0:00
is there something that people get wrong about career growth career growth can go horrifically wrong if is there another
0:06
big mistake you’ve seen over those 17 mentees that you tend to nip in the body is there a big pattern where someone is
0:12
making a mistake that you tend to fix so the first thing is the expectation level needs to be at a level where it’s
0:17
actually achievable the second thing is my first question is how was it
0:24
working on the greatest game of all time which one
0:31
not it’s not those actually it’s RuneScape okay um it was super interesting um I was initially kind of
0:36
coming to this as a as a outside the games industry so a bit of a history on
0:42
this one so I worked in originally travel and tourism so building booking engines Building Systems that scale
0:48
effectively doing live operations for those and and um I did a talk at DXL in
0:53
London about kind of how you can kind of engage with players using Z content scaling your systems to make them Happ
1:00
and everything like that so it was kind of not necessarily boring I like that kind of topic back in the day obviously but that kind of conversation right and
1:07
um the that thing got me an interview with uh DRX to talk about how could we apply
1:14
what you’re doing right now in the in the booking engine and and upselling and
1:20
ugc kind of area into video games and that then turned into an interview for initially web team lead but then became
1:26
a Dev director within a year to develop basically the essential kind of core platform for that game for account
1:33
management for payments for any kind of user peer top stuff anything like that
1:38
from leaderboards to to forums anything like that so it was a really interesting kind of um engagement we were part of a
1:45
what called a life service team so Central Services team to build the tech for all our clients clients games
1:51
obviously in that kind of context um so it was interesting to kind of see two things the first one was cuz I worked on multiple games or support multiple games
1:58
seeing how they worked and what they did obviously but seeing RuneScape literally
2:04
go from strength to strength in terms of their content their pipelines the delivery it was a time we kind of move
2:11
from a Java client to an updated Java client to a web HTML Cent and everything like that so there was a quite High
2:18
technical kind of change in what was going on and seeing that being part of
2:23
those conversations being part of the testing of the integration of the delivery was fantastic and the Very love
2:30
and and I do genuinely miss it I must say um but it was a very high pressure high delivery kind of environment and
2:37
and yeah that was it was good to kind of see how games and how teams work together in that kind of scale and and
2:43
then seeing whenever change of content came out what that did to play engagement numbers grew or they stay the
2:50
same or maybe gone worse and then what that meant in terms of data collection
2:55
and feedback from players what the next steps are for the for the studio to do for example it was it was exciting to
3:01
learn all that and see all that happen almost in real time yeah I love the part of your job
Alexander’s Breakthrough into Gaming and Engagement with Players
3:09
where it’s you get that immediate feedback it’s not you doing work for a year two years and then you’re seeing
3:15
the result so I’m wondering if you yeah I think sorry interrupt you I think that’s an interesting thing because if
3:20
you work on live games the the feedback and the engagement is near instantaneous
3:26
because you live or die based on your audience right with let’s take a different game let’s take Alan Wake for
3:32
example or let’s take control or or any other game not by remedy but um uh Hitman for example if you the those
3:39
games are built in a complet different kind of light right in in this you you
3:45
build the game over years to create this amazing immersive story God of War being an example like this example right um so
3:52
you buil this to tell your story to tell what’s going on to make people feel
3:58
something when they play it and enjoy when they play it and then the story ends unfortunately not fortunately
4:03
unfortunately whatever you want to see obviously in that kind of way right with life service games like RuneScape it’s completely different because that’s
4:09
always progressing always changing always something new is coming in right so that instantaneous feedback there is
4:15
is super super important because you want to kind of get more players you want to have the current players kind of
4:20
engage more on RuneScape I have like over a year play time on it like a good 380
4:28
days just logged in so like it’s like a big 5% of my life probably has been logged in that game and I want
4:34
to ask you what puzzle piece do you solve in a gaming company like if you’re speaking to someone who has no context
4:41
like if you had to break it down very quickly think of it this way you’ve got a development team that delivers the game and works on the game and makes the
4:48
game happen in the first place then a part needs to exist that then publishes
4:54
and releases that game to the first party platform stores Playstation Xbox steam Epic
5:00
go etc etc obviously and then something is to happen to then see what happens to the
5:06
players afterwards and what would what engages with the players if it’s a live game that’s my responsibility ensuring I
5:12
can publish this game and deliver this game to a live space and that can provide the data the Telemetry the
5:19
feedback the the crash reports even back to our G of game development teams to
5:24
action this and not only that I’m responsible to deliver game security um event management of of in-game events
5:31
for example replacing the shop content every day or every week and the featured content every day or the week planning
5:37
to launch Seasons planning to launch kind of minor or major updates or story arcs for example my team takes care of
5:45
many of these aspects now we don’t develop the game work with game development teams to make this content happen obviously but we look at this
5:52
from a from almost kind of Engagement stroke forecasting point of view are saying okay we want our players to
5:57
engage more and get more more players and acquire more players and everything like that what levers can I pull either
6:04
directly with my team to make things happen like balancing adding new store content new cosmetics new ble PK items
6:12
um a new quest line whatever it might be for example or daily kind of missions or weekly missions or is it kind of we need
6:19
to provide more content in this particular area or we want to launch this brand new world this brand new map
6:25
this brand new game mode for example how can we make this happen how do we get kind of early feedback on this from
6:31
maybe a hardcore number of players who enjoy our game right now and then as part of that one how do we work with a
6:36
marketing team the community management team the social team the customer support team on then announcing this
6:44
planning this having passional to go with that having support noes to go with that everything like that to make sure
6:49
it’s a it’s it’s a joined up exercise so game development goes into my space if that
6:56
makes sense uh to to deliver to support to engage and to elevate that kind of way and that then supports other teams
7:03
like the marketing team to kind of acquire more players or show more kind of engagements or have Partnerships with other companies for example for for IPs
7:10
and anything like that and everything around that I think that’s kind of in a short note what I do obviously much much
7:16
more on this one but yeah we we kind of take what the game does and elevate it into into a space where players actively
7:23
engage with it and we then take that information and data and provide back to the game team and plan together on what
7:28
are we going next I wanted to ask you a question from the
How Transferable Skills Helped Him and Can Help You Enter the Industry
7:34
perspective of someone trying to enter the games industry either they’re a graduate or they have a previous kind of
7:40
industry experience what would you say to them cuz were you a gamer before for example
7:46
was that a big part because it sounds like when you’re talking to me now you have such in-depth knowledge but I’m
7:52
wondering at the very start did you learn that at jagix did you try to get that before I was a gamer for a very
7:58
long time um we played my my dad and I used to play lemings back in the day on
8:03
his old I6 368 computer and we we taught ourselves basic as a as a as a
8:09
development language to or program language to kind of build our own kind of um game to kind of shoot each other
8:14
with like tanks for velocity and things like that you know back I was I was like six seven eight years old I remember
8:21
playing those games both of those games you talk about Lemmings in the tank game like childhood but you learned so much about kind of how how code can kind of
8:27
make change right so it was a kind of nice thing to but no it was I I always love playing games but I never felt like I would fit
8:33
into the games industry because back even back in the day it was a very kind of Niche kind of space you had your sidm
8:39
you had your kind of Microsoft in the US and everything it’s quite heavy kind of spaces in the US that did that and I felt back I live in Germany obviously um
8:47
that was never attainable in back in the day for me so I started initially with design and and marketing as well which
8:53
was really cool um what got me excited was then changing from print to web
8:59
design into because I like kind of understanding how the back end effectively Works what needs to happen
9:05
in the code base to make my website show this for example mentioned earlier was doing booking engines and that’s kind of
9:11
where kind of cut my teeth effectively building stuff for larger air operators
9:17
