Newsroom
Newsroom
General : Internships Available at SOE
Posted Feb 18, 2008 by Keith Cross
SOE has announced that they are looking to fill several internship positions on a number of different projects. The internships are paid and part time, and have a duration of roughly six weeks.
SOE is currently looking to fill several intern positions on various teams. An internship at SOE is a prearranged learning experience designed to place students on a project that is relevant to their academic and professional goals. Interns will work as part of a team with people from many professional backgrounds while testing their skills working on a project. A mentor will be assigned to each intern, who will provide continual guidance and feedback until completion of the internship.
These are paid part-time positions (approximately 9 weeks in length) that provide invaluable real-work experience and offer students an opportunity to grow both professionally and personally as well as make tremendous networks for future career opportunities.
Read more here.
To put it simply,SOE is looking for someone to code their next swg "heroic encounter" while the current employees eat pizza and play wow.
Direct, inflammatory and to the point. Also, true.
I think I'd rather go work at a more reputable company like Haliburton or Malboro cigarettes.
If you actually believe that, you have never been anywhere near the SOE offices, a lot of folks play EQ II, or VG...the new game dejour is POTBS.....but there is very little WoW play.
But hey I'm talking to the SOE hate machine These are the same guys that hoped Smed and his family would die in the recent So Cal fires, the same nut jobs that hopes they get a internship to get close to those evil people that took their precious SWG away. Scary sad fucked up people that give gamers a bad name and should not be allowed to walk the streets.
While I would have a dilema about listing SOE as a location where I had done an internship it's foolish to not recognize the potential insight into the industry and field.
Biggest problem is an intern is generally very impresionable and being put into an environment of development with SOE's track record doesn't seem like a bright future, unless SOE is using this as a ploy to gain new hires.
This internship is actually a very good opportunity to get into the gaming industry. It's an opportunity of a life time.. i mean considering how hard it is to get job nowadays SOE is pratically offering you the opportunity to work in the rapidly growing game industry and with pay to boot (I remember when I was doing OJT a long time ago I wasn't even getting paid a cent). What you will get out of here is invaluable EXPERIENCE and NETWORKING (knowing THE people) which you can put into your future job resume (and as business contacts) in working for a multi-billion dollar company. I wouldn't pass up this opportunity if I were someone who has serious desire to work in the gaming industry.
For the SOE naysayers ... I'm sure you like bullshitting to make yourself feel good and dragging SOE's name thru the mud but. .. mehh.. whatever floats your boat.
You mean they play the games that they get free accounts too? Awesome,hmm I must have missed swg on that list of yours since they get that one free as well. Back to WOW-I hear the lead producer is a hunter pretty much into pvp in that game and was giving my guildleader (who by the way is a soe dev) pointers.So no,to answer your reply I don't need to get close to the SOE offices,I already know people that work there,that by the way -hate the nge.
SOE dragged its own name through the mud when they lied many times, changed their combat to fps hybrid, deleted more professions than are currently in the game, completely changed the UI, and have left unfixed a litany of bugs that have been around since day one.
I wasn't able to find an intern position for Information Technology - Networking and Database. I am currently a RIT student. :)
Just a point of fact* SOE, supposedly, has nothing to do with the coding of PotBS, so in other words, they would not need to hire for it, nor could they as, supposedly, it is still owned by Flying Labs, just published by SOE.
It's funny how many people volunteer to be hypocrites so readily. You say vets are evil, scary, sad and other things because a very small minority of them wished ill on Smed and his family. And then in your next sentence you say that these people should not be allowed to walk the streets.
Exactly how do you propose to keep them from walking the streets. Intern them in prison camps, execute them, physically injure them to the point of being unable to ambulate?
Shame on you. These people are talking about a game they felt passionate about. No need to multiply their offence a thousand times to come off righteous. On the contrary, it comes off more sanctimonious than anything else.
I'm not an SOE fanboi by any means, but I think it's a great opportunity for someone looking to get into the profession, so congratz to SOE for atleast taking a positive step by trying to recruit new people and grow the business.
One of those folks who get an internship some day might be the developer that brings us the next great thing in MMO gaming. It's an investment that SOE is subsidizing, and perhaps we the fans will one day reap the benefits.
