I have a friend who has a job thousands of people would kill for: he works in video games.

Whenever we’re out and he meets someone new, the conversation inevitably dissolves into a discussion of his job. Even those who hate video games (like me) want to know how he landed a position in such an elusive field.

And I thought, why not give you guys the benefit of his experience? So I interviewed him and, voila, here it is. May it be at least somewhat helpful.

If so, let me know–I’ll conduct some more of these suckers with people in other industries.

Okay, here’s the interview:

Hi, friend! What’s your name?

Ronnie Villanova.

And how old are you?

27.

What’s your current job title?

I’m an Associate Producer.

Oh, cool. And what kind of company do you work for?

It’s a video game company. They make and publish video games.

Wow, that sounds really interesting. Do you like it?

As fun and creative as people think video games might be, my actual job is very corporate and full of red tape, and hierarchies, and meetings, and Excel; lots of Excel. It’s sort of like The Office, except even more socially awkward. Read More »

Right now I’m inclined to try to persuade you to avoid going to graduate school in the liberal arts if you can. I want to implore you to avoid spending all that money to write papers upon papers about 16th century printing techniques and the subaltern in post colonial Jamaica. What are you going to do with all of this knowledge? Teach? You could do that with your bachelor’s. Yeah, you’ll get more money with a Masters or Doctorate, but what is money, really? Can it buy back your sanity?

Also, apparently, going to grad school is the first step on the road to divorce.

That being said, you really shouldn’t listen to me, because my beseeching you to invoke the Rosie the Riveter within and strike out into the real world comes from my own frustration as a master’s student in the liberal arts. As I write this, I’ve been waiting two weeks for my adviser to email me back about the teaching assistantship that would pay my tuition. Everyday that she doesn’t write me back is another day that I am closer to having to take out another exorbitant loan. This is one of the many such hassles a grad student has to deal with in addition to the mountainous pile of intensely boring papers. Read More »

I’m in a constant state of post-graduation crisis, and I’m still a year away from graduating.

Honestly, I’ve been freaked out about the prospect of going out into the real world ever since I graduated from high school. I have no idea what I want to do with my life, where I want to live, or how I am going to make as much money as my ideal lifestyle requires. It’s a horrible state of suspended animation, college, but here are some books I’ve read that have calmed me down a little and turned some of that fear into excitement about all my future post-collegiate adventures.

1. I’m an English Major–Now What?

I saw this book and absolutely had to have it because I was an English major in my undergrad and I could relate to the title’s implied panic. It’s actually a useful book for anyone in the liberal arts and offers advice on how to break into magazines, newspapers, publishing, and, of course, the ol English major standby, teaching. This book also has a nice section on whether or not to go on to grad school that I found very useful in the beginning of my grad school process.

2. How to Survive the Real World

I love this book because it’s made up of advice from hundreds of people (naturally, as it is a part of the awesome ‘hundreds of heads’ series) who understand the difficulty inherent in graduating from college and striking out on your own, because they‘ve all done it to various degrees of success. There is advice on everything from how to find a job, to paying bills, to staying healthy, to cooking and other basic survival skills, to forming lasting relationships. My copy of this book is probably more highlighted and dog-eared than just about any other book in my library Read More »

After weeks of anxious waiting and post office stalking I finally got the letter…the LARGE envelope letter — you all know what that means (drumroll please) Grad School Here I Come!!!

After dancing around my apartment building, calling everyone I knew, and startling various DC residents at the local CVS while buying celebratory chocolate–(yes to those of you who may have seen me, I wasn’t insane—just very very excited!), I finally calmed down enough to think through the logistics…

…and then the panic set in. Read More »

Irksome classmates? I’ll take the gaff for those of you who know what I’m talkin’ about. The subject of irritating, insulting, insolent classmates was briefly mentioned in the first part of this discussion about experiencing “the college blues.” That first piece discussed the “professional” aspects of college that make students susceptible to depression. Since depression is enormously complex, I’m going to narrow it further and frame it by space: the “public” (classroom settings) and the “private” (intimate relationships).

