STAFF PROFILE: DAVID, INTERN
What is your background?
Having completed two years of a BSc in Digital Entertainment at the University of Derby, I joined Rare as a placement student in summer 2004, and spent the year being a guinea pig to the new intern scheme.
How did you get to work at Rare?
Getting the placement involved filling out the application form and completing a series of interviews, first over telephone and then with Rare’s recruitment agency, Obvious, and a final interview on-site at Rare. There are a lot of stages in the interview process, but it’s all very relaxed and informal, so you can present your best side without the usual feeling of being interrogated. The best advice I can give is to let your enthusiasm for the job show, and just be yourself.
What do you do day to day?
Most new starters (software engineers at least) start in STG, so I spent the first part of my placement there. STG is the tools and technology team, so I spent this time working on the game engine and tools used in the games development process. They just throw you in at the deep end, and I got to work on things from memory managers and the internal asset management tool to a full port of the game engine to a different platform. For the last few months of my placement I moved onto the Kameo team, where I was given my own areas of the game to implement, fix and manage, and I experienced the dreaded 'Crunch Time' in full swing (and I still want to come back if they’ll let me!). (He did - Ed.)
I have learnt more this year than I can possibly describe, and if you’re unsure on whether or not to do a placement, I thoroughly recommend it (especially at Rare!), as I know it has done a heck of a lot more for my employability after university than my degree has done. |
