Dog Fooding my own advice, results so far

[jovial wing]

So a very different post from me today.

I'm job hunting and just attempting to dog food my own advice.

Going to just rant about what's working, what I'm struggling on, etc.

Honestly if this is literally your first post of mine your reading, just everything is going to come off too braggy at first. So for a little context I write so much content here on portfolios, resumes, linkedin, career, and running a business in different channels. The mods literally gave me Knowledge Man as a role due to how much I type out.

So I'm mostly writing this massive post up as I do give a lot of advice I believe in, but a lot of it goes untested. It is just really hard to fully test from A to Z if hiring advice works, when well your employed. And it is also really hard to test and iterate on how to get hired in new tech positions especially when industry has a big shift in habits.

And frankly I've been employed at places I really enjoyed working at, so I've had little reason to personally test it.

You can only make so many educated guesses in the hiring seat or employed seat. Living it IS different.

And the ppl I do help, well many might mention I helped them but it's impossibly hard to correlate exactly "What" I told them helped them.

Especially when they tell me months later that what I did helped. (though I get it, the excitement of finally getting hired is intense and you're just kinda focused on the coming months not anything in the past. And I mean most don't just ask their boss "Hey why the heck did you hire me?!?" until like year 2s in at least)

So again, I'm going to be sharing some things that are going to come off as super braggy to some; as well frankly I am getting good results following my own advice. So I am going to also share lots of things I'm struggling on, and just actively self-reflecting on what I need to work on, and just thinking through that stuff here.

Also I am happy to hear suggestions, you don't need to read it all to comment. This is mostly just for me, and I do have plans on things to try to adjust from just typing all this out.

But happy to have discussions, happy to answer questions (though I'm going to be slow in helping others here, vs helping myself).

O and for context, I'm also much more mid-career, chasing a 3rd game industry job as a senior (after 4 years salary in games and 10 years running my own business in web agency work + 1 year in traditional CS). But a lot of what I'm doing and what works applies for juniors as well, and that's because it really is same but different.

Ultimately

I'm honestly not going to directly yap about what to do here, use the discord search tool with from:marchewitt in different channels to find those advice posts I’ve given.

As I'm literally just following my own advice I've yapped about over the years.

I just want to dog food my own advice

And I figured the best way would be to just rant type while resting watching netflix (Just finishing Hell's Paradise and starting Pantheon) to make sure I am dogfooding enough and to just self catch myself where I am not doing enough.

Also to just rebuild my writing habit. As dammit I can type 120wpm if I try, I can easily write an article a day if I get into flow.

Also Note for those who haven't heard the term, "Dogfooding" or "eating your own dog food".

It is a phrase that means following your own advice or using your own product. Comes from a story that a dogfood company CEO ate the dogfood at the annual company retreat to promote that they should always be producing a great quality product, even if its for a dog. Not sure if myth or not but fun story)

First how the game launch went

F2P 5vs5 MOBA game called Sirocco launched last month https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHgDxH9zXGk

• Sitting at 692 reviews with 76% (mostly positive).
• 862 CCU at peak, so we beat Concord CCU on Steam 😛

And that's on top of having dozens of ppl negative reviewing it over the design choice to not have chat (many of the reviews also saying they wanted chat mostly to call their team mates f*** idiots... aka the reason there was no chat decision made)

Much better than CCU then some failed live services (lots this year had 80 peak), and we had lots of return players during the first week which is huge. But ultimately we needed way more players to maintain a 5vs5 match making queue after the initial seed of ppl. Which required lots more polish time, and lots more ad money.

So the game didn't do well enough, so I’m now unemployed and job hunting.

We honestly needed a publisher deal, but like many others in 2024 couldn’t get a publisher deal to materialize.

Also. large projects are rough, like launching this steam game and having it flop is one of the BIGGEST non-trauma energy drains I've experienced in my life.

Like I'm not new to launching products that fail either, but this just hit differently for so many reasons. I do think some of it was just knowing it had a chance. Plus just regretting losing the great team, and not being able to fully finish all of the work/ideas lined up.

_ _

But still super happy with the launch

It is:

• First steam game for me, 2nd game project. So got 4+ years as Senior Engineer in Unity Engine now on my resume.
• Got to check off "Make a MOBA" on genre bucket list one of my fav game genres
• Worked with one of the best teams I've run into, and like by a mile better then the 2nd best which I'd say was a great team as well.
• Players and streamers said the nicest things about our game, I honestly really wished I spent more time clipping it all and getting feedback but c'est la vie I need to job hunt.
• I got a healthy safety net built up for career pivoting if needed (I honestly could risk making my own game fulltime if I really wanted to right now, but I'd rather keep the safety net built up if I can just get employed in coming months)

And overall I am in a good position.

And again as I know a lot are struggling. This is not to brag too hard but to just self reflect on what's working. And to just try to better follow my own advice that I give out.

Heck I landed at Lunchbox and had a great time in 2023 as I kept up on my own advice back in 2022. So when studio wide layoff hit, I had the immediate capability to go to a new studio (most ppl were shocked I got hired so fast the prior time). And I was able to do that as typically when I give advice here, I do try to reflect on how to apply it to my own resume/portfolio better (even if it takes me a few weeks to get around to doing it and maybe I half do it).