in terms of booking systems plannings everything like that and understanding kind of how code changes impacts
9:24
websites for example that then told me how to think about the the bigger picture of how do we operate and how do
9:30
we kind of get players purchases to buy things and book things everything like that and because I had that and I could
9:37
talk freely about it that’s kind of hard in the games industry because I could explain how things happened and why um
9:45
we operate in the way we did and how we can of get player sorry players customers and consumers to buy our kind
9:51
or book through our systems for example how we Mor of those systems at scale that was whatx needed in this world they
9:59
hired me for right that kind of helped me having had this previous experience of doing something similar to this it
10:05
was Tech and day it was still code in day so whether software or games is neither here or there in on on on a Bare
10:12
Bones kind of conversation obviously but that’s what happened and and being able to provide that information and proving
10:19
that I can do that and can talk about and kind of show how things work really helped me with the interview process and
10:25
then also the quite rapid promotion in the role on need to be to support them
10:31
obviously you had that key transferable skill yeah and if you think about where
10:37
you want to end up with or in in be that art be that um programming be that
10:43
whatever it might be um you really want to show that you understand the subject
10:50
matter it doesn’t necessarily mean you must have always been in games I certainly wasn’t I came in I left and I
10:56
came in again but to get that kind of first step into it you you have such benefits
11:04
especially right now of being able to say this subject matter excites me and
11:09
interests me and here’s the stuff I have been doing that complement that kind of thinking that that delivery aspect that
11:17
that creative aspect that whatever aspect might be for the role you’re going for for
11:22
example being able to prove that really really helps
Alexander’s Mentorship and What You Can Learn From It
11:29
you Mentor a lot of people and it’s I want you to actually paint a picture here because of how many people
11:35
you Mentor so it is very uncommon for someone with the amount of stuff that you have to do and you also post on
11:42
LinkedIn which we’re going to get into later but you Mentor crazy amount of people so I wanted to dive in deeper
11:50
like what is helps with them but first could you paint a picture like how many hours are you spending networking people me mentoring people and how many people
11:56
are you mentoring so in total I’ve had 70 mentees over the course of 3
12:02
years eight of those ones last year were full-time um as in I had regular kind of
12:07
catch up with them and the remainder was largely kind of one or two calls with them on seeing how things go in terms of
12:13
progression and their role and everything like that I also had about over 150 or so career chats which is
12:19
about kind of what my role is what programming does what engineering what production does for example in colleges
12:24
at universities or in onetoone talks or or or panel shows or P conversations in
12:30
the UK and in in Europe as well in terms of time spent on these things
12:37
um it depends I’m honest with you I normally try to make a mentor call 45
12:42
minutes to an hour to begin with to get to know that person and seeing what they’re doing and what’s going on and
12:48
then spending also some time usually last 50 minutes off that hour to join understand kind of okay how can
12:54
I help you what is it you want to get out of this conversation or how how do we want to progress this going forward
13:01
in most cases what I found is it’s mostly about I’m currently in in this situation in this company or in this in
13:08
this kind of place and I want to get there and there could be a promotion
13:14
could be moving sideways could be having conversation with the manager about kind of work performance or anything like
13:20
that or could be breaking into the industry so there’s a number of kind of ways behind this and
13:26
the understanding that is quite useful to begin with obviously otherwise he wouldn’t be a good Mentor but then also kind of explains to
13:33
kind of what is the next step on this in most cases it was this hour is enough for them because now they have a bit
13:39
more kind of clarity in what they want to do I gave them some guidance maybe some questions they can ask themselves
13:44
to move on and do whatever they need to for example but there have been some of them where it’s been useful to kind of
13:49
have a more kind of Personal Touch in the context of having a a session with them every month or every two months or
13:56
every quarter as we progress obviously and to see how things go and and see
14:01
where I can help them with there have been two of them one girl is Tess Nill who is now working for uist I believe um
14:09
she wasn’t in game to begin with but she wanted to learn more about the industry and what can be done and how she can support that so seeing her grow
14:15
effectively from where she was into a games industry role was utterly impressive and and I felt a lot of Joy
14:24
speaking to her because you could always see the creative thoughts she had and what she was doing
14:29
and how far she got from the previous call to the next call to the next call if you see that as ultimately super
14:35
super refreshing and rewarding can you imagine what did she get right you think why did she succeed
14:42
where otherist and creativity I think those two things were the ones that kind of really stuck out to me when I spoke to
14:49
her every time she know she knew what she wanted she had a clear understanding kind of where she want turned up
14:55
in in role role wise I mean and she had this this inert drive to to push for
15:03
things and ask questions and take things on and saying I can do these things and I can do this too and I can support you
15:09
here and and delivering that not being a jack of all trades but rather saying the role you’re looking for I can
15:17
fulfill but if there are other areas where I can lend my hand or my expertise or my knowledge from other
15:23
Industries I’ll happily support you I think that’s kind of what really kind out for me and that’s that’s that’s I
15:28
think how she got there in the end and she made it super successfully so that persistence I think
15:36
is the key to everything I’m wondering is there another big mistake you’ve seen over those 1 mentees that you tend to
15:44
nip in the butt is there a big pattern where someone is making a mistake that you tend to fix yeah I think the the
15:51
there’s two of them the first one is this there’s level of expectation from people if you are my mentor I expect you
15:59
to fix things for me or make things happen for me that’s not my role I’m I’m
16:04
here to ask you Gentle questions and or direct questions about kind of what you trying to do and where you want to go
16:09
with obviously I’m not the person to say okay I’ve known you now Harry for five for five minutes I let me find you a job
16:16
that’s not that’s not what I’m doing so the first thing is the expectation level needs to be at a level where it’s actually achievable it’s ultimately up
16:23
to you as a mentor it’s literally in the name I’m mentoring you to kind of get there where you need to be but the the
16:29
job is yours to do and to happen that’s the first mistake the second thing is
16:35
not having a clear Drive of what you actually want to achieve oh I want to go into the games industry oh I might be
16:41
doing this okay what is it that you actually want to go into what is that kind of career path you’re looking for
16:48
you might still change I’m not saying focus on one thing and only ever do this until you die not no no no but if you
16:54
want to break into an industry or into a company or anything like that what is it where you start starting point needs to
17:00
be what is that starting point we can then discuss in a year’s time after that
17:05
once you established yourself as a person as an individual as a deliverer of things of of creativity of being
17:13
being reliable and and a good person in the company what that then means for you
17:18
then as a starting point into other roles within that company or industry or otherwise but yeah not not knowing where
17:26
you actually want to go into and then persisting with it pushing for it I think that’s where where where many I
17:32
spoke to kind of fall down getting the foot in the door I feel
His Top Entry-Level Roles and Tips for Success
17:39
like without that it doesn’t matter what the ambition is because you need to actually enter the
17:44
industry is there any common roles that people typically you’ve found success with where from one example I get told a
17:52
lot is like QA is a good way to get into the industry I’m wondering is there anything is there any type of roles
17:58
where if someone has no games industry experience they want to enter the games industry is there any top roles that you
18:04
see that people go for let me turn it around a little bit let’s talk
18:09
about the entry level positions I think that might be EAS to kind of explain what I’m what I’m I’m getting at if I
18:15
look at entry Lev positions at creative assembly for example the company I was there previously um and also Dr back in
18:21
the day you had a lot more engineering interest if that makes sense so engine
18:28
ering was was another kind of way of getting into the industry because of the fact always wanted and because Tech is
18:35
largely being taught these days at colleges at universities across Europe
18:41
across the us as well so is that wanted from the candidate side or from the employer side from the employer side so
18:48
having the kind of level of kind of having programmers joining us early is a good thing because you can nurture them and grow them in the tech we’re using
18:53
