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Career Epiphany
10 years ago
General
On Sunday, October 11, 2015, I had a moment of clarity in which I realized something that should have been obvious to me: I want to work in the game industry.
For those that don't know, I've been feeling very uncertain about my career in law for the past few months. I absolutely don't like the field of law I'm in (personal injury), and I've been looking to get into another field of law in the hopes that I'll have a more positive experience. But then I read a few articles that gave me the hard truth about my future in that career path - it's gonna suck. For starters, it is immensely difficult to change legal fields unless you have attended a top law school or graduated at the top of your class (and I have done neither. Case Western is in the top 50, but these people are expecting Harvard or similar). Like most jobs these days, they expect you to have years of experience in that field before hiring you, and they're only willing to give you room to learn if you were at the top of your class already. So already just getting out of personal injury is going to be an uphill battle.
Next, lawyers are a very classist bunch. Even among co-workers, there's a bunch of cliques and lawyers comparing themselves and each other based on their schools or past jobs. It is just like high school. To make matters worse, all that matters to most bosses is the bottom line - how much of your time are you willing to devote to making the firm money? Now, that's not too uncommon in most white-collar jobs, but here you are actively competing against your co-workers. Bosses know that there are hundreds of other lawyers that will happily take your position, so unless you put in 60-80 hour work weeks, they won't hesitate to replace you. ....Why the hell would I "aspire" to work in such an environment? Let alone actively devote time and money to try and work there? I'm already a second-class citizen among other lawyers because I didn't go to a top law school or do law review, so why should I put up with a career where I won't like the job, I won't like the people I work with, and I won't even be treated with respect?
So I began to look into alternative careers - careers in which I could put my law degree to work while not actually being a lawyer. Surprisingly, there are a lot of options out there. For example, teaching and human resources work are both possibilities, and both are very appealing to me. But then, on that fateful Sunday, I was listening to a podcast by the American Bar Association about alternative careers, and one line really struck home. "Follow your passions, and the rest will come." Almost immediately after hearing that, I was reminded that I am extremely passionate about creating fantasy worlds and characters. When I did my Pathfinder campaign, I would spend days writing and re-writing the plot so that it would make sense, have an engaging story, and give the characters personality. Likewise, when making new characters for tabletop games, I'll devote hours, and sometimes even days, to find just the right concept for them. And I don't even have to be asked to do that kind of work. I'll take time off of my actual job or work through my lunch hour on these projects, and then come home and work on them more instead of playing games. So there's definitely passion there, but does that translate to making games?
I think it does, especially for game producers and designers. And wanting this kind of job isn't exactly new to me - I've been thinking about being a game developer since high school. My initial major in college was even computer science so that I could learn programming and be a game programmer, but then I found that I couldn't handle Calc 2, so I switched to political science. That aside, I've identified four major hurdles I'll need to jump through if I want to get a foothold in the game industry:
1) I need to find out if I'll actually enjoy the day-to-day life there. From what I've heard so far, I think I will, but I am trying to do some informational interviews to find out exactly what would be expected of me.
2) I would most likely need to move somewhere, either the west coast, New York, or Texas. I'd prefer the west coast out of these since I do have some family there, but I would be very sad to leave everyone behind here. My family, my friends, the conventions I attend each year... I would probably only be able to keep attending Anthrocon, but perhaps MCFC would be possible too since that would give me time to visit my family. On top of that, I would have to endure the financial burden of the move, selling my house, and then finding a place to live out there. Fortunately I have a good amount of savings I can access if need be, but I don't want to jump into this without being convinced that it will work.
3) I need to make a game. Everyone in the industry has told me that if you want to work in the game industry, you have to make games. So a friend of mine has introduced me to Game Maker, and I'm going to get to work right away. With luck I'll have something finished within a few months, and maybe I'll have enough decent games finished within a year or two to have a decent portfolio.
4) I might need a transition job. If I need to wait until my portfolio is enough to get a job in the industry, what am I going to do in the meantime? I'll need to find another job that will be at least tolerable and let me keep saving money so that I can afford the move. Now with luck I'll be able to get an entry-level job in the industry, perhaps as a QA tester, that will get me started, but I doubt that will pay enough to afford the cost of living in any of those areas. Either way, that's something else I'll have to think about after the interviews.
So in sum, I'm facing a pretty life-changing decision. Blowing my life savings for a shot in the video game industry sounds pretty bad, but maybe it's just what I need to have a career I'm passionate about. Either way, I'll keep you all posted, and I would greatly appreciate any advice you'd be willing to share.