_ _

Results so far in this 2025 job hunt

Progress

• Roughly 22 resumes sent out (about half outside of games)
• 52 days unemployed at time of posting
  • Realistically didn't get resume/portfolio optimized til like 2 weeks ago so more like 14 real days hunting
• 5 interview processes started.
  • first 2 finished now, hitting top 3 shortlist but they went with someone else who had at least 5+ more years of experience on me
  • Past tech test with two
  • Another one just starting with an intro call.
• Got 1 potential short-term contract gig in the works

_ _
Where I found Interviews

• LinkedIn most effective for being head hunted (2 interviews from talent aquistion reaching out)
• Linkedin Group feeds (not job posts, think like how we have other jobs in this discord)
  Direct Career pages where a job is posted but not on a job board yet (1 interview)
• Work with Indies is still most effective job board (1 interview)

What has not worked yet

• Applying on LinkedIn public job listings so far hasn't gotten anything
  • can't tell if it's due to them still collecting and just not reaching out, or me having a bad resume until recently, or a bad match as many non-game, or just being passed over by the raw numbers applying on them.
• Local indie events in Austin (Most are job hunting, or giving up on a 6+ month job hunt to make indie projects)
  • These in my opinion are better for building friends and long term job hunting. So like a job in 2027 not now.
• Have not hit actual local recruitment events yet (only 1 that I saw so far which was a high ticket price event for esports focused. I didn't have energy to volunteer for check-in role to land a free ticket)

Now mind you it’s roughly 3 or 4 submissions a week so far. And again the linkedin Job postings are mostly Dot Net jobs which I'm not a perfect showcase for. Targeting jobs works waaayyy better but it's hard to meet TX Unemployment requirements while also targeting Unity3D gamedev jobs.

Interview Phase pattern

• Most indies studios are 2 or 3-phase. Skill test + vibe checks. Haven't seen leetcode with indie studios yet.
• Most bigger game studios are now up to 6-phases sometimes with a take home test so 7-phases it's honestly ridiculous on so many levels
  • HR intro meeting
  • Hiring Manager with leetcode
  • Maybe a take home (most are honestly 3 to 5 hours of work)
  • Actual tech skill test
  • System design test
  • Behavior/Culture
  • Offer conversation

Do I even write a cover letter

• I do, but only 7 so far.
  • Head hunted ones typically don’t ask for them
  • I focus CVs on the right job matches, I skip on jobs that I don't think I'll get an easy call back atm (As I believe a generic CV is worse then no CV). And I'd rather spend time on improving other assets. The interviews I did get did have cover letters.

_ _

And again!

I am mostly sharing this all to not outright brag but more give a retrospect on what I am finding is working, what I'm struggling with, and what I'm attempting.

I'm honestly not going to directly yap about how exactly I got these results or give advice here. Go use discord's from:marchewitt search tool and read past messages as I'm literally just following my own advice adjusted for my needs.

_ _

Back to results

Now, technically I started job hunting early May (have to apply to at least 3 shops each week for unemployment benefits) but I had so much going on in May that I honestly was slow to update things.

I only really started a serious job hunt about 14 days ago when I found the time to update my resume/portfolio fully, and 3 of those interviews came in from the past 10 days. One came in from a career page submission after 30 days of not hearing anything (yes some places don't get back until literally 30 or even 60 days later 🫠 ) and one was head hunting me back in April.

And even then those 3 in the past 10 days are with my first draft job hunting assets that I mostly updated in a blind rush, (On linkedin I literally had a stub of "still writing everything I did" under Lunchbox until this weekend).

I've also started reaching out to past team members to get connected with other Austin professionals and studios. Like if you're on your 2nd or 3rd job hunt, it is insane being able to just contact people you'd like to work with again as it can easily connect you to jobs that aren’t even posted about yet. Easy 500x enhancer on job hunting (but also only if you actually reach out ).

Now to go into where I'm struggling as we need some 💩 to show up in this post as it is not all sunshine rainbows.

_ _

My interviewing sucks

I've done sales, I've practiced interviewing in the past (4 years ago), I've done hiring; I get how it all works and how it can work better. I also was good at sales in the past.

That all should be a huge advantage for me.

But M Y G O D I am so rusty at interviewing it physically hurts me.

I cringe thinking back about how bad I have been interviewing recently (and honestly, it is what started this self reflection).

I am legit upset at myself for how bad my interviewing skills have gotten. Even if I get a job with them I know if they were up to par I'd get offered a better salary, skip a skill test, and close out the job faster (which if you're competing with two others in the top 3 slot... Really does matter).