for example that I found really interesting when I worked at C assembly in my first year for example so was just
18:59
brand new the company um we had quite a few interns and we had quite a few kind of Entry or or traine or associate
19:07
positions that then grew into this company kind of area as well I didn’t really I must admit I didn’t really
19:13
engage with the creative side of the business because it wasn’t really my my remit or my discipline or my pillar um
19:19
so I can’t really comment on that one I’m sure others that you will speak to can do better than me I can only talk about programming
19:26
Productions roles for example in this case I can say yes we had quite a few and those grew quite quickly into the
19:31
organization because of what they were doing and because they did really well that’s a way in QA obviously is and
19:38
there’s also other roles in the organization from it to to finance to other places that still work in the
19:44
games industry still support Studios and people obviously but we be all so people
19:49
move sideways into marketing into production into QA into other areas as
19:57
well because of the interest of having shown that they can do something and then wanting to further their own skills
20:03
over time in their Studio proving that you can do something
20:08
I feel like is the number one priority and that doesn’t need to be in the discipline that you have to like that is
20:15
the kind of goal that you want to be in like if you your goal is to be the most amazing producer ever if you just
20:21
demonstrate that you can do things for a gaming studio that is the stepping stone and being good at your job because think
20:29
of it this way if you’re saying for example okay I want to come into QA because it’s an easy entry in World
20:35
Commerce um and then I want to go into programming right away that doesn’t show you in a good light because it basically
20:41
means you you’re in there for the career progression as opposed to doing a good job right so that’s always kind of
20:47
conservation so I always say a year because that proves that you that you can do the job and doing really good things it depends on the candidate on
20:54
the company obviously as well the company how that looks like as a as a guidance is is is one one way to show it
21:00
you want to be seen as you can do your role you can do it really really well
21:06
you have interest and you have a drive to show that you can do something else I
21:11
want to do it for the money that’s not a drive I want to do it because I can do these kind of skills I want to prove
21:17
that I can do these skills I can deliver this and I can show them I can deliver this that’s
Alexander’s Layoff Experience
21:23
Drive you’ve had an interesting career we’ve touched on this where you entered the gaming industry after already having
21:29
a career outside then you left the games industry and then you came back so could you tell that story there in
21:36
the sense of like yeah why did that happen and is there any pivotal moment there that kind of shaped your kind of
21:42
Alexander story so I got in the games industry because of the work I did before obviously at DRX uh before DRX
21:49
and got into at DRX which was fantastic and I worked with DRX for a long time which was amazing truly amazing people
21:55
amazing projects and unfortunately what happened is that at the time one of the project we worked on was being cancelled
22:02
and at the time what happened uh what then happened was uh there were layoffs and my team and I were affected by those
22:09
layers my personal life I just got married I just bought a house so I had a
22:16
lot of insecurity about kind of how do I kind of you know um keep the mortgage going keep
22:24
everything else going for example understandably so for me having being laid off was quite a shock for everybody
22:32
I think who’s been laid off in this in these last it’s always a shock it’s not going to change ever go go through so I
22:41
then looked at what other companies are around me because I couldn’t really move because I’ve just bought a house there
22:46
what other coms are around me and and what do they offer and so I found a
22:53
really really good job fromont of the company they were looking for head of Tech to develop some of the kind
23:00
solutions for companies like Barclays like um Sante e O2 and these kind of
23:06
companies so um I went for the interview had a look around and had a conversation with them and it felt really like
23:14
everything I learned TR to JX at JX in terms of delivering in terms of managing
23:19
people in terms of delivering stuff at scale against the live operations all of these things I would
23:27
need to use and I would need to kind of grow on in that new role so for me it was a a great transition and it was also
23:35
a wonderful learning curve because you all of a sudden speak to clients as opposed to internal team um I’ve used to
23:41
clients in the past but now is are much much bigger clients obviously you engage with so many different teams and third
23:47
parties and partners and suppliers and vendors on this one as well so I learned a lot about vendor management about
23:54
planning different kind of projects with different teams cross functional and cross discipline and cross region and
23:59
cross country that really taught me a lot and and being able to work there was absolutely fantastic I I then had the
24:06
opportunity to kind of work a different company as a CTO so a huge kind of leap in terms of my experience my knowledge
24:13
my again my growth in terms of my own career and uh there was a contract Ro effectively kind deliver and making
24:19
changes happen in this company to with with an intent to sell this company to another kind of competitor for example
24:25
which happened so there was always a least line on all Rel life on this role anyway which was great um interesting
24:31
great dep kind of how you how you deal with that personally obviously and yeah so I found myself and this was literally
24:39
when Co happened so it was January 2020 when that when that sale went through and and then the role dissolved
24:45
everything like that um so yeah I had in my back of mind and the back of my emails I had people from DRX X people
24:54
from DRX who went to other game studios reached out to me way before that saying hey would you just about joining us to
25:00
work on another project because of the work you’ve done at DRS and other places that you know that shows that you can do these kind of
25:06
things then yeah so interviewed with cretive assembly and and because they own by Sega with Sega as well and yeah good job
25:14
there uh was director and I started in June 2020 so a few months after after
25:20
everything kind of officially dissolved and and the whole kind of contract and and stuff like that and then yeah my son was born a month after which was quite
25:27
exciting obviously as well so yeah it was a complete different ride um
25:32
and transitioning into out of back into was a quite nice journey to go with that
25:38
because you always kind of build on the skills you learned from the previous one to enhance what in the next
The Importance of Transferable Skills
25:44
one loads of things to unpack there I was wondering when you were looking for
25:49
that new role sounded like you started with okay what roles are around me physically which is interesting because
25:56
that was before the pandemic so it’s kind of sometimes you forget like oh what I’m obviously going to start with things physically around me did you ever
26:04
have the concern where if I leave the games industry it will be harder to come back no no
26:11
um I get where you’re coming from because I had a kind of people interesting people conversations with my mentees about the expectation is if you
26:18
leave the games industry once you’ll never be invited again and that’s absolutely not true but some people have
26:24
that mindset even some hiring managers have that mindset still which is which is deo horrible but you can’t change
26:30
those people the expectation is you you must enjoy games and you must enjoy
26:35
games always and you must work in this industry because otherwise if you don’t you’re not really committed that’s what
26:41
I got from MNS in in those kind of comments I’ve not seen this myself so I can only kind of feedback what I heard
26:47
from my mes obviously but if that’s the case that’s a really really bad mindset obviously but now coming back to to kind
26:54
of the question kind of is it if you leave is it a problem I don’t believe it is I’ve I’ve hired people at CA um at
27:02
Sega and not people can fly as well who are not in the industry or who were in
27:08
the industry left did something else and now want to go back into it again um there’s nothing wrong with that if
27:14
anything it proves that they had different experiences um I give an example without
27:20
giving names I’m data analyst right now that analyst worked for a game Studio initially and then worked for a a wider
27:29
no want to come back in again so that person knows security secure development and
27:35
and and secure data that person knows how to handle huge amounts of
27:41
data in very kind of confined places and very kind of secure into defined
27:47
places he wouldn’t have learned that if he was only in games so that additional
27:52
experience will help us right now build up pipelines and systems and solutions and warehousing for example for data
27:59
as an example but you get the idea right that’s how I would say it yeah the transferable skills is the
28:06
key part if you leave the games industry and then do something which has very
28:12
little transferable skills for the role you would want to return to the games industry I can see the issue there but
28:18
you did not do that the data analysis did not do that so I think if people are worried it’s not about the industry it’s
28:24
about the transferable skills I think that’s the key Point absolutely I mean you work worked back um before you did
28:29
