The CIG careers page has positions for approximately 60 people, can you explain what are the most important characteristics you are looking for in a future CIG/Foundry 42 applicants. How do you go about attracting the type of people that would work on this project and retain them?asked by Daz

Wow.

I was really excited about this question because hiring and recruiting, it's crucial to a creative project, I mean it's crucial in any company where you need to work with other people.

Oh yeah.

But within a creative project, working under the tutelage of Chris Roberts were really looking for what strengths we need at that time as well as the future. So a lot of this comes down to where do we currently sit with talent, what do we have across the entire studio, not just here in LA, but what do we have across the entire globe and we evaluate the staff, we evaluate our talents and we see, "Okay this is what we need to do to accomplish these goals" and this is what we think we need for the next six months, year, two years, infinity as we're working and playing this game and having fun as it comes out.So it's a really great question because we're looking for all kinds of things, one of them is a culture fit. You want somebody that kind of fits into the environment that we're trying to create. You don't always just need to find somebody with the skills, skills you can teach, but personalities you can't, culture you can't teach. So a lot of time it's about finding the someone that fits into what we're trying to make.

And we do have a great team here.

We do, LA has a great team, all the teams are starting to come together really, really well as we start solidifying the future plans and I like this one a lot because I spend a lot of time with the leads and with the director's looking at how can we make the experience not just great for our current staff, but for future staff and for future employees and family members. I mean these people are going to spend a lot of our waking hours with.

Yeah we've developed a lot of close bonds here.

Totally. So there's a lot of things that go into it. I mean if we're looking for a specific thing, so if we talk for instance about the Associate Tech Animator role we just opened up. That role which we just closed we just found a candidate, we're excited about that. We were looking for somebody that could implement manikin, right? That specifically work in manikin work, work with the animation team for our Persistence Universe. So it was a very specific thing we needed, but there were obviously a ton of other things we were looking for.So applicants who are looking for if they had that experience, that would be great. If they could work within this environment, the Tech Content Team that Sean leads that, Gaige is apart of, it's kind of anamorphosis type of team. So it's you know, can you roll with the punches, can you flow with things as they come in, it's a unique kind of team. So we're looking for culture, we're looking for experience, we're looking for talent and then we want to get you in here and so we can meet you to see and talk to you and see if you're the right fit. So there's a lot of things that go into it.And then "how do we attract it?" We keep making cool stuff, we keep making this cool stuff as we possibly can and try to make an impact like we're trying to do and try to get out there and go to hiring events as needed whenever we need candidates.And retaining them? I don't know I mean.

We've done a pretty good job so far I think.

Yeah I think we try to house an environment that's fun to work in, that somebody wants to stay and invest their life in, invest their time in. You know we may spend a lot of hours here working on this game and these games and all the things we want to come out with.

Especially with this studio it's been a lot better.

Yeah.

To work in.

Totally and it's weird how those little environment tweaks can make all the difference, it makes them want to stay forever for for awhile at least. It's a tough question and it's an ever going question for every studio and every company out there, but for us we want you to be passionate about what we're doing, about the scale and the scope of what we're trying to create, working alongside chris and the fantastic team that we've all built here and then ultimately make an impact with us.We want somebody that's going to bring in their talents and their unique strengths. It's not beneficial to have the same type of person across the entire studio or globe. We want diversity, we want different types of personalities, we want a quiet shy person with a loud gregarious person, like you want those types of personalities because they will create a better environment, a more dynamic environment where we can challenge each other to be better. If we're all the same, we don't necessarily do that per say.

Right, yeah.

We'll just stick with what we're good at and that's it.And it's games so we'll attract gamers and people that like making games and so we kind of get things naturally by being a game company.