First 5 Days of 5 Employees at a Gaming-Focused Company
What every company makes its employees feel in the first few days is very different. Do you remember yours?
You get the good news, a new job! In these times too. You indeed are ready to work. It’s very exciting but also tense, not just because you’re going to learn new systems & processes, you’ll also get to know new people and navigate your way around a virtual workspace. That’s why the first days at your new job may be among the most memorable of your career.
What if the company you’re going to begin working for is a gaming-focused company? As an employee of Multiplayer, I am happy to work for a company where I can’t explain the company type. It’s neither a corporate company nor an agency. It is a company that makes its employees feel like family and determines its systems according to its own dynamics. Although it is difficult to find this in all gaming-focused companies, we have one thing in common. That is the passion for games.
You will see below the first 5 days of 5 employees in Multiplayer, including yours truly. Even if feelings are mutual in terms of excitement and stress, I think what every company makes its employees feel in the first few days is very different.
I was previously employed as an astrophysics grad student; the day-to-day was pretty much following and implementing the highly sophisticated and deterministic scientific methodology that was developed by my peers or peers of my peers. I was a full-fledged engineer in training while playing games in my free time and enjoying them as they come and go like any other gamer before stepping into the gaming industry. When I decided it was time for a career change from being an astrophysicist to a data scientist and then luckily got employed at Multiplayer, the whole idea of a gaming experience got a bit deeper from day 1; objectives while playing a game automatically turned into “enhancing the user experience, creating A/B tests to model user behavior, evaluating key performance indicators” and etc. Even though I knew how to derive insight from observing physical systems by statistical analysis, I was overwhelmed by the gaming lingo and the novel methodology of accumulating knowledge and insight. I spent the vast majority of my time studying methods for analysis, glossary terms and what they represent, benchmarks for market research, and many more. I clicked on every interactable button on every dashboard used in operation to understand what they do and tried my best to soak up every bit of information and data to derive insight from.
Needless to say, I had a severe imposter syndrome from the get-go which after 4 months ended up being a bit less severe, but hey, that’s gaming and tech for you, gotta keep up with the updates!
I studied English Language Teaching and I had just graduated when I started here. So, I had no idea about the gaming industry, OR any experience of working, except for just playing games. God knows I had no idea about teaching English too, nevermind. I got the job and the first days were quite calm, with no work to be done, so I thought I was blessed with this because that was a perfect opportunity for me to learn what I was going to do and adapt to work, people, etc. without doing something wrong. The joke’s on me, I made a huge mistake. At least it felt that way back then. Briefly, I had sent the email that I should have sent to only a few people to everyone on the list. Oh boy, the company would go bankrupt because of me! In one week! I was sweating and shaking. I ran to my superior and told him what I had done. He just smiled and said “That’s okay, I know them, I’ll call them and explain. You can keep going.” I was still like, okay they will fire me after the phone calls. Well, it didn’t happen, thank goodness! Everyone said that was a common mistake, that they did it before too. That day I felt like “Yes, I’m in the right place,” and I feel like this since back then. If I were working elsewhere, maybe they would be mad at me. I would think I made the wrong choice and then do a job I didn’t want.
But even though a year has passed, everyone in the company is still supportive, trying to teach me something every day (I would get bored of me), and fun!
My acquaintance with strategy emerged with my interest in chess at a very young age, I have developed different strategies and gamification efforts in every period of my life, as a result, when I enter a game-centered company, it was an incredible experience to be in a part of this kind of new-gen company which develops strategies in the gaming industry that I enjoy from the beginning of the day until I go to sleep. Although I joined the team during the Covid-19 period; I waited for the day I started to work without any anxiety and it was only a short meeting to see that I was not mistaken. The best achievement for me was being with many people I could speak the same language. Also, one of the best things is to hear everything about the gaming world firsthand.
It was my goal to ask my teammates rather than asking Google for new information. And I reached my goal.
My background is actually digital marketing. I’ve got 8 years of experience working for several advertising agencies and companies in different categories. My experience in that industry has allowed me to learn many things from marketing communications to team management. After this experience, 3 years ago, I’ve started working in the gaming industry which I believe in the future of. Since then, I’ve learned a lot about business structures, organizational management, and digital transformation in the company. I always had a personal interest in these things, but working in the gaming industry was way more different than working for an agency. In my first days at Multiplayer, I tried to understand the difference between these two industries and get to know my colleagues. Thanks to them, I adapted to the company so quickly. Although I have always been interested in games throughout my life, I have never been much of a gamer. That’s why I’ve also spent most of the time in my first days getting to know the games and trying to categorize them in my mind. Well, I still keep doing that and learning something new every single day.
It made me very happy to realize that Multiplayer is a company that supports employees to improve themselves. Because I believe that learning is a journey that never ends.
My first five days in the company were quite calm. I was brought along to work on Bethesda’s communications operations in Turkey and it took some time for things to start rolling. So, in my first week, I actually spent my time binge-watching series on my tablet (didn’t have a work PC yet) and getting to know my colleagues. However, I was no stranger to Multiplayer as I had worked here a few years back. Since I was trusted by some key people in our structure, I could use some of my free time to help my new colleagues where my skills could be beneficial. Which was better because going to the office and watching series is surprisingly boring. I’d rather do that at home and do work in the office instead. All in all, you can say that it was the calm before the storm.
A serene beginning to a grand, fun-filled adventure where I found my calling, worked for my favorite publisher, helped improve Multiplayer as a 360° agency, and formed great friendships.
