After a year of unemployment and a year of prison

By Shane Pitman
in General Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

Proficient

jafoman

Posted
Posted

Hope to hear good news on the results of that interview!

Brings back some memories... I ran a BBS between 1991 and 1997. Was just looking to see if I could find some old Razor 1911 files around here and found a few.

Street Spyders... 8 Dual Standards... 9.5GB... Hehe... I remember my first Dual Standard (16.8K). I think I had to order a daughterboard to upgrade it to 33.6...

Good luck with the new job!

Enthusiast

heffe2001

Posted
Posted
Hope to hear good news on the results of that interview!

Brings back some memories... I ran a BBS between 1991 and 1997.  Was just looking to see if I could find some old Razor 1911 files around here and found a few.

Street Spyders... 8 Dual Standards... 9.5GB... Hehe... I remember my first Dual Standard (16.8K).  I think I had to order a daughterboard to upgrade it to 33.6...

Good luck with the new job!

585819664[/snapback]

I remember Street Spyders :). That was a long time ago tho :).

I also remember those old HST modems, I had the original HST (9600), and a Hayes 9600, just so I could connect to both types of board :).

Grand Master

Shane Pitman

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thank you all again. I'm nervous about tomorrow already. I really want this job, heck I really need this job. I've got my clothes all neatly pressed and ready to go. Just waiting for the morning to get here. I doubt I'll be able to sleep very well tonight, hehehe.

Mentor

dougal.s

Posted
Posted

Coffee dude! Just not too much, else you'll end up with the jitters!

Am sure you'll be fine. Just remember that whatever happens in interview, things can't get an worse than they are, and things will probably look good! :D

Best of luck again.

Dougal.

Veteran

leedogg

Posted
Posted

Some tips:

Dont talk your way out of a job. Stay focused on the questions they ask, if they ask a broad generic question, ask questions of your own to narrow it down.

Asking questions is very important, it creates dialog and shows you can think:

*clarify your understanding of the company and the position responsibilities.

*indicate your grasp of the fundamental issues discussed so far

*reveal your ability to probe beyond the superficial

-Whats the most important issue facing your department?

-How can I help you accomplish this objective?

-Is there any particular skill or attitude you feel is critical to getting the job done?

They will often ask you questions such as:

-Why do you want this job?

-what are your strengths? weaknesses? (talk about how you deal with weaknesses or turn them into an advantage)

-where do you see yourself in 5 years?

-what are your personal goals?

good luck.

Enthusiast

aximxp

Posted
Posted

Good luck man, what better what to show you know security holes in and out then by cracking them. The prison system is a joke, instead of trying to reform hardened criminals it is just a violent atmosphere that promotes the same behaviour and mentality that got many of the criminals in there to begin with. It sucks having to spend your time in a facilies like that..

Again all the best on your interview, hopefully everything works out for you

Enthusiast

Neil Dejyothin

Posted
Posted

Shane?

I am very familiar with Razor1911 but didn?t realise what had happened until I read this post today. I don?t have any anger or resentment towards you but I would like to offer an alternative perspective from another point of view.

I think what you were doing was a serious crime although I sympathise that your experiences whilst serving punishment for that crime were unwarranted.

I have worked in games for seven years and have friends and colleagues who have dedicated enormous chunks of their lives making games or software. I have seen some friends dedicate half-a-decade to working on a single title and the way they have busted their gut in that time has been nothing short of breathtaking. I have always been amazed and inspired by the commitment shown and it?s had a very encouraging effect on me as a person.

For some of us it?s a lifetimes worth of work and can bring very little or no reward at the end. Can you imagine how you would feel if you have put five long years into a project only for a review to totally pan the game? They can never appreciate the amount of hard work and effort that went into the development, regardless of the end quality of the product. No one that I have ever worked with intentionally released something poor and if that happened, it wasn?t for the lack of trying.

Then you can argue that seeing the game on the shelf for as little as ?34.99 is somewhat miniscule for what you went through and to put the icing on the cake, it?s probably being heavily pirated and that can be totally soul destroying.

When I see people complaining about the price of games (or using that as an excuse to pirate games or use pirated games) I fail to understand why? Today?s prices are great value for money in comparison to other forms of entertainment.

I watch my favourite football (soccer) team every home game for 90 minutes at ?28 a time or when I take my girlfriend out to the movies and a meal, can spend anywhere between ?30-?100. I know friends who blow ?50 on a night out at the pub and not think anything of it. These aren?t complaints or criticisms; I enjoy every one of them and the entertainment and pleasure always outweighs the price.

Piracy though is bad news for us and worse than any negative press or pricing complaints. There was one game I worked on in the past where I only made it home six times in the last seven weeks of the project before it went Gold. There has been times where I?ve done some gruelling stints such as only having 12 hours sleep in 12 days amongst various others.

The worst aspect though is a lot of the companies I have worked on in the past have relied on one game?s sales to survive, and for some of the games I?ve worked on, for every copy sold, an estimated ten were pirated.

For all the hard work and pressure surrounding a games release the most stressful and worst part is undoubtedly when the game has gone Gold. Over the next few weeks you are bricking yourself every day hoping that the game isn?t cracked or pirated before it hits the shops.

The feeling of not knowing whether you?ll pull through in terms of sales or whether the company will survive is really horrible. You don?t know whether you will still be in a job at the end after everything you?ve gone through and that can be very difficult to swallow or accept.

