Atari creeps closer to death (I'm out of a job)

Mark Dygert

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/17/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/?cnn=yes

Here's a bad joke for you;
Three corporate reps walk into the Atari tech support conference room.
The first one turns to the second one and shoves the crumpled piece of paper into his hands.
The Third one mutters something under his breath, sits down and fixes his gaze on a spot on the rug until the meeting is over.
The second one starts to read a prepared statement that starts off with "as you know the company has been going through some hard times lately"
The entire room sighs, one tech makes that badda-bing-ching sound and everyone laughs.
I ask if we can go home early or do we get to stay and tell customers all the mean hurtful things we have always dreamed of saying?
I was the first to be given a box...

Yup after 4 long and rocky years Atari is circling the drain. Techsmith I bet you are feeling pretty lucky right about now =P Honestly this is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I get 6 weeks to find a new job. I was starting to half heartily look before and wasn't applying because I had a cushy job. Now that I'm a bit more hungry for a job I'm sure I'll find something new and end up enjoying it a lot more.

Well back to working on my site, can't get a job without something to show =D

Xenobond

Well, that sure is one way to get you motivated, huh?

notman

Sorry/Congrats

Nothing motivates like losing your job. I'm always looking, but I get too worried to apply to anything. I'm always more comfortable staying with the job I'm in rather than jumping into the unknown with a new job. It usually takes losing my job to motivate me into actually applying for other positions.

So congrats, since you seem so happy about this If you need any help on your site's code, throw me a PM or something and I see what I can do.

Kevin Albers

Sorry and congrats indeed.
I once got laid off by Atari/Infogrames when they shut down a studio I worked at. They made me sign a statement that I would not say bad things about them, or I would get no compensation money. Therefore I won't say bad things about Infogrames or it's management. However, I won't be very sad if Infogrames is destroyed by some horrific space alien invasion...

TechSmith

Hey Vig. I think there is a position or 2 open on my team at mscomhlp. It has nothing to do with games, but it's a paycheck.
It's a V-position through HP. If you send me your resume I can forward it to my HP lead.

Lee3dee

sorry the job Vig . Plenty of great game companies out in Seattle you'll get something!

adam

What do you do? Come April we need people (Lee!)

Paul Jaquays

Sorry to hear about the job loss. One of my basic rules is "Never work for a game developer owned by a French corporation." From reading an article about this earlier, Atari plans to make most of its cuts at their American studios and offices.

Kevin ... once you get your last compensation check, you're probably free to say whatever you want (without revealing any trade secrets you may be privy to).

sledgy

Losing your job can be a shocker especially when you don't expect it. One of my personal philosophies is that you can always make it better.

^ What Mr. Jaquays said only if you signed a release make sure you don't say anything defamatory unless it's true.

notman

Yeah, I remember when I lost my last job. My contract pimp called me into a room, and I thought it was to discuss my raise (or lie to me and say they can afford one again). Instead, I was told my contract was done along with the guy that walked out before me. That caught me completely off-guard. Now I'm always paranoid at my current job

Slum

Hey man, the exact same thing happened to me tuesday. Is it that time of the year or something?

Good luck, I hope the fish are bitin' these days.

hawken

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Vig. I think there is a position or 2 open on my team at mscomhlp. It has nothing to do with games, but it's a paycheck.
It's a V-position through HP. If you send me your resume I can forward it to my HP lead.

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah and end up in a job where you have to lie through your teeth to stop angry customers with broken hardware from fire bombing the call center.

Unfortunately HP won't fix some of thier biggest lemons, and get thousands of angry customers a day.

I should know, I have a $3000 paperweight.

TechSmith

Actually I support internal application for Microsoft and monitor hardware. I don't have anything to do with HP built end-user boxes.

Frank

Add me to the list of people that were 1: let go by Atari (a couple of years ago, my department went away) and 2: waiting anxiously for them to die already.

Frank the Avenger