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How to prepare for working in PDS?

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OnionMoeCat

OnionMoeCat

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Jan 13, 2015
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Because I like playing Europa Universalis 3 and Victoria 2 so much, I want to work for Paradox Interactive. Now, I am a graduate student in video game development major in US. I am a programmer. How to prepare for working in PDS after my graduation (May 2016). Thank you!

P.S. I asked the question to Boel de Paradox on tweeter and she recommended me to open a thread here so you devs can help.
 
Spend all your free time writing C++ code. There is an old thread around here with the same question, and if memory serves me they give any prospective programmer an in house test designed to see your ability, specifically to debugging, exception handling, and optimization (though I may be blurring what is on the in house test with some other programming test that I've dealt with) . A quip that showed up in the thread a couple times is 10K hrs of programming and you should have it mastered.

So far I have 30 minutes in C++ so I've got a ways to go :)

Swedish isn't so important, as there are several non Swedes working there, but TheArkan is correct the job is in Stockholm.
 
You must also be conversant in the Game of Thrones.
 
1. Know the games. (sounds like you're already on it) If you already know how to play them, try to mod the games to get a deeper understanding in the games, both in the game design and how the file structure behind it works.

2. Be a good programmer. (sounds like you're on that too) Languagewise we work mostly in C++ but of course it's good to know some scriping stuff like Lua and Python and some more low level C as well. And besides languages, do your homework. At school you'll learn how to write you algoritms right, do your math calculations or writing your shaders, but by doing fun coding projects at home you'll get experience that you can't get at school. And no grade on an exam beats the feeling of solving problems in your own game that you're working on. (not telling you to skip school thou :p)
 
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OnionMoeCat said:
Really? But the Game of Thrones is not real history, why need to be conversant?
Click to expand...

On my first day at Paradox, our CEO Fred threw a copy of GoT to me and told me all true paradoxians have read Game of Thrones.
Besides being really awesome books, I assume it's also because the games contains so many characters and intrigues going on at the same time, all battling for power, resources and terratories that the writing captures the essens of an MP session of a PDS game? ;)

I snatched this text from the official recruitment site:
http://career.paradoxplaza.com/jobs/2133-developers-with-a-passion-for-games-wanted

Working at PDS

Since our teams are quite small, usually between three to six people you will work with a variety of areas such as:
Gameplay, Graphics programming, Optimizing, Interface development, Game AI

- We believe it is very important that you are able to take ownership of the areas of the game you are assigned and independently, or with others, can design or redesign a part of the code.
- We think you are a skilled programmer, with very good knowledge and skills in C++ who are also accustomed to working with Visual Studio and other environments. The number of years you have worked is not important, we are looking both for newly graduates as well as more senior developers.
- The important thing is that you are passionate about developing games and can easily adapt to new methods in games programming.
- We think you are good at cooperating with new groups of people but also able to work independently.
- As a person you are positive, dedicated, responsible, and love a challenge.
- An interest in strategy games and history, and in particular the grand strategy games from Paradox, is a BIG plus. (Especially CK, EU, HOI, Vicky, read abut PDS here)
- As we are a company with colleagues from all over the world we require you to be able to speak and write in English.
- We are based in Stockholm so you need to live or move to Stockholm. Unfortunately we are not able to offer any relocation packages at this moment.

+ I'd say that modding experience is a great plus as well! We have quite a few former modders working at PDS :)

Anything specific you want to ask about, let us know!
 
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I've started preparing years ago, ever since I discovered EU3. I learned software testing (I already knew the basics of programming), found a job in QA, played all of Paradox' recent releases, including non-PDS games, picked up modding, built a community around my work and so on and so forth. I'm not sure I am ready yet but I will keep working until I'm either ready or too old.
 
satyrlord said:
I've started preparing years ago, ever since I discovered EU3. I learned software testing (I already knew the basics of programming), found a job in QA, played all of Paradox' recent releases, including non-PDS games, picked up modding, built a community around my work and so on and so forth. I'm not sure I am ready yet but I will keep working until I'm either ready or too old.
Click to expand...

As Johan would say: "A paradoxian is never too early nor too late. He or she arrives just when meant to."
When you feel ready, you know where we are :)
 
Regina said:
As Johan would say: "A paradoxian is never too early nor too late. He or she arrives just when meant to."
When you feel ready, you know where we are :)
Click to expand...

Thanks! I already applied :)
 
You should also swear fielty to the King.

Republicans are sprouting up like weeds all over the place. The last thing Sweden needs is to import dissidents.
 
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