IT jobs: SA vs abroad

Ricard said:
There are 2 rates... office and industrial employees. Geeks are in the office category and thats typically a 9 to 5 job. (with 1 hr lunch). Another aspect with IT people is that the broadband speeds are awesome and many people work from home where possible.
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So much for the spending less time at home and more going out... :rolleyes:
Only IT that sucks in SA is all the 'wannabe' positions anf 'fly by night' chancers. Real IT people get a kick out of life every day - all depends what type of IT u'r in - veeeeery broad field.
 
Joe Masehare said:
So much for the spending less time at home and more going out... :rolleyes:
Only IT that sucks in SA is all the 'wannabe' positions anf 'fly by night' chancers. Real IT people get a kick out of life every day - all depends what type of IT u'r in - veeeeery broad field.
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Very true. Personally i think IT is addictive. Im not talking sitting here and having a "typing" conversation, but actually fixing all the Hardware, manipulating software...etc etc..sorta adrenaline-RUSH! :D
Eish...Where are all my "cracker" days :sick:
 
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This seems to me a broad and invalid generalisation as to what people do locally or in Europe, stay in/go out, how people get treated at work, etc.

Ricard said:
Geeks are in the office category and thats typically a 9 to 5 job. (with 1 hr lunch).
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How did you come to 37.5 from that, or 42 for South Africa?
 
noxibox said:
How did you come to 37.5 from that, or 42 for South Africa?
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That is based on employment contracts I have signed.. in SA and the UK. Every single one in SA stipulated 42hrs/week ... the same for the UK contracts... but they all were 37.5 altho people on average worked 41hrs per week. They were only contractually bound to 37.5.
 
re IT jobs - and specifically the Game industry..

I keep staring at computer game jobs coming available, and wishing I had good IT skills.

I mean, do you guys realize that if you were US/UK based - you could be working for iD Software, or Westwood, or Blizzard - or any number of world famous major players in the game market.

You guys with the 'proper' skills, should take a look through the computer game industry jobs.. if you don't want to end up doing dry dilbert coding, there are a ton of hot jobs going, all the time. Sat on a plane next to an indian software geek the other day, and he was saying that the US guys are pretty lazy in some key ways - hence the standard corporate coding jobs are getting outsourced to India and China.

The game coding stuff is still happening in the US, but I see its moving slowly to the east as well - some of the recent Blizzard jobs were asking if folks could consider relocating to China..

If you've got the geek skills, then borders are irrelevant - if you have the skills, and the coding ability, then you should be using that to get scooped up by the big players, and go where ever the cool jobs put you..
 
LGM : ALOT of the game coding jobs are really k@k, its like sweatshop type work from what I know....
 
LoneGunman said:
I keep staring at computer game jobs coming available, and wishing I had good IT skills.

I mean, do you guys realize that if you were US/UK based - you could be working for iD Software, or Westwood, or Blizzard - or any number of world famous major players in the game market.
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Game programming is not easy, one would have to be a brilliant programmer to consider it. If it's money that a person is after, then this isn't the way to go. Sure you'll get paid well, but for the amount of effort that you put in I wouldn't say it's worth it. You'd have to have a passion for it more than anything else.
 
Unless things have changed dramatically game programming is not well remunerated. It involves being overworked and receiving very little of the rewards. The same has typically been true for those who do CGI.
 
LoneGunman said:
if you have the skills, and the coding ability, then you should be using that to get scooped up by the big players, and go where ever the cool jobs put you..
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If you have those skills you should be setting up on your own rather than prostituting yourself to companies that will screw you every possible way they can.
 
:)...

LGM : as glamorous as game coding sounds... most of those companies (esp the big ones) don't pay so well, and work you to death.

Heard a rumour recently that ILM (ok not game coding but hey) pay as little as possible, cos they reckon working for ILM is reward enough,
 
So many "comments" but nobody has first hand experience in working in the game industry, so all this talk is pointless.
 
Have any of you actually tried writing your own game? It's not as glamorous as it sounds. Heck, it starts off great! You have this brilliant super duper idea for the best game ever!

And then you start writing it! First, the graphics engine! Let's do this!

2 weeks later...

Uhm, this is actually hard work... It's not fun any more... Next!

Sure, there are people who like doing things like that, just like there are people who like writing documentation. My point is, it's just another job. There's nothing glamorous about it.

It's a lot of hard work. A lot of long hours. And not such good pay.
 
SuPaStA said:
So many "comments" but nobody has first hand experience in working in the game industry, so all this talk is pointless.
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Seems like you must know everyone who posted personally, to know what they do for a living ;)
 
EtienneK said:
Have any of you actually tried writing your own game?
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Yes I have written some games and yes it is hard work. Not something I'd want to do for the pitiful pay and slave hours typically offered by the big game companies. If you're going to work for someone graphics in other fields, like military and medical applications, pays better and usually involves better hours.
 
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