Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Germany! What Am I Doing Here?

Those of you who read my past blogs are probably expecting another game review. The truth is that its been a fair whle since I really played much new so I don't have anything too interesting to say there. Instead, I spent most of the last year the same way I spent the year before that - unemployed, and trying to maintain a semblance of sanity while so. I scoured job openings, applied for countless different ones of all flavors (executive, senior & ordinary producer, creative director, designer, and programmer). I would reshape myself and my presentation for each role and plow through, trying my hardest to project that yes, THIS was the job I both wanted and was ideally suited for. Whether that was running a AAA gaming studio, producing WWF wrestling titles for chinese distrubution, or programming medical imaging software, by golly that was exactly who I was. I waded through a zillion applications, phone screenings, interviews, panels, flights, etc... and had tons of close calls, but to no avail. Stephanie worked, having good success at her writing, but it paid badly, and I scraped up the occasional contracting job to augment, but mostly we just burned through our savings, our 401k, my portion of my grandparent's estate, and accumulated credit card debt.

It was pretty horrible in a 'try not to show it' sort of way, and feeling increasingly desperate as time went on. We eventually figured out that there was no way our house was ever going to recover, so we may as well stop paying on that. Eventually we were simply running out of time and I vowed I was going to land _something_ one way or another. I would do it by force of will alone. I'm kind of a pushy bastard when it comes right down to it, so this should be doable.

I applied for another batch of jobs and got a number of good responses. By simple act of will I stopped biting my fingernails after 20+ years of doing so because I thought it made me look better for interviewing. I took a 10 hour programming test for a company in Germany figuring if nothing else it would be good practice (yeah, do _that_ for fun sometime). I had one company actually tell my recruiter they were offering me the job (to largely run their company) and then... change their mind at the last minute! I had the company that makes the game I play the most (Riot - maker of League of Legends, see past blog) offer to make a kick-ass Design Producer role just for me, and then I must have fumbled one of my last couple interviews and they didn't make the offer either. And oddly enough, the place in Germany offered me the job. The pay was terrible (no, I mean *really* terrible), but it was located in Germany, right on the French border, about 2 miles outside the city of Strasbourg. As an added bonus, one of the producers made a point of visiting me while he was taking his US vacation, was a pretty cool guy, and said "come to Germany, please!"

Now two years ago I probably would have looked at that and said yeah right and skipped it. But really when you think about it, you know how you have those life moments that you always look back on and say "but what if I had done that?" Yeah, this was clearly going to be one of those moments. I thought about the fact that my wife would really like to see Europe. I thought about the fact that my kids would have stories to tell about it for all their lives. I thought about the fact that continuing to be unemployed in America really wasn't that compelling as an alternative. And I thought... hm.... I could say yes.

I told Stephanie I was willing to take the job. I think she was just dazed by it. She had wanted me to say yes, but I don't think ever believed I would. We arranged to sell the cars, as much furniture as seemed practical (no where near enough), packed and prepped. The company said they'd pay to fly us over, stay somewhere for a while, hire a broker to help find a permanent spot, pay to move our stuff, etc. The final contract said all that only it also said for no more than one month's salary's total cost (doh). In the end we sucked down the price of moving, sold some furniture, packed about half our stuff, 3 beds, 1 folding table, and a chest (and no other furniture), and walked away from everything else (tvs, furniture, house, etc...). I flew over two weeks ahead of the family, worked nonstop from the time I landed, and all of a sudden we were in Germany.

I admit on reading this again to myself it all sounds a bit grim, but I wanted to give some honest context on how I got here. On a more positive note, we're here for an ADVENTURE, and we're going to live and breathe it every day. We do try new things, meet new people, and have a wealth of experiences we would never have come into contact with before. I moved all my childhood, but never to somewhere as resoundingly NEW as this. So let's see where this wild ride takes us!

No comments:

Post a Comment