Yes I know every WoW guild is led by a SOE developer that secretly hates his job and loves to dish shit on their games to their special Guild friends
And Jason Roberts, isn't into WoW, and if he was he certianly wouldn't play a Huntard...he is a huge UO fan however...though lately few of us can pry him away from LoN.
To my fellow SOE haters I say take the internship. That's right work for SOE and sabotage their products!!
And report back about some juicy behind the scenes incriminating gossip at SOE.
You get special dev reacharounds in your amazing blogs for all the fanbois loving you show? How the fuck are you supposed to know what I hear and what I know? You going to say I'm lying without even know the facts? LMAO give a SOE dev a hug for when they got turned down by LA to make the post ep iii mmo they might still be feeling sad about and yourself one for being in cahoots. All while the subs sink lower and lower and lower.....
Thank you for proving my point. :)
Wow...could you be any more clueless? And are all SOE hatebois so lacking in English and grammar?
I appologized for nothing and no one. But how about quoting from my post immediately below the one you quoted here.
Never said they did..but they are loving the game anyway :)
Sorry you must not have gotten that memo.Also yes I am clueless.What was I thinking?SWG is gaining subs by the thousands.Thanks for setting me straight.
Actually SOE has done this for quite sometime, and they have gotten many decent designers artist and even sound engineers this way. Also they aren't opposed to bringing in Interns that are older and may be involved in other careers. That is how they recruited their latest Network Engineer.
By that logic every game except th3 w0Wz0rz is in trouble....nice big brush you're painting with there .
I'm in favor of anything that potentially brings more talent to the table.
Personally I am looking for some sort of an internship like this (I'm a GSP student in DeVry University). I actually checked out SOE's listing of Internships like 2 days ago. The description for Programmer interns is this:
POSITION SUMMARY
An internship at SOE is a prearranged learning experience designed to place students on a project that is relevant to their academic and professional goals. Interns will work as part of a team with people from many professional backgrounds while testing their skills working on a project. A mentor will be assigned to each intern, who will provide continual guidance and feedback until completion of the internship.
These are paid full-time positions (approximately 9 weeks in length) that provide invaluable real-work experience and offer students an opportunity to grow both professionally and personally as well as make tremendous networks for future career opportunities.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES
It does sound fairly good for someone who wants to start in the industry, but then again, it's SOE... So I'm waiting for talking to DeVry's career adviser to see if there is other internships better than SOE's program...
I haven't played wow in months and could care less about it. But every time I go back to wow it's the same game and the population is still huge. I don't need to relearn the mechanics. As you have the right to hate Wow and write blogs accusing people of being WOW shills,I also have the right to hate SOE and claim those worshipping it are shills as well.
You mean you can learn maximum suckage from the BEST there is and NOT get paid for it??
SIGN ME UP!
Obviously you're referring to SWG, the developers admited themselves that what they did to SWG was probably a mistake and they learned from that incident. SWG is probably the exception here rather than the norm. Then again drastic changing a gameplay of a game after live is rare rather than the norm in the industry (then again disclaimers that state "gameplay might change during the course of the game" is there for a reason) and for those who claimed it ruined the game, this again is rather an opinion of some players rather than an established fact. An substantial numbers of players who have returned to SWG in fact claimed in their opinion that the NGE did made the game more fun for them. As for the claims that "SOE lied to them" this is probably nothing more than something claimed by some vocal minority players without substantial irrefutable evidence to back up those claims. After all if there is substantial irrefutable evidence of the "lies from SOE" then there would already be lawsuits flying around.
Actually there have been other things done by SOE not involving SW:G. EQ and EQ2 have had their share of problems due to mismanagement. Now I'm not flaming, just pointing out a few things. Unlike I other people who disagree with SOE, I don't feel the need to scream about every little thing they do.
On that note though, there are a few issues in your post I'd like to bring up. As far as the "Game play may change", this is in every game with online play. Game companies can not control what you say and do in these online games to a certain extent. Swearing, vulgar language, and so is the part that "may change". It does not actually mean the actual game mechanics or game itself is covered by this. There are other areas in the EULA to cover that.
