It’s been about 75 days since I was laid off from my last role. I’ve been sending emails to prospective employers, and applications into the abyss it seems. Honestly it’s no wonder that I’ve started to have a dependency on sitting out on the balcony and staring into the void by myself.

I got an email today after several rounds of interviews that they decided to go with other candidates. I wasn’t even surprised, I kind of felt it in my guts that it wasn’t going to happen.

But something clicked when I read it, I decided, I think everyone’s looking for someone to comiserate with and there’s so many people who are burdened with the gift of unemployment right now – I decided to write about it. Once a day, we’ll reconvene and talk about applying to the games and animation industry. Or literally anything at this point. I would take anything, really.

I actually applied to some jobs over the weekend, including a cruise line. But if you don’t know me, I don’t work in hospitality or events. I work in the video games industry as an art director or an art producer. I write in my spare time, and decided to put it towards something remotely productive. This blog is gonna be a daily dispatch from the void.

But it’s not a productivity cult, or a pity party, I literally just want to know how long it’s going to take for my senior ass to get employed. What I mean by that is that I have fifteen years experience as an artist and manager in the industry, and most video game employees tend to burn out and do something else around five to seven years. This is a fairly young industry, there’s not a ton of women of colour at my experience level.

I’m both a director and a producer, meaning I have no interest in individual contribution anymore, but I am interested in operations and creative decision making and am happy with either.

I’ve worked on large teams, and small teams in the industry, some big games, some small games.

I’ve shipped over 18 projects, and approximately 12 live updates at a larger Canadian studio and survived the video games industry thus far so maybe it’s not getting rid of me yet.

I like to think I’m pretty good at getting interviews, and really good at interviews! I’m charming, I’m quick on my feet. My resume, though I have several different versions, is not bad. This is an example of one with information redacted.

But ultimately it’s not an employee market right now.

The job market is… miserable. Last year in 2024, there were around 40,000 job losses in the video games industry alone. So not only am I competing with people with more aligned experience than me, but I am also competing with so many people who just happened to lose their job.

It seems like a nightmare situation. And frankly it is, but I’m making it all your problem now.

I’m ultimately looking for a job where my values remotely align with my employer. But future posts here might look like me struggling with how to position myself as an applicant.

See you here tomorrow.