One of the reddest flags in the game industry is hearing that an experienced professional didn’t get a gig because he didn’t demonstrate any “passion” during the interview. There’s only two situations in which this is okay. Don’t worry, I’ll get to them. Eventually.
Here’s the deal for everyone who was born yesterday: “Passion” in a job description is almost always code for “the hours are long and we’re not planning to pay you enough to live on, so if you’re not starry eyed with the wonder of finally making it into the industry, you’ll burn out in two months.”
By the way, I’m not knocking starry eyed. There are plenty of games that would never have have made it out the door, and plenty of studios that never would have survived long enough to get bought out by a megaconglomerate, if the employees hadn’t been starry eyed. Heck, I’m doing some stuff right now entirely because I’ve got a little lens flare on the ol’ retinas. If you’re writing an ad for a scrappy little startup company, by all means, put in the code word for “crappy money.” You can’t spell scrappy without crappy. When you’re trying to get started, you’ve got to take chances. You need to fill your seats with people who may not have experience, but are willing to bust their humps until they learn. And if you can convince any old pros to come in and do it for love, it’s possible everyone might win if your ship comes in.
The problem, of course, is when the well-funded megaconglomerate says “you know, even though we make ten dollars of profit off every box of Franchise Branded Shit, and twenty dollars off every box of Surprisingly Awesome Product, we needn’t bother to pay the little people who actually make the games. I mean, hell, they worked for almost free back in the day, and if it weren’t for Arrogant Jerkoff Whose Contributions To Actual Gameplay Were Worthless, they wouldn’t even have jobs, so let’s pay the Jerkoff 350 grand a year plus bonuses and fill our level design jobs with people who have “passion” for making games!”
You cannot tell me that any executive on this planet is putting into a company fourteen times the value of the content guy. Four times, five times, I’m willing to argue. Six or eight times? If you want to go there, you will have to buy me lots of unnaturally colored slushy drinks with fruit kabobs and umbrellas before you start talking, in hopes of my being unable to follow your reasoning for very long and giving up. But fourteen times? You can’t do it without taking up residence in fantasy land, and there’s not enough booze in Austin to get me to move there with you.
But I’m not going to change the world by being in touch with reality. And I’m not going to accomplish anything by suggesting that in harsh economic times, one worthless, sycophantic middle manager who was promoted to management because his work sucked but golly gosh, he’s such a heck of a nice guy, at least he is to anyone over the level of director… sorry. Let me back up. I’m not going to accomplish anything by suggesting that this cocktail circuit prostitute could get axed and save the jobs of three content people. Because sadly, it’s not just salary being counted here. The worthless guy with the one big salary three times that of the people he’s going to fail to protect in the name of being a team player, because being a team player is strictly evaluated from the top down, not from the perspective of the team… man, there I go AGAIN. ANYWAY. That dude has one regular sized benefit package. The three little people each have the same health insurance package, and represent the same drain on HR, and all of them get the 401K matching goodies. It’s the benefits the bean counters are looking at when they’re choosing who gets to stay on the island. So I won’t suggest that the human hemorrhoid take one for the team. The team is screwed anyway. In a couple years, when the bean counters are trying to figure out why the studio is incapable of delivering a decent product, no one will realize that the explanation dates back to the “hard choices” of years gone by.
But back to passion. The real danger with the word passion is not from newbs being unable to read between the lines on a job posting. The problem is when the people on the island drink the passionfruit koolaid. The most lethal combination is someone who’s high enough on the management tree to be invited to pass judgement, but not experienced enough to know what gets the job done.
Passion is not a substitute for experience. Passion is not a substitute for speed of execution. Passion isn’t going to replace skill, acquired technique, or ability. It drives me absolutely bonkers when I hear about a seasoned professional being rejected for a gig because he didn’t race around the conference room flinging glitter in the air. The games industry is old enough now that a body of work should speak for itself without the worker having to act like a methed up chimp during the interview.
There are two exceptions. Hire the passionate one when you simply can’t afford the pro. But don’t make the rejection about “passion,” even inside your head. Heck, try something radical. Tell the pro you can’t afford him. See what he says. As long as you haven’t insulted his intelligence (say, by being from a well-funded megaconglomerate that just sent the executive team on a retreat to Acapulco), maybe the pro will come back at you with a counteroffer. Or maybe you can make it up to him with flexible work arrangements, more leave, profit sharing (in writing, please, no airy fairy promises that you’ll do the right thing someday), or other intangibles.
And the other exception is when your two candidates are equal in experience, talent, and salary expectations. By all means, in that scenario, use passion as the tiebreaker. That’s what passion is – it’s the secret sauce, the magic factor, the something extra that pushes someone over the top. When all else is equal, passion makes for more fun, more excitement, more eagerness to come to work in the morning. Nothing beats working with someone who loves their job and their audience. It’s intoxicating. It makes a mere job into something awesome.
Just remember that the most awesome thing about a job is continuing to have one, and passion alone cannot sustain a project.
