Sooooo... Redundancy

Who has been made redundant lately?

*raises hand*

Third time in 6 years. And I'm starting to think maybe its me... ;)

I'm not terribly upset because leaving Gameloft was a decision I had already made... it's just that it's come a hell of a lot sooner than I had planned for.

On the plus side, the package will get me through a few months in Australia.

Seriously good at my job

OK, ok, I know I promised to update this site more often, but it's not happening.

Firstly, I don't like posting from my iphone. I find the app too annoying, and the touch keypad too awkward for long posts.

I'm getting up at 6am, getting home at 6pm, and when I get home from work I just want to catch up on the day I've missed by reading Kotaku, IO9, Gizmodo, The Older Gamers, inthemix, Penny Arcade, my Google Reader links, and Facebook.

And of course, cook and eat dinner, watch the news, and play videogames. Because of the early mornings and 2 hour travelling time a day, by 10pm I'm ready for bed.

So I have very little time to blog.

And besides, I'd just bitch about how much I fucking hate Call Centre work for exposing me to the flotsam and jetsam of this great country we call Australia, which is hardly productive.

Unsurprisingly enough, I'm very good at my job. I came second in the class overall after James, who has worked in a call centre with the program Seibel before.

I also got a 100% Customer Satisfaction Survey in my first week, and hit most of the early targets that have been set for us n00bs.

And the call centre has some of the nicest looking women I have seen in Melbourne to date.

But I can't help but think, when I'm applying myself like this to a shit job that's going to take me nowhere and make me hate most of the obviously underprivileged people of whom I used to call Brothers and Sisters in the fight against "Da Man!" by exposing me to their sheer stupidity and unwillingness to learn (I mean how fucking hard is it to understand a god damn phone bill!? ), what do you think is going to happen when I get a decent job in gaming or music journalism?

Actually I can see my eagerness and amazing talent is probably frightening to perspective employers, and I think that's why I have been unsuccessful in gaining a job in games or music journalism to date...

Help me Obi Wan...

So, I just had my friend around, and we worked on getting her resume from PDF into an editable format.

I won't go into details, a google search will help you do it if you ever need it done, but it made me realise that I really like helping people, especially one on one.

I like showing them how to do things, how to solve issues and how to get the best out of what they are working with.

Because even with what I do know about the topic at hand, I'll still discover things I didn't in helping other people out.

My assistant producer role was like this. I helped people do stuff they couldn't, whether it was through lack of knowledge or lack of time. And I learned so much about the process of making games.

Even though they're pitching my new role in the call centre as being very similar, I'm not entirely sure I'm going to be as good in it. I don't know, I just find something disagreeable about it at the moment.

I hope my trainers and I can identify my issues and work on it before it gets too late and I simply hate the job altogether.

First day of the rest of my life?

OK, so I completed my first day at PCI today.

It took me over an hour to get there by public transport, and even longer to get home. Thing is, I if I rode a bike, it wouldn't take longer than half an hour I reckon! Must discover a better route, especially if I ever have early starts.

On my first day, it felt a lot like being back in highschool.

That's not a criticism, just a statement. After all, our trainer was a highschool teacher, and we were sat in a class with a whole heap of people we didn't know. It was that kind of nervous and excited feeling.

We did a heap of team building stuff, as well as "get to know you" things. There's a few DJs and musos in my group, so that's pretty cool.


Although... and don't get me wrong, the place seems really cool and laid back... we met the "big boss" and he was pretty damn laid back, and PCI seems to have a culture that's rather casual, fun even, as long as you get your work done. The people who work there look happy, and you can tell on the whole people enjoy their jobs.

Thing is... It's just that finding out so many people were DJs/musos reminded me of Spaced, season 2 episode 3 called "Mettle", where Daisy is working in that horrid kitchen in an excellent take off of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest...

Daisy: I can't do this!
Tina (aka the evil nurse): Excuse me?
Daisy: I'm a writer. I'm creative. I'm not a "mopper'"
Tina: They're all writers Daisy.
Daisy: (incredulous) What?
Tina: All the staff here are writers.
Daisy: Not Harris
Tina: Haikus I believe. Charlie there is an actor but he's writing some play...
Daisy: Even Billy?
Tina: Even Billy.
Billy: (stutters) I...I..I was published in '97. It was just a short story... I came here in '98
Tina: They're all creative Daisy. Not just you. Now get creative with this (throws mop at her)

The video is available on youtube (sorry, no embedding, and the bit starts at 6:50... However, I recommend watching the whole episode! It's awesome!)

Last day at Krome tomorrow

It will be my last day at Krome tomorrow.

I'm unemployed once again!

Fortunately I've got an interview on Thursday for a job which starts Friday, which is completely divorced from the Games Industry.

Not sure if I can do it to be honest. I've had shit jobs before, and whilst this one won't be as shit as them, it won't be what I want to do.

I want to achieve my goal of being a producer on a big title (essentially I want to be 'the next' Dude Huge) but with so many good people out of work all over the world it is incredibly competitive at the moment.

As I'm older than 35, and I don't have a US, Canadian or UK passport it makes the whole process a hell of a lot harder for me to be competitive.

So, I've been looking outside the Games Industry at stable employment.

I guess if I get it, I'll go with an open mind and try and enjoy a new experience.

Looking for work, again.

Ok, so I missed a few days.

But it's going much better than I expected. I've posted 5 days out of 7, which I think is a record.

My social life is catching up with me so just a short post today.

I'm on the look out for a new job, so to anyone in the Games Industry if you have a Senior QA Lead or Assistant Producer role available, let me know via the links in my profile.

Anyone else, if you need a Writer/Journalist/Communications Officer, IT /Office Manager, or QA tester, again please let me know!

Melbourne is about to get a whole lot more funky...

Looks like Melbourne is about to get a whole lot more funky, because I just scored myself a position with Krome in Melbourne.

I'll be starting there in exactly 4 weeks.

I'll be Lead Tester, in charge of 10 people, working on a new Xbox360 project.

It's not as exciting as Star Wars which I'm working on in Adelaide, but on the other hand it's not working on a F-ing PSP title...

Never lived outside of South Australia, so I have a tiny bit of trepidation about it all, but on the other hand I've been bitching about needing to get away from Adelaide for years...