The BIGGEST things I identified I'm struggling with are:

• Not having a true through-line in my icebreaker on "tell me about your past work".
  • I am waxing on and on too much about the full 15 year career, not the exact tight pitch they want to hear. Easy fix, I just need to do it, practice it in a mirror.
• I then get in my own head after hearing myself muck this or something else up and lose confidence/focus
  • Even though I know a LOT about sales/interviewing/presenting is just about not losing confidence mid pitch when you notice that you mucked up. Just not having todo it for 2 years made me out of practice.
• I need to review some engine fundamentals.
  • Like I've done a lot of the things asked in Unity tech interviews with ability to talk about doing them, but it's been so long that specifics are blurry and that makes me look less senior then I am. I even got notes on some of these but I need it mentally ready for the song-n-dance that the current market of tech interviewing is. (You really don't get time to go look at your notes. They expect you to have it memorized and ready)
  • I REALLY need to build back my writing habit and build playable examples.
  • I need to build my hitlist of things to review before interviews. Profiler frame debugger, shaders, which ui components are trash and why.
  • I need to tag things in my bragdoc to talk around more confidently so I can "LEAD" the conversation and not get surprised by a partial question. (like I know what 90% are going to be asked... I could just bring it up before they do)
  • For some reason I am also struggling with online interviews? I likely need to do more coffee calls, not just text chat.
  • I need to practice talking with shorter confident phrases, not wax on things
• My hate of BigO notation is real, understandable even, but I should still just memorize the damn tricks to it vs lose interviewer points.
• And I really struggle on leetcode questions

_ _

No seriously I REALLY struggle on leetcode and BigO

First off, I think leetcode and BigO is not an ideal hiring process. I can get why its used (if you don't know ThePrimeagen has a great 1 min vid on why it is used and hwo its really just a secret handshake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gRWQqh5vVY), but it frustrates me to no end and I have seen waaaayyy too many good engineers get lost in the mushyness of the process.

Three of the best hires I've seen all would have been lost if they had todo a leetcode and BigO the way studios are doing it (and honestly speaking of which, two of them did struggle to get hired after later layoffs due to leetcode and BigO tripping them up for a long time)

Especially how every studio uses both for interviews but majority of those same studios wouldn't be caught dead ever using anything from them in actual day-to-day work. Not the concepts, not the process, not the phrases.

But they're not even that hard.
I'm just being a premadonna over my hate towards them.

Especially BigO which is basically the difficulty of memorizing a times-table.

It's a mentality thing I have that I have to just get over. Heck it's not even like a red or yellow flag that the company is bad, it just means they're doing average tech hiring (which is worse that I'm failing at it x__x as this should be an easy win to have). Like its honestly a yellow flag that I’m a premadonna over it

And if I REALLY wanted to contest this practice... Then I honestly need to get off my ass and actually write tech posts, actually build projects, and actually git gud where they go "Ok yea we can skip these phases" and be head hunted more.

And again it's not even because leetcode is hard or annoying(though they are annoying, especially leetcode interviews). Rather I think it is ultimately because I think with my hands to solve things which do not work in a leetcode interview.

I'm so used to how I do day-to-day code where I solve fast with junk code, just to get a working solution first to find the edge cases fast, then scale it to where I needed it and refactor it when the need arises. True AGILE coding that works amazingly well and super productive. And is literally the exact natural mismatch for how leet code interviews play out. (Which again, leetcode interviews are just a secret handshake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gRWQqh5vVY)

_ _

How I experience leet code interviews

Especially at larger studios I find all hiring managers using leetcode are looking for a "Thought process first" approach, and often around half-provided questions focused on seeing if you ask about edgecases and if it should scale and giving a realistic recommendation.

So what occurs when I start just answering the problem with junk code that I intend to iterate on like a lot of devs do for real work. They IMMEDIATELY (talking 10 seconds in) attempt to give me a guiding question on making sure I do the secret handshake with them.

Currently for me, and my shitty interviewing skills, those helping guiding questions ends up breaking my focus so very very hard. And after I mentally switch gears 3 or 4 times in such a short period, my brain is just burnt out. Having a burnt out brain in a timed code test with conversation occurring during and after is a rough place to be.

I am making dozens of micro mistakes in this leetcode interview portion because of this, and I know I am coming off really unconfident and confused. And secret tip, showing up well in interviews is almost always just about confidence and following through the process. Less about actual skill shown.

And ultimately I know what I need, I just hate it.

I really need a system/routine to follow for leetcode interviews, and sadly that means I need to practice leetcode with a flow in mind to build that routine of talk first, question, code while talking.

Even if I hate hate hate this process, I need to at least build a mental process of how to succeed at these interviews as honestly more and more studios are leaning towards this flow vs trying to do something different. We can only hope AI cheaters ruin the process enough that they go into a better direction but I imagine it'll get worse

(also fun one on what the primeageon learned from doing all the leetcodes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC7OyqRHvi8... if you don’t get his joke ||the answer is nothing|| ).

Btw, if you have never heard what a guiding question is. It is a hiring manager's attempt to help make sure the interviewee gets what they should really be showing off. They do this as they REALLY want to help you fill the position, and interviewing is tough so they try to guide you as best as they can. They WANT to fill this position.

_ _

I need to better maintain my job hunting assets

I've got a few things that help currently, like my master TODO.md and TODO_Finished.md list that I do for every job, and my BragDoc.md but I'm finding they all need a bit of refining on how I use and maintain them.

I need to formulate a better way to keep them up to date, and also translate them into a resume/portfolio easier. It takes far too much effort to translate it on a dime, and that is a sign I need to improve and simplify what I'm doing.

But I also slacked the past year on keeping the brag doc updated even though I've known I might be job hunting in 2025 if the launch fails, so I had to spend hours remembering what I did and the fuzzy details vs having a ready to go asset.