Thank you very much.
For those that don't know, I've been feeling very uncertain about my career in law for the past few months. I absolutely don't like the field of law I'm in (personal injury), and I've been looking to get into another field of law in the hopes that I'll have a more positive experience. But then I read a few articles that gave me the hard truth about my future in that career path - it's gonna suck. For starters, it is immensely difficult to change legal fields unless you have attended a top law school or graduated at the top of your class (and I have done neither. Case Western is in the top 50, but these people are expecting Harvard or similar). Like most jobs these days, they expect you to have years of experience in that field before hiring you, and they're only willing to give you room to learn if you were at the top of your class already. So already just getting out of personal injury is going to be an uphill battle.
Next, lawyers are a very classist bunch. Even among co-workers, there's a bunch of cliques and lawyers comparing themselves and each other based on their schools or past jobs. It is just like high school. To make matters worse, all that matters to most bosses is the bottom line - how much of your time are you willing to devote to making the firm money? Now, that's not too uncommon in most white-collar jobs, but here you are actively competing against your co-workers. Bosses know that there are hundreds of other lawyers that will happily take your position, so unless you put in 60-80 hour work weeks, they won't hesitate to replace you. ....Why the hell would I "aspire" to work in such an environment? Let alone actively devote time and money to try and work there? I'm already a second-class citizen among other lawyers because I didn't go to a top law school or do law review, so why should I put up with a career where I won't like the job, I won't like the people I work with, and I won't even be treated with respect?
So I began to look into alternative careers - careers in which I could put my law degree to work while not actually being a lawyer. Surprisingly, there are a lot of options out there. For example, teaching and human resources work are both possibilities, and both are very appealing to me. But then, on that fateful Sunday, I was listening to a podcast by the American Bar Association about alternative careers, and one line really struck home. "Follow your passions, and the rest will come." Almost immediately after hearing that, I was reminded that I am extremely passionate about creating fantasy worlds and characters. When I did my Pathfinder campaign, I would spend days writing and re-writing the plot so that it would make sense, have an engaging story, and give the characters personality. Likewise, when making new characters for tabletop games, I'll devote hours, and sometimes even days, to find just the right concept for them. And I don't even have to be asked to do that kind of work. I'll take time off of my actual job or work through my lunch hour on these projects, and then come home and work on them more instead of playing games. So there's definitely passion there, but does that translate to making games?
I think it does, especially for game producers and designers. And wanting this kind of job isn't exactly new to me - I've been thinking about being a game developer since high school. My initial major in college was even computer science so that I could learn programming and be a game programmer, but then I found that I couldn't handle Calc 2, so I switched to political science. That aside, I've identified four major hurdles I'll need to jump through if I want to get a foothold in the game industry:
1) I need to find out if I'll actually enjoy the day-to-day life there. From what I've heard so far, I think I will, but I am trying to do some informational interviews to find out exactly what would be expected of me.
2) I would most likely need to move somewhere, either the west coast, New York, or Texas. I'd prefer the west coast out of these since I do have some family there, but I would be very sad to leave everyone behind here. My family, my friends, the conventions I attend each year... I would probably only be able to keep attending Anthrocon, but perhaps MCFC would be possible too since that would give me time to visit my family. On top of that, I would have to endure the financial burden of the move, selling my house, and then finding a place to live out there. Fortunately I have a good amount of savings I can access if need be, but I don't want to jump into this without being convinced that it will work.
3) I need to make a game. Everyone in the industry has told me that if you want to work in the game industry, you have to make games. So a friend of mine has introduced me to Game Maker, and I'm going to get to work right away. With luck I'll have something finished within a few months, and maybe I'll have enough decent games finished within a year or two to have a decent portfolio.
4) I might need a transition job. If I need to wait until my portfolio is enough to get a job in the industry, what am I going to do in the meantime? I'll need to find another job that will be at least tolerable and let me keep saving money so that I can afford the move. Now with luck I'll be able to get an entry-level job in the industry, perhaps as a QA tester, that will get me started, but I doubt that will pay enough to afford the cost of living in any of those areas. Either way, that's something else I'll have to think about after the interviews.
So in sum, I'm facing a pretty life-changing decision. Blowing my life savings for a shot in the video game industry sounds pretty bad, but maybe it's just what I need to have a career I'm passionate about. Either way, I'll keep you all posted, and I would greatly appreciate any advice you'd be willing to share.
Thank you very much.
