The Graduate Experience at Ubisoft – Q&A with Our Graduates

It will all happen here. Come back to this very page starting on Wednesday, January 27 at 9AM (UTC time) when our three graduates will tell you more about their experiences and do their best to answer various program-related questions. Our participating graduates are:

Daniel, Online Programming (Ubisoft Annecy, France)
Alex, Project Management (Reflections, UK)
Natasha, Gameplay Programming (Ubisoft Toronto, Canada)

If you have a question, all you’ll have to do is post it in the comments below.

The Ubisoft Graduate Program is a way to kickstart your career in videogames. It’s a two-year program where you’ll be fully immersed in production teams at two different studios. We recently spoke with three graduates from the program to learn a little more about their own experiences.

Make your mark

When asked about the most thrilling aspect of their jobs, our graduates all agreed that it was working on some of the biggest games in the industry. “Working on a AAA game that everybody knows about… that’s a huge motivation”, says Alex , who is currently working at Reflections in the UK. But this means more than making it to the final credits. It’s about having real impact on your projects. Daniel is about to ship his third game at Ubisoft as an online programmer. Working on The Crew, he was responsible for the online voice chat in the game. “I had to implement new features and changes in the design, making sure that the player to player chat would work,” he says. “That’s something real, when you see that your coding has a direct impact on the players’ experience!”

As a graduate in Project Management, Alex started out at RedLynx (Finland) on Trials. “On Trials Fusion, I took charge of an entire title update, from start to finish,” he adds. “It allowed me to see a great diversity of tasks and I loved it. See the Chinese version of the game? I shipped it!” Now that he’s moved on to The Division, he’ll get a closer look at a different side of the business production: “I get to experience more of the management side, coordinating with the whole gameplay team in the studio at Reflections. It’s all very exciting.”

Having that kind of impact on a game presents a unique chance to learn quickly. “It’s really motivating — and surprising even — to have this level of trust and responsibility” Natasha says. When she joined Ubisoft Toronto, her first mission as a gameplay programmer was refactoring a whole portion of the game she was assigned. “I had team members coming to ask for my insight on the game – as an equal. Having this kind of peer relationship so early on… it’s really rewarding.”

Meet people that will help you learn and grow

So you are entrusted with a lot of responsibilities from the start of the Ubisoft Graduate Program, but you also meet key people who’ll help you grow. Daniel was able to rely on his mentor to settle in quickly.: “When I first arrived at Reflections, Lee was the one to walk me through things,” he says.” He’s a senior guy with more than 10 year experience, so obviously it was great to get his feedback on the job and his insights as a developer, but also to get to know the teams and the studio better.”

Being in the program not only opens a lot of doors, it also helps make new contacts. Alex took part in the training week organized for graduates in Project Management. During the five days in Paris, he attended high level presentations, workshops and case studies with senior experts, and was able to connect with them for more informal chats. And, of course, he got to interact with the graduate community. “It was the first time we all met for real. We went for drinks in the evenings, even played pétanque on the last … Back in our studios, it was just natural to get in touch – since then we’ve had regular catch-ups to talk about our work and projects.”

Be prepared to challenge yourself…

“As a graduate you’re offered a lot of opportunities: dedicated trainings and sharing sessions, moving to another studio abroad in the second year… But this comes with high expectations.” Daniel points out. From the application process onwards, don’t expect an easy ride. “Before I applied, I had never taken a technical interview: I didn’t expect it to be so thorough, they had pages of questions. It was nerve-wrecking.” Daniel remembers. “I was grilled on C++ and SQL, but what they really wanted to see was how I was able to communicate and explain very technical things”. Alex also recalls the Assessment Day in Paris headquarters, the very last stage of the application process for project managers. For the once aspiring graduate, this day filled with interviews and group exercises was certainly the most competitive part of the whole process.

There are more challenges once the program begins. But they’ll help you excel at your job,and learn some valuable skills along the way, as Natasha quickly found out. “To be a good gameplay programmer, you need to be more than just a programmer,” she says. “You need to think independently. You need to know how to work well in a team and also know when to ask for help.” For Daniel, it’s also become clearer that programming isn’t just about coding: “Communication is really important,” he says. “If you have amazing technical skills but don’t know how to convey your vision to your team, that’s useless.”

… and get ready for new experiences

For all graduates, one of the biggest highlights of the program is the second year spent in a studio abroad.: “You discover different studio cultures, but also new production tools and methods,” Alex says. “You get to see how different teams work. There’s a lot to learn from it.”

Daniel never lived abroad before working at UK-based Reflections (moving on later to Annecy studio). It could have been daunting, but he found it easy to settle in after each move: “I arrived at Reflections at the perfect time, just before a Future Session [the studio’s annual meeting, traditionally followed by a huge party]. It was a great introduction to the studio, its projects… and a nice ice-breaker!” In Annecy, he immediately fell in love with the studio’s location (which is surrounded by lakes and mountains) and quickly felt at home in the French studio. “To me, experiencing different studio cultures is as beneficial as to get a diverse and strong technical experience. I see a lot of value to that.” Daniel says.

At the end of the day, this is what Ubisoft graduates are: they have a passion for games, a desire to challenges head-on, a strong team spirit and an international mindset. If this sounds like an adventure for you, check out the official website – applications are open until February 15th, 2016.

Want to know more about the Graduate experience at Ubisoft? Post your questions below, our Graduates will answer during a 24hr Q&A on Wednesday, January 27, starting at 9AM (UTC time). Expect a delay in answers for questions asked during the night – but they will be answered the next day!