Spotlight: Finn Truman, Associate Programmer

2nd Sep 2020

If you’ve read our earlier news article about Getting into the Games Industry, you’ll know we’re always looking at ways to share our knowledge and advice on how to get into the industry. We’ve been asking our team to share a little bit about how they got into the industry and what they do day-to-day at the studio, to give you more of a taste of life in the games industry, and life at the d3t studio. Our first spotlight is one of our associate programmers, Finn Truman.

How did you get your job at d3t?

I have been studying video game development since college. I finished my Bachelor’s degree at Southampton Solent University, but I didn’t feel like I was ready for the industry because I didn’t have a specialist skill that made me employable.

I had missed out on an internship (do one of those!), and I hadn’t focused on any particular field in programming throughout my courses, so I decided to do a Master’s degree at Portsmouth University. I knew that I would need a job by the time the course was over, so I would put an hour aside every day to focus on building my brand, which I did by tweaking and perfecting my LinkedIn profile, making a CV, booking regular appointments with the University careers advisors (use the resources your University offers!) and participating in game jams (do these too! at the very least, they’re great fun!).

After making contact with d3t through a specialist recruiter, I did some research on the company and discovered nothing but good things, and they even have the GamesIndustry.biz Best Places to Work awards to show for it!

I was invited to take a programming test by d3t’s head of engineering, Phil Owen. I passed the test, and then did a phone interview. The recruiter called me back sometime afterwards to give me the wonderful news! This was 4 months before I was even due to finish my Masters, and d3t were very kind to say that they would wait for it to finish before I started!

“d3t seemed like the unreachable dream when I applied. I started applying for the industry when it was suffering from some bad press, eg, crunch. It was starting to seem like a bleaker and bleaker job to apply for. d3t changed that. Everyone from the interns to the Studio Head is so nice, and we all want to make this a great place to work for each other. And it is just that!”

Finn Truman, Associate Programmer

A typical day for me

I cycle to work everyday and head straight to my desk to put my gear away. While I wait for my project to update all the changes we committed to the day before, I brew a coffee and say good morning to my co-workers (everyone is so friendly!). I remind myself what I’m supposed to be doing each morning by looking at my to-do list, and I get to work. I’ve bounced around a few projects at d3t, and because I haven’t been here long I’ve never been committed to one task for too long, but this means I’m always trying something new and filling in those blanks in my knowledge that worried me enough to enlist onto a Masters!

At some point in the morning I attend the daily stand-up, and we no doubt have a laugh about something, and then it’s back to the desk. Peppered throughout the day I like to take a few breaks to talk to my co-workers (and not just co-workers that are on the same project as me), because it’s nice to know what everyone else is up to.

I love working at d3t. I’m comfortable here, I’m still learning new things, and management care. And because everyone feels the same way, we try to keep that culture.

We are hiring