[EN] How to Follow Folks On LinkedIn Who Don’t Repeat “Rejection is Redirection.”
Lord give me patience–if I hear one more person telling me that “rejection is redirection” I’m blocking them before Twitter takes away the feature.
… Okay, that may be extreme–but I want to start off this post by asking folks to refrain from that advice. I don’t have to remind other game developers how messed up the job market is, but I can say this much: I know a thing or two about job hunting.
It takes time. Patience–a lot of it. Some studios ghost their applicants, others spend four months debating on who to grant that first interview–without guaranteeing a second or third round. Having been both a recruiter (and currently searching for a writing role) I picked up a few bits of trivia that I wish to share with others.
First: Remote Networking Events:
Discord is going to be your best friend, along with other tools. It’s accessible, and offers a more casual environment than LinkedIn. Before naming a few networking events, here’s a few things to bear in mind:
Always have either a Sticky Note or WordPad that includes your preferred name, pronouns, a brief two to three sentence introduction on who you are and what sets you apart, along with your social media links and portfolio for potential recruiters to reach out to you.
Take a deep breath. I know it can be daunting to put yourself out there, but in a job market full of so much competition, it’s the best way to gain an upper hand.
Set up reminders and be efficient.
Remember that everyone is human. This may sound like a weird one, but you’d be surprised at how often folks place game developers on a pedestal either because of the studio they work in, the awards they have won, etcetera etcetera. The best conversations and connections emerge from just relaxing and having a fun time with folks!
Eventbrite.com Go on www.eventbrite.com and include the “remote” filters and free admission. Add key words such as “game developer meeting” or “game developer networking” for example. If you wish to get more specific, add the title you wish to have and see if you can meet folks who specialize in your field who can offer advice on how to break into the field.
PowerToFly. Here, you can upload your resume and state where in the tech industry you would want to specialize in.
THIS WEEK they will have an event featuring to assist folx with visible and invisible disabilities from August 23, 2023 until August 24, 2023. You can sign up here: https://powertofly.com/events/virtual-job-fair/?utm_campaign=Sunday%20B2C%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=270953365&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_HrFZZIbObYArT2rnkBkTW0QMv-gHNY9LDc0LIp0pfCuFHnk01A0sqaz1W7KeYORbvHtSVX7R0gO4XKS_MfGeRqYdpog&utm_content=270926294&utm_source=hs_email
Similarly, there are events hosted by PowerToFly for members of the LGTBQIA+ community, the BIPOC community--all of which are free, the calendar with the dates is on their website.
LinkedIn Audio Events. These are great events to not only meet recruiters and employers from various studios, but also greet other fellow job hunters. The best part about this industry is the camaraderie and support–find someone who could give you a job, or find someone who could give you tips on improving your resume.
List of LinkedIn Creators with Events:
Aida Figuerola (https://www.linkedin.com/in/afiguerola/)
Upcoming Event on August 22, 2023: https://www.linkedin.com/events/gamingbackstage-de-iwithjasmina7097554161021415424/
Justin Williams
Previous Event: (Remember you can rewatch it, and take note of the advice provided by recruiters in AAA studios!) https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinalanwilliams/recent-activity/all/
Amir Satvat (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirsatvat/)
Amir has the Amir Awards, and often features creators helping the video game industry–additionally, he has an organized spreadsheet with video game job openings AND mentorship opportunities.
Here is a link to the job directory from August 13, 2023. You’ll notice how often he updates it. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amirsatvat_friends-i-am-pleased-to-present-the-august-activity-7096622772239388672-dCRh?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
If you are job hunting, you can submit your most recent/updated resume–there are recruiters and employers that observe Amir’s database to find candidates. .
Last but not least, there is a network of mentors willing to help with specialized fields, giving industry advice, resume writing assistance and more–all of the details are on Amir’s page and posts.
Arin Goldsmith (https://www.linkedin.com/in/arin-goldsmith/)
Previous Event: (https://www.linkedin.com/events/7090354190849323009/comments)/
A unique component in the gaming industry is how professionals are encouraged to have their own brands–and Arin provides excellent advice. When searching for a job, it helps having a platform so that whenever someone is looking for a game developer, they know they have to reach you because only you can do a certain thing–and that’s what should be on your portfolio, brand, etc.
Though not a recruiter, Arin also provides excellent advice to folks who have 0 experience in the gaming industry but wish to use their transferable skills in the development of video games.
List of Creators on Twitter With Great Advice:
A brief sidenote: hashtags will be your friend when looking for jobs. Every social media platform has an algorithm that detects what content you interact with the most, so if you constantly like posts from recruiters, or posts that have keywords like your dream job title, department, field of study–those posts will be pushed to your feed more often than others.
