My #gamejobs love story

It all started some time ago when, while a little bit reluctant, I opened a twitter account following the advice by @bbrathwaite on this post: Why Game Developers Should Get on Twitter.

Then I started to follow game developers, some fun people, peers from my university, among others. Sometime around the second semester of 2010, the amazing community manager of the IGDA, @CertainlySocial,  started to run the #gamejobs hashtag, and he has been running it quite professionally.

So I obviously kept a column on my twitter client, Tweetdeck, with the hashtag to look for opportunities. This was close to the time I was looking to take a leap to a job outside my home country. I did all my “homework”, with tasks such as having an updated Linked In profile, my own website, and engaging with several game developers online and offline in Chile, while watching for opportunities published on twitter and many other websites.

Until one day, I saw a tweet by @hilanneg, looking for people to work on social games. After exchanging a few messages and being truly open and honest about my background and aspirations, she arranged a meeting with people at an emerging company, Vostu. The first interview couldn’t be done because of conflicting agendas, and a second one was scheduled, but that one failed too. Then, after @hilanneg casted a “third time is a charm” spell, we finally had the interview!

Vostu has its HQ in New York, with offices in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. So the conversation was to explore the possibility of working at the Buenos Aires office, which was the easiest way to get all the paperwork done smoothly. After the first interview, I had a second one, and then after a few quick negotiations, an offer was made and I accepted it!, now I’m Senior Game Analyst-Designer at Vostu  .

The whole process until acceptance took around 10 days in the middle of December. After that, it’s been a storm of things to do: closing my projects and duties in Chile, arranging things to move to Argentina, moving, etc. Upon my arrival I started to work immediately on the latest company game and after almost three months that passed faster than I’d like to believe, we’re live! The game is Megacity, a city building game for Orkut, designed specifically for Brazil.

And this actually happened. It works!. I don’t have enough words to thank Brenda for encouraging game developers to join twitter, Ryan for taming the wild world of social media to run #gamejobs,Hilary for connecting me with my current employers, and the people at @vostu for receiving me with open arms, helping me to relocate and to bring my best to my current job.

This post is to express gratitude to all of them, to share my “love story” and to encourage others to get the most of #gamejobs, #gamehires, and social media in general.

Thank you, to all of you, again. Yours truly, Raul  .

P.S.: If you haven’t yet joined twitter and the game developers community on it, please also read another amazing story about #ims211.

P.S. II: This was originally published in my blog.