Although the notion of public versus private is enormously complicated, particularly à la Habermas, etc., I’m simplifying those terms for the sake of this discussion about depression. (Please make note, the public discussion is aimed towards “nerdier” readers in the humanities, i.e. those who identify themselves as being highly competitive within the liberal arts, say in the disciplines of film, philosophy, literature, history, etc.). I also have words for you about graduate school – it only gets worse. Plus, the pedagogical approach changes dramatically and professors no longer praise you. If you are heading to graduate school next year, right after completing your B.A. (which I don’t recommend), prepare yourself for this change. It can cause depression, too. For the time being, however, let’s discuss your frustrating classmates.

This is not the time to guffaw, shrug, or defensively say, “Whatever, it’s just class . . . Even though I’m frothing at the mouth ever time I leave, because a classmate cut me off and libelously twisted my words during discussion. I mean, it’s Friday and I’m just ready to hang out with my friends, and forget about my irritating classmate.” If you’re like me, however, you don’t forget about it. Read More »

According to a story picked up by Jezebel, a study from a professor at Washington & Lee University School of Law will soon announce that women with MBAs, MDs, and JDs are “much more likely” to get divorced than men with the same degrees or women with bachelor’s degrees only. Considering I don’t even know what the hell a JD is, I’m guessing my own relationship is safe.

The professor who conducted the study, Robin Fretwell Wilson, remarks that she believes part of the reason for the findings is that there’s still a social stigma attached to women who choose to be stay-at-home spouses. OK, I’ll grant her that, but what on Earth does that have to do with divorce? And what about men who choose to be stay-at-home spouses? It’s not that they don’t exist, and I’m guessing there’s a lot more stigma attached to being a man and staying at home than there is to a woman doing the same.

The study also begs the question of who these educated women marry. If the divorce rates of women with graduate degrees are much higher than the divorce rates of men with graduate degrees, one can only assume that women with those degrees are marrying men without them. But does that even really happen? I feel like a woman with a grad degree is less likely to marry a man who doesn’t have one. Or is that just me?

Either way, the findings are intriguing, but I don’t buy Professor Wilson’s leaping connection to social stigma for women. It takes two to divorce, so something else is going on here.

I never studied abroad as an undergrad–the programs my school offered always seemed pointless to me. Instead of sending us to a foreign school to meet new people or learn a new language, my college had set up satellite campuses around the globe. I’d have the same teachers, the same peers, even the same dorm life, just transplanted to a new city. And since I was an English major, that new city had to be London, because that’s where they offered the classes I needed.

I thought it would be fun to have a change of scenery for a semester, but I had heard many a tale of study-abroad-gone-useless: “I never went to class, I just got drunk all the time”. “I only hung out with other Americans”. “We lived with other English speakers, so we never even bothered to work on our French”.

So I decided to skip the whole semester abroad experience and go all out–after graduation, I’d go to grad school in another country.

I applied to a few universities, one in Dublin, Ireland, two in London, and one south of London in the seaside town of Brighton. Because of rolling admissions, I heard back from the three UK schools almost immediately–accepted! Yes! Having never been to England, however, I wondered how I could possibly choose. So…I flew to London. For the weekend. In a jet lag-induced haze, I wandered the city, taking photos, visiting campuses. I took a train to Brighton and tried to imagine myself at school there. I made my choice. I bought a London guidebook.

On graduation day, I got another letter in the mail. It was from Ireland, and informed me that I had been accepted to the school in Dublin. My well-laid plans were suddenly de-railed–the masters program in Dublin was exactly what I wanted, and the school had a bit more prestige. At the advice of friends, professors, parents, strangers, whoever…I changed my mind.

I moved to Ireland in the Fall.

When I arrived at Dublin airport on a sunny day in late September, my entire life packed in two suitcases, it was the first time I had ever set foot in Ireland. I knew no one, and my program wasn’t supposed to begin for another few weeks. I was entirely alone…

[I'll be chronicling some of the best and worst experiences here, so stay tuned!]