A story:
One day QA was handed a game. The handoff date was still weeks away so we put it at the bottom of our priority queue. Little did we know, the game's Producer had promised the Studio Director that it would be handed off early. By the time we found out, the early handoff was the next day and we hadn't started yet.
It was going to be late.
The Studio Director heard this and sent our department a blast email, demanding an explanation from our Manager. The problem is, our Manager was out of town and unreachable. Waiting wasn't an option - tempers were flaring and blame being cast - so as the senior team member I volunteered to respond.
I wrote a detailed (and carefully worded) account of what had happened. In short: We'd followed the documentation we had, the promised early release had been verbal and the documentation had never been updated. We'd had no way to know.
It worked.
The situation was diffused and QA was out of the crosshairs. Both my Manager and the Studio Director thanked me for how I'd handled it.
This was one of my first experiences dealing with the politics and tensions that can happen in production. It was a valuable learning experience, and definitely boosted my confidence in dealing with executives.
I'm also sure this contributed to my being promoted to Assistant Producer shortly thereafter.
PS: This post is courtesy of Kerri Twigg's ResuMAY workshop. I hadn't thought about it in years until I had to think about the professional moments that shaped me. This particular story doesn't belong on a resume, but now that I've remembered it I'll be sure to keep it in my back pocket during interviews.
#CareerStories, #ProfessionalGrowth