Making a Good First Impression at You New Job

I know this topic too well, as I have just got a new job at WB Games in Washington. For me, wanting to impress your colleagues and your boss/lead is extremely important early on, because the quality of work and amount of trust you are given will be a snowball that is directly related to the first couple of tasks you complete.

For me, being the competitive person that I am, I work as fast as I can and take little breaks browsing the internet or socializing with other team members. At the studio I'm at, the people are not the most social, so it's easy to stay focused on the task at hand. I spent the first couple of days in my new position transferring all of my preferences and settings of my software--such as Maya, 3DS Max, Photoshop, etc. to be able to make it feel like "home" and so that I am not reteaching myself something I don't know. It is like using the language you are best at instead of trying to use a secondary language to describe the same sentence. You want to use your strengths on a job and make those even stronger. You should be focusing on your weaknesses at home because if your boss finds out you are slow on a particular task, chances are you will not be receiving repeat tasks of that nature.

Another tactic I have been using is to be friendly and outgoing. I have found that in the video game industry, people don't really come to me to offer their friendship. I have to fight for theirs and come to them to be outgoing. I target the major influencers in the company to be able to instantly gain trust with the higher employees and managers, as they already have respect for those rockstar employees and I am respected by association. Also, with them as your friend, they will offer more revealing tips and will want to see you succeed.

A third tactic I use to gain respect at a new studio is to be quiet and observe everyone around me and their demeanor. I don't want to be the one loud person in a quiet office, so I follow the flow and do not want to rock the boat. I have already done some of that in the past, thinking I was going to shake up the whole studio and improve things left-and-right. Employers don't want this type of person. They have the studio setup as comfortably as they could possible manage, so you should be trying to fit in. You wouldn't crash a skateboarding competition with a unicycle, for instance...

The last strategy I use to gain acceptance and likability is for my boss as well as my colleagues. I don't ever, ever want to complain about the type of work that I am doing. Maybe in a fun way to show that I know what I'm doing and not specifically related personally to the boss's choice of giving me a particular task, but more of a "isn't it funny how...." and describe something about a particular piece of the task, but not the task itself. This is only if you don't have anything else to talk about. Other than that, be polite and thankful that you are getting tasks and don't complain early on or in public and especially not in the office, because the lead will think you are selfish and don't understand that all tasks are important and it is a team effort to make the game great. Sure, if you know people well enough and you feel like you are invincible then say anything you want as long as it's work-appropriate. I have seen people get away with it before but I honestly think they must sleep with one eye open. It is hard to be a dick at work and have everyone be okay with you, so don't shoot yourself in the foot--especially early on in your new position. If you are hired at the same time as someone else and you notice them getting better tasks than you, bring it up with your boss--but not immediately. You should wait a couple of weeks to see if it is actually true, then, go into your bosses office and make sure to close the door to show them respect for privacy. Let them know you are concerned that the tasks you are getting are not challenging enough for you and that you would prefer X (the type of task the other person has been doing, but don't make it a complaint and don't insult the other person). The boss should feel social pressure to not want to be mean to you, so you should be able to start getting those tasks to. I have had to resort to this at a couple of studios in the past, because somehow some people just get better tasks, and I believe that it is always because they know tons of people at the studio before they got hired their and they must be talking in secret about wanting to get better work, and they know a producer or someone who can make that happen. It sucks how office politics work, but you have to be ready to deal with them...

I hope that this has helped and if you want more tips check out this great article that highlights even more information, but is a little general in its content (because most people don't work in the video game industry).

http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/impress-job/

-Ken

Relocating to a New City for Work: How to Do It, Cheaply

I have recently relocated to a new city for work. I will be starting to work at Monolith, which is under WB Games as of now. This move has brought me from Austin, TX, to Kirkland, WA. I must say that the move and cost of living have impacted my finances and balancing everything is a necessity in order to survive and make it to your first day of work. Here are some tips that I have come up with and the procedures that I have taken to make the most out of relocation:

1. Make sure you have money saved before relocating. This is especially true if your position is planned to be temporary in the future (designers and artists), or if the company is not willing to pay relocation expenses. I thought that most companies would offer something for relocation, but this is not the case. Overall, my gas money through car travel, staying in inexpensive hotels, and stocking groceries and amenities items for a new apartment have been close to $1000, altogether. Add the cost of an apartment near $800-$1000 a month and the security deposit fee and a relocation will be about $2,500. And that is about the most inexpensive that I could make it.
2. Find a living condition with a short-term lease. My first choice was to do a short term lease in a shared housing situation, say three months, with month-to-month payment after that. You never know how long a contract position will last and you want to plan on being able to end your rental contract at the same time as your employer ends your employment contract. If you get a full time position out of it then it would be the time to look for an upgrade. I eventually ended up in a one bedroom apartment that was offering a 3 month or 11 month lease. I asked for a 6 month lease, since my contract is around 10 months in length and I did not want to have to pay the extra month on the 11 month term, but I also didn't want to ask for the full 10 months in case I find another job elsewhere or the contracted is ended early. This happened to a colleague of mine: his contract was ended a few months early and he is now staying in his apartment in New York to look for jobs because he doesn't want to deal with the hassle of subletting and finding someone else to cover his rent payment.
3. Try and find a place to live that is already furnished. An included bed, desk, and kitchen/cooking-ware and furniture is all a plus. This is why I usually prefer to share a house with someone rather than finding an apartment. Buying a new bed, desk, cleaning supplies, plates and kitchenware, etc., are all expensive and if you will be moving soon anyway you are not going to be able to store those things anywhere. I barely made my trip with all of my luggage packed into my smaller-than-average car, and now I have a couple of more items that I am either going to have to try and sell quickly on Craiglist, donate, or throw away once I move. The apartment I found thankfully had temporary tenants in mind and includes a bed, desk, microwave, mini-fridge, bookcase and chair. I've never seen anything like it before and it's in a nice building. SCORE!
4. For anything that you do need to buy that you won't be able to bring with you if you have to move again, buy it at Goodwill or a thrift store. I can't stress this enough: buying used and better-quality furniture is possibly the best tactic and secret for saving money than buying new junk that is higher priced. By the time you've used it for a few months it will used anyway. Also, this is the definition of recycling and you are reducing all of the unnecessary waste that is already putting too much stress on the environment. I like to go to the Goodwill locations in the best areas of town because they always have higher-quality items and are usually the same price as the poorer locations. Even though I can easily afford new items, I like to save money and use that for other things such as vacations or new video games or items that I am really passionate about: not another set of plates and eating utensils.
5. Don't make the trip a vacation unless you really needed one anyway. For my case, I had already taken a long vacation beforehand. I did not want to make additional stops along my road trip as this would add to extra nights booking hotels. Hotels are the single most expensive item in travel, other than gas costs--which are unpreventable--so I prefer to not have to spend many days on the road and get an apartment or room to rent as soon as I reach my location. After all, you are moving to work, not to have fun. You can have fun once you've settled down at your job and started earning a new paycheck and have some savings coming in. Again, I have savings already but I want to choose to go on a vacation on my own terms and I usually want to visit locations that can't be seen from a road trip (such as to other countries, or a beach or unique town that is away from common interstates).

This is my advice for relocating for a new job and keeping in practical. It is a bit daunting with the cost and time that it takes to get setup in a new location, and you still are not mentally-settled until a month or more. I think that most people are too afraid that they can't afford it because they are thinking in terms of retail and top price for everything, but this doesn't have to be the case. The last thing you want to do is to use a credit card for traveling and get into debt. Although I used mine so I don't overdraft my main checking account, if you are already in debt I suggest you learn how to handle your own financing before trying to use a credit card to solve your financial problems. You will be using the first couple of weeks at the job just to pay for your relocation expenses. I hope that I have encouraged you to take the risk and choose to relocate for a new opportunity. I am not sure about doing this if you do not already have a job secured, but it is definitely worth it if you do.

-Ken