So after the 1st interview, I kept sending resume after resume to lots of different companies, but all of which are to no avail.. Maybe end of the year was not the right time to look for a job? Or maybe I was out of luck? Either way, it gave me a lot of free time to do whatever I wanted to, not that I can do much in the first place anyway.. So I just enjoyed my life while not giving up on the job hunting, going out with my unemployed friends and had fun, a lot :)
Almost two weeks after the Razer Terence incident (with his iPad), Siu dropped me a message, letting me know that there was a job opportunity as Game Programmer.. I was out at that moment, but when I got back to my MBP I immediately sent out my resume to the email mentioned in the message, pretty sure it was Dec 6 that day.. I didn't have high hope for this one, because there was no detail whatsoever about the hiring company..
A few days later, on Dec 9, I got a call from some guy in the morning.. He said something about my resume and application, and I went "Which company are you again? And when did I sent you my resume?", in my defense I was half asleep and I had like dozens of resumes and applications out there.. I managed to grasp a bit of what he said (still half asleep), and later that day he dropped me an email saying that he was from Personae Studios, which I never heard of before in my life.. But apparently I did send them my resume and application as Game Programmer, so I guess this must be the company my friend Siu told me about a couple of days before.. Moreover they "invited" me to come for a short test of my C++ game programming ability, which I can proudly said that I sucked at it :) And it was on OS X platform, my stingy university's lesson were all done with Windows, I mean WTF with that!? I know that my programming sucked in the first place, but they wanted me to do it with a different OS, was there even a slightest bit of chance for me to get this one done? Well I kinda had 3 days to learn about programming in OS X because the test and interview was set on the 13th, but still it was fairly difficult for me to study seriously with all the laziness floating around the room :)
More importantly, I didn't forget to do a background research on said Personae Studios.. It looked quite promising, as they were "the largest iPhone game developer in Singapore, and the first within the country to enter the iPhone Developer program.", yeah right.. And then they said that "Of the 11 applications we have launched, two have achieved rankings within the "top 25" in various markets. We are also proud to have developed Singapore's first universal iPad game." Wow, FIRST universal iPad game, doesn't that sound cool and everything? Well those bullshits got me just nice, and I actually download some of their (free) apps and study C++ for the little time I had before the test and interview day..
Little time indeed, and then Dec 13 arrived.. My interview was scheduled at 1 p.m., much later than my first (failed) interview, but I'm still excited nevertheless.. I have always wanted to be a game tester, obviously so that I could play all the new games I wanted to, but for now game programmer is the earliest step.. So off I go to the appointed location, well I was told to check their website for directions beforehand, at Block 212, Hougang Street 21, #03-349 & #04-349.. Now first thing first, I'm not a Singaporean.. I have no idea whatsoever where Hougang was, or what it looked like.. But I assumed that Personae Studios was a big (since it took 2 levels) and prestigious (well, they were the 1st for every crap) "company".. I never even once thought that the word "Studios" used meant that they were small and, well, crappy.. Now, back to the adventure, I can't recall exactly but I'm pretty sure I went there by bus.. I alighted at some unfamiliar part of Singapore that I've never been to before in my whole 3 years of study.. And guess what? IT'S HDB APARTMENTS EVERYWHERE..
Funny, huh? I longed for some big stories buildings full of workers and different companies, but instead I was given HDB apartments full of old people chatting here and there, sipping their coffee while listening to some old Chinese songs, I mean, really old.. Well the sight of it kinda discouraged me at that time, but I thought, a job is a job, and as long as they paid for it, why not? Besides, I was already there, and no harm in just continuing, right? Right? WRONG!
I arrived much earlier than expected, a little bit more than 12 I guess.. I thought of lazing around before going to the appointed place, but apparently it was very difficult to find the said units.. Even thought it was the right block, they were separated into 2 different smaller blocks, and none of them had elevators.. So I went up and down and here and there for quiet some time before I actually arrived at said place *panting*, they didn't even have the word "Personae Studios" written anywhere, only the image of the stupid mime-clown logo and other name I can't remember, obviously coz it's not important now.. 12.30 p.m., and I wait.. I saw a couple of guys wearing Monkey Sailor T-shirt (apparently it's one of their so-called game) going back and forth the 2 HDB units, and it was around 12.50 that I decided to knock on #04-349's door (written on #03-349's door: Guests please proceed to level 4 or something like that).. A guy came answering the door, I told him "Hi, I come for the interview", and he let me in to..
(continued to part 2 since it's too long and some of you might be bored to death if you decided to finish a post before going to bed)
No comments:
Post a Comment