this obvious you worked in recruitment as well did you have a similar kind of outlook on this one did you have a similar kind of view from your
28:36
candidat yeah so I’ve done the same thing I’ve placed candidates Unity developers specifically who there was
28:43
one good example where the both the unity developers had hadn’t worked in a
28:49
game Studio yet but one of them had worked on the ads for a game for like an
28:54
um a service for game studios and the other one had loads of personal projects and had done some kind of one-off
29:02
projects for games but he hadn’t worked in a game Studio yet so this was to join as a senior Unity developer and they
29:08
both got the job because they had the drive they had the transferable skills and they ended up being like the best
29:14
contractors they had and they were very very effective because they demonstrated all the stuff that they’ve done from a
29:20
coding perspective it was very transferable yes they hadn’t had the exact experience of working on a mobile
29:26
game in that manner but they had the transferable skills and we’ve see that we saw that across the industry like we
29:33
had marketing managers who hadn’t worked in the games industry before but had such good tangential experience and were
29:40
a crazy gamer that’s I think as a big thing to I say crazy game as think they live and breathe games outside of
29:46
potentially work that goes a long way like that passion and drive is a part of
29:52
a job description which is not there but it might be one of the most important parts like you can forgive so much if
29:58
you see the passion and the drive because then they can pick up the things that they don’t already know in two weeks it’s less than the on boarding cost it’s like if it’s very trivial the
30:06
things that they need to learn then the passion and drive comes across it’s like that’s the that’s ex technical skills
30:12
technical in the context of kind of you know it’s it’s a skill you learning um those can always be taught that drive
30:19
that passion cannot ever be taught so so if you if you have as a candidate the teaching part is is usually the easy
30:26
thing exactly so if you get that hard part done and you have the transferable
30:32
skills because obviously it’s competition if you’re applying for a job someone has the pass and drive and the
30:37
transferable skills they’re going to hire that person if they have the skills that are working in similar Studios then
30:42
it again hard to compete but you can still optimize for all the stuff you can and put your best foot forward th% I
Career Growth and Alexander’s Managing Experience
30:49
wanted to ask you about career growth now you mentioned going sideways I wanted to ask is there something I keep
30:56
using this frame for the question but is is there something that people get wrong about career
31:01
growth yeah I think the it’s a really good question actually
31:07
um we think just going to answer career growth is super important
31:12
obviously to yourself because you prove that the skills you have are increasing
31:17
and and you can deliver more and and have more responsibilities that comes with
31:23
obviously more money but on the other side the responsibility stuff is going to grow your responsibility in what you need to do in who you’re
31:31
responsible to and who and what you’re responsible for are the things that
31:36
you’ll be measured on so career growth can go horrifically wrong if you don’t
31:43
understand that if you’re just chasing the check of more money okay if you’re a senior from a m
31:51
weight that’s that’s that’s fine but once you go bit higher than that manager director level anything above that the
31:58
expectation is on you to to look after many many many more things people
32:04
projects processes whatever and you own these things and you’re responsible to
32:10
the leadership team to the investors maybe depending on kind of company you have um and everything like that
32:16
so you get it wrong if you expect progression is just about the money or
32:23
just B more experience or bit more bit more reach or bit more B remit or
32:28
whatever there’s much much more expectation at play in these kind of areas so when you want to progress
32:35
sideways upwards anything like that understand clearly what’s expected of you and then demonstrate that it’s
32:43
obviously learning Cur for for you doing that for the first time it was for me honest to God when I had my first number
32:49
of people under me managing them I got it wrong many many times until I learned how to manage people properly and how to
32:55
kind of deal with uh yes Sayers no Sayers anything like
33:01
that and and listening to feedback and actively listening to to opinion that’s a skill you have to learn
33:07
as well obviously but those expectations are on you you need to be a good manager and this is how it looks like you need to be a good leader of people is how it
33:14
looks like you need to be a a owner of these projects or programs or products
33:20
or systems or whatever it might be in your discipline obviously you need to be mindful of that
33:26
and and understand it and then prove that you can do it and if you can’t do it if you’re struggling with it raise
33:32
your hand be open and and speak to your manager and and and your peers and saying I don’t know how to do it I don’t
33:37
know how to kind of deliver this I got training um About Management about product ownership about business analy
33:44
for example and and finance as well um and p&l and forecasting in other organizations
33:50
because I didn’t know how to do it but I need to know it for my for my promotion so they gave me that and they paid for
33:56
that obviously as well which is great you have to expect and you have to put that time and work in and that time and
34:01
work can sometimes be out of hours you to research you to learn you to do something like that so come the
34:08
following Monday for example the following week or the following month or whatever you show you’re a changed
34:14
person you CH you show that you’ve you understand these things now better or you you’re making a better stab at these
34:20
kind of deliverables for example that’s where that’s what’s important and that’s where you can easily fault if you don’t
34:29
put that effort in people maybe misunderstanding the
Effective Communication: Key to Alexander’s Team Management Success
34:35
amount of responsibility that comes with career growth potentially I want to touch on the management piece there you
34:42
said you got training in like five different areas and it was paid for which is awesome and when I speak to
34:48
developers who’ve been promoted to managers that isn’t often the case sometimes they just become managers
34:53
you’re like good luck figure it out fingers crossed so if someone wants to
34:59
progress they understand say Alex I understand I’m going to have more responsibility but let’s say their
35:05
company doesn’t offer Management training like you mentioned you made a few mistakes I want to understand what
35:11
if I’m trans if I’m becoming a senior developer and I’m going to be leading a team of developers what’s a key thing
35:16
that I need to make sure I get right first of all be very clear with
35:24
the problem statement here is what we’re trying to achieve this is how we want to
35:30
tackle it if you get people on board quite quickly with what it is we’re trying to solve and how we can tackle
35:37
this is a really good thing to get things moving then I mentioned a minute ago active listening understand other
35:45
people’s view on your team what is it they’re concerned about what is it they think be done differently or better as a
35:53
manager or as a lead you are sometimes having to make a tough call
35:58
between option A and option b and you might make the wrong call own that own that saying guys
36:07
people friends team we had this plan I directed this
36:14
way I messed up I’m really sorry we need to Pivot if you show that openness that
36:20
vulnerability but also this this Clarity and transparency of what’s going on that
36:25
buys into people and that really helps people understand what you’re trying to achieve and they they feel in in in in
36:31
delivering that and that’s one important thing the other important thing is have
36:37
this regular check-in with your team um on an individual basis but also on a team basis not just always about work
36:43
but try and find like a lunchtime or something where you all go away and have a lunch together or a coffee together or
36:49
something like that or for a walk together again depending on whether you’re in in studio or or remote insert
36:55
virtual version of all of these things as you need to but having a conversation outside of work away from
37:04
the topics of work about what’s going on what’s Happening any challenges any issues anything that kind of want to be
37:10
discussed about kind of planning training hiring anything like that bring those ones up and and do make an effort
37:17
of taking notes mentally if you can because I want kind right while they’re talking for example so you want to be F
37:23
facing them and being being there in present in the room with them obviously um
37:28
and try and follow up follow up with them on a very regular Cadence of what’s happened you raced this thing with me
37:34
last week I just want give you an update what’s happening I haven’t been able to talk to HR yet it’s on my list of things to do I spoke to HR today we’re doing
37:41
this or we can’t do this because of these Reasons I’m really sorry that kind of dialogue of you set a question you
37:47
had a problem you had a challenge you you want something as you lead as a manager as a director I’m I’m listening
37:54
I’m actively kind of trying to resolve these issues this is how far I got so far is a really good kind of way to gain
38:00
trust and gain that kind of on your side this this understanding of what it means
38:06
to manage people that personal connection I think
38:11
is so key so key and I like I like the point you raised
38:17
