Babel Media Reviews

I've worked for Babel/KWS Montréal/Keywords International for a little over 8 years now (or is it 9 years? I sort of lost track). I started there as a video games tester and worked my way up the ladder, and I was given the opportunity to branch out into another department. These opportunities are given to most employee, so long as they are ready to put in the effort and they are ambitious. A system is in place where they can grow, gain additional experience and expertise and in exchange get a better salary (yep, we level up with experience!) The company is in full growth, with Keywords International acquiring new companies and this present opportunities to branch out and possibly work all over the world. Another pro, possibly the greatest: the people. Of course, there are a bunch of wonderful geeks there (myself included), we work after all in the video games industry, but you also have people from a variety of background, from all over the world and across quite the age range. In short: - Chance to grow within the company - Promotes from within the (very large) majority of the time - Wonderful people - Ever evolving, ever growing

I was promoted to project manager last year, but I need to be honest: I have no clue of what I am doing here! I mean, when I finished my studies In Arts, I started working here as a QA tester. I was earning the minimum wage, but who cares! I had the best job ever. After several months doing night shifts, double shifts, weekends and lots of over time without complaining I was promoted to Senior Tester. I was stuck in that position for years until finally after all the leads and project managers were my friends I was promoted to a Lead position. Wow! Now I was managing teams and leading projects. It is a pity that I didn't have any leading skills and I didn’t receive any training for that position. The good thing is that nobody cares, so even if all the testers complained about my incompetence, arrogance and lack of knowledge and experience; nobody will fire me! Now the floor manager is my best buddy. And now, I am a project manager. I don't know what that is but it sounds important and classy. Now my salary is much better, not as good as my brother's who is working in this fast food restaurant but it's ok because is the industry standard. In my new role I started hearing from my bosses in Dublin lots of weird words like, Kanban, Gantt charts, pert charts, efficient teams, coaching, mentorship... What is all that!!!?? Bah! I miss just testing video games. Now I need to pretend that I care and that I am a reference for the testers, that's why I'm reading Project Management for dummies! But even though, I can't manage to do a decent job, a have tons of accumulated work, thousands of unread emails, I don't know why is so important to focus on employees. But I am not worried. All the others PM are in the same situation. This place is heaven! We have donuts, free coffee, 2 bbq per year, Halloween and xmas parties, bagels, lots of video games, 3 consoles in the new brand cafeteria.