What advice do you have for an aspiring software developer who would like to work for the Magic digital team?
So I’m not a software developer and I’m not a hiring manager. I’m inR&D and not Technology. The odds that I’m even on an interview panel arepretty low. But you asked a good question, and I have an open inbox. So I thinkyou deserve an answer.
I would start by looking at the job listings that are openright now to get a sense of the skill sets that we’re lookingfor: a software developer focusing on the rules, and another software dev job that doesn’t.
Then get good at software design and apply. Easy peasy,right?
Man, I’m helpful. Okay, let me try this again:
Be a good software developer. Code good. But moreimportantly, communicate well. Learn to see the virtue in working inteams. You can be the best coder in the world, but if you can’t listen to otherpeople and explain your thought processes, your team won’t understand what you’re doing and that brilliant code will fail user acceptance testing.
That brilliant code, by the way, should be maintainable.Understandable. Changeable when Magic changes, and let’s be honest: Magicalways changes, but digital Magic isn’t going anywhere. If you’re going to workon digital Magic, you’ll need to be able to make sure that you can write codethat someone other than you can maintain later. Similarly, you’ll need to beable to work with other people’s code, and you’re going to want them to havevalued maintainability the same way.
You’ll need to work with people who aren’t coders. This is acritical part of teamwork: recognizing the skills and value that everyonebrings to the table. When you’re putting your portfolio together, especiallysince you say you’re “aspiring” and probably don’t have muchprofessional experience, find a project you can work on with a diverse team todemonstrate that you can be a good team player. I’m pretty sure this isn’tnecessary, but in the parallel world where I’m doing the hiring for a softwaredev, it would be a big plus in my eyes.
If you want to work on card set implementation, you alsoneed to know Magic rules. I’m not going to say that being a high-level judge isa requirement, but if you’re a level 3 judge, the odds that you have thenecessary Magic rules knowledge and interpersonal skills are pretty high. I wasa level 2 judge for many years before coming to work for Wizards, and highlyrecommend the judge program as useful experience if you’ve got the bandwidth inyour life for it. Not that it’ll inherently get you a job—like I said, I’mnot a hiring manager—but it will demonstrate a deep understanding of therules of the game that you’d be working with.
Aside from that, make a cool portfolio website thatdemonstrates that you’ve got the technical chops. This much I can’t help youwith, but there are people much more qualified than I am to help you with the fundamentals out there on the interwebs.
I really hope this helps answer your question. Good luck,and maybe we’