about you don’t talk about work but you can still bring up stuff tangental to work and then follow it up so it’s just
38:23
like a nice balance you don’t want to hyper optimize every me I’ve learned that kind of not the hard way but like
38:30
if I went to a networking event and there’s a parody I’m like okay I need to make sure I become friends with everyone
38:36
then sometimes people feel it right so I think that’s the case with management
38:41
where if everyone thinks like okay need going to be talking about work there’s ways to do it you have the conversation
38:46
around the topic you actually care about the person first then the things come naturally exactly and depending on what
38:53
you are if it’s if it’s remote only for example the same rules need to apply so if you have a virtual coffee or
39:01
virtual catchup with them outside of outside of working requirements outside the projects
39:07
deliverables about you and me for example make sure your other screens are not showing work stuff make sure your
39:13
Chats on do not disturb you want to be there virtually with them in this conversation as well don’t get
39:20
distracted by always a pop up from this person asking for an update on that try and make do not disturb a thing when you
39:26
have this kind of conversation lower all the windows on your screen down um and only have that video of
39:33
yourself with a person and your notepad up so you can write some no down if you necessarily need to or or have a pen and
39:39
and be be old school you know do these kind of things because you want to treat
39:44
those people with respect and respect comes with being actively there in the room with
Alexander’s Strategies for Balance and Mental Well-Being
39:51
them th% couldn’t agree more I want to touch on the mental health piece here
39:57
especially with what’s happening recently and the games industry has a
40:02
loads of not obstacles it will throw a lot of stuff at you and I think as a
40:08
person is hard to handle sometimes I wonder how did you kind of handle your mental health and how have you taken
40:15
care of it I wish I could handle my mental health better I must honestly admit this on this on this conversation
40:21
um for me when I used to work in the office being able to to drive home in
40:28
those 20 30 minutes of driving home you tend to kind of switch off because listen to a podcast or or radio or music
40:35
or whatever and that’ll how switch off things when you’re remote you’re on this computer and then you’re on this
40:41
computer when you’re doing your gaming and you’re in this computer when you’re using personal emails for example there is no real switching off is there oh
40:49
there’s something I could check for tomorrow morning before the meeting starts for example so those kind of things are really really dangerous for
40:54
you to do make a cont effort of walking away and stepping away from your desk
41:00
going for a walk I’ve got the benefit of having a family so playing with my son in the evening so works of limit
41:06
effectively and and I need to kind of force myself to have my phone in a different room to where my son is so I
41:12
don’t even get distracted by this to really kind of focus on him and and my family and and and my personal mental health obviously as well but there’s
41:19
more needs to be done and I need to do myself as well is this understanding
41:24
kind of where are my limitations what am I Curr struggling with what are my problems is it health is it Finance is
41:32
it this project is it a certain person at work is it my manager is it my underling whatever it might be and those
41:42
things can nigle at you at night when you lie in bed before you go to sleep right you want to avoid this and you can’t always avoid them but a a very
41:49
good tactic I always learned is is breathe to five
41:59
getting the cloud in your room to kind of make sure you understand whether it’s actually a problem you need to deal with or not right now don’t send angry emails
42:06
ever review them in the following morning and when you write an email don’t put anything in the two just by
42:12
accident or anything like that just kind of write it preferably notepad or word anything if you need to if you have to
42:19
and make it a point of of telling your team or your manager um you need a break
42:26
right now for five minut to just just just decompress and that’s usually fine I’ve not seen anybody ever get any kind
42:33
of stick and if if you get stick from manager on this one re reevaluate your relationship with the manager obviously
42:39
right but be open honest about it I’ve spoken when I when I just joined uh people can fly for example I flew to
42:46
Montreal for a week and I by my family because my son was
42:51
poorly during that time very poorly um and and my manager asked me how how you got to go else I’m I’m a bit struggling
42:58
today got lots of things to do which is great but I’m I’m I’m worried right now about these things and he sat down with me had a
43:05
chat with me you know and and that that kind of stuff really helps at CA of
43:11
assembly we actually had Wellness being weeks and and things happening across the studio in many places somewh virtual
43:18
somewhere on site it was a really nice thing to do not every Studio provis that obviously and and I was lucky to have
43:23
have been part of these things but for you personally it’s try and figure what what what what
43:30
niggles on you right now what kind of causes you concern what wakes you up at night for example note these things down
43:37
have a little not pad next to your bed if you need to and then then check them out
43:42
and talk to manager about these things being again open and vulnerable and
43:47
transparent what’s going on is important it doesn’t red flag you in any way shape
43:53
or form by the way so if you’re thinking worried oh I can’t talk to manager because you might think I’m brittle and
43:58
frail and everything like that no your manager wants you to succeed so the team
44:04
can succeed so he can succeed so the projects can succeed so the business can succeed we’re all in this together
44:10
that’s the important message if he’s concerned about you because of what’s going on he will do his best to help you
44:17
by supporting you by taking in with you by having other people work with you on certain things or taking things off your plate for the time being until you until
44:23
you feel more ready for these kind of things that’s learning that’s growth that’s progression for not only yourself
44:31
but for your team and for your manager as well think of it that way and and that will kind of help you also
44:36
understand what you can do and how you can improve upon for sure that separation has been
44:43
so key for me having the desktop be work and then at 5 I’m either going to go
44:48
dancing or boxing I ain’t leaving I ain’t doing anything and if I want to do an extra shift later again I’m going to
44:54
be working here and then I can have that separate spot it is so important I want to touch on the management piece a
45:01
little there cuz I’ve had a not a exact situation but I’ve had
45:09
people have the fear of kind of speaking up and saying look I’m having this issue because they don’t want to be seen as a
45:16
victim or seen as someone who brings in problem so I do feel it’s important in the way we deliver the message
45:22
potentially of how we’re not doing okay because I feel like if you say that with
45:29
more of like this is the reason I’m not been performing rather than I’m struggling with this this is what I’m
45:35
trying to do but it would be great to have some help I think that frame is really important I’m wondering what you thought about
45:42
that I need to turn around a little bit it it depends on what the manager is like I think that’s the best way of
45:48
putting it and how the compan is like as well obviously in this kind of context you’re right informing the the
45:54
manager you’re not performing well because of these things is is a good way of putting it telling manager right from
46:01
the bad go I’m struggling right now because of these things requires some consideration obviously as well um
46:09
because think of it from your Mar side as well that person will just have been
46:14
told that you are struggling that you something is going on they might not
46:19
have an answer right away for you they may have to go back to HR and say hey what can we do what are they kind of
46:26
similar signs across organization in these teams for example is is there a curring pattern for example happening right now or is it individual and if
46:34
it’s only individual what can we do if it’s a team what can we do for them you know it’s is is those things happening
46:39
not immediately but very very quickly after this first kind of conversation about about any kind of challenge like that especially mental health especially
46:46
stress especially kind of being overwhelmed with many many things so if your manager tells you I’ll
46:52
come back to you later he’s not putting you off he or she is not putting you off they they’re trying to kind of figure
46:58
out what what they can do within the organization within the team within within HR to support these kind of things obviously as well they’re not
47:05
going away and saying oh this person they would never do that I’ve never seen this happen in any organization I worked
47:11
for and I’ve never heard stories about is either so at least from my perspective obiously I know mares who I used to work
47:19
with on my peer level who had situations happening in their team I was lucky it hasn’t happened to me yet where they
47:26
mentioned that something happened in their team and there somebody was struggling for example and and how to deal with that and that was dealt with
47:33
always professionally and it always be handled confidentially as well and they had an HR for example support as well to
47:39
make sure we we did the best we could to support them as well because many organizations have a framework or a a a
47:47
handbook about these kind of things how to manage staff and what happens in these certain