And I could easily have had a really polished, peer reviewed resume/portfolio setup like 6 months ago... With reaching out to studios pre-launch to just prime the hiring pump while employed. Not rushing to-do it now with a clock over my head now, especially when lower energy after launching a game.

So yea some of this failure was probably just self-denial stuff for sure. Like no one really wants to update a resume pre-launch at a studio you love working at, it is just dreadful the few times I tried, but it is something I do regret not grabbing an accountability partner for to enforce that.

I think a lot of this can be solved if I work out a more streamlined resume template, and do+post more personal projects (especially tech demos and articles), and change how I use my BragDoc.

The major issue with the bragdoc is its too detailed and too random when I update it. I really need a more weekly check on it, and then submit when its a true brag.

I also wanted to do a few more revisions of my portfolio/resume but honestly its good enough and I'm busy interview prepping / coding instead xD

So I'm going to post it in a moment, and probably better to crowdsource help anyways on what I'm doing right/wrong, where I can improve, what's missing, and give ppl a chance to call me out on the whole "do what I say not what I do" malarkey I might be doing.

_ _

I regret falling behind on personal projects/hobbies

This is more just self reflecting on career and life and work/life balance.

I think this is the biggest failure for me over the past few years. I can accept hating where I'm at with interviewing, I'm ok with not applying until after Sirocco launch'd.

But this past year especially I started to really fall behind on some personal hobbies, gym routine, and a bunch of other stuff. All of these I regret falling behind on, and it probably made the sucker punch of game failing hit harder.

Shit happens, spikes of huge responsibilities show up in life constantly, and sometimes you even have to pause everything to deal with it.

But I let waaayyy too many personal things fall to the wayside, even when those spikes weren't occurring. I still need to figure out what I can do to prevent a habit of letting hobbies slide to build up, probably it is to just write more and reflect more, but I really just need to start them back up.

Though mind you, I should mention my work never crunched me, and answering folks questions here I still only do on me-time when I feel like it. Not because I ever feel obligated or anything of the sort, like honestly answering here is part of my personal career prep and just general online socializing. Honestly talking shop online IS one of the hobbies I kept up on as it is so effortless for me.

Hardware, gym, making, writing, talking shop.
Gotta build it all back up. How I'm going to do that 🤷

I think LOTS of folks feel stuff around this too, especially since covid.

It's tough to solve, realistically I know the solutions are almost always "say no more, do less, streamline, just start", as there is always more shit piling into life every day and you just gotta keep at it with the hobbies.

And you know waaayyy too many distractions exist. (heck this post can be viewed as a distraction, just its also one I'm "ok" with as I'm opting to type this while watching Netflix to rest to rebuild the writing habit. Vs say play a game or reply to folks questions). I probably need to try a calendar time blockout strategy again for a bit. Maybe block things from entering certain days especially while job hunting.

_ _

Building That Jobmarket Target

Its my rant so I can jump around as I see fit. So back to job hunt side.

Something I tell folks constantly is "Build a target grouping of studios" to build portfolio projects targeting them to have a stronger portfolio for that target.

Well I honestly gotta sit down and do this still.

But, honestly that is mostly because I simply did a good enough "Gut" guess 14 days ago, and well I got 3 interviews right quick that I now need to focus on. Sorta advantage of making these ideas up, you passively think about shortcuts as background thoughts, disadvantage is I'm also heavily tempted to just always shortcut things xD

But any ways onto my gut guessing.

Most of Austin that I see is feeling like its Unreal studios now, but not a lot are hiring devs it feels. I met like 6 unemployed unreal devs at an austin event this week. I'm also not fully convinced I want to make the switch to Unreal yet either. But I do know I should pursue C++ and custom engines, and just fullstack more (especially homelab setups, AWS, and refresh on SQL) just to stay career stable.

Most recruitors I talk to are also Unity focus, but I mean thats bias to the fact their reaching out because I am Unity focused (more a self reminder on that). So I need more data.

I want to stay in Austin to boot (and hopefully the TX bill for continuing the film/interactive media grant goes through to spark more hiring).

So that means for Unity I mostly got Unity VR and Unity Mobile around here in Austin. Which also works as most of the remote-first jobs I see are using Unity or custom C++.

So if I want a fast job. That means targeting Unity Mobile Fullstack positions in Austin, leveraging builtwithaustin and linkedin to hit up career pages and talent recruitors. As I can leverage 4+ years as senior dev and released game to at least get a conversation out of them and bypass the resume process (as frankly everyone is overloading them).

So I need to beat Recruiters checklist

Overall headhunters are working best for me. And what I build for them should help the rest.

So I need to solve their secret checklists. And make sure that info is at the top of any job hunting asset. And just improve how they find me to begin with.

• I got a solid title on steam, this is huge for just getting going on it
• I'll need behind the scene vids of tools I made
• I got the linkedin profile and other job hunting assets done well enough, could optimize it a bit more.
• I lack a true Mobile game demo or even tech demo (I got 2 little ones but nothing playable)
  • Thinking I need to do a 3 day UI focus, custom optimized scrollrect, into shader transition between two notification states
• I lack true backend demo
  • Thinking of doing a "Daily run" + "Leader board" type backend service for a little hacking minigame (or maybe even just a random $10 minigame I grab off asset store). Just something to show I "Get" how it all works
• Personal projects
  • I plan to make a discord bot on the side for fun
  • And working on said little hacking minigame as a roguelike
• I need to just sit down and throw 120 hours at a 3D action game I got cooking but damn is it hard to start up with everything else.
• I honestly need to get back into C++ and invest time into it to be more career stable

_ _

Hit list that I think mobile Unity jobs wants

With Mobile fullstack making the most sense and large enough in Austin / remote work.