Head, meet nail – beautifully summed up Sanya
“That dude has one regular sized benefit package. The three little people each have the same health insurance package, and represent the same drain on HR, and all of them get the 401K matching goodies. It’s the benefits the bean counters are looking at when they’re choosing who gets to stay on the island.”
That doesn’t really hold true though, does it? I mean, sure, they’re all getting the same 401k matching in terms of percentage…but Head Shmuck who’s making $500k is still draining off a lot more through his matched X% than the three Worker Bees are with their total combined $120k’s match.
I mean, let’s go crazy and say that any given person’s benefits cost as much as an entire Worker Bee’s salary does. We’ve got our Worker Bees making $40k and then we’re somehow managing to burn an entire other $40k on each of them for benefits…so our three Worker Bees now represent a $240k drain. Head Schmuck is still at his $500k before benefits. So now you’re talking 6 Worker Bees to match one Head Schmuck, which means that he’s costing you an entire team…and that’s with a salary:benefits ratio that’s unthinkably absurd, so the numbers only get more skewed when we bring the ratio back to reality.
I think there’s every reason in the world to run with the ‘he should take one for the team’ plan…but then I also know full well that the numbers Just Don’t Matter and Head Schmuck will stay employed because he’s Very Important, and the company will have people banging at the door waiting to take Worker Bee positions for even less money because they’re full of passion. ;p
Great post! Very well written, and sadly the symptom seems everywhere in corporate America.
Funny thing is, I think I know which company this is in reference to. Not that I know the story, but I know someone else who experienced something similar with a very similarly described company.
Actually, what set me off was hearing virtually the same anecdote from friends in three states. One thing the game industry does well is CONSISTENTLY having the same problems…
Sanya, this doesn’t just apply to the gaming industry, it applies to /every/ industry.
You nailed this one.
I don’t know about the specific case here, but I disagree on the experience vs passion issue. The gaming industry recycles, and there are a lot of people out there with a lot of experience at doing things poorly. A long track record in the gaming industry proves that you can a) probably live with an unstable income b) relocate on a whim (not necessarily YOUR whim) c) deal with copious amounts of stress without needing a noble cause (being nuts is optional, but most people in the gaming industry seem to find that it helps). What it doesn’t prove is that you’re particularly good at your job.
I’d look at intelligence, passion and experience when hiring. There’s a base level you need of each of course, but beyond that, I value improvement in the other areas in that order. (You can add personality, hygiene, and communication as basic skills that are also needed – especially if you think these have very little to do with the job.) In fact, if your experience doesn’t match your knowledge, having more experience can hurt. If you’ve got 10 years of experience, I’m going to ask you some pretty tough questions, and if you can’t answer any of them I’m going to wonder if you lied, exaggerated, or just slid by for the last 10 years without learning.
In an interview, ‘passion’ doesn’t mean to me that someone is cheery or all-knowledgeable about the specifics of the company/product before they come in. It means that they engaged in intelligent thought applied to the situation presented to them in a way that demonstrates that they have an interest in more than just landing the job or getting a paycheck.
However, I agree that the word ‘passion’ is used as code. In a job posting it means “we pay less than the expected wage for this position.” In an interview response, I would take it as “you didn’t impress us during the interview,” or perhaps the more blunt form “you suck at interviewing.” The response of “we can’t offer you the wage you’re asking” seems like an easy answer for the potential employer, as long as they did like you. It doesn’t involve any potentially awkward confrontations. The issue of long hours is more convoluted – but that’s the lot of the gaming industry at the moment.
When walking into an interview, you need to convince everyone in the room that they want something you can give them, and you’re the best (or only) place they’re going to get it. When you were 20 years old you were selling the low-risk cheap potential for genius bundled with a convenient impression of social responsibility (taking youth under your wing and all). When you’re 30 you’re not cheap, you’re not low-risk and helping you doesn’t ease anyone’s conscious for the years of fleecing society in true capitalistic fashion. You’d better have something great to sell, and a passable presentation (or something passable to sell and a great presentation, if you’re that kind of person).
If you could just make bosses all over the world read and comprehend this…
I will hire someone with passion over a comparably resume’d ho-hum prospect any day of the week. Sometimes I might take the passion with less of a resume just to have someone who cares about what they are doing.
The best teams have free fresh-ground coffee and Aeron chairs for everyone, communicate goals properly and organize fairly and within reasonable boundaries. Then the right people go to work and get the work done.
I like to think a large portion of the marketplace is starting to realize that starry-eyed is often a thin veil for empty-headed, and the best ass-kissers are often anathema to the somewhat dispassionate but hardworking and efficient employees who make the railroad run.
Well said. Except that now I have a craving for an unnaturally colored slushy drink with a fruit kabob and paper umbrella.
Sanya – there is an old add age that sums up my experience in ‘management’:
“You rise to the level of your incompetence.”
… and ditto on the craving for an unnaturally colored slushy drink with a fruit kabob and paper umbrella.
…. hmmm .. blue slushie …