47:52
situations and that’s really good thing I mentioned earlier having these kind of
47:58
onet to ones away from work stuff those are important those are the best places to do this and don’t wait for the next
48:05
one if it’s booked let’s say in a month’s time or whatever if you need to have a conversation with your manager
48:11
today or tomorrow because you’re really not sure what’s happening or what’s going on or how to feel how to improve
48:17
for example how to get off this whatever is happening with you right now don’t be
48:23
afraid to to just message them and say you want to book a meeting to catch up on something that you would worried
48:30
about they will make time for you they will be there for you and they will
48:36
listen again if they don’t you probably have a bad manager or a bad company so
48:42
leaving is not really really you know an option as well but being serious about this now people will listen and people
48:49
will support you and they will not think badly of you if anything they will do this to support you to make sure you you
48:55
deliver for the company for the team for the project and for everybody around you and they’ll give you support they can as
49:01
much as they can an ideal situation that is an ideal
49:07
situation obviously people can happen differently yeah yeah of course I just want to
49:12
reiterate the when you are raising that issue this is just my opinion like you want to have
49:19
it not as a victim frame but more of a I want to improve frame can you help me
49:26
cuz if you do that once two ice three times then potentially that’s now your
49:31
new persona the person who comes with issues even if the issues are the same
49:37
as the person who comes with those issues but is from a growth mindset I feel like that frame is really uh
49:43
important which just my two cents there I would love to chat about
The Role of LinkedIn in Alexander’s Job Searching and Networking
49:49
LinkedIn you have an interesting relation with link oh God yeah yeah your LinkedIn gave you your
49:56
last job if I’m correct that’s right they reached out to you and you are a
50:01
very active user over 20,000 now um followers if I’m not mistaken 22 by now
50:08
counting 22 yeah yeah growing and Counting so yeah what’s your relationship with LinkedIn um it used to
50:14
be really good um I use a platform for two things predominantly so I started LinkedIn God a long time ago really long
50:21
time ago and it was used back then from me Ashley to to talk to us if anything
50:28
you know we’re talking this long ago um before Dr eggs so BD bus development oh
50:33
yeah yeah and it was a a means for me to to find um vendors or middleware
50:40
providers or software providers or death providers or code of providers long
50:47
before it was a thing you know as it is right now by the way so that was kind of what I used it for and and I grew I grew
50:54
a team or grew people connections through that because I needed people to do certain jobs within the organization
50:59
I was working on to deliver the stuff I did and then I think during Dr I used it
51:05
more to kind of connect with people in the games industry because then it kind of felt a bit more kind of that would be a good thing to do and then I didn’t use
51:12
it for a very long time because I had nothing to say I had nothing to look for
51:18
I had nothing to really kind of engage with if that makes sense I had my Twitter I had other things but I never
51:24
really used them as a kind of a daily kind of driver for this and then what happened was that when I
51:30
moved to cretive assembly I then started using LinkedIn more actively and the reason for this
51:36
one was because I was working at ctive assembly supporting their legacy project
51:43
which was supporting colleges universities and places around the UK to
51:50
drive awareness of the games industry to help people get into jobs to talk about what the games industry is to provide
51:56
mentorship to people and finally your project stuff for example to to kind of open up what what’s behind the curtain
52:02
of the games indistry basically and provide many many other things by the way Legacy project was amazing is amazing anyway so I used that and I got
52:10
more active on LinkedIn because then whenever I spoke at University or spoke on a talk for example I got connections
52:17
from from students from parents from from teachers and also from other designers and developers who were also
52:23
on those talks to kind of really grow Network in in this kind of work way and I started sharing more information about
52:29
the games industry what other games do how they perform data about the games industry for example so it was really
52:34
kind of nice growth for me and then 2022 happened and the first
52:39
kind of bigger wave of layoffs happened and I got involved because one of the
52:45
studios we used to work with at CA and also at JX had layoffs happen and I felt
52:53
personally affected because I knew those people all of a sudden the layouts became real to me in in the scale they
53:01
were that’s kind of how I got into it supporting people and then Making Connections myself with recruiters with
53:08
other Studios with other Studio managers with other leaders within the organizations not for jobs for myself
53:14
but rather to kind of build that network of hey I know people that are really really good what have you God can you
53:21
help me can we help them that was the kind of growth I had with this and because I shared this the support M the
53:26
links to to jobs the links to kind of helping and and resources from air and other places and even my own that’s
53:33
where I grew my my connections because there are people looking for jobs wanting to help uh looking for help but
53:39
also wanting to help how can I help you to kind of drive my kind of company to kind of show more jobs for example
53:45
things like that so it was a necessity to support people more than anything and then because these layoffs just didn’t
53:52
stop I didn’t stop in fact I doubled down I posted much much more about these kind of things about the layoffs about
53:58
the support about everything else around us obviously and yeah that’s kind of how I grew and and it was within months I
54:07
was from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand and then to 10,000 and then
54:13
now [Music] 20,000 because I think the the content I provide in terms of what the games
54:18
industry does and what kind of other teams are doing is seems useful but also
54:24
because I still want to drive that support of of hey you’ve been affected how can we help you I’ll make these
54:30
engagements I’ll make these connections I I do these things to to improve hopefully your future and through that
54:38
my personal satisfaction of being able to have helped people it’s not I’m not in it for money I’m not getting paid at
54:44
Dime I wish I did um um I’m not doing it for fame [ __ ] no I’m doing this purely
54:50
for how can I help and how can I make more awareness of what’s going on
Navigating the Changes to the LinkedIn Algorithm
54:58
and you’ve done that because you’ve connected people I’ve heard you talk about it before you have the 17 mentees
55:04
like LinkedIn is a networking platform and you used it exactly like that and then you even with your content is all
55:10
about networking connecting people to jobs so I want to potentially challenge you a little bit here because you
55:16
mentioned at the start like your your relationship changed with LinkedIn recently and it’s been a bit worse and I
55:22
read one of your recent posts where you kind of talked about it in a bit more detail so just with the recent changes of the
55:28
algorithm Chang in the reach reach is going lower I feel for like bigger accounts and it’s across the website uh
55:35
not necessarily just the gaming industry the impact that you’re getting
55:41
connecting people to jobs is that not the main reason we’re doing LinkedIn and is that not still
55:52
happening I think it does but on a much much smaller scale on a more one to one
55:57
kind of scale as opposed to one to all kind of scale I give an example so um my
56:03
posts are all about kind of trying to find as many posts of of so many kind of
56:09
sources of jobs particular discipline let’s say engineering art audio QA it
56:16
whatever I do these to to help people um speed up their search and find them
56:22
other resources and sources of information or job boards or advice or
56:28
reviews for portfolios or resumes or anything like that that they might not have thought of imagine this you’ve been
56:34
laid off yesterday today you’re in shock today you’re scrambling to kind of write
56:39
a CV to update your profile you don’t know what to do you don’t know what to search your head is in a complete spin
56:45
are you going to make the rent tonight at this this month not tonight um you know these kind of things are all in
56:50
your head I’m trying to make a single simplification by saying here is if you’re an engineer here here’s a couple
56:57
links for you a couple of resources for you you can take them one by one top down whatever you want they should give
57:02
you some kind of insight what’s happening right now what and where you can find jobs and what’s available for you right now and here some career
57:08
advice some CV advice some kind of common questions asked around the industry for example for interviews and stuff like that that’s what I’m trying
57:14
to do right so taking or reducing that
57:22
reach for people who are stressed who don’t know me yet who don’t know these
57:27
resources exist who see that Harry for example reposted this or like this
57:32
therefore I’m a friend of Harry I can see this and something I can now I can now engage with this if that’s not there if that’s gone
57:41
if that reach has now been reduced and you may never see that you’re now spinning still you don’t know what’s
57:47
going on you don’t have that leg up that somebody else has gotten because they’ve seen this post
57:52