Tech demos and articles on

Unity Mobile/UI focus

• Vertical Scrolling Notifications
• UGUI UI optimizations
• Async UI
• More reactive UI with URP Shaders
• Addressables
• Texture atlas
• Build tooling

Backend probably

• Daily missions,
• Websocket realtime updates,
• Configs
• Server authoritative gamelogic
• Leaderboards
• Match Making (Dynamic Programming)

So this week

First off, celebrate my birthday, I just turned 36. Going to snag a-bunch of free deserts from newsletters

Then spend 3 solid days on Mobile Unity3D UI demo. That is hard enough to get right but shows off A LOT of Unity3D fundamentals. A custom Vertical scroll rect of a leaderboard connected to a web service I host is probably a solid one to go build out. Demo it updating in real time. Add UI effects and the like as a reach, else it's the next 3 day project portion.

Gym. I gotta just start just going. Even if it's just outside and doing 30 pushups in 100F heat like a psychopath to get motivated enough again to just go hit the AC’d gym instead. Then probably find a gym partner to keep the habit once rehired.

I then need to just start writing articles and releasing them. Like this one, even if their full of spelling/grammar mistakes.

I also should probably block out my time in a calendar more. Both for hobbies, study, eating, and bed. Probably would benefit from Biphasic sleep again as well. With that blocked out, I probably need to just bite the bullet and drop the $ on hardware hobby to make a custom controller and play with those as life is too short.

And ranting is done. For now ✍️

Ok maybe not over =>

I think general KEY take aways others can take in are

TLDR:

• I am at least getting results from my advice and it just adds confidence ontop to the advice that I'm giving does work
• 6-phase Leetcode interview style is saddly here to stay
• Jobs are moving more and more local for hiring
• Job boards, especially the easy to find ones, are such horrible odds im not sure they are worth it.
  • Find niche ones like WW/I that ppl aren't slamming 1000 resumes into with AI bots.
  • Find studios with job posts that aren't on public job boards yet
• Head hunters are still the best way into an interview, I really should write more content on how ppl can stand out to them better (getting the target studios figured out and getting the HR checklist help so much in doing this though and I think thats where 90% of ppl are struggling still)
• Once you get a job. Waaaayyy too easy to fall behind updating job hunting material, and its really worthwhile keepng it updated.
• I personally need to put way more time into curating hobby time.
• (and I didn't directly talk on this above) Due to AI bots slamming entries, the few Entry level jobs seem to be moving to local job fairs and recruitors.... Not sure how to help folks with that but honestly its similar to what I saw in 2010. Job market is just more and more localized. Probably is a lot of standing out to head hunters and then targeting those studios better.

[boreal sky]

Aw man so sorry that Sirocco didn't pop off! I was watching Northernlion play it and it looked like it had some real traction!

I had a F2P launch in 2019 that ended up going a similar way and we ended up laying off 95% of the company. We built so many incredible things that functioned so well; client, game server, backend, etc. but it just didn't pick up and all of the amazing work just feels like it didn't matter at all.

I don't post here often, but I do lurk and I always see you giving Grade A advice to everyone! I'm confident this dogfooding is gonna get you placed into a great position!

And happy belated birthday!

[jovial wing]

Actually birthday is as of now

[boreal sky]

Happy IMMEDIATE birthday!!!

[jovial wing]

why i kinda went on the self reflection journey xD

[jovial wing]

And yea we ultimatly needed another year of polish, feedback, and community building to have it hit that just right onboarding, stickyness, and content amount. To have that year with full team we needed publisher funding which in 2024 was just much harder to get. Heck even a lot of the comments were kinda "this'll be great in a year when they're finished and out of early access"

In most product development there is always "Just 3 more hours" of polish on every little bolt holding it all together and consumer expectation (especially on AA) is just getting higher every year.

But really proud what we made, lots of non-moba and non-rts players also really really enjoyed it which is great to hear.

Owners are still making a run of it on the side to see if they can stablize to try to find an audience and fine tune to re-launch. Just rough with monthly costs and existing community fatiguing from knowing content updates are going to be nonexistant for awhile.

[jovial wing]

and submitted for crowd review =>
#resume-reviews
#portfolio-reviews

Man I want to spend so much time tweaking both, but I should go to bed. And even then I know for me probably next 20 hours is way better spent on projects and interview prep 🫠

[jovial wing]

and more late night ranting before I go to bed and not toss and turn with this thouhgt in my head.

Another regret. Not timing how long shit took

I actually have a chance at several Gig/contract jobs due to just network I've built over the years.

But... I also don't have enough data set saved up on "How long" common tasks take

That makes sales conversations tougher, and ultimatly a buyer's dream is a flat rate (within their budget) and clear SoW (statement of work). The confidence it provides them in following through is insane.

I can figure it out for sure, but now thats like 20 hours combined of time spent thinking, and rushing thoughts, and testing limits to get accurate quotes.

