Graduate Assessment Day at Aristocrat

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I put on some nice clothes for the interview, packed all my stuff from Caroline’s place and went for my interview. The journey was about 30 km and I started 1.5 hours before the start of the activities at Aristocrat.
I remember my GPS telling me to take a right turn. After that turn I discovered that I was supposed to take the next right turn but since there were cars everywhere and rush-hour was being a bitch I had no choice but to go into a tunnel. The speed in the tunnel was 20 km/h tops and at the end of the tunnel was Bondi Beach or Bondi Junction (sorry, this was my second visit to Sydney). Great, 30 minutes of driving and I’m back at square one.
I made several other minor mistakes along the way but 10 minutes before 9AM I saw the Aristocrat building. All I needed to do was park my car. Since I was in a rush I parked my car half-illegally near the Aristocrat building and was glad to pay $4 per hour for parking (several weeks ago I had an interview in Brisbane CBD where I paid $50 for an hour for parking).
I rushed into the building and was able to make it on time. So the day didn’t start perfectly, I was a bit frustrated, nervous and anxious – not a great way to start a job interview.

The receptionist pointed me to the other candidates and shortly after that we were all listening to a presentation about the company and its products.
After that we had “group activity”. There were 12 candidates and we were divided into 3 groups. Each group had to build a basket or protective cage around an egg such that if the egg was dropped from 2 meters it would not brake. Our construction materials included plastic straws, plastic plates, cups, paper plates, pencils, cotton pads etc. Each material had a price and our budget was $1000. This group exercise was a lot of fun. It acted as a great icebreaker and to some extent helped to assess our teamwork abilities and also creativity.
Everybody’s egg basket design was successful and no eggs were harmed during this exercise. Now the networking session started. Well technically it lasted until the very end of the assessment day.
All the candidates were guided into a mini-casino where we could play the pokies and ask designers and software developers about the job and about working at Aristocrat. At the same time each candidate had to go back into the room to give a presentation about themselves and why he/she was a good fit for the company. We had to make the presentation at home before the interview.
I think that my presentation went really well. My strategy was to focus on games and coming across as really enthusiastic about games. So I talked about the video and computer games I’ve played and why I liked them. It was funny and I got the jury to laugh several times. Mission accomplished!
I’ve never really put this much effort into a job interview. It took me about 6 hours to make the slides, I practiced my speech 20-30 times, also used a mirror to fine tune my body language. Since the role required strong numerical skills I spent my time solving math and probability problems. I also practiced my answers to interview questions.
After my presentation the networking session continued and the interviews started. Three people were asking questions and I was answering them. For example I was asked:

  • What kind of pokie game would I make where the theme was eggs just like in the group activity? What about a pokie game with financial markets as the theme?
  • Why do I want to transition from a financial markets background into games design?
  • What games do I play? Do I have a playstation?
  • Why do I want to work at Aristocrat?
  • Where do I see myself in 5 years?
  • Which kind of visa do I have and when will it expire? I think this was one of the last questions asked. It seemed that they didn’t like that I was in Australia on a Working Holiday visa although I’m quite sure that they could’ve organized an Employee Nominated Sponsorship for this role.

The interview lasted for about 15-20 minutes. In total I spent more than 5 hours at Aristocrat. At the end of the day my head was a big mess about games, design and regulations. I learned a lot about the industry and the company. I had a lot of fun and enjoyed my time at Aristocrat.

 

Brisbane to Sydney

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7 AM Sunday morning was the start of my journey from Brisbane CBD. I picked up Robin (she’s from China) and was on my way towards Sydney. The second girl cancelled the night before and I had no time to find anybody else.

As always in such situations we talked about who we were, where we’re from, our interests, Australia etc. Driving conditions were a bit bad because of rain and some thunder but all that stopped after the first 300 km. I think it was at the New Italy rest area where I decided to let Robin drive.

Her driving was a bit messy at first. I should’ve expected that since she’s never driven my car and had little experience driving a stick. The clutch was a bit problematic, I don’t recall her ever using the 3rd gear, once she got a bit confused about which gear she was in (that would explain why she tried to go into reverse after 5th gear). She was also a bit late on the brakes and almost crashed my car into a trailer. Yes she had a few minor hick-ups but that’s just the nature of the beast. Most of the time we were on the highway and she was an absolute delight driving outside of cities. She did about 300 km and I got my rest and was able to reach Sydney.

Robin was funny and very informative. I learned a lot about China. It was good to have her as a passenger. After I dropped her off I went to Bondi Beach because that’s where Caroline (a friend from the Bundaberg farm) lived.

I was very excited once I reached Bondi. The view on the ocean was crazy beautiful and I found out that Caroline lives only 200-300 meters from the beach. Fantastic location. I’m glad I could crash at her place before the interview.

Caroline was living in a flat with her roommate Andrea. If I understood correctly both of them work in the fashion industry, one works for Prada and one for Chanel.

The last time I saw Caroline was in late June, about 5 months ago. A lot has happened since but sadly we didn’t have enough time to properly catch up because I arrived in the evening and had an early start in the morning. It was good to see her. Thanks Caroline for hosting me! I hope I wasn’t too much trouble.

In the wild

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The last couple of days have been very interesting. One day I was very bored and decided to go on a walk in a forest which was only 6 km from home in Brisbane. The forest was called Karawatha Forest. I had absolutely no other motivation other than being really bored to visit that place. The hike was lovely as I spent about 2 hours in the forest but I felt that next time I should go visit some place bigger… How about a real Australian National Park?

After my hike in Karawatha I Googled some national parks near Brisbane and the very next day I went to Springbrook National Park. It’s 100 km south from Brisbane. As usual, the nature was beautiful. I saw several waterfalls, visited lookouts, enjoyed the stunning views and hiked in the tropics.

I liked that the place wasn’t very crowded. It was Wednesday. I enjoyed listening to the sounds of the forest and its inhabitants. I saw many small lizards, one snake, several kangaroos and wallabies. Luckily no mosquitos were around. All in all it was a great trip to the park.

When I was at Purling Brook Falls lookout, I got a phone call from Aristocrat. It’s an IT company which specializes in chance games with a focus on pokies’ games. I applied for a position as a graduate games designer. Well, since I was in the middle of a jungle when I received the call, I had a very bad signal on my phone and we didn’t really understand each other. I decided to give Aristocrat a call later once I was back in civilization.

I continued my day in the wild. As I was walking on the track it suddenly ended. There was a sign saying that due to a recent landslide only experienced bushwalkers with a topographic map should continue. It also warned about the track being rather steep – the equivalent of 61 floors to reach the top of a hill. That little sign didn’t stop me. I didn’t travel all across the world to be stopped by some landslide or a little hill. I kept on going and although exhausted reached the end of the track. Success! Soon I’ll be putting Crocodile Dundee to shame.

A new and happy day later I called Aristocrat and found out that they wanted to invite me to a graduate assessment day in Sydney on Monday. I was glad that I was invited to a new “decent” job interview. Decent just means something which is related to my university major and isn’t minimum wage. Now I had to work out the logistics. Since I live in Brisbane I had to plan my trip to Sydney and back. I decided that the best way to do that would be by car. After all it was “only” 900 km one way.

I didn’t take the plane because I thought that would be super boring. With a car I would be able to see a bit of Australia’s landscapes and it would feel more like an adventure. I also posted an ad on Gumtree looking for fellow travellers to share the driving costs. It took me less than two days to find two girls for my trips to and from Sydney.

More about my trip in my next post!