Some platforms allow you to follow hashtags and set up alarms–so, follow the hashtags involving your field of study and see a few freelancing opportunities come up!
Okay, now about creators:
Javiera Cordero: An amazing producer, Javiera created a Notion template that has saved my life–and job opportunities.
The link is: https://javieracordero.notion.site/Job-Application-Manager-fce5406854f0475aa21d5fcd9fa5e668
It has several categories including “preparing”, “applied”, and “interviewing.”
Additionally, there are:
Cover Letter samples.
Dozens of job sites.
Websites for marginalized communities.
Possible Interview Questions
And more! (gracias Javiera <3)
Should I post “that”?
“My journey with X has ended.”
“Unfortunately, I have been affected by layoffs.”
“I’ve been trying to keep it together for the past few months, but I need help…”
Posts of this nature have increased exponentially. I’ve had to write some–and I encourage everyone to do the same, and I know it is not easy.
It’s not easy to be vulnerable, especially in front of many professionals.
But some of them may be your future coworkers–if you need help, tell your network. Not to mention, that if you have not come across a job for a while this lets recruiters know why there is a gap on your resume. It was not due to a gap year, it was due to a recession and a million other things.
How do I reach out?
Reach out to folks who are in a role similar to what you are striving towards. As a narrative designer, I often try to connect with other narrative designers–mainly because they have the best dad jokes and D&D campaigns, but I digress.
Apply to as many studios as you can, then head to LinkedIn. Look up the studio, and see if there are any of the following:
Alumni from your alma mater.
Folks in your specialized field.*
Mutual Connections.
First, reach out to mutual connections. See if they are willing to introduce you to someone in the studio you just applied. Or, try and meet up with someone who you went to school with–share stories and inside jokes from the institution, and if the subject of employment comes up, use that as a segue to explain your situation.
Do not cold call people with messages like, “Do you have a job for me?” It’s not a good look–and, again, people are human. They will know when they are being contacted because of their job title–so avoid that.
*Yes, there is a lot of support in the gaming community. But it does not always happen–sometimes, if someone has little to no social media presence, no profile picture it may be for a reason. Understand that there are times where game developers are, unfortunately, treated poorly by gamers and decide to limit what messages they can accept. It’s all about getting a hint, basically–but digitally.
Anyways, be nice! Don’t weird any game developers out and get that job.
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do u have an opinion on . yakumond re: bugs
my mind is in factions, warring . edmond brave, yakumo baby. BUT
yakumo farm boy. edmond city kid.
yakumo destroying farm pests with his bare hands? out of habit? it's on SIGHT??
but nothing scares vice captain, right? so what if yakumond just turns my trope upside down and NEITHER of them are scared of bugs. what then. what do i do
I spent a while thinking how to reply to this ask. And. OK. Bear with me.
I honestly don't see either of them being afraid of bugs. I can see them not liking them, with Edmond being a more indiscriminate "bugs have no place in this house and should be squashed" compared to Yakumo's "will remorselessly kill pests but not harmless insects."
That being said... I kinda like the idea of Edmond having a very specific weakness to just one (1) bug and being utterly fucking embarrassed about it, and Yakumo (being the anxious baby he is) somewhat mirroring Edmond's response to it despite usually remaining very calm. They can be a disaster together. They've got that potential.
In fact, I liked the idea enough that I have this deleted short scene from a fic that I'm working on and that I will be releasing it into the wild now. Mind you, it's a draft so it's way more functional that it is polished.
------
“Sir Edmond, why don’t you go to sleep right away? It's already very late.”
Edmond looked up from the blank paper. At the lack of a desk, a small wooden crate he'd found here in the hayloft would work just fine. Until he saw that he'd finished writing the letter, he was not going to be able to calm his nerves enough to sleep. It didn't matter that it could be done the next morning. Why leave it for later if it could be done now?
“I’ll be finished in a few more paragraphs, don't worry,” he said, dipping the pen in the inkwell. "You shouldn't stay up longer than necessary, either. Is something holding you up?"
"Ah, well..." Yakumo looked at the lamp on the crate. It would be rather difficult to sleep with it still on, and he couldn't ask it be turned off if Edmond was still writing. "It's fine. I can wait a little longer. I'll make sure the tent is properly set up."
"Haven't you already done that twice?"
There wasn't much else left to do here. Maybe he could go outside or look around the barn for things that might be useful next morning? His eyes tried to look around. It would be rather difficult to do this in the dark... Besides, he didn't want to do anything that would be too distracting. Edmond was very particular about this letter.
As Yakumo looked around from where he was sitting, he could see something scuttling up one of the sides of the crate. He frowned at the presence of the insect. People commonly referred to those as "claw traps." They had a crab claw-like pincer and a nasty habit of biting people in their sleep and hiding in boots. What if there were more around? Thankfully, he'd had the foresight to bring some repellant.
