I was going to write about the PNE tonight but maybe I’ll do that tomorrow. So I’m into my second real week of work at EA. There are a lot of differences between my old job and my new one but there is one thing that stands out. Most of the people on my team, the software engineers especially, are very experienced, senior people.
When I told some people that I was going to be working at the downtown studio, one person said that was surprising since they had heard they only hired SE II and above for that location. When I accepted the position, I signed on as an SE I.
It’s clear to me now that there is some truth to the seniority thing. Most of the engineers on my team have at least three or more years of experience in making games, most of that with EA. I’d say the average is probably closer to five years of experience. They’ve written a lot of code and done a lot of things that make they very valuable to the company.
The one thing that strikes me is that the engineers have an almost casual attitude of solving really hard problems on a daily basis. It’s not that they don’t care but that they don’t get to worked up about things because in the end, they know they’ll find some solution. I work with some extremely intelligent people.
I can only confirm that there’s just one other SE I on the team other than myself. That guy just finished university. We were talking one day and none of us could figure out if there was anyone else at our level. This is a bit of a departure for me since at my last job, there were predominantly junior people on my team, from engineering, to art, and to production. There was this “we’re all in this together” type of attitude. Now, I got a dozen people I could learn a million things from each day.
And finally, in other news, a truck full of Tang overturned in Queens, NY. Not sure why I reported that, I just probably wanted to type out my last name.