Funny Things Happened on My Way to G2A
Or: How I stopped worrying and learned to love my future job
This is the first article in a series where I’ll talk about my life before and during G2A.
My life is all about travel and with this come both obstacles and new opportunities. It all began with my parents’ decision to move to Spain. Next came my choice to start a life in Poland. And somewhere along the way G2A happened.
But let’s focus on how I ended up in Poland in the first place. August 14th, 2015 is the exact date I would meet a Polish woman, Aleksandra. Me and my family were living in Spain at the time. Little did I know at that time what would come from this meeting. 5 years later, we are married and have 2 wonderful children together. Meeting my future wife changed a lot because it meant traveling to Poland, a country I’ve never been to before. After some time, I took the jump and actually moved there.
During my stay in Poland I was working in a family business — Webspain. My second job was teaching English to students.
One day in 2019 I got a call from a man coming back to Poland from New Jersey. He asked me to help him find a job in the area. I happily agreed, and so in my free time I started browsing websites like Linkedin, Pracuj.pl, etc. Days went by and I kept poking around to help my student find employment somewhere.
I was looking on Linkedin one day when I found a job offer at G2A. I was fully aware of what G2A was, because I am quite a dedicated gamer and I had used them in the past to get a code or two. I told my student that they are an international company and perhaps they will have something for him. So we went to G2A’s website and looked at the job listing.
We scrolled down reading through each one to find a position suitable for him. And then something caught my eye. “Community Specialist.” I checked it out really liked the sound of it. I saved that in my bookmarks, so I could read more into it later.
Later that day I finally took a look at the offer during my commute back home. I had to check LinkedIn out to see who’s currently working in these positions and what do they do. I saw a “Natalia” listed under “Junior Community Specialist.” This is when I had some doubts if I should reply. I was thinking to myself: did she snatch that position right from under my nose? Was there only room for one? What if can’t do the daily tasks she does?
I was pondering these thoughts during the whole trip back. I got home late that night, around 10pm. I sat down with my wife for dinner and we briefly discussed this job offer and whether I should go for it or not. She was very supportive and said:
“This is something connected to your hobby and you might enjoy it! No harm in trying, am I right?” She was. I went to bed with a thought that tomorrow I will submit a CV.
Next day a student cancelled, so I had some free time around noon. I spent it on a final look around to see if this is something I would like to do.
But I did not send my CV that day. I saw that a friend of mine that I met back in 2016 on LinkedIn received congratulations on her first month at G2A.
Her name is Malgorzata. We met via an online place that advertises teachers back in 2016. She was interested in meeting new people from abroad. A very nice girl with some fantastic stories to tell. We met a few times in our local shopping mall for coffee and we got on like a house on fire. Sadly, we lost contact after I moved elsewhere.
So I decided to catch up. I congratulated her and asked what her experience of working at G2A was like. I remember she told me she enjoyed her first month and it was something that she did not expect. She also recommended that I apply and see what happens next.
The very next day I did just that. I sent in a CV to that position and was waiting for feedback.
9 days had passed, and I had heard nothing. I assumed this must have been caused by a large volume of other applications. So I decided to write an email to a recruiter and ask for honest feedback on how I can improve my CV for the future. 40 mins passed and a lovely lady called Katarzyna called me with questions about my CV and history. I was in shock that this happened so fast. Later she gave me some tasks to do at home to see if I would qualify for such a position.
It turns out asking for feedback was the right thing to do. My persistence paid off.
My tasks were interesting and fun. They required me to work on a social media platform that I was already accustomed to. I was told to create a reddit account and engage with users in various subreddits to see how well I can work discussing topics related to gaming.
And I was successful. I had felt a great sense of relief that I had some potential that can be utilized inside the company. The task itself was not easy by any means, but I was happy I did enough. I was offered the chance to meet my future managers in person.
I used this opportunity to do some digging for a “Maciej Kuc.” I was able to find videos and info on him. You know what they say: what goes on the Internet, stays on the Internet. Like a ninja in disguise, I went on the prowl to find any dirt I could find. To my surprise the person was a high-profile journalist in the past, with a commendable track record and great pieces written about him. I also found some interview he did on YouTube. At that moment I knew who I’ll be facing soon.
The other person, “Piotr Radzięda,” had no social existence whatsoever. This made it all the more intriguing. I really wanted to know who he was and what role he played in the company.
