The Job Market

The job market today is terrible. Landing a good job is a hard task to accomplish in this economy. Companies take advantage of the fact that there's a surplus in people looking for work. People looking for a job are desperate to apply for anything. Many us are still putting out the effort to attempt to find something that we'll be happy with and continue to be a productive part of society.

Expectations From Companies

There seem to be a lot of companies out there with high expectations. They want people who can do everything for little pay. I've seen ads where companies are looking for someone who is going to do work that is above and beyond (or below) the job title. They need someone is not only going to manage a project, but someone is going to do some development, art, marketing, testing, and whatever else they need someone to do. There's nothing wrong with doing more than your title asks, except when it's too excessive and the pay isn't there to back it up. As with any job you'll always be doing more than what your job title should entail. There's a point where the line must be drawn. It's physically impossible to do the job of 5 people at the same time. The second issue I've seen is that companies are looking for a lot of experience without the proper job title or pay. For example they might be looking to fill a Jr. position with someone who has 5 years experience. Most people with 5 years experience would be looking for something better. Most people who are quality employees move up to better positions. (This isn't always the case. It depends on the position and the company.) Aside from looking for specific years of experience they may want specific experience for the job. They may want someone who knows how to use a certain program or knows how to do a certain task. When these are recommended traits it's not a problem, but when they are required it can be concerning. It plays a bigger part when it's not something someone in that particular position would use or if it's something that most people wouldn't be familiar with.

The expectations that companies have aren't always as stern as they appear on paper. Yes they might be looking for someone who has 5 years experience, but someone who only has 3 and can prove themselves will do. It's hard to tell by ads if they are willing to be flexible or if they are hard set on their requirements. There are also people that get in desperate positions and despite being worth more will take whatever job they need to survive.

Standing Out From the Crowd

The biggest issue facing those looking for jobs are all the other people looking for jobs as well. How do you grab the attention of someone who has a couple hundred resumés? How do you prove your worth and experience? How do you tell them that despite not having the exact experience they are looking for that you are still qualified and have the drive to learn anything new? If you get an interview, how do you stand out without looking strange? These are questions that I wish I knew the answers to. The point is that there are a ton of people applying for jobs. A lot of them don't have experience and you may get passed up with them.


The whole process of looking for a job is a hard. For someone, like myself, who spends 1 hour+ dedicating each cover letter it's such a let down to not hear back from someone. If you get lucky enough to get an interview it is more stressful than it seems. Everything matters. You need to be dressed properly. It's not just a matter of throwing on a suit. For certain jobs you might need to be more fashionable or have a little more casual and less of a "stuffy" appearance. You also need to be mentally prepared. You have to be ready for any questions they throw at you. You can practice all of the questions you may expect, but usually something you weren't ready for gets asked. Sometimes you may not understand what they are asking for, they'll question something that is obvious to you, they'll ask you to elaborate on something that you can't really elaborate on, or they'll ask you questions that you don't feel comfortable asking. You need to be prepared to ask the questions that you have. Sometimes you may forget them and it may be awkward for you to pull out a notebook with the questions you had. Sometimes all of your questions have been answered previously and you struggle to come up with something else. You need to be able to handle unexpected situations. Maybe you are left in a conference room for 20 minutes waiting for the interview to start. Maybe the job isn't what you expected it to be. Maybe you will interviewing with someone you know who may know your weaknesses or get stuck playing catch up rather than proving yourself. There's many situations that can have a negative affect on your chances of being hired if you don't re-act properly.

It is a hard time for those of us looking for jobs. You have to keep trying and eventually someone will see your talent and passion.

I have a secret, that isn't that much of a secret.

I do like a lot of other things besides video games. I do like to go out with friends. I like karaoke(even though I'm not a great singer). I used to take martial arts and one day will take it again. I like music a lot and will go see some live shows from time to time. I like eating yummy foods. I like going out for drinks. I like learning about new things that interest me. I'm the kind of person who get sucked into the internet for hours because I found something new I wanted to learn about it. I also like comics and cartoons. (I like some SciFi shows/movies, but there's few that I do enjoy.)

I want to talk about my interest in comics and cartoons. I generally don't like to admit that I like comics and cartoons. It's mostly because of the stereotypes. I prefer Japanese anime and manga over others, but I don't limit myself to one or the other. The stereotypes I have a problem are as follows:
-Watching cartoons are childish
-Watching anime means you like violence/sex
-You must like to dress up as characters
-You must be a nerd
-You must not have other interests
-You must like all of the series that are on TV

I don't dress up. I do have other interests. My life does not revolve around when the next convention is or watching all of the latest series. I don't watch most of the anime that you see on TV. I don't like to talk about anime or comics with people who don't know what I'm talking about. Most of the Japanese series I do read/watch are comedies, romance, slice of life, and/or series that make you think. I'm interested in the stories, the characters, and their relationships.

A lot of people would probably enjoy cartoons as much as they enjoy reading books or watching TV shows if they could only get over the fact that it's drawings. Over time it seems that we are slowly realizing that animation is just a form of expression. It still feels like it is taking a long time to get over the stigma that animation is for kids. Video games face the same issues, although I feel video games has become a lot more acceptable in the US. People have finally realized that it's a huge industry and more and more people are learning the joys of playing games. I can openly admit that I like to play video games, without someone assuming there is something wrong with me.

