What have you done for me lately?

I have a close industry friend that has been trying to find Producer work in the industry.  She is very talented and has worked on over thirty games, two of which have been designated as AAA sales/critical status.  

Unfortunately her amazing resume has a time and content deviation lapse.  She took off a year to raise her child.  When she came back she worked as a Creative Producer on a few social web and Myspace games.  

She now can’t find production work (premier publishers) in consoles or even in social games.  It seems that she doesn’t have the current experience companies are looking for.

What is amazing to her is that these companies post a long list of requirements for a position, when in fact only one criterion is considered – current shipping experience.

The fact is, at least on the production/designer employment picture, companies seem not care about your history/pedigree…even if it stellar.  

I wondering why this is the case?

Software production and design core knowledge and experience does change from year to year (agile, scrum, larger teams, outsourcing, technology), but the fundamentals don’t.

She recently was passed over for a Producer gig for a Facebook project with a major publisher.  Initially there was interest but then a mysterious rejection.  Uniquely, she was able to get details from the Sr. Recruiter (a feat in itself) about the rejection.  

The hiring manager wanted someone who has shipped a Facebook game from start to finish.  Not someone who worked on one aspect of it.  She counter with her vast experience in making quality games…but her argument was not accepted/validated.

She asked me this question.  How can a publisher hired a new candidate with one year of experience over someone with total experience?

Frankly, I see both sides.  I think publishers are enjoying a real ‘buyers market’ on talent.  With so much talent available, they can be ultra-selective on their hiring.  Even networking can’t help you if you don’t have the perfect experience/platform path.  

To put in baseball (sports) terms, it would be as if Roy Halladay wanted to find a new team but all the teams rejected him because of his age and that he couldn’t throw a knuckleball. 

However, it makes me wonder how/why the industry that decries the lack of experienced Producers and Designers and continues to release subpar quality games.  Why doesn’t experience count for more in our industry?