I have a lot of friends who were honest, hard-working and outright geniuses at their jobs, but they lost them due to the company having its games splattered out there on the market before the game hit the shops. Successful games don?t necessarily yield very high profits and the industry is forever shrinking because of unfortunate issues like these.

What a lot of people also don?t realise is how close knit and family like a lot of games companies are. The people in those companies are full of passion and working together for many years at a time. Most of the people I?ve come across only care about making great games and doing the best they can to please others, which is the real shame, because the consumer never sees that vibe or excitement during the development period.

And well, that?s all I wanted to say on that matter. I don?t doubt for one moment that you?ve had to go through quite an ordeal for your crimes or that the crime you committed doesn?t justify what you?ve experienced in prison? but there are other people?s lives that invariably get screwed up by a culmination of issues like piracy.

Onto your experiences inside, I have a friend who recently came out of prison and was in a very similar set of circumstances that you experienced after very harshly being put away for ABH, which in hindsight and on reflection of what happened was pretty absurd for such an innocuous and one off incident.

I know how much he regrets what happened and also how upset he was to be treated like a criminal and locked up with thugs, rapists, murderers and drug addicts when he is so far from any of those things that it?s almost difficult to believe that he was sentenced in the first place.

Anyway?

Good luck and all the best for the future. I really do hope things turn out for the better for you from now on.

Proficient

emel

Posted
Posted (edited)

best of luck man.. when I didnt have a PS2 or XBOX.. I used to downloa games from razer911 and some other groups.. I dont know if all them exists yet.. dont check the PC games now..

as for the last responce.. i agree with you 100% but I think the matter is much better than you described.. nobody gets screwed hard over piracy.. MPAA cries for piracy.. but for a long time I have never seen any mainstream movie dont earn some kind of money.. even the worst movies easily earns $5-$15 million easily.. let alone top movies.. same goes to PC and Console games.. only people gets scrwed over is small software writers who dont have any good source of incomes.. and artists never gets unpayed.. everything else is for publication houses to eat..

Edited by emel
Grand Master

Shane Pitman

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Well, I just got home from the interview. It seemed to go well. I interviewed first with someone from the HR department. That went really well. I hit it off pretty well with the guy that was interviewing me. After that I met with the head of the IS department and one of the IS network admins. That interview was a little more intense, which was to be expected. I think it went fairly well. I answered all of their questions honestly, and when they asked me about things that I don't know or have very little background in, I was very upfront with them and I didn't try to bluff my way through. For the most part everything they have detailed in the job description matches my qualifications. I called my friend that works there as soon as I got home, and he said that he'd spoke to the network admin that had sat in on the interview and that the guy said that I seemed like a good fit for the position. He hadn't gotten to talk to the IS department head yet, but he's going to try to get some feedback from him later today. All in all I think it went well. I think they're interviewing 3 other people this week and plan to hire someone by the first of next week. So, now it's just a waiting game.

I can't thank you all enough for the kind words and well wishes. This is really a great online community, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Edit: <--- hehe, just popped 200 on this one

Contributor

tga

Posted
Posted
Well, I just got home from the interview. It seemed to go well. I interviewed first with someone from the HR department. That went really well. I hit it off pretty well with the guy that was interviewing me. After that I met with the head of the IS department and one of the IS network admins. That interview was a little more intense, which was to be expected. I think it went fairly well. I answered all of their questions honestly, and when they asked me about things that I don't know or have very little background in, I was very upfront with them and I didn't try to bluff my way through. For the most part everything they have detailed in the job description matches my qualifications. I called my friend that works there as soon as I got home, and he said that he'd spoke to the network admin that had sat in on the interview and that the guy said that I seemed like a good fit for the position. He hadn't gotten to talk to the IS department head yet, but he's going to try to get some feedback from him later today. All in all I think it went well. I think they're interviewing 3 other people this week and plan to hire someone by the first of next week. So, now it's just a waiting game.

I can't thank you all enough for the kind words and well wishes. This is really a great online community, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Edit: <--- hehe, just popped 200 on this one

585827857[/snapback]

Sounds like it went well, I'm sure you'll get the job. :)

Veteran

Makeshift Hammer

Posted
Posted
Well, I just got home from the interview. It seemed to go well. I interviewed first with someone from the HR department. That went really well. I hit it off pretty well with the guy that was interviewing me. After that I met with the head of the IS department and one of the IS network admins. That interview was a little more intense, which was to be expected. I think it went fairly well. I answered all of their questions honestly, and when they asked me about things that I don't know or have very little background in, I was very upfront with them and I didn't try to bluff my way through. For the most part everything they have detailed in the job description matches my qualifications. I called my friend that works there as soon as I got home, and he said that he'd spoke to the network admin that had sat in on the interview and that the guy said that I seemed like a good fit for the position. He hadn't gotten to talk to the IS department head yet, but he's going to try to get some feedback from him later today. All in all I think it went well. I think they're interviewing 3 other people this week and plan to hire someone by the first of next week. So, now it's just a waiting game.

I can't thank you all enough for the kind words and well wishes. This is really a great online community, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Edit: <--- hehe, just popped 200 on this one

585827857[/snapback]

We'll keep our fingers crossed til then :p

Best of luck, hope you can come back with good news.

(Y)

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.