Douglas Noel

Recent project:
EA.com games. Responsible for making sure that all games on the EA.com service and in the EA.com production pipeline were fully tested in a timely manner. Responsible for assigning projects to test leads and testers, hiring employees, and overseeing the day-to-day operation of the EA.com QA department of 35+ employees.

Academic Info

College: Piedmont Virginia Community College
Degree: Pursuing an Associates in Business

Were there any particular projects or areas of study that you pursued?
Programming...

Did you do any internships?
No.

Career Info

Tell us about your first job in the industry. How did you get the job? What was it like? What were your responsibilities?
My first job in the industry was a tester for Kesmai Corporation. I found the job in a newspaper and thought it sounded cool. I applied, interviewed, and was offered a job. It was a very different experience from any other job I had ever had before - everyone loved to come to work every day. I was responsible for completing test plans and reporting results to the QA Leads.

What jobs have you held in the games industry thus far? Briefly describe the career path you took to get where you are today.
I started as a games tester at Kesmai Corporation, after three months I was promoted to QA Lead. About a year later Kesmai was bought by Electronic Arts and became part of EA.com, and I was promoted to Test Coordinator. Six months after that, the job was expanded into two, and I became Game Test Coordinator for EA.com. Currently I am no longer with EA.com and looking for a QA Manager job within the industry.

Advice

What fields of study, specific courses, or life experiences would you recommend to students interested in your field?
Play lots of games. Bang on them. Do weird stuff, try to do things you shouldn't be able to. The goal in testing is to break stuff, and if you can find ways of breaking games that have shipped, you'll probably make a good creative tester - which is an important skill to have.

Beta testing is a popular way to get experience in the field, but don't feel that you can't apply for a testing job without having beta testing experience. In my experience as a hiring manager, beta testing is a bonus, but it has never been a reason to hire one person over another.

Is there anything you wish someone had told you before you got into the games industry? Is there anything you would have done differently?
No, but there is one thing that I was told during my interview: "Be warned if you take this job: Once you get in the games industry, you never leave." I scoffed at the time, but now I believe it. Once you work in the games industry, you won't want to do anything else.

As games increase in complexity, what are the various kinds of jobs that you foresee development companies needing in the next five years?
I hope that in the next five years, more people will see Quality Assurance as a career choice in the games industry, instead of a stepping stone to being a producer. Quality Assurance is a very rewarding field, and good quality assurance is key to a successful game.

Do you have any other advice or recommendations to share with students who are interested in doing what you do?
The two most important things to have when working in the computer games industry are a good work ethic and a passion for games. One without the other is a formula for failure.