As long as the stigma exists with animation, I will continue to keep my interest in it more hidden. I could never hide it forever, but I don't choose to flaunt it or talk about it when I first meet people. I prefer people to get to know me first and see that I'm just like them. Once they see that then I can tell them about my animation interest and show them that not all of the stereotypes are true.

Tales From Retail

I did work in retail for two different video game stores. One is EB Games(which was bought out by Gamestop) and the other was a local mom and pop game shop in LA. It was a good experience to work at both. I started at EB Games during the holidays. After the holidays my hours were cut drastically and I ended up working at the mom and pop shop. After things at the small shop weren't going so well I was asked to come back to EB Games and came back with plenty of hours.

There were many things I liked and disliked about working in each environment. I disliked working for the big chain because your job was to sell, sell, sell. If you liked a product or not, you were forced to sell it. There was one time that within a 4-5 month span we were promoting 3 different football games. One month we were pushing people for one game, another month a different one, and then finally a third. You learn to find things that differ from each game, to validate why you "changed" your mind each month. In the small shop you can simply push whatever you think is the hottest game or the best game. (Usually the games that were pushed at the big chains were good games, so it's not like you were forced to sell dug up ET cartridges.) If you did do good sales you would get bonuses. This could come in the form of money or products. Occasionally a store would get free copies of games or swag and if you had a manager that didn't hoard them, they with share with the employees. You never got any bonuses at the small shop. The small shop had a limited selection compared to the big chain. Some of the most popular games would sell out or wouldn't come into the shop until a week or two after it's original release.

With all of that said, for someone who is a gamer and not simply a salesman, the mom and pop shop should have been the better choice. However at the shop I worked at it wasn't the case. The person who owned it didn't know how to run the business anymore. They would constantly change prices. They would have empty boxes for products that they didn't actually have. The store was robbed a couple of times. There were also some illegal practices going on with lunch breaks and late checks. Needless to say I would gladly push magazines, warranties, and games for a practical working environment.

It's not to say that working at EB Games wasn't fun. I loved working at EB Games. I probably would have continued working there for a long time if I felt there was a career there for me to pursue. I especially loved a lot of the people I worked with. I wish I still was in touch with a lot of them. I hope they are all successful now(although I know a lot of them no longer work for EB/GS).

Final Fantasy

I've finally sat down to play through Final Fantasy XII. I bought the collector's edition the day it was released. I played about 10 hours into the game, until I got stuck and gave up on it for a while. When I tried playing again I didn't quite remember the controls or the story. With that dilemma I've put the game on the back burner for a while. This past month I decided I would start the game over and push through it before XIII comes out.

The game play was something that had to grow on me. When I first played the game I hated the game play. I would get frustrated with it. It was one of the main reasons I stopped playing the first time. The second time around I started to get the hang of the game play. Now I'm really enjoying the battle system.

The story is good, but slow. Before I got the game I didn't go crazy looking into the details of the game or watch all of the trailers/videos I could find of the game. I watched a few trailers and read a few articles, but I tried not to go too in depth in the game. While playing the game a lot of the shocking moments were already obvious. It was information that was already given to you in the trailers or in the few articles I read. The first 40 hours or so of the game you are left with your average FF story and very few exciting moments. Some of the main characters aren't very interesting and are very generic. Luckily the game play was enjoyable enough and there were enough interesting side quests to do that made things bearable. Afterwards the story began to get interesting. Now I'm at the point where I'm looking forward to the rest of the story. It took a while for that to happen.

The story and characters are some of the most important parts of any RPG (to me). Most of the later FF games have great, in-depth characters with intriguing storylines. The main storyline in FF games are basically the same, but the events that lead up to it can vary greatly. I wonder if the increasing length of games affects the flow of the story. FFX and FFXII were very slow to start and took a while for the story and characters to grow on me. In FFIX, VIII, VII, and VI I was interested earlier on, if not immediately in some cases. Those games were a lot shorter. If you have a game that's twice as long how do you still keep the story going and interesting without throwing too much at the audience. I suppose that could be a difficult dilemma. It may come to a point where games turn into more of a TV show. You have your main storyline, but you also have side stories that can occur.

The trailers can give out too much information. A trailer is suppose to entice someone to watch/play something. You don't want to give out too much or it ruins the enjoyment you get out of watching/playing the movie/game. It kills me to see an awesome looking trailer for a movie and then when you go to see the movie all of the good parts were in the trailer. Sometimes that can make me not enjoy a movie as much. This can happen with games too. I stopped watching the FFXIII international trailer because I felt like I was being given too much information. If you know secrets from the beginning, it can make the story less enjoyable. In some cases it can be more interesting knowing from the beginning, but usually not knowing keeps you wondering. That makes the story more exciting and makes you want to keep going forward to unravel the mystery or you get shocked by something you didn't see coming.

Speaking of FFXIII I'm going to talk about that now. I'm really looking forward to it, despite knowing somethings from the trailer that I wish I didn't. I love the look of the characters and the world they live in. Once I play the game I'll know if it's really as good as it looks. When I first saw FFXIII Versus I was hoping you would be paying the game over again as the bad guy. (In the first trailer, the first guy you saw looked like a baddie). Unfortunately that's not the case. It would be pretty cool to play a high profile game over again as the bad guy. We'll see how it plays out. Hopefully FFXIII turns out great so that FFXIII Versus can compliment it.

That's enough about Final Fantasy for today. I feel like too much of a nerd talking about it for this long. I need to talk more about other games. Maybe in my next post.