Come the day of the meeting, I dressed up and went by bus to the G2A R&D centre in Rzeszow. It’s a rather large building and my first objective was to find a way in. I was to get lots of XP for completing this task, so the quest felt appropriately difficult. I was outside the gates for a good 10 mins. I had trouble getting in as the gates were closed and I was not sure what entrance to enter through. I called the reception and the security informed me what to do. Unfortunately, it was done in some language I never heard of. Perhaps this was a secret code of sorts? Because of this mix between English and Polish — Ponglish seems like an adequate word to describe it — I had absolutely zero idea what the guard meant when he was telling me “right.”
In all this confusion I decided to jump the gate that allows cars to go through. I had to be inside in the next 10 mins. I walked up to the entrance and the first thing I saw was a stray cat just walking past me. I was a little confused why a cat would be so far from any houses.
I’m a little superstitious, so the fact that the cat was grey made me feel a little more at ease. I didn’t have to walk under any ladders either. I went inside where I found the reception. The woman told me to sit down and wait for the individuals to appear and take me to the interview room.
I spent that time making notes of all the things I saw and experienced so far. Security guards with broken English, for example. They just let me go through the gates after giving up trying to explain where to go. Later I found out that it was because of the age of the guards and them not being accustomed to speaking English. They don’t really have much contact with the employees, and so a second language is not a requirement for them. Receptionist with very little small talk and emotion. She was very direct to me and seemed a bit scared of speaking English. I guess she just wanted to get things done with as little talking as possible. Small reception with many people walking around and talking loudly. What was interesting for me was the fact that the language being spoken was clear and great English. This calmed me down, as I was fearing that I might encounter more difficulties in talking to people, but this was not the case. Still, I was not sure what to expect next and if coming here was truly the right move to make.
5 minutes went by. The two men that I came to meet greeted me and took me down the corridor to have a conversation. One of them, Maciej, was a tall guy with hair I rarely saw on men of his generation. It was more of a teenager kind of thing. His attire was on point though, he was well-dressed for the occasion. The other person, Piotr, was also dressed smartly, but from his body language I inferred that he might be the stricter and more ruling person out of the two. I was expecting a very business-minded discussion, focused solely on my job requirements. But when they asked me to do a small 7 min task, they started discussing…żurek, a traditional Polish soup that’s apparently a big deal around the office. They were talking in Polish, a language I told them I don’t speak much. What they did not know is that I can understand it much better.
It felt like an odd topic to discuss during a job interview, and especially when I was busy with my task, but there was a sensible rationale behind that. First, they wanted to avoid this awkward silence in the background and bothering me while I was working on the task they gave me. Second, it was to see how well I work in a noisy setting like an office room. I later found out that żurek is indeed such a treasure among G2A’s employees that they form long, orderly queues just to get a bowl of that. This is probably why it was discussed in such great detail. They were talking about it for a good 7–8 minutes. Must’ve been one hell of a soup then!
After my task was finished, and the interview concluded, one of the men asked me if I had some time to take a look around the office. I accepted the offer because I wanted to see more of what could be my next job.
Only one thing came to my mind. WOW! Just WOW! We went through 3 floors and I saw some incredible things.
I got to see my favorite game characters on the walls of each hall.
I got to see the actual thrones used in the Warcraft movie.
I got to experience an elevator that rattles and makes sounds like you are in a level of DOOM. For the record, I am sure it is not supposed to do these things, but it added to the scenery regardless. I was gobsmacked at how amazing the scenery was. I took some pictures of what I saw that day. You can see them in this article.
Next, they took me to the room where I would be working from should I be accepted. I walked in and my first though was “Wow, this is kinda small.” There were 3 people sitting in the room. Lukasz, the copywriter who I can now call a friend of mine, was the first person I was introduced to. Natalia was up next. When I saw her very thick clothes I thought “OK, this girl is either cold or she really treats this place like home.” She seemed very eager to talk to me. Last but not least, I met Justyna. I could tell she was a little nervous and shy. Yet, she had a great smile on her face which made me feel welcome.
After some small talk I was told I would hear back from them in the next few days and to keep an ear out for any calls. I was then walked off the premises by one of the interviewing gentlemen. Before I left, he showed me the Doomhammer, a fabled weapon from the Warcraft universe, and we discussed what games we enjoy playing.
What began as a worrisome day soon turned positive, and I will always remember how my mind changed so drastically.
The next day I did get that phone call and to this day I still work at G2A and at with that same team I met.
This is how it all started and how I became part of G2A. A G2A’nian. This is not the end, though, as I will be explaining how my first day and month at the company were. They were quite a shock for me. Keep an eye out for these articles in the future!
