Like most, I struggled with what to occupy this space with; should it be a blog about my current project I am working? Should I use this space to document my own personal growth and development as a game designer? Should this be more of a warning guide to people contemplating entering this industry?
While I’m still struggling with fully defining this space, I figured the best place to start is at the beginning. Most people expect a long and arduous climb to such an interesting career, but the truth of it all is that my experience, like many others I know, all happened because of circumstance. I’ve relayed this story countless times to different audiences: teachers, students, convention attendants, other game developers, but the biggest take away I always try to relay about my story is that it isn’t how you get it, but what you do with it.
It’s the dawning of a new millennium and I’m a fresh college student working towards a degree in child development. My father was offered a position in the bay area of San Francisco, and I decided to join my family in their relocation. The one caveat to joining them was that I would need to be employed and also continue with my education efforts there, in Alameda, California, but outside of that my parents were happy to have me come along.
I had my heart set on starting a career in child development at the time; I was working for a daycare as an infant care-giver and absolutely loved the role; I wanted to begin building a career on the notion of becoming a director or some other type of educator because of how great an experience I had with the staff I worked with, the parents, and their kids. So, after we moved in and got settled into our new home I had journeyed all over the East Bay looking for employment.
I had found a small church in San Lorenzo that was in need of teachers for a planned expansion, which would include the care for children between six months old to two years old, and was quickly hired with a round of other people. The expansion never happened though and I ended up caring for children starting at age three to six years old.
I’m fuzzy on the laws and logistics of these things now, but preschools have a certain set of rules and guidelines that by law must be followed. Some of those included the amount of children-to-teacher ratios which were (and still are) imperative to follow. For example, as someone responsible for an infant, I cannot be left alone with no more than four infants – if a fifth child appears, another teacher must be present to stay within ratio rules. Another common law or rule you may find in day care centers is that there are age restrictions on the max number of years from the youngest in the room to the oldest; the exact specifics elude me at the moment, but ultimately it’s to preserve age groups for a number of reasons, including safety.
Our director of the daycare had a daughter, Michelle, who would frequently be present after school hours. She was a fourth grader at the time and was having difficulty dealing with her parents’ divorce. Unfortunately, some of the kids started reporting abuse and bullying from this child to the teachers and I had started speaking up about the issue. The director ignored all claims and reports as “kids being kids” despite several different people coming forward and bringing up the topic. Even though she had numerous reports against her, the director still allowed her to interact with the other kids.
As a side note, this director had developed a reputation among the staff for having poor communication and management issues. A lot of the issues and concerns that circulated weren’t trivial, either. The complaints ranged from withholding income to harassment. Our only male employee at the time quit abruptly and unexpectedly; he mentioned to a few people after his departure that he had been experiencing sexual harassment from Linda that pushed him to the point of quitting. Some of the issues he experienced consisted of suggestive statements and unwanted physical advances. Basically, this woman was not the best fit for a position of power and at times it was a major point of contention among the staff. Countless complaints were made to upper management that often fell on deaf ears. It was a problematic environment all around.
One day during my shift we, all the children and remaining staff, were inside and it was close to closing time. I had started doing my typical inventory check of the remaining kids and noticed that Michelle, the director’s daughter, was holding a chair over another child that was on the ground in the fetal position. As the words were leaving my mouth “NO, STOP!” she had brought the chair down on the child with full force. I ran over to check on the kid to make sure he was okay. Between cries he told me Michelle was bullying him again. Upon hearing all this and seeing it first-hand, I yelled at her to go back to the director’s office and she is not allowed to be here in the room because of her actions. She was in big trouble and I’d be speaking to her mom shortly. Another teacher quickly came in and helped with the situation. A few moments later, I was up an on my way to follow-up with Michelle and talk to her mother.
I walk into her office and see that Michelle is bawling her eyes out screaming about how unfair I am to tell her she can’t play with her friends and how awful I am. I try to explain the situation, but her mother, my boss, would have none of that. Stunned and speechless, I finish out my day and clock out. It was a Friday and my family and I were expected to fly back to Texas for a week the next day for a week-long vacation. It seemed like a good opportunity for all parties to cool down and come back to the discussion more level-headed. I was wrong.
I come back from vacation, clock in, and within minutes I’m summoned to the office of the business manager of the church. Upon arrival to the upstairs office there waiting for me is Linda, my boss, and the church manager. She refuses to look at me the entire time I’m being told I’m being let go for vague reasons. I still don’t totally know what the official word of my release actually was either. Heartbroken and completely caught off guard, I found myself unexpectedly in need of new employment.
I started my employment search within days; each morning I’d scour the want ads in the newspaper over toast and tea. Days into my unemployment I notice Electronic Arts has a job listing for game testers. On a complete whim I sent in an application. Shortly after, I did my first phone screen with Roo, and was scheduled for an in-person interview soon after.
Electronic Arts: Redwood Shores is a large development and publishing campus located south of San Francisco. That year the publishing giant had a large amount of titles in need of QA for the final submission push to meet the November launch dates. They were looking to rapidly staff temporary quality assurance positions and had hundreds of new hire testers that summer, including myself. The on-boarding consisted of a two week training session done on campus where we learned everything from the different testing terms, like ad hoc, regression, and smoke testing, to proper bug reporting.
Once I completed training I was assigned to The Sims for Playstation 2 team. Maxis was one of the development teams creating the game and their studio was located inland in a small city outside of Oakland. Each day during the alpha cycle two people from our QA team would rotate and work onsite for the day. It was really cool to see the ins-and-outs of a development team and getting a glimpse of some of the challenges they faced on the road to beta.
My time with EA came to an end when my family and I made the decision to return to Texas at the beginning of winter. It would take a little over a year to find another QA role after coming back to Austin, but I’ve been in the business ever since.
I often look back on the events that brought me into this industry with mixed emotions. I’m so grateful to have been given an opportunity to get my foot in the door, but I also can’t help but feel a little guilty because of the circumstances surrounding my unexpected departure from the preschool I worked at. I feel like I failed those kids in a way; being forced out of my position while knowing the possibility of danger still lingered and unresolved ate at me for very long time. Eventually I had gotten up enough courage to look at the current staffing of my former employer and I was quite pleased with the results. Linda was no longer an employee and the person within the role of director was someone I respected and truly enjoyed working with. I can only hope that my release may have given more visibility to a large issue with the company, but that’s just speculation on my part.
Valerie Kromas 