Holding a mirror to yourself
This week’s guest at Game Dev Diary was Aaron Morley. He is currently working as the Lead Product Manager at Sumo Leamington and he previously worked at companies such as SEGA, Ubisoft, and TreesPlease Games.
Aaron started literally from the bottom where he spent about a year with internships while getting no salary and then started working as a QA tester at SEGA. The most important thing in the beginning of his journey was the fact that he was determined to enter the games industry. Working on three internships with no pay and starting his first full time job as a QA tester that wasn’t even given any work all the time were not enough for him to stop. I think this is a really valuable lesson for everyone else to learn: You might have to make some sacrifices to start working on things that you love and want to continue working on for years to come.
Another very important thing for anyone trying to enter the games industry these days is to not limit themselves to a specific position. You might be really motivated to work as a narrative designer for a casual puzzle game, for example. But those roles are quite rare, which will diminish your chances of success to a great extent. But if you expand your options either by looking at other roles within the same genre or by looking at other genres within the same role, you will have a higher chance of taking your first step. And no matter how you expand your options, it will be much easier for you to make changes along the way to try things that you really want once you’re in. So, don’t get too focused on a specific thing right from the start.
When it comes to progressing with your career once you’re in, one of the most important things you can do is learn how to delegate. You will naturally take on more and more responsibility through time and there will come a point where you won’t be able to handle everything on your own. At that point, and much earlier than that frankly, you need to see which of your teammates are ready for the challenge and get their help on things. The knee-jerk reaction is usually to think you can do everything and you should since you are the one leading a team or growing more and more everyday. But if you can properly delegate some of your tasks and see other people grow through them, you will both be able to help others improve themselves and make more things done thanks to their effort.
The highlight of our discussion however, was about a very deep concept with the need of questioning your success continuously. Being successful at anything depends on a myriad of factors both within and outside your control. If you joined a company at a hyper growth stage, for example, you definitely made a successful choice. But the rest of the journey where you quickly climb the ladder and take on more and more responsibility is not purely the result of your actions. One successful choice that you’ve made unlocked a series of lucky events and you were able to capture them. The reverse is also true: If you joined a company at a stage where they went through financial hardships, you made (or had to make) a bad choice. That one choice can lead to a whole streak of unlucky events and no matter how hard you work or how successful you are, you will most likely be limited by the success of your company. Therefore, it is very important to remind yourself of the things that were in your control and the things that were not.
As someone who was indicted to the 30 under 30 by Forbes, Aaron had to learn the hard way how to realize that the rising tide lifts all boats. While it takes nothing away from his great career and his achievements so far, it also tells a thing or two about how we all should approach our lives in general. You should definitely celebrate any success that you achieve, but it is always healthy to remind yourself that it is not all you and there are always external factors working for or against you at any time.