This just in: life isn’t fair.
I am seriously bummed out and demoralized and angsty and sad.
Josh got laid off yesterday. That sucks, and believe me, I can sympathize. Getting laid off isn’t any fun, regardless of the circumstances.
Except less than an hour after Josh was laid off, he got a phone call with a job offer.
I’m happy for him, I really am. But FUCK. I’ve been out of work since October. I’ve sent out countless resumes, been on at least a dozen interviews, and nothing. I had a promising interview almost 4 weeks ago that I’m still waiting to hear about. I had another one that went really well two weeks ago, but again with the waiting. Josh had a second interview on Monday, got laid off on Tuesday, and got an offer from Monday that same day. That worked out awfully well, and is super cool.
SO WHY can’t that happen for me? Where’s my luck? When is it my turn for good fortune? I’ve tried everything – and I do mean everything. Fuck, I gave my resume to the mailman because his son knows a guy. I’ve contacted every agency in town, and the best I was offered was a two-month holiday contract with the one company I don’t want to work for. I have so many skills and I’m so good at what I do – why can’t I find a job?
Just .. fuck.
delicious juice dot com 
have you followed up with your two promising jobs? kept yourself on their radar?
Hey what kind of work are you looking for? Let me know and I can find out if our van office is looking for that…
Shan (as usual) read my mind. If you haven’t followed up, I’d say give em a call. If nothing else, it will show them that you are still interested! :)
I have – one is finishing first round interviews (I was the first); the other told me it’d be two weeks before they could tell me anything (which’ll be Thursday). There’s literally nothing I can do but wait, and we all know how awesome I am with patience.
As apparently the place I am at right now has blocked facebook (grrrr, now what am I going to do all day?!?!) I’ll let you know here. I sent an email to the manager of the van office to see if they are looking for anyone in that skill area.
I’ll let you know when I hear something from him.
Talk to you later!
I’d recommend having someone call your references or at least just past employers as though they are the HR person somewhere that you have applied. Just to make sure no one is sabatoging your efforts, intentionally or otherwise. (For example, you were an independent contractor, which means that some HR people might go look in their system and not see that you were ever on the payroll and announce that you never worked there.)
I think if you really want to get into the game industry you are going to have to have some game type experiences. Mod work and the like. Game companies want to not only see relative work experience but active participation in the industry at any level especially one related to your end goal. This is also something that can occupy time and keep you active and not seem like you are just wasting away waiting for a job to come up. It will keep you actively pursuing the carrier you want, showing initiative and keep your mind off of the downsides of being unemployed. Keep job searching of course, but a proactive hobby can go a long way. Plus if it is a game company you are waiting for feedback from they tend to keep excruciatingly long hiring processes. So far from our mod work we have gotten one of our team members hired, and another one a fly in interview, which generally means they are hired as well. One other member still trying and the rest had no general interest to be hired. Mod work goes a long way and if you are serious and show that, companies will see it. Game review sites may be a great outlet as well. There are a few more popping up and I know many of them pay, maybe not full salary like you want but even something along those lines is progress and often times these jobs can be kept as a side project even when you do get a full time job.