Games Tester interview Wed 4th May @ EA! Any Help/Tips welcomed!

#1 My advice : Be yourself. Give the answer you think is right and not what you think they want you to say. People worry too much about things like this. Just be yourself..

#2 Thanks Chris, well do. :)

#3 Remember - this isn't your dream job. I can't tell you the turnover we had on game testers at my company - many didn't last a week. It's a WONDERFUL job the first day or two - and then it becomes ... a job. And depending on how EA's reforms have been going, your job could become your life, because you won't have time for anything else.

Expect that EA will probably NOT be your career, but may be a nice bullet-point for your resume in 3 years. You can learn a lot from the experience. Also... I don't know about EA specifically, or if things are changing, but at one point I know many companies were reluctant to hire testers that had true aspirations on being a programmer / manager / designer. They wanted people who wanted to stay in testing. But I wouldn't lie if that's where your true aspirations are.

But decide what you really want to get from them - in terms of experience and direct compensation. Be flexible, but be willing to say "no" to their offer. That's an important part of ANY negotiation.

#4 When you try to hard to be something your not, you fumble :) Best to just be yourself in an interview (like Chris said), you represent yourself better as yourself.

#5 From what I know of EA they regularly promote people from QA into higher positions. QA is by no means a great job though but it is a great way into a company. Good luck!

GF

#6 Thanks guys, i've heard things about EA employees etc but like you say, the experience will be valuable and i'd be lying if i said i really didn't need the money ;).

Anyway Thanks again, just under 26hrs to go now!!! I'm more then up for it now after all this waiting :)

#7 Hi Leroy, as a previous EA Tester/Senior Tester myself I can tell you exactly what you need to know. This is from EAUK btw, you didn't say which one you were interviewing at.

1) Be prepared to do some aptitude tests before the interview. There are 3 main tests, 1 of which is really god damned hard. The important thing is that what you do, you get correct.
2) In the interview you will be asked several questions mainly from two senior testers. They cover things like what qualities make a good tester, how do you handle a high pressure environment and what sort of games do you like and do you _not_ like, and why. Just be honest and enthusiastic.

Things NOT to say:
1) I am part of a piracy ring, can I take the games home, my friends and I make a lot of money doing this?
2) I normally download and crack games, just not EA games as they are too hard to crack. *smile*

Interesting fact, I've had people say BOTH those things to me in interviews I did at EA. I kid you not.

Good luck.

Ian

Edit - One last thing, the promotional stories you hear about people going from QA/CQC into higher departments are few and far between. Unless you speak languages and go into localisation, you will have a hard time getting into another department. In a 4 year period, I only know of 2 such individuals that went into a department other than localisation. :/

#8 I used to do interviews sometimes and I was in QA for about a year then moved to eng. Generally testers are expected to try to do "evil things" that normal users who know what they are supposed to do would not. Now this was not for gaming, but I suspect its pretty much the same.

Important things to know:

black box vs white box testing

writing clear/concise REPRODUCABLE bug reports

some experience using database systems (to file bug reports)

regression tests, test cases/suites


Other than that, like others said- be yourself, dont BS. they always ask things like how you handled a stressful situation/other co-workers. How do you handle pressure/deadlines.

I dont know about gaming, but I enjoyed QA. I did a variety of things like test our product on other workflows it integrated with and hand coding of postscript and pdf files for features no app exported at the time.

Good luck man!!!

-s

#9 The final hours!!!

Thanks Ian and Stephen, your experience and insider info is really useful! I've definetly taken advantage! :) Thanks again!

@Ian:
It's the uk site :)

"1) I am part of a piracy ring, can I take the games home, my friends and I make a lot of money doing this?
2) I normally download and crack games, just not EA games as they are too hard to crack. *smile*"

Darn, I was really looking forward to using 2 :(!, Oh well!

LOL, I can't believe peeps actually say stuff like that at interviews!?!?, new entry in the top ten i think.

#10 They usually ask if you have any questions in the end of an interview.

Sound clever and ask them what they're (plan to)/gonna do about their financial (91% down from last year) loss for the posted Q1 for 2005.

Read here

#11 Hmm, interesting Burning, i might fit that one in ;-)

#12 And if they ask you where, "...you see yourself in 5 years", tell this person; Doing your job.

#13 Sooooo this was a few days ago. How did it go?

#14 I'm curious too. You've built up the suspense!

#15 Well, i got it!!! :-D

No, only kidding, i didn't even get to the group session, they did it tv style calling some names (including my) in the room we did the 2 tests, escorted us outside (convienetly)from where we orignally entered the building, and i knew before she even said a word that we were all goners 8-#, they were probaly about 3/4 people left out of the 16 or so original. And i don't even know if they met EA's "obviously" high standards :-y

But i have to say, the second test was well dodgy, i didn't really see it's relevance to game testing. But i only realised i was doing it wrong at question 30 since i was the only one flying through it ?:-|

What really gets me though, is they didn't even do any practical (a game with bugs, some paper, a time limit), the last game tester interview i attended did this. So i am 100% sure they are gonna lose some darn good testers with these naff corporate tests ;), even the smartest of folk won't understand the second paper.

Anyhow, they reckon they gonna get 150 testers by august (unlikely 69-|), so if you wanna work in the middle of no where (believe me, the building is second to none, but you might as well forget it if you don't have a car or live close by :-S), like apptitude tests and no pratical, then go for it, otherwise, stay well away :)

On the plus side, at least i know my CV and (Oops, might been seen as advertising, edited, sorry) game screenshots are in good nick, if it attracts the goliath that is EA, so i've already applied for 3 other tester positions (hopefully their more old school/pratical in their assessment methods ;))

Thanks again to every1 for their tips, encouragement and words of wisdom, i really appreciated it and it gave me great confidence going in to it and future interviews/assessments :)

#16 Well, you can always get a job at an independent studio. They probably don't pay as well, but it's a good way to pick up some resume bullet-points and some additional experience / training.

#17 @Jay Barnson: True, well, the hunt goes on ;-)

#18 I personally hate EA.
Do not work for this Babylonian monster unless you have children to feed.

Ari Rule
"Embargo ON!" Master, Mad Max Beyond Thunder Dome.

#19 Everything Electronic Arts does should be boycotted if at all possible.

My 2 Cents

#20 Lol. Careful now guys, you'll put people off, their probaly still looking for 141 out of the 150 people they plan to get by august ;)