{"id":1873,"date":"2012-01-10T10:53:03","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T18:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=1873"},"modified":"2012-01-25T09:25:15","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T17:25:15","slug":"microsoft-interested-in-camosun-students-for-new-local-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/01\/10\/microsoft-interested-in-camosun-students-for-new-local-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft interested in Camosun students for new local office"},"content":{"rendered":"

A newly announced downtown Victoria branch of Microsoft Game Studios is considering some Camosun students for their 75-person team being assembled this year, according to technical director Chris Robertson.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because somebody got off the bus after a two-year diploma doesn\u2019t mean that they don\u2019t have the same abilities or future potential as someone who did a four-year bachelor. Really, it\u2019s just about intelligent, passionate people,\u201d says Robertson. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason you couldn\u2019t find those people at Camosun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robertson, a 20-year veteran of the games industry, along with studio director Edoardo De Martin, is trying to build a team of 75 employees by the end of the year. And contrary to what some might expect, the software behemoth isn\u2019t exclusively seeking candidates with years of industry experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cA major part of what we\u2019re doing is recruitment. That means nurturing relationships with a local schools, Camosun being one of them,\u201d says Robertson. \u201cTo bring young, fresh energy into the studio means taking bets on people who don\u2019t necessarily have a lot of experience, but they\u2019re never going to get to be veterans without some people taking some bets.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Martin echoes that sentiment, saying that \u201cteams that are mostly comprised of veterans lack some of the boldness that youth brings. We want to add youth to our team mix, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun's Eric Sehn is excited about Microsoft's Victoria office (photo by Carol-Lynne Michaels\/Nexus).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eric Sehn, Camosun\u2019s dean of trades and technology, is excited about the possibilities that Microsoft brings to the local high-tech industry. Sehn says he looks forwards to opening dialogue with Microsoft about what the college can provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking sure that our curriculum is relevant, particularly to their needs around gaming, is really important,\u201d says Sehn. \u201cWhat we want to do is have the opportunity to sit down with them and say, \u2018What kind of skillsets are you needing and how can we incorporate that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Robertson, the most important quality in any candidate, Camosun student or not, is passion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf somebody\u2019s passionate about what they\u2019re doing, then everything else will fall into place,\u201d says Robertson. \u201cThey will learn what they need to learn, they will do what they need to do. Without the motivation, you can have all the ability in the world, but you won\u2019t necessarily apply it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A newly announced downtown Victoria branch of Microsoft Game Studios is considering some Camosun students for their 75-person team being assembled this year, according to technical director Chris Robertson. \u201cJust because somebody got off the bus after a two-year diploma doesn\u2019t mean that they don\u2019t have the same abilities or future potential as someone who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-january-11-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1873"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2064,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1873\/revisions\/2064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}