I was recently messaged by a user who inquired about how I came to be employed here at GameSpot as a Data Producer, and I thought the subject worthy of a blog entry. The following is that blog entry.

I grew up in Massachusetts and went to college in Connecticut. Going into college I didn't really have any idea what I wanted to major in, so I chose a liberal arts school (Wesleyan University) that would allow me to take a variety of classes - one of my academic goals. The other two were a) study abroad (Costa Rica!) without too much trouble, and b) become fluent in Spanish. I accomplished these goals by majoring in Spanish Literature. When I graduated, I got a job at GameSpot, easy peasy one two threesy. You wouldn't believe how eager they were to bring my knowledge of Don Quijote to bear on the site.

Riiight. So. I graduated and my partner and I decided to move someplace cool. We both love the Northeast where we grew up, but she and I were eager to try somewhere new. Where's cool? The Bay Area. We packed the car, took a two week road trip along I-40, stayed with her sister for two weeks while we found an apartment, and moved in. Then came jobs.

My college jobs - filing in the Admissions Office, waiting tables at the faculty eatery, teaching archery at summer camp - didn't really turn me on to any particular career path, so I was pretty much looking for anything that would keep me sheltered and fed. I worked temp jobs for the better part of a year (moderately to intensely bogus), then got two part-time jobs that lasted me roughly two years. I taught SAT and GRE prep courses for the Princeton Review, and worked as an Online Project Manager for a big publishing company. The latter of the two was a lot of processing data across different formats, sitting on my couch with my laptop, and watching DVDs. Fun times, though not particularly engaging or fulfilling.

Man, I do like to take the long way 'round sometimes, don't I. Thanks for stayin' with, I promise we're getting to the actual game-related part now!

So, I spent a fair amount of time thinking about what kind of job I'd like to have, and came to the conclusion that I liked writing, and I liked video games, so why not try writing about video games for a living? Sounds pretty righteous! So I started scouring Craigslist and job sites for relevant opportunities and applying when I found them. I was pretty uniformly unqualified for the jobs I was applying for, so I went in search of a way to get me some qualifications.

I wrote a few reviews for a random wikimedia site, which actually led to my first contact with GameSpot. I had applied for an editor position and was travelling to L.A. to attend a gaming conference in an effort to try to make some contacts, meet some folks, you know, network. A GameSpot Data Producer called me and told me that he and two compatriots were going to be scouting the convention scene and invited little ol' me to have lunch with them. As you can imagine, I was super jazzed. The lunch was good fun, but turned out to be a dead end. Though I did have fun AND beat the Frag Dolls in a Halo 2 slayer match, I hadn't quite leveled up enough yet.

My hopes for GameSpot employment got a big boost when I met Rich Gallup at mutual friend's apartment, and from then on every out-of-reach job I applied to had the vast influence of GameSpot TV's host-with-the-most behind it. Despite this totally sweet hook-up, I still had no luck. There was still one trifiling little detail missing - actual relevant experience.

That bit - really the catalyst that made all my efforts bear fruit - came in the classic form of an unpaid internship. I found a listing for "Editorial Intern" at GamesRadar on Craigslist, and began working there two days a week. My time there was split between writing - news stories and occasionally previews - and data production - processing screens, movies, articles, and the like. It was fantastic!

Finally, I felt like I was getting somewhere with this whole "career" idea. And I was! Six months later when an opening for Data Producer popped up at GameSpot, I was on it like flies on rice. Or was it white on... bah, no matter. I was in. I had the experience and I had the connection. At my interview, the first thing Eddie said to me was, "So everytime you apply here I get Rich Gallup filling up my inbox! I take it you know him?" or something like that. The man came through big time, and I have yet to buy him lunch - a situation that must be rectified.

And that's how I came to work at the 'Spot. The morals of this saga are myriad. Internships actually work like people say they do. Networking (essentially being friendly) works. Your college major doesn't lock you in to a certain field. Most importantly (and most cliche-edly), you can achieve what you want to achieve, however unrealistic that thing may be. Is that silly cliche universally true? Probably not. But if you don't believe it, you're screwed from the start. So believe it! I did it, and so can you! All you have to do is set your mind to it, send me a sizable check, and then go for it! Yay for you!

Whammy. Nothin' like a good long blog entry to start the weekend off right. Thanks to ghostrc for setting that one off! Time to head east and fire up the grill. Cheers!