Got a Job
polycounter lvl 18
After many long years of work and effort i finally got my first real game job,ill be doing environments for next gen games at Streamline studios and i will be moving from Houston Texas to the Netherlands shortly to begin.
2 things i wanted to do all my life
1. work making games
2. living abroad
im very excited
One polycounter id like to personally thank is Pak,who took many hours after work to help me improve and focus my abilities in a direction which would help me get a job. Thanx man.
when you come up here to visit first round is on me
2 things i wanted to do all my life
1. work making games
2. living abroad
im very excited
One polycounter id like to personally thank is Pak,who took many hours after work to help me improve and focus my abilities in a direction which would help me get a job. Thanx man.
when you come up here to visit first round is on me
Replies
And big ups to having the balls to move out of the country.
Going too all the wonderful museums too.
This might be the only chance i get to do this in my life so despite a little anxiousness im going to do it, id rather try it and fail instead of regretting never trying at all.
Im young unmarrired and have no kids so this may be my only chance i ever get.
EDIT: ill be living in the City of Amsterdam or the small town the studio is located in 12 miles north of amsterdam
r.
WANG!
Be warned Netherlands has a spooky thing called SNOW!!
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snow is fine for me,like the mighty walrus i have built a layer of fat around my body which will keep me warm from the cold slowly built over time by the hunting of pizza,big macs and nectar from the hopps and barley plant.
[ QUOTE ]
Be warned Netherlands has a spooky thing called SNOW!!
[/ QUOTE ]
snow is fine for me,like the mighty walrus i have built a layer of fat around my body which will keep me warm from the cold slowly built over time by the hunting of pizza,big macs and nectar from the hopps and barley plant.
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Congrats! You've got more balls than I've got to start a new life in a foreign country.
However, beware. I hear that in eupore people with any body fat are seen as a rarity and are often times caged for the viewing public's amusement. Keep your eyes open for any nefarious looking netherlandish netherlander.
Oh, the irony.
Congratulations, though! It's just that i hate you for taking one out of the available two gamingjobs in holland away from me!
Send me a hot blonde for xmas :P
-R
Wow that is awesome never heard of anyone going from USA to over seas !! Only the other way around ...good work !
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Well being an American citizen i can go there try it out and if it doesnt go as well i can always return back with no issues, ive thought alot about this job and have back ups, my brother lives in Austin and has a spare room. If all goes bad (which i hope it wont) i can go live with him there find work to pay him rent and look for game jobs in the area.
Where will you be living?
Here's to a brief and fun case of culture-shock
Don't go to crazy in Amsterdam and it doesn't really snow in the netherlands.
Go to the Heiniken brewery, the sex museeum, the Rijek museeum, van G. museeum (allthough the quew is endless) ...
Don't somke to much dope and don't drink to much beer.
1 moving from texas to netherlands
2 working for streamline... uh uh long working hours...
forget all the nice service you had in the US, no cheap gasoline, no internet within 2 hours, no money, no good music (techno, mostly).
Sure, it will be fun
oh, how i pray.
the internet thing is true, though. allthough it's nowhere near as bad as in belgium, where most providers have ridiculous download-limits.
And while you are there, you've got a great opportunity to travel - rail travel is generally cheap in europe (not in the UK though, its a rip off).
Don`t be put off by some of the discouragement `some` people have displayed here, it`s a case of swings and roundabouts, true that you will have to give yourself a little time to adjust to the cost of living in relation to your salary, but if you feel that you are getting overworked, just say so. European Court of Law, favours the employee and a lot of that chuff in industry contracts about `you will work all the hours god sends`, IS just a load of chuff. I very much doubt there`s an employer dumb enough in europe to challenge that.
Besides all that... Enjoy!
I don't think I've ever heard of anyone going to Europe from the US for a gaming gig. Seems like everyone I know in the biz is trying to get to the US or Asia.
Maybe we could set up a meeting for the people in NL who are on here sometime?
Living here is cheaper but i spend 300USD a month on car payment, 110ish a month on insurance, 45 or so weekly on gas,33 weekly on tolls. with a drive totaling 1 hour to and 1 hour from work daily.
over there i will have no car and rely on public transportation,walking and maybe a bike
as for working long hours its something i am not afraid to do, ive done it before in previous non game related 3d gigs.
language and getting used to it all will be a challenge but why not, this will likely be one of the few if not the only chance i get to see alot of the sights ive wanted to see.
as for the discouraging remarks,never been an issue, when parents told me playing video games will get me nowhere i didnt pay attention, when people told me i wouldnt make it going to school for 3d animation i still pushed on and when people tried to get me to drop all the work i have done since i graduated from college to make it as a 3d artist i never quit.
See you soon
2 working for streamline... uh uh long working hours..."
Firstly, in response to the posts with an underlying connotation of 'why the hell are you doing it the 'wrong' way around?', when I was at Bullfrog, the workforce was truly international. We had Americans, Canadians, Scandinavians, French, Koreans, and some Brits of course. But perhaps they were the boom years.
But moreover, and I think I can speak with some authority on this since I've worked for the exact same co. on both sides of the Atlantic, in terms of work / life balance, Europeans have it way better figured out than Americans. At EA UK, I never worked weekends, and a late night was considered 10, not 1am like it is here. Here ( and by that I mean the games bizz in CA ) , your entire life is expected of you. It's simply a different corporate culture here than than 'over there' and I for one, miss the old life.
Good luck again Javier. Your tenacity and success in following your dream is commendable.
Isis yeah ill definatly be up to meeting some of you guys from the netherlands.
As move time gets closer im getting more excited,i dropped 100dollars on art supplies yesterday,pens,pencils,brushes etc.
I already have an idea of stuff i wanna see when i go there,who knows what ill get to do but ill try.
Van Gogh Museum
Anne Frank House
The louvre (at least thats how i think its spelled)
Oktoberfest
London
Rome
Paris
Normandy
And all the super fun fun stuff to do in Amsterdam
Time to report your old boss now
Anyways. Grattz dude.
I so want to do a tour of europe. which could easily take a year for me cause of all the places i'd want to visit. all the little pubs along the way sampling local brew's as I go. Then finish the tour off in germany for oktoberfest.
Shimmer: you and me could drag our collective arses over to holland, though.
What do you say?