right that doesn’t mean it’s stopping you you can still follow other recruiters you can still for things and
57:58
it’s a one to one basis um and that’s manual it’s it exists and it’s it’s doing the right job don’t get me wrong
58:03
I’m not not discounting any of this the job I was trying to do was
58:10
trying to do provide help at scale and that feels is gone and not feels I know
58:16
it’s gone I can see my analytics I can see my data and I can see people reaching out on LinkedIn and and Discord
58:21
now as well on messages uh on my inbox saying hey I need help can you help me
58:27
again I can’t find your post I can’t see this I had to put a notification bar on on your thing and even then I can’t see
58:33
it in my feet sometimes that’s broken that’s not an algorithm that’s that’s absolutely broken right again it’s not
58:40
about Fame it’s not about anything else than helping people and I feel that this algorithm thing has changed it if I’m
58:47
being very blunt now if LinkedIn wants to become Tik Tok I’m not having Tik Tok
58:52
I’m not having LinkedIn cuz then my reach is gone and then the support has gone that’s what what it is all about
58:59
people need help people need support LinkedIn was meant to be and is meant to be a a professional Network to support
59:06
each other if it’s not doing that anymore it’s not my Network
59:11
anymore I’m just trying to think of it from linkedin’s perspective now so when
59:17
people say linkedin’s becoming Tik Tok I think potentially they’re looking at
59:22
using like the factors like oh is this post a quality post quote unquote so how
59:28
much people time spending on it the engagement all of that and then they’re trying to share that to more
59:34
people and I’m I’m just wondering here like the the posts that have the collection
59:42
of the lists I’m just trying to think if there’s a solution we could do here
59:47
where because these are kind of resources it’s been really interesting I’m just thinking out loud to be honest
59:53
at this point so like Amir with his recent disc scored that’s an interesting solution cuz there is now a hub where
1:00:00
people can still talk the post can bring people to that Community potentially and
1:00:06
the way LinkedIn works like you could have a master resource on your profile potentially so I’m
1:00:13
wondering if we if there’s a way to adapt here and we can keep the solution so the post itself like the post itself
1:00:21
potentially doesn’t need to be the master resource but we could post stuff that would direct them to a Master
1:00:26
resource and I’m not saying to never do a post which has very detailed all the links but if that’s not working anymore
1:00:33
I feel like we can still get the same message sorry we can still get similar result if that makes sense I think it
1:00:38
needs adaption and I behind the curtain from my
1:00:43
perspective at the moment so I I do LinkedIn stuff like these posts
1:00:50
about jobs about availability and these kind of things on weekends because it it’s not it’s not tou to my work time I
1:00:56
trying to avoid as much as I can and to pre-plan these kind of things in I can absolutely change my format and
1:01:04
my my content and my thing to make it work for the algorithm the question is should I is the first question obviously
1:01:10
and the second thing is I don’t yet know what works for me
1:01:15
providing good information right away feels to me like it’s the right thing to do because you want people to avoid
1:01:22
multiple clicks I think there where you also issue with Discord where you have to go platform for example or different
1:01:27
link or anything like that to create a profile there to invited there many steps in the way and
1:01:33
and in many cases does good things because it provides a level of security and safety in an organization in in that
1:01:39
group as well obviously in Discord but as a person again coming back to the person just been laid off are you
1:01:46
willing to do all that for help you might or you might be overwhelming for you so how can we kind of avoid these
1:01:52
kind of steps taking your point though about the kind of changing the post kind of content and making a bit more
1:01:58
different to to kind of fulfill that kind of level of quality posting that Linkin wants to do a new algorithm for
1:02:04
example I think opportunity in as well obviously I haven’t tried it being blunt
1:02:10
I haven’t got the time right now to do that and I would love to find that time to do it and maybe it works for me maybe for others as well it’s just I get the
1:02:18
feeling that there was a decision made to support
1:02:26
personal branding I don’t know how to best put this I’m I’m struggling for for the right wording for this um
1:02:34
over supporting your connections I think that’s kind of where
1:02:39
we’re going to figure things out if you already have connections that follow you regularly they might already going to be in your feet every day anyway and com to
1:02:45
your stuff every day anyway because that’s what they do it’s how they how they interact with LinkedIn all of a sudden you’ve engaged
1:02:52
them in a way that Tik Tok does by have them always on the platform always scrolling always doing those things
1:02:57
always commenting liking whatever andever andever that’s their life people who look for jobs it can’t
1:03:04
be their life scrolling through things looking at things all time looking at different information they need things
1:03:09
like now and and need help right now because otherwise it’s that’s time
1:03:14
wasted almost right so how can we kind of improve that I feel taking your taking your point of saying having
1:03:21
resources on a certain profile is a good thing I’m doing it myself so it’s that me
1:03:26
how do you direct people to that if they even can’t find you yeah so I want couple things here so
1:03:35
the LinkedIn making the decision to favor personal branding rather than
1:03:41
helping people there’s a big part here which I’m just thinking for your personal like
1:03:48
mental well-being of proess the issue we have is we are lacking a way of
1:03:54
measuring the impact we only have The Impressions the likes
1:03:59
and people that message you like Alex I got a job great so because we have more
1:04:05
anecdotal evidence it feels like ah okay is the impact not there and to your point of the personal branding being
1:04:12
pushed more like a lot of those big creators spoke to a couple of them they’ve had similar massive decreases in
1:04:18
reach but they’re talking about personal branding they might have the perfect quality post but because they’re big creators the reach has gone down but
1:04:24
when I speak to them about kind of the conversations in the DMS or people actually engaging that’s increased so
1:04:31
I’m wondering if the Right audience is being shown now but the thing is we
1:04:36
don’t know which is the horrible part is like I’m guessing here but like the conversations have increased like in the
1:04:42
DM so I’m just thinking is there because we don’t know we’re just
1:04:48
looking at the impression number we see that taking a nose dive but potentially the impact is still there but we don’t
1:04:54
know so we I don’t want you to quit because of that because potentially the same amount of people could be getting
1:04:59
that help right the point about making the content kind of more
1:05:06
quality just in sense like it’s just more time can spend people looking at it like I feel like we can break down the
1:05:12
core message boom boom boom bo boom here’s kind of the resources or potentially putting that in the comments
1:05:18
like there’s things we could play around with but the message is there and you could still have that type of post that
1:05:23
you do which is the master resource but potentially that can’t be not can’t be
1:05:28
that that will be a part of the strategy if that makes sense CU I feel like the
1:05:35
bad outcome here is you stopping so if we don’t want you to stop I’m wondering
1:05:40
if there’s just a way to measure the impact more um kind of more concretely
1:05:47
rather than just looking at the impression number yeah understand just on one point you raised about the DMS increasing that is largely because they
1:05:54
can’t find the cont anymore so I’ve seen in mind for example the the request saying hey where I can find I don’t know
1:06:00
where to find this where where to link this to and I say well here is the link or I couldn’t even see it in my in my
1:06:05
feed and those DMS are increasing so that means there’s definitely something wrong in in that kind of visibility of
1:06:12
of of thing right that’s what kind just just point this one so the the one toone engagements are
1:06:19
increasing and I’m increasing mine personally to send stuff back to people who were struggled previously saying hey
1:06:24
just so you know I’ve forgotten you in case you can’t find it here’s latest of got I’ve
1:06:30
done over a hundred of those messages yesterday evening I should need to do
1:06:38
that right to to go to one to one person who who looking for jobs right now who
1:06:45
can’t find my post to say here’s my latest Link in case you can’t see it here’s my latest link and getting message back oh thank you I couldn’t see
1:06:51
thank you hasn’t come up yet I should need to do that in the nicest possible way um because
1:06:58
that that that therefore means that there’s definitely something that says to me that those people who looking for
1:07:03
something need that need that visibility and again it could be that my my my
1:07:09
formatting and my my content to make that happen but right now right now in
1:07:15
in having we’re now in month what month four of the year and we’ve always seen
1:07:20
more layoffs than we had last year there abouts um that’s a really bad
1:07:26
time and that’s never a good time by the way but it’s it’s you know we we got to figure out how to kind of make this
1:07:31
happen I cannot spend my evening doing this I’ve got family I cannot spend my day because I got work so so when does
1:07:38