Vs just "knowing".

And hitting that "knowing" wouldn't have been hard.

That coulda easily been 5 minutes per weekend over the past 4 years (16 hours). As all I really needed todo was note down the time it took me to build a thing. And gauge how long it took colleges. And any little one-line context around that.

[devout jetty]

hi marc !!!
thank you for sharing this.
im sorry about the launch and the current situation

if you care, my two cents about what you said:

interviews are definitely something that needs to be practiced. you mentioned knowing technical unity questions, but mucking giving answers recruiters want to hear.
i think once you become good with something, over time you internalize and (depending on how your brain thinks) you don’t describe it with words in your head when you work with it. having to find a way to explain stuff to peers is what made me learn faster and memorize definitions (i did a lot of tutoring)

“job hunting assets” are a huge energy sink. especially making portfolio projects can be extremely draining because you’ll spend a lot of time thinking “i should be applying to jobs right now”. creating job assets is the correct thing to do, but it doesn’t change how exhausted it can make you feel.

leetcode interviews are definitely bad and i agree. first of all because how you will want to approach a problem also depends on what you have worked on in the past (90% of my code has been in game dev projects and it affected the way i approach problem solving).
a few months ago i did a tech interview where i was asked to code recursive fibonacci sequence (on paper btw, no IDE lol)
once i was done, the guy interviewing me said “ok you said you didnt go to uni, right? because they would teach you this is the formula to solve this problem”
which

1. you gave me a problem, i solved it in front of you, why would i memorize a solution when i should show you the process?
2. the solution they teach you in uni is well known to be a bad one, and the one i came up with i later found out is an accepted better solution
   i was still offered to job, probably because i did actually give a good answer to that question, but it shows that knowing how to solve a problem and knowing how to approach a problem aren’t the same thing

(i left that job 1 week in cause they nobody there was given a contract, still i got to make that mesh editor as a portfolio piece :p )

but im glad you can see the advice you give is working for you in the first place. if someone here is bound to find a new position soon it’s you :p
i wish you the best of luck, and if you need help with anything like talking during an interview or getting something reviewed, you can always ask im happy to help !!

[jovial wing]

i think once you become good with something, over time you internalize and (depending on how your brain thinks) you don’t describe it with words in your head when you work with it.

Definantly this, and this is where I think the brag doc method I do can be iterated on by remembering to add a filter for HR / technical directors so when you do interview prep you can just "have" those reminders.

“job hunting assets” are a huge energy sink.
Yep, ESPECIALLY when your job hunting. Ideally you build them up while employed but that is hard to build life around. It is kinda a requirement if you want consistent employment in entertainment though.

once i was done, the guy interviewing me said “ok you said you didnt go to uni, right? because they would teach you this is the formula to solve this problem”

This I feel is even a seperate issue. And honestly is sometimes "ok" to see them do. As often thats a yellow flag for you to consider not taking the job.

And who knows. They may even have been hinting to you at other companies, some HR pre-code check is going to just look for "did they solve it the 1 college way I need them to solve it" (which also is another horrible side thing x__x when you give a better answer but fail as they only know there is one answer). Or if that actually mattered to them and then they got overruled by the director who looked at your actual answer.

But.
Overall I also think its a cause/effect that MANY in the hiring side of interviews are unfamliar with how to properly hire.

And also are often bad at staying neutral. About 2/3rd of my interview experiences one or both ppl on the hiring side of an interview were very clearly either more frustrated or more just "not used to" being on the hiring sdie of the table in the interview. (though one I was just in was very very good)

if you need help with anything like talking during an interview or getting something reviewed

Yea I started slamming iterations into resume / portfolio in channels. Also got a mock interview with prior backend lead at Sirocco (she's conducted system design interviews while as a lead at blizzard).

Overall just gotta build out code projects.

[jovial wing]

Recap

So I mentioned I'd do a recap of my results from job hunt past 3 months from landing an offer. I did a personal just kinda job hunt recap and its probably going to stay personal as I kinda long ranted while reflecting about different things for 3 hours while re-watching delicious in dungeon with a friend.

Useful for me, not really worth sharing as a lot of the rant spiraled from just reflecting on the things I heard from other ppl I talked to. I kinda dove into it as I know I hunt very very differently then others and I am getting results very fast. So a lot of my ramble rant was looking into their struggles and trying to connect the dots on what I'm doing that is working vs what their doing to try to square those holes.

The final content is waaayyy too hard for me to get my rambling to be easily readable, and a lot of it was off the grey matter typing (typing faster then I can think type things) so a lot of it reads as "o look at this thing their doing, this is why its wrong, I'm doing this instead" which just feels icky re-reading it with empathy to their situation and context.

So just instead of talking about what I'm seeing others do and trying to show examples I'm just going to bullet point the things that I think helped me the most in my career and job hunts.

First off I guess now employed I gotta say "My thoughts and my opinions are my own, not associated at all to my employer" type thing xD

TLDR

I think the TLDR though is "Job Hunting" and "Career Development" are critical skills that have sorta been after thoughts in most workers. In the past you could coast without them, and having them got your promoted faster.

But in current job market, especially games, you kinda can't have a career without these skills.

The things that helped me

In no particular order and kinda rambly so might repeat.

