Transferring Departments
My name is Sarah Hammond and I am the Marketing Assistant at DPS Games. DPS Games (or Wargaming UK as it was when I joined) is my very first job in the gaming industry. My background was mainly focused on Film and Television production, and whilst my career in those industries was an excellent learning experience, I was more than ready to leave the London morning commute far behind me, so when a temp reception role was offered to me at a gaming company in Guildford I jumped at the chance, being a casual gamer myself.
Being on reception was a fantastic way of being able to meet people from every department of the studio and learn what each area does to make a game come to life. I was completely new to the game creation process, so the team at DPS Games were amazing and gave me so many resources in order to learn what I needed to know – they even had a great introductory online course I could follow that helped me learn the basics!
Two weeks into my new job, Covid-19 caused our office to shut down. So when I was asked to sit down for a chat with my boss, I was sure that I was being let go- after all, it was a temp position, and who needs a receptionist when your office is closed. Thankfully this was not the case: in reality they wanted to make sure I was taken care of during these unprecedented times and offered me a full time position as receptionist and promised that whilst we all worked from home they would find me work to do. I honestly could have cried; I was so relieved.
I jumped into any work that I could – I’ve always enjoyed simple admin work, so I chipped in with assisting with getting new starters settled in and other tasks such as helping with credit card receipts and posting a lot of IT equipment for the teams at home. Alongside everything else I also started some more creative bits including thinking of ways to keep the studio social and connected. Since everyone is stuck at home we’ve been doing a lot of online events which I’ve loved helping out on. We’ve done: quizzing, online Animal Crossing, Discord and Twitch games streaming, social competitions and so on! Our next event is giving employees a takeout voucher so we can all enjoy lunch on a call together and try and recreate the feeling of being in the office again. Throughout these I championed being the face and voice of the studio and hosted as many as I could: my favorite being the charity livestreams, where we’ve raised a total of nearly £3,000 for the wonderful Autistica!
Now being on reception wasn’t a life goal for me. I didn’t know what I wanted to do moving forwards, but DPS Games have been so supportive in letting me explore my options and learn about different career paths. They also gave me fantastic advice on working in the industry, and how to thrive even if I had wanted to leave the company. In October a marketing assistant role opened up, and I was recommended for the job by a colleague, and I knew I had to go for it because I get to do even more of my favorite things:I wouldn’t only be creating events for staff, I would potentially be able to do it for the actual games themselves!
Moving between departments in DPS Games has been great and everyone in my old department HR/Ops have been so supportive, and my new marketing team have been so welcoming. What is reassuring was a recognition of my transferable skills along with the promise of support and further training from both teams. I feel like DPS Games have supported me every step of the way in my personal journey, and I cannot wait to see where I will go with this amazing company. I am so grateful to DPS Games for a sense of family, a huge group of strong friendships and meaningful work that I wake up excited to do every day.