As far as your claim that a "An substantial numers of players who have returned to SWG in fact claimed in their opinion that the NGE did made the game more fun for them. ", is a completely baseless statement. You have about as much real proof of that as do the people who scream the game only has 10k players. SOE does not release subscriber numbers and they do not do polls on those players that have returned. I know, because I was one of them and have returned several times and never recieved a survey. Forum posts can not be trusted for numbers either because not everyone uses the forums.
As for the "lies that SOE told", they have been well documented and actually due to false advertising with the Trials of Obi Wan expansion, there was a law suit planned. Soe adverted the lawsuit by offering refunds for the ToOW expansion. If they had not, the could have been sued.
Like I said, I'm not here to flame, just point out some obviously bad information on your part.
1. "Game My Change" is relevant to online societies. Not randomly sporadic rewrites to game engines players accesss through subscription models.
1a. Opinion rather then fact? 250k paying subscribers - few months later 60k. Today less then 40k
2. Substantial Numbers. two to three hunder people are not "substianal" when Two Hundred Thousand had quite due to SOE's fraudulent practices.
3. Probally. Support of claims, 250k subscribers to less then 40k today. Two Hundred Ten Thousand subscribers paying roughly $15 per month is a lot of revenue to vanish - this must be the minority.
3a. Lawsuit - 200k x 15 = 3million USD per month. I believe the "vocal minority" did a hell of a lot more damage to SOE by canceling their accounts. This vocal minority also, alledgely, abstains from ALL SOE products. That's 72million US DOLLARS and I feel it's a good loss to a company who committed wire fraud agasint their fan base. Why sue when you can inflict more damage upon corruption through excercising consumerism? :)
facts.
Simply put...SoE has already gone through and screwed over all the people that were worth anything as employees and are now in desperate need to find employees that are willing to over look their dubious history with employees and games. Who better than someone trying to start out in the field, heaven help those poor interns when they put the fact they worked for SoE on their resumes.
Interns? I thought the whole SWG dev staff was already interns! Most of them are entry level college grads.
I wonder if SOE can even attract good interns these days, they definitely can't hire good veteran dev talent.
Sort of like how they've gone thru and screwed over their customers...
It's hard to succeed in any industry when you can't hire top talent. It's even harder when the reason why you can't attract talent is because they know they will be micromanaged by fools (Smed) and have management's mistakes added to their reputations. All the Devs involved in the NGE, for example, all have a HUGE scarlet letter tattooed to them...
It is an incredible opportunity, if you, as an intern go in with the right attitude and armed with information.
Why?
Because SOE is run with it's own perfection and brilliance. Not in a good way, but in the worst way.
Simply put: ANYTHING SOE does is exactly 180 degrees opposite of perfect! All you have to do is learn how they do things and know that the EXACT OPPOSITE is the perfect course of action! So in teaching you the precise WRONG way, they are, in fact, teaching you the correct way, just so long as you know better.
Think of it as surviving a class taught by some aging professor with a 60's hangover... In the end you end up learning because you know that the exact opposite of their drivel is true.
Given how SOE runs combat systems that are designed so far outside the envelope of performance of a current client/server/internet based reality (the super fast NGE combat system) I certainly wouldn't be proud to claim to be a network engineer for SOE.
The fact that their network engineer was so recently an intern who had a career change doesn't surprise me. I've been working with networks and systems for 15 years, and had I sat in that first design meeting for the NGE combat system, I could have told them that it wouldn't work, that traffic overload would cause the extreme lag and misfired actions that are seen in the game today.
I do recommend this internship. It will help to give insight to a corporate gaming company (pseudo publisher) and of the operations. However, do not let such an experience detour from taking another path or being independent. It is good experience.
this was my face when i heard soe wanted new interns...
No need for that. All they need to do is give us pre-CU, and we'll never walk the streets again.
Just submit a resume, half the jobs never get listed externally because they get filled before they get listed.
I always got my game dev jobs by "cold calling" - ie just submitting a resume to a company even when there was no listed job opening. Managers usually know a few weeks/months in advance when they're going to need extra bodies and they would rather hire YOU than go thru the hassle of listing the job and having to interview hundreds of candidates.
This is a rinse and repeat process. Dept managers Do Not keep old resumes, you need to submit a new one every 3-6 months.