it happen over the weekend so I I would have to wait X number of days and there’s a person waiting and saying I
1:07:44
can’t find where is it this needs to happen differently and this needs to kind of be be
1:07:50
considered we got to figure out a better way of doing this we got to figure out a better way to to promote that content
1:07:55
important to people I feel right now that that transition period from what
1:08:00
was before to what is now is St and I don’t think there’s an easy way to transition in in Tech anyway so I get it
1:08:06
completely I don’t you know I’m I’m a developer myself so I know what they’re going through as well the frustration is
1:08:13
kind of how do we how do we do this in a way that is almost instantaneous so
1:08:19
people who looking on need stuff don’t feel left out I think that’s what we’re trying to figure out now right and I
1:08:25
think some people like yourself certainly like alif far as well they cracked it quite quickly because your
1:08:31
content was already kind of in a very similar kind of state if it may be open that the algorithm understands and
1:08:38
kind of promotes and pushes forward because of the way you write because of the way you put coin together that coins
1:08:44
promot to something else be that what’s happening right now the engagement you’re currently having the people
1:08:49
you’re speaking to right now the event you’re going to for example that’s a complete different kind of push for for
1:08:56
audience MH and that made it and and and and that’s why it’s working for you um I
1:09:02
I need to Fig out a way to kind of make my content work in a similar kind of way in that new
1:09:08
algorithm but still push the the message I’m trying to push which just there help for you
1:09:13
there I’m thinking of a Matt hen’s example as well because he posts the post itself has a small tip I’m not
1:09:20
saying to become Matt hearon but I’m just using him as an example and then he can go to a Master news letter where you
1:09:26
get it kind of on tap so I’m potentially feeling it’s not about the fact
1:09:34
that this post supports people this post doesn’t support people let’s limit this
1:09:40
post I don’t think that’s what’s happening I don’t I think we we agree there uh 100% reiterating the point the
1:09:47
fact that it’s happened very quickly during the time that there’s layoffs and there’s no communication that’s very
1:09:54
frustrating of course my hope is that we don’t stop the posting and we just adapt
1:10:00
and we see what can happen I don’t think it’s a conscious decision of like hey
1:10:06
this post is about jobs and we’re going to promote this topic I I personally again this is all assumptions I’m just
1:10:13
guessing I just feel like there is a solution here um I think that’s my main kind of two cents on that there is a
1:10:20
solution here for sure and 100% agree with you you don’t have you shouldn’t be spending time sending 100 dmss to
1:10:27
someone who is obviously engaged and wants to find that content actually was looking for it and couldn’t find it in
1:10:32
their feed 100% for me the solution we can obviously try talk to
1:10:39
LinkedIn and get some answers and hopefully that will happen but if we assume that won’t happen because let’s
1:10:45
say it doesn’t then in my opinion the solution isn’t we don’t stop we find a way to communicate it potentially
1:10:52
have you just have that live on your profile and then potentially the content could just take them there cuz once they
1:10:58
have that information they have that information there’s a fin out of people who need that information so if the content hopefully bringing them to that
1:11:04
Master resource could be in comments or what have you but again I appreciate where you’re coming from because you’re
1:11:10
doing this all on a weekend and again you’re not monetizing any of this so I I I can feel I feel I feel where you’re
Alexander’s Thoughts on the Future of the Gaming Industry
1:11:17
coming from I would love to ask you final question just where do you see us going the next 10 8 months how’s been
1:11:24
your perspective where do you think the industry is going I think we’ll see a bit more
1:11:32
Innovation this year innovation in terms of other genres being picked out um other kind types of games might are
1:11:38
being made that really show there’s a difference in in your standard kind of live game for
1:11:44
example your standard kind of shooter standard kind of mobile for example and and things like that um I think we’ll
1:11:52
definitely see unreal five being being used much much more efficiently and
1:11:57
effectively than it has last year um because people are getting use the technology and and seeing how things go
1:12:02
with that and and creating some truly incredible
1:12:08
stuff I would love to know what happens whether it’s going to be a PS5 Pro or not or whether it’s going to be a switch
1:12:13
to any time this year would be fantastic obviously and I’d love kind of see what what people do with the current
1:12:20
generation of consoles and how they they eek out that last bit of performance that last bit of extra aome to kind of
1:12:25
make these cool games I worry there’ll be more layoffs I
1:12:31
think we’re not seeing the end of it yet but I can also see because I’m looking at resources and trying to kind of find
1:12:37
more jobs for people companies are still hiring that’s an important message I think people are still hiring they want
1:12:43
to make great games and they want to be successful and they’re looking for the right
1:12:48
stuff that’s happening which is fantastic obviously as well I think we’ll see certainly at games and
1:12:55
probably at tjs as well again a lot more talk about it and also more opportunity
1:13:03
of of smaller Studios definitely Indies and AA coming on board as well to show what they’re doing and wanting to grow
1:13:09
with that as well I think those kind kind of key things I can see behind this one as well and I think people will make
1:13:15
much much more use of things like GDC talks or or talks on
1:13:21
YouTube or similar kind of places to learn more about the craft improve their skills learn new tricks
1:13:28
and and and really kind of jump over that current kind of way of
1:13:33
quality and and provide this kind of EX level quality of what what’s currently out there and and that’ll be exciting I
1:13:39
think for us as Gamers but also for the competition aspect because look what they’re doing with this Tech how can we
1:13:45
do a similar or better thing as well obviously I think that’ll definitely be the case um speaking with the igda
1:13:51
because I’m a member there obviously as well and and bu they’ll be they’ll be much much more TW coming of support
1:13:57
articles support messages support networks for example to to train to mentor to provide advice to the industry
1:14:05
as well in terms of support across the companies but also kind of help companies can of help other people for
1:14:11
example so that’ll be exciting yeah I think those are kind of key topics I can think of right now I
1:14:17
think it’s not going to be all Rosy but it’s definitely going to go towards a positive kind of trend and the stuff
1:14:23
we’re going to see from Studios this year will again really kind of break people’s kind of mind saying whoa this
1:14:29
is amazing so yeah I can’t wait for that nice I’m looking forward to it and
1:14:35
yeah I I share the positive sentiment we’re not going to have a painfree year but I think we’re going to be in the
1:14:41
right direction near the end of it for sure and love the collaboration part like I’ve see quite a bit the buzz that
1:14:48
people have after the big events like GDC and Gamescom feel like it makes a big difference in like hiring
1:14:53
specifically one quick thing there like you’ve collecting the jobs resources have you
His Insights On Positive Job Market Trends
1:14:59
noticed any uptick in jobs I’ve seen a few more jobs on my feed but that’s just an anec anecdotal thing for me I have in
1:15:05
certain areas so so production and Engineering has certainly
1:15:10
grown a loten and art has also grown I saw from the previous kind of post I did
1:15:16
I think it’s a 7 to 10% upake in in number of jobs coming across the world which is great others haven’t so QA has
1:15:24
been much the same it has very much the same Biz def has much the same so you
1:15:29
can see we looking to high right now at the moment which is kind of interesting but no I think net net
1:15:36
overall the number of jobs have certainly increased and uh if you look at my previous update to this update
1:15:42
across the board so I’ve just been doing uh let give me a second so I’ve released an update to Art animation engineering
1:15:48
QA production and marketing all of these ones had an increase the QA one just
1:15:54
about by a percent not very much but it’s still still okay right the rest has all increased we’re talking here tens of
1:16:00
jobs not hundreds of thousands of jobs obviously but still it’s it’s an increase in this one certainly kind of where we are in the UK also worldwide
1:16:07
art animation engineering are the highest ones so we’re talking hundreds of jobs have increased so that’s that’s a positive thing as well obviously I’ve
1:16:14
not had yet one alth I’m still W in the other ones where we seen a decrease so
1:16:19
that’s a positive thing I would say yeah 100% very positive and from my
1:16:24
time in recruitment this time is a key hiring point but then we get a big
1:16:30
uptick right after summer everyone’s like oh wait really do need to hire that person now like we need to like we need
1:16:37
to stop Dilly dallying and then it’s like there’s a few there’s two surges like one after like March time I feel
1:16:43
like so they want someone to start before summer then one was like all right we need people now and then so
1:16:48
fingers crossed Gamescom we’ll just see that Trend keep going that would be cool
1:16:53
amazing fantastic Alexander really enjoyed this conversation thank you back and forth it’s been great and yeah thank
1:16:59
you so much thanks Harry really appreciate that