• Reflecting often and honestly, is probably the healthiest and most proactive thing I've done. Asking for help is narrow 2nd.
• There is always hidden info, and ways to get at it. Knowing the process things typically go through makes it so much eaiser to identify whats hidden, and how to get at it.
  • I don't know how to teach this tbh? I learnt through sales from an amazing salesman Jonathan Hinshaw. He has an old podcast called Revenue Love, and his favoriate quote is "There aren't many business problems that increased sales can't fix.".
  • I legit get interviews by just calling out the hidden info in cover letters and resume bullet points, I've had multiple HR mention this.
• Having linkedin and assets pre-optimized made things stupid easy to make happen on 2nd/3rd job hunts. It really helps just having legit talent acquistion recruitors chasing you before you even start looking for work.
• Entry level jobs do still exist (2 studios had just hired 3 entry level folks) just they're more isolated then ever before to local recruitment efforts vs public job board
  • A lot also seem to want to explore how Generative AI workflow tools can assist their output. That'll likely die down once maintenance kicks in.
• Having good mentors 10x the learning process of anything, especially career development and reflection.
• Budget really well once you have income. Having a year+ safety net honestly enables so much in life, let alone a job hunt and career shift.
  • This is impossibly hard todo during a recession, I honestly started building that safety net I used from 2013. Once the current recesion is over don't sleep on savings and smart cost reductions and just general financal things it makes a huge difference.
  • In turn make sure your paid what you should be, getting underpaid for a role is literally the thing that prevents building a safety net over time.
• Same with health and energy, budget that energy and improve it as best as you can.
  • The worse is when you have high spikey energy usage, as murphy law will cause you to be in that low energy burnout cycle when lay offs hit.
  • Launching a product is BRUTALLY exahusting. Layoffs are even more so. A few folks I talk with were surprised I was job hunting within a month but thats becuase I learnt to protct my energy via running a business
• A lot of recruitment firms are not worth engaging. Theres a few good ones but many are fake-it-til-we-make-it and waste your time by having you apply to jobs they aren't truely connected with.
  • Don't over invest time with them if you can just figure out the job they have in mind by googling the company position in 5 minutes off the bullet list they give you.
• After applying, as long as you direct applied through studio website not linkedin easy apply. Do email asking if a position is still open if its truely a target studio you have in mind.
• Have the short term opportunties in mind, the long term target studios that you will Study towards over a 6 month job hunt to guide your week to week portfolio projects, and have the industry pivot in mind if past 6 months you dont have a job.
  • For both near and long term opportunties, have 3 target studios that do the similar thing. And have the 1 target role at those studios, it makes building the portfolio and resume for them so much eaiser.
  • Same genre/style/engine is ideal for portfolio fit, you want them to look at that portfolio and go "O crap, we need to interview them, their portfolio literally has the thing we need to hire them todo"
• Upgrade your job hunting assets, and then keep them upgraded constantly. Even while your at a job.
  • Understand how HR hires and reviews these assets. If you don't know this, research it.
  • Understand how your direct lead will review things, again research if you dont know.

• ATS formated resumes are just required if your applying online not directly through a human.
  • They're just getting hit by too much slop to not filter, heck the AI gen'd resumes are getting past the filters now and wasting their time (why entry level are moving more offline to local recruitment)
• Focus on local as you will do way better in ATS filters and interview likely hood.
  • If looking to move, set your profiles to that state/city, just explain to HR "Hey just to let you know, I'm currently in xyz. I have plans to move to abc city and I'm job hunting there for that reason. If this is a right fit I can be out there earlier, probably within a month.". Now IF that's overseas, or over country lines, that gets harder but still do-able if you have a work visa situation already figured out (married a guy/gal from said country for example).
• Understand where the industry money is going, which studios are outright winning right now (they'll be the ones hiring). Be ready to move where ever that is, or be ok changing industries to stay at your current location. Maybe you can even stay in games but it has to be shifted from XYZ to ABC type work.
  • In 2010s I stayed in NH and left the game industry for other work. I moved to Austin in q4 2019 to rejoin (yep right before lockdown...). A lot of this was due to the 08 housing recesion changing New Englands gaming landscape.
  • TXSB22 just passed refilling a prior TX grant with $1.5 billion (with a B) dollars over ten years to film and interactive media (games). So TX games are probably going to grow
  • Saber Interactive donated $5 Mil to Austin State University game program to help grow the industry here.
  • Other examples exist. Montreal is a hub as many EU studios moved their sister studios there for tax benefits.
  • Germany started funding projects in I think 2021 with millions to try to build up their industry.
• Job boards I'm convinced are like only 35% of our games industry, and all the entry level roles are moving off them due to AI submissions from Randos who've never made an asset or game.
• Direct apply to studios more, its way more effective
  • I use linkedin, but I use linkedin groups to find the job posts not the job listings. The posts tend to be the 2 to 4 weeks advertisement about a post before they pay linkedin job listing money.
• Music helps me the best in starting focus for the day. I play the same track at start of my day, every day to just get going. y2 of Sirocco was all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raXdAoPCTMs. After that I could work in complete silence if needed or do other things. Right now with teh jobhunt its been this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMH046ocBqU&list=RDMM&index=7. And to exit work-mode into home-mode (kinda like a mental commute) I use this song on the google hub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C5sYGGLPsI&list=RDMM&index=20
• Motiviation exists, its not meant to be what gets your shit done though its more to help get things done faster. And its a skillset and energy bar of its own you kinda build by getting results done.
  • Its why I think doing smaller projects is actually such a critical thing todo as it helps BUILD that motivation wave up so you can just keep going.
  • In turn Walls totally exist, and having a wave of motivation does help overcome the wall by letting you ride that wave and hop right over them.

