 75 years old, but sounds much cooler than “Vigintennial”) I decided to get some historical documents so that all of you could laugh at how unsuitable I was to this work, how lucky I was to get it, and how I would be upset if this had not happened. Also, I hope that it will encourage those who are looking for work. If I can get a job in the gaming industry, then ANY can. (Not in my company, of course. I will never hire people who are not qualified like me! I was just lucky to find people who are smarter than me so easily.)
')
Let's start with failures.
Yeah, right. I was rejected by Atari in 1989. Remember, this was not the company called Atari today. For me, it was the company that made the greatest computer of all time, the Atari 800, in addition, all my favorite childhood games. Working there was an incredibly nostalgic, but not well thought out dream. Fortunately, destroyed by the ruthless Rhonda Allen. Thank you, Rhonda.
But the Atari refusal was not the only one. Take a look:
Even I can not believe that I tried to get a job in Hewlett-Packard. But look, once I read that when Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. started, he worked at General Electric during the day, and at night he wrote short stories. If it’s good for KVjr, it’s good for me. I imagined that I would put on my workwear, take one of these giant slide rules, and depict an engineer all day. But at night, I would put on my tweed jacket with elbow patches and drank tape while I was pounding on an old Smith-Corona typewriter. (Well, actually, I didn’t have such fanciful fantasies, but I had romantic ideas about writing.) Fortunately, I was not a good engineer. Thanks, Carol Campbell!
My job search became depressing. I piled up a letter with refusals. Most of them were from works that I did not even want. I refused a company that makes software for the compilation of library catalogs. Snubby nothingness! I bought a tie for this job interview! I stroked the trousers.
But one day, one bright summer day, I walked through the building of the employment center and saw it:
This is the original ad for the job “Assistant Designer / Programmer” in the gaming unit of Lucasfilm. The job that I later got settled inside was called “Scummlet”.
I immediately called David Fox and made illegible notes you see during the conversation. I told him how much I want to work at Lucasfilm, not because of Star Wars, but because I love Ball Blaster.
“Ball Blaster, huh?” He said.
"Yes! I love Ball Blaster! ”I said. It's true. I broke the joystick while playing this game on the Atari 800.
“Hmmm, the name of the game is Ball Blazer.” Said Mr. Fox briefly. "It is called Ball Blaster in the pirated version."
Oops.
Caught in the act. It's true - I played the pirated version. I admit it. Now, if you played the pirated version of one of my games - do not blame yourself, because I did the same with games from Lucasfilm Games when I was in high school. Of course, if you use pirated versions of two or more of my games, then this is a completely different case.
The rest of the conversation was not much better. But in the end, David told me to send my resume along with a letter describing my ideal work. Since I decided that I failed the interview, I had nothing to lose. Therefore, I made a letter in the form of a pseudographic adventure. I drew pictures on my Koala graphics tablet and printed it all out on an Atari 800 matrix printer.
I have told this story many times, but I have never shown the letter itself. So, the WORLD PREMIERE that will necessarily become the standard template for all letters about job search in the future.
I will note some things:
1) I'm an amazing artist.
2) I read The Crying of Lot 49. (A joke for those who are “in the subject.” Only clever people will understand it.)
3) Hey, some graphic adventures have glasses, right?
4) How could I know in 1989 that there would be a Rubik's Cube on my table? This is strange.
What is even stranger is:
You cannot imagine how excited I was at a rate of $ 27k per year. I was so excited that I put an extra hump of the letter “m” in the signature.
I still worry a little when I look at this letter. Pay attention to the old school Lucasfilm logo. I was so excited about all this talk about dental insurance and vacation. Dental insurance! Almost like a real job! I will not work on databases! I will work for the company that made Ball Blast — I want to say Ball Blazer, Rescue on Fractalus and Koronis Rift! Oh, and Star Wars!
Thank you, David Fox, for hiring me even though I failed a telephone interview. And thanks to everyone I worked with for the next 20 years! I have always been lucky enough to work with great people and, generally speaking, my career in the gaming industry is one of the luckiest. Thanks to everyone who helped me on this journey and, especially, to everyone who played games!
And everyone who is now busy looking for work - good luck! Do not do what I did. It worked only in the 80th!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/73223/
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