Christian Griffith, QA Tester
Marvel Heroes Forums: Chrian
Christian’s introduction to the gaming industry is a bit more unique, even if he was always a huge gamer (and advocate of JRPGs and MMOs). He came from an IT background, which you don’t see too often in the development part of the industry. After high school, Christian went to Diablo Valley College for Computer Science while simultaneously working three jobs. Two of his co-workers at Old Navy mentioned a program called YearUp – an alternative to college that streamlines students into the IT industry. You finish in a year, learning for six months and then spending six months in an internship. Professionalism is also mandatory with YearUp – “You wear a suit, get an interview, the whole nine yards.”
After finishing his six month learning program at YearUp, Christian started doing QA for a company called Splunk, who develops data-mining programs, and is very code orientated. He went through a lot of short-term contracts, some more challenging than others. “Because [sometimes] I didn’t know enough, other IT people had to fill in my gaps. They’d get sharp with me when I didn’t know how to do something.” Queue in Gazillion, who needed an IT/QA Hybrid contractor to help facilitate the move (moved buildings across town). Once his contract was over, he was able to interview with Will for a full time QA position.
Something Christian appreciates is the accessibility of all the higher ups at Gazillion, especially their CEO, Dave Dohrmann. “The culture here is very relaxed. There isn’t any pressure to dress up super crazy, which is nice. You can have a conversation with anyone – you’d think you’d never see Dohrmann (CEO), off in meetings with executives all the time. But he’s not. He’s here, and talking to QA and helping us out. He really puts his time into it.” It makes him feel welcomed being in an environment with other QA testers who come from other backgrounds. He says Gazillion is incredibly progressive with hiring, since a lot of people come from various backgrounds, and not just in QA.
Christian suggests looking for bugs on your own terms if you want to start pursuing a career in QA. “Look for bugs in other games you play, and then look them up [online] to see if other people have found them, too.” He also stresses networking – “ask people questions, do research, take some classes – it’s definitely important to know people in this industry.”
