I'll consider it a win if it pays for my YT Premium sub
The 2025 Bum Thread
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Soldato
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- 22 Nov 2007
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Did you quit your job/made redundant?
What do you use for BI? I work in BI too. Mainly use Power BI, bit of sql,python amd excel too
Actually making a couple of quid a day at the moment. Not quite able to stick it to the man just yet.
Was supposed to hear back about interview yesterday but got zilch.
Got a call this lunchtime for a director level role. It's what I was working towards in my previous role, and I have the skills and experience for it. Still a bit daunting, hah.
On a positive note, the weather looks banging next week so I'll be able to get out in the sun and make loads more youtube content.
Rejection today from the first interview I had. That was the kinda best foot in the door I had. Good feedback just loads of competition more local than me, with lower salary expectations.
Guess it was always likely salaries were going to drop in the games industry with the number of people on the market.
Ah well, looks like I'm a pro climber/YouTuber for a while longer
Guess it was always likely salaries were going to drop in the games industry with the number of people on the market.
Ah well, looks like I'm a pro climber/YouTuber for a while longer
I'd say if that does happen and I can't get a job soon may as well start looking at van life. Would rather not ruin my savings living in a house with clock ticking on when can't afford the mortgage anymore.
Could always live in a van and use the equity to buy a rental, something like that.
Time will tell. But not great I have to say.
Well this is quite interesting. Some cutting edge tech, learning loads of new stuff, proper startup vibes, I'm already in the slack and systems to have a look at what they're doing and see if I'm interested. Good team of people I know and investment for the first couple years covered.
Gonna be a big decision to go back to fintech and move away from games. Pretty jaded with games mind and a big change is quite appealing, plus obviously the possibility of a big payout if the company succeeds. Would be a paycut in the meantime for finance guys involved, less so for me! Feels a bit like a no-brainer, opportunities like this don't come up much. Probably gonna be some long hours though. Hmm.
Rough. Could you hunker down on lower paid jobs for a bit to buy some time to see how things work out?
Maybe, but they are at least industries that will actually have jobs going so if you get experience and get good at it now, you will fare better in the future.
Trades obviously can be great, but a lot of them go out of business/tradesman find getting work hard in a recession/a housing downturn.
Gardening sort of similar to trades, but probably will always have older people needing things done for them
Hospitality is always going to be there unless everything really does go to **** and there are no rich people left to afford expensive holidays etc.
Retail (as in working in actual shops) is utterly finished apart from supermarkets long term I think so I'd be jumping ship from that.
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So what's really bad is the gf probably needs a WFH job due to her health. Which is going to be really bad.
Both our jobs being vulnerable to AI doesn't help.
Part of me actually wonders if this is the start of a huge recession. Not so much due to trump, but due to everything plus AI.
What would be worse would be to try and struggle on in a falling market. Obviously this could be totally wrong.
Its hard to know what to do, I've even been applying for a few jobs while on holiday. Not a single interview in 3 months. It's never ever been like this in my life. Not even when I was straight out of school. I think I'm in a now overly applicant saturated sector in a bad global economy with a gap in my CV. Because 2 years ago I was fighting off interviews.
I don't really want to "survive" And would be concerned for our relationship and both our mental health's if we just struggle along. In that circumstance I think may as well gamble on something radical.
Lots to discuss when I get home. Especially if she does get made redundant
The Mrs currently sees me as oddjob.. so far this week I’ve fitted a pond net, potted plants, cleaned, ahopped, researched and bought a carpet cleaner with the expectation is I will be doing the carpet cleaning this week. This is after paint the bathroom, the hall, stairs, etc.
She seems to think you still get jobs by just sending the same CV to every role. I’m going to have to managr her expectations I think.
I’ve been working through the google data science crash courses, writing a personal statement but I found the original role was canned only for the same role description (cut and paste down to the dates in the past!) but 30k less pay.
I’ve sort of lost faith in the job application market.
She seems to think you still get jobs by just sending the same CV to every role. I’m going to have to managr her expectations I think.
I’ve been working through the google data science crash courses, writing a personal statement but I found the original role was canned only for the same role description (cut and paste down to the dates in the past!) but 30k less pay.
I’ve sort of lost faith in the job application market.
Nah, apart from a few outliers, games industry is pretty sensible work life balance these days. Studios realised that just burning out all your staff and forcing them into other careers wasn't sustainable.
I'm leaning towards this FinTech startup atm. The engineering side of it is really interesting, more so than games tbh. Game development has become mainly an exercise in content and pipeline management, not a huge amount of technical innovation. Also my last few AAA projects have been a political nightmare and I've spent all my time in meetings and dealing with bad decisions outside my control.
This startup is just cutting edge tech (albeit finance and databases again), but with a heavy lean on AI tools. We're just spinning up cloud infra and moving fast, trying stuff. It's a bit out of my comfort zone as I've been out of finance for 12 years now, but I've got access to all the latest OpenAI/Gemini/anthropic models so it's easy to fill in the gaps. Working in a small team, no meetings, no strict schedules, a CEO I know well and have worked for before.
At the end of the day, I think I can get similar money to games, a couple of years cranking stuff out for this startup, if it goes well I could make some serious money. If it goes bad I'll have loads of new cutting edge AI skills I can bring back to games, or something else.
Gonna have another chat today and think I will be making a decision. Be good to not have all these spinning plates. I'm still teaching at the uni, so context switching from teaching, game dev, fintech on a daily basis right now is melting my brain.
Really? it's still a trending subject for industry media...
creativesunite.eu
Maybe it's different at the higher levels. Anyone I knew in games left it. I've only ever contracted in Fintech, and a long time ago. They seemed to start very early but finish early..
Crunch in the Gaming Industry: A Persistent Crisis in The Digital Playground
<p>Driven by profit and startup-style management, the video game industry suffers from systemic labour problems that require significant regulatory intervention and the development of worker protections. Crunch is the buzzword that describes stories of worker exhaustion around the world.</p>
creativesunite.eu
Maybe it's different at the higher levels. Anyone I knew in games left it. I've only ever contracted in Fintech, and a long time ago. They seemed to start very early but finish early..
In my experience the tech industry regularly goes through contraction and expansion cycles. You just have to weather it. Maybe consider contracting.
A lot of jobs get an absolute ton of applications so it's easy to be lost in the sea of candidates.
Well, looks like I am going to retire from the lazy bum thread. This old colleague has made an offer I can't really refuse, to get into his startup. Worst case I get a nice paycheque, WFH, and the company doesn't make it past the runway ~18months, then I find something else. Best case it succeeds I can start earning decent finance money again, while wfh in the midlands, and have equity in something that could be financially very significant.
Bit sad to step away from games as I've sunk a lot of time and effort, and it is fundamentally an interesting industry, but it's such a mess at the moment, I can't turn down this offer I have on the table, not in this job market. I've no guarantee I can ever get another games job right now, and even if I do, it might require relocation.
Bit sad to step away from games as I've sunk a lot of time and effort, and it is fundamentally an interesting industry, but it's such a mess at the moment, I can't turn down this offer I have on the table, not in this job market. I've no guarantee I can ever get another games job right now, and even if I do, it might require relocation.
Also, highlights that in a job market like this, that your network is absolutely crucial. It's the only way to avoid being lost in a pile of hundreds of applicants.