My Experiences: EA Sports Tester
It was early 2004, I had just finished graduate school at UCF and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Â Typical. Â My savings was starting to dry up and I needed money fast. Â I went around filling out job applications. Â I actually got hired at Lowe’s first off. Â I was sent to push shopping carts on the second day instead of going through the typical orientation session. Â By the third day I was left alone in the lumber section all by myself. Â I quit that afternoon. Â Days later while wallowing in shame and fear, I saw an advertisement on careerbuilder.com for a video game tester. Â I knew that was something I could do. Â When I found out it was for EA Sports Tiburon I got excited. Â I filled out the application and days later I got a call from one of their screeners who gave me the phone interview. Â This consisted of some basic experience questions, and some sports specific questions like:
“What is the difference between overtime in college football and the NFL?”
“Name the major BCS bowls”
“Name as many NASCAR drivers and their sponsors as you can”
I was able to pass that pretty easily so I was invited in for another interview at their office. Â Here I had to answer a ten page multiple choice test where we shown pictures of controllers and match them to their consoles. Â It was video game and sports stuff. Â I did good there too so then we were given a console and told to follow a procedure where we would get a video game to crash. Â Then a panel interview where I chatted with three people. Â I remember being asked if I could remember what the interviewers names were and I only could remember the chick’s name. Â Again, typical. Â I was told I had the job and I had to come in Monday morning for a week of training which consisted of learning the bug database and learning from the previous year’s titles. Â At the end of the week we got our assignments and I was on the NCAA team for PS2. Â We all felt sorry for the guy who was given Madden for Game Boy Advance.
The work started out good. Â We worked 10AM-630pm, there was a fridge and a soda machine there. Â In the break room there were arcade cabinet machines such as Q-Bert, Mortal Kombat 2, and Golden Tee. Â We had some good competitions there. Â Soon our days went from 10am to 10pm. Â Beta got closer and we split into different shifts. Â Some worked 10am to midnight, some worked 12pm to 2am. Â It was a grind. Â No days off, not when you are putting out one of the best selling video games of the year. Â The people at the 7-11 store got to know us rather well for coffee and energy drinks.
It was an interesting job. Â There were barely any women around. Â For a group of guys who barely got to see women outside the office, work life brought out the caveman in everyone. Â Think of that boobs episode of South Park if it helps. Â Also, I found that the people in charge took what they did waaaay to seriously. Â They’d pump us up as if we were on the mission to kill Bin Laden. Â And they were the kind of bosses who used the old “We work hard but we play hard” catchphrase. Â I always thought anybody who used that should be locked in a closet with bees. Â There was a divide too among the full time programmers and staff and the seasonal Quality Assurance testers like me. Â The “people upstairs” got better snack machines, benefits, and we got to read some messages which revealed that they pretty much thought we were peons. Â But we weren’t, at least not all of us. Â We had lawyers, cops, college graduates, parents, all guys just trying to make a living and pay the bills. Â I know they had their struggles too. Â There was a controversy awhile back about the wife of an EA Employee there who didn’t like the long hours and lack of overtime her husband had to deal with. Â Google “EASpouse” and you’ll see the story.
Eventually I moved on but every year I would check the credits of all the football games and see who was still there from my day. Â Some testers actually got promoted to game producer. Â That was something good about the job, if you showed dedication, you were rewarded. Â I often wonder where I would have gone had I stayed there. Â I surely would have made a better Superman Returns game, that’s for sure.
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