Yakumo crawled closer to the tent, where he'd left his belongings. He rummaged around his bag for the repellent and something to kill the insect with. However, Edmond was so absorbed in writing his letter that he hadn't noticed yet. It was probably better to warn him before he got bitten.
"Sir Edmond, there's a claw trap going up your desk."
At the mention of the bug Edmond haphazardly grabbed all his things and scrambled backward in panic, spilling black ink on the wooden floor, splashing some of it on his shirt.
Yakumo's heart made a jump. He dropped his bag and reacted without thinking.
Squish, crack. He immediately squashed the bug with his bare hand.
For a moment, there was silence. He stared at his hand, at Edmond, who looked way too tense over a single bug. When Yakumo realized what he had done, a shudder ran up his spine. He lifted his hand. It was wet and crunchy, and he probably just stuck the claw into his palm because it hurt. He looked at it. Yes. There it was. Like a massive splinter.
He was more worried about how Edmond hadn't taken a single breath ever since he'd killed this thing, though.
"S-Sir Edmond, is everything alright?" He asked as he shook the remains of the claw trap off his hand.
Snapping out of his panicked state, Edmond nervously cleared his throat, his cheeks burning red. He looked aside and took a deep breath with an angry expression on his face.
"Y-Yes... I... Oh, how embarrassing... I need a moment."
With a nod of acknowledgment, Yakumo rushed to wash his hands in the basin, just the get the gooey and feeling off his palm. Now he was going to have to go back into the house to change the water. He was not about to wash his face with cold insect soup when he woke up in the morning.
The act of cleaning and removing the pincer from his palm helped him calm down and think about what just happened. He turned around to look at Edmond, who examined the stained sleeve of his shirt with an air of inconvenienced embarrassment. That ink stain was not coming out, and he probably knew that.
"Umm... Do you have something in particular against these insects? I've never seen you react like that to any others before..."
For sure, they'd been toiling in the fields for most of the day, and this wasn't the first time they'd dealt with a bug problem before. Usually speaking, Edmond didn't hesitate. He looked at the offending creature with disgust and slammed the first hard thing he could find against them, making it abundantly clear that, while he didn't like them, he could handle them perfectly fine on his own. While claw traps were unpleasant, this seemed a bit excessive.
Looking tired all of a sudden, Edmond took a long breath and let out a deep sigh.
"I don't like those."
"Ah... Well, yes? It's... not hard to see that at all..." He waited for Edmond to continue, and he was about to nervously change the topic and run away to change the water when Edmond cleared his throat.
"We saw a lot of them back when I was still in training. There was one summer when they were everywhere, wherever we set camp. They barely let us sleep. I've had an... aversion to them ever since. But I can handle them on my own next time. I just need a second or two to calm down."
The last part was a quick attempt to save face, but Yakumo wouldn't have minded it at all if he had to get rid of one of these pests again. He merely hoped Edmond's panic was a little less contagious next time.
Hoping to help Edmond retain some of his dignity for now, Yakumo tried to make the atmosphere a little less stilted by subtly shifting the subject away from how Edmond felt about these insects.
"You must have stayed within the Light Territory that summer then?"
Edmond gave Yakumo a surprised look.
"How do you know that?"
"Claw traps can only really survive there. The Water and Wood territories are too humid for them."
Hold on... Yakumo's brow furrowed deeply once he realized what he'd just said.
"How did it get here, then?" Edmond asked. And he was right. They were right in the middle of the Water territory, weren't they? But Yakumo didn't really have an explanation.
"M-Maybe they're mutating...?"
"No."
Edmond snapped at the suggestion. Yakumo reflexively lowered his head in response.
"Um..."
"Don't make me even entertain that idea." He stood up, slightly agitated. "I'm going the search the hayloft in case there are more. I won't be able to sleep otherwise."
"W-We have repellent myrrh. We can burn some inside the tent. It doesn't smell bad or anything..."
His voice was barely a whisper, but the night was already silent in the village and the fields. Edmond had no problem picking up what he was saying, or the tone in which it was said.
"... I apologize. My tone was too harsh."
Yakumo had never heard Edmond talk to him like that before. There was no doubt that these bugs were a touchy subject. He chuckled nervously.
"It's... fine. Don't worry. I understand."
With his cheeks turning red once again, Edmond let out some unintelligible noise that maybe, in some corner of his mind, had been words at some point. Eventually, he gave up, huffing in frustration.
"Tha-Thank you for handling it..."
"Oh. I... could do it again if we find another one."
Not enthused by the idea of seeing more of them, but still looking somewhat relieved, Edmond's voice and face softened just a little.
"I seriously wish we didn't... But I'd be quite grateful if you could."
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