• A Job hunt really requires a full 30 to 35hr work week. I honestly think it takes 500 effective hours to have a solid chance at a job, and most ppl probably spend about 100 hours with not a good enough resume/portfolio created. That's 4 to 5 months at fulltime pace, and you might get unlucky with multiple no's lenghting it by another 2 months.
  • Biggest time sinkhole is "O hey your not busy, help me clean out the garage" type projects. Really need to treat unemployment as a fulltime job.
  • About half of it is improving skills and building proof points in portfolio. Other halfish is actively hunting opportunties outside of job boards, and final bit is upgrading job hunting assets (resume, portfolio, linkedin).
• If after a layoff you need time, take the month. You'll be more effective fully resting for a month vs half-assing the job hunt for 2 as your not resting enough.
  • If its true burnout past that, I mean biggest tip there is preemptively protecting your energy and life.
• Network events are to help you get a job "a year" from now. Their good social things todo to make friends, but regonize you also kinda have to bring fun things in to talk about both around gamedev and not.
  • Best network talk, was a I think previous art director who on the side enjoyed profesional pet photography. And I mean like at the quality level where he could be doing it for Magazine covers. That is a fun ice breaker.
• https://www.levels.fyi/ has the closest real salary bands for industries that I've seen
  • If you dont know what a salary band is research it!!! HR wants to hire folks in the middle of them.
• Learn to type fast so you can yap like this
  • Split keyboards are amazing for better posture, though I do feel slower on them.
• Interviews are exhuasting interview prep is exahusting. The time between interviews is the most exhuasting thing ever.
  • I really dislike 6-phase interviews just due to the build up of anticipation between a yes/no from them on every single stage. Every aditional phase saps more energy due to this effect. Getting a yes means losing a day dissociating, gettin ga no means losing a week.
  • I'd rather do a 30hr unpaid takehome tech test then 8 hours (+5 hours mock / prep / studying company) in a classic 6-phase tech interview. Especially as most take-home tests can then be converted into portfolio pieces
  • The best programming interview I've ever had was with Lunchbox from Alison (to the point I'll shout out her side team project just launched Ctrl Alt Deal, check it out). Something like 2 hours worth of problems, 1 hour to do them, pseudo code it out. Time respected, knew that day if we'd continue (I took a 15 minute break then reconnected). And told not only them but me where my strength/weaknesses were.
• Mock interviews are always useful, so many little things we don't practice or think about where we can often stumble in interviews as they are stressful. I personally (and see many others) just over explain and under deliever on topics unless I do a few mocks before a job hunt.
  • Having a brag doc, which you then convert into CAR stories to share in interviews is a game changer for me.
  • Having a list of common things studios look for, mean you can LEAD with those before they even ask. This is kinda what is needed at senior+ level. Fail an interview? You probably have 2 to 5 things to add to this and portfolio.
• For raises and promotions, you kinda need to "Get" the true value of your role and how you can assist the business in growing not just doing a good job. "Good job" is default expected.
• Running away from zombie studios / fake startups, I've ran from a few, and seen the fall out of too many friends burning out in weeks trying to muscle out those bad jobs.

And last big thing I'd say to tie it back to the TLDR

Is while I have given a lot of career advice over the years. I don't just magically know this stuff.

I honestly didn't start looking into career development til like 4.5 years ago when I realized I didn't really "get" how to job hunt or do career development as I was busy running a business.

The random generic-looking self-help book my mom sent me in 2013 and had been on my book shelf for 2 moves, was honestly one of the best resources in learning how HR works when I finally read it in 2020. "Job Won!" By Phil Blair. It sparked the interest to dive in more.

These skills are not that hard to pickup over time either, as long as you get past the feeling of overwhelm. And a lot of that is just a little at a time. My little over time is just engaging with folks and improving my own content off what I see.

As giving advice helps you realize what advice you need if you actively reflect on it.

And yea the ramble was waaayyyyy longer then this 😂 learning to type fast off the greymatter is probably my most used skill in life

[jovial wing]

O and

Had a good talk over here #general-advice message on just how I approach reverse engineering how to get a job talking to someone, and kind a like the seedling of what I do.

And then on layoff recovery
While I did not need this info for myself I do find this info super helpful still and I'd have found it invaluable at the start of my career.

Layoff talk slides by Worth Dayley https://eu-assets.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt740a130ae3c5d529/blt089ce9ab816f64ea/65df6ad7f12559040ab38bc9/worthdayley-2019-thelayofftalk.pdf/

And his day-to-day after layoff followup talk slides https://eu-assets.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt740a130ae3c5d529/blt9d4d8f8ea6072a1c/65df6abad5d83c040abae910/worthdayley-2019-layoffday-by-day.pdf/

The big two slides being