• 16Jul

  Question: How can you tell if a company values Graduates?

  Career paths, University Relations 5 Comments

  

  Answer:  When the CEO personally makes time in in a busy diary and spends quality time with the new graduates.

  Yes, EA CEO John Riccitiello is a man who is devoted to ensuring EA hires the best talent and for him that includes putting Graduates on the centre stage.  He recognises they are the future business leaders.

  Yesterday, he gathered a group of new Grads, interns and co-ops together and spent time discussing EA, the future, business models, competition, latest games and then held a great Q&A so the grads could ask him about anything.  And that they did!…….

  All involved left feeling inspired…..and that included JR.

  How cool is that?      EArl

  

   A couple of extra shots for you.  Look carefully at the audience amongst the grads and you can see Gabrielle Toledano EA’s EVP of HR and Cindy Nicola, the VP who heads up Recruitment.  Very cool.

  

   

  © 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

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  Tags: graduates, John Riccitiello

• 16Jul

  Skillset: Driving the UK Skills Agenda….Animation Day

  Career paths, University Relations 4 Comments

  

  EA is very proud to be a member of Skillset in the UK.  

  What is Skillset?  Well, Skillset is the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for Creative Media which comprises TV, film, radio, interactive media, animation, computer games, facilities, photo imaging, publishing, advertising and fashion and textiles. Their aim is to support improvements to the productivity of our industry to ensure that it remains globally competitive. They do this by influencing and leading; developing skills, training and education policy; and through opening up the industries to the UK’s pool of diverse talent.  Skillset conducts consultation work with industry, publishes research and strategic documents, run funding schemes and project work, and provide information about the challenges that face the industry and what we need to do to overcome them.  Lastly they also provide impartial media careers resources for aspiring new entrants and established industry professionals online and over the phone. Whether a freelancer looking for training information, a student furthering knowledge of industries or a public agency partner, Skillset aim to provide all with easy access to the information required.  To learn more, click here. 

  Leading the way for the videogame sector in the UK is Executive Chair, Industry Statesman Ian Livingstone who presides over a prestigious council with representatives from EA, Sony, Microsoft, ELSPA and TIGA amongst others. 

  Many students in the UK are confused by the explosive growth in degrees, particularly those focusing on videogames.  What should they study?  Where should they study?  Are some Degrees ‘worth more’ than others?  What are the Degrees to avoid!Through a very thorough review process, Skillset accredits the best Gaming Degrees in the UK, (with Industry support).  This is a key guide for students as games degrees have received a bad rap and some have been hastily put together. The goal….to help students best decide.

  Skillset have again been at the forefront of the skills agenda.  At a recent event they brought together some of the most talented animation graduates from the UK’s most industry-savvy courses together under one roof in Soho for industry to meet.  Even better is that they filtered the best of the current crop too- into the best new breed of 3D, 2D, and stop frame animators!  As well as a great conference, Skillset arranged for an informal exhibition space allowing the best graduating students from Skillset Accredited degree and postgraduate courses to showcase their innovative and inspiring work. A new addition for the 2010 showcase was a screening room to view selected student work.

   

  Continue reading »

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  Tags: Accreditation, Animation, Animation Day, Animators, Games Degrees, graduates, Ian Livingstone, Matthew Jeffery, Skillset

• 04May

  Working at EA

  Career paths, University Relations 18 Comments

  

  Obviously we love working at EA.  But we are biased.  It is always great to receive external recognition about EA being a great place to work.

  Let’s take a look at some different awards announced recently.

  First up at the prestigious ‘Recruiter Awards’, EA was delighted to be awarded the recognition ‘Highly Commended’ for the most effective Employee Brand development.  What makes this special is that the recognition comes in a category that included hundreds of applicants across different industries eg financial services, pharmaceutical, public sector, retail, consumer goods etc.

  

  Every year, Universum surveys students and asks them questions about their career expectations, how they perceive companies as employers and what they associate to those employers. Universum asks students to pick the employers they would consider working for and then choose the employers they would most like to work for, that is the companies that they perceive as being “Ideal”.

  The Universum Top 100 Ideal Employer Rankings reflect the frequency with which these employers were selected as being ideal by the students who participated in the surveys. The Universum Top 100 essentially measures the level of employer attractiveness that a company/organization has on the recruitment market vis-à-vis other competing employers. In other words, how many students perceive you as a “best place to work” company or organization and where do you stand in the crowd of all those employers needing top talent.

  The Universum American Student IT Survey results are out.

  And……..

  EA are in the Top 10….at number 8!!!

  Very cool.

  Now what makes this exciting is that this is the opinion of students…some 56,900 were polled from 345 leading US Universities.

  Other Universum results have also been announced.

  In the UK, some 11,637 students from 65 leading Universities were polled and EA were ranked at number 15in the Engineering / IT Sector.

  And in Sweden, 16,791 University Students were polled from 34 leading Universities.  DICE, (an EA Company), were voted in at number 5.

  These votes mean a great deal for us at EA.  Especially as they are voted by students.  Thank you.

   

  © 2010 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners

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  Tags: Awards, graduates, Recruiter Award, Universum, Working at EA

• 31Mar

  So you want to be an Artist?

  Career paths 13 Comments

  

  So you want to be an artist?

  I thought it cool to share a presentation on art careers in EA, the different art disciplines, (eg animator, modeller, VFX, Concept artist etc), the skills and experience we look for each role and a definition of ‘what good looks like’.  This will give you a great insight into what recruiters look at and how they take decisions.

  Take a look at the presentation.  (For those reading the news letter you will need to view this HTML on the site).

   So let’s continue our focus on art with an interview by our sister site www.ea.com.  Lucian Tucker met with Emma Toyonaga a Concept Artist.  Over to you Lucian.

  

  Continue reading »

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  Tags: Animator, Art, Art Careers, Artist, Concept Artist

• 29Mar

  ‘Mum, Dad, I want to be a Game Designer’!

  Career paths, Developer Insight 25 Comments

  

  Everyone wants to be a game designer.  It is by far the most popular topic that the recruitment team is inundated about…..how do I become a game designer?  What qualifications do I need?  

  Everyone wants to create the holy grail.  That ‘AAA’ hit that sells millions across the globe to huge critical acclaim.  But not everyone will be the next Will Wright or Miyamoto. 

  In the past we have highlighted a presentation made at the Swansea International Animation Festival called ‘Mum, Dad, I want to be a Game Designer’.  This is published on our YouTube Channel and has had 23,440 viewings and been rated at 5 Star by the Community.  It is a 50 minute presentation, so grab a coffee and settle in……click here and enjoy

  Also, extremely noteworthy is an interview published on our sister site www.ea.com by Lucian Tucker.   Lucian met with Rom Rodriquez, a Level Designer on Dead Space 2 to get more insight into breaking into Game Design…..over to you Lucian…

  Continue reading »

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  Tags: Breaking into Gaming, Game Design, Game Design career paths, I want to be a Game Designer, Meet Romulo

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