A Pizza Advice
By Kyle Mays (Multimedia – California Lutheran ’18)
Like the DemoNight I attended last week, this was event where my expectations had to be put in check in a great way, but for entirely different reasons. I hadn’t expected the alumni pizza night to be anything more than hanging out with past students while also getting free pizza. What I had not taken into account was the number of alumni that would show up, that they were nearly all full time developers at professional Montreal game studios such as Ubisoft and Rogue Factor, and that they were mainly there to talk to us!
The Q&A they hosted was full of solid and insightful advice on how to start looking for jobs upon graduating, their workplace environments, and necessary communication skills. Some of the best tips I heard included the importance of being able to read conversations you are having with recruiters at social events, and how important it is to try and be likable and relate to their interests rather than your own personal interest in getting a job from them. They stressed the importance of being able to put yourself out there and practice conversational skills as much as you can, and if you can’t do it on your own, go with a friend who might help keep the conversation flowing and accentuate the qualities you have that you might not even recognize. None of the advice felt like it was condescending or a show they put on for us: it felt really genuine and practical and I really appreciated it.
I studied abroad in Montreal during the 2013 Spring Semester. While abroad, I was lucky enough to intern at a creative studio called Nomad Industries. I ended up taking a paid position there and stayed for the summer. I went back to school in Burlington to finish my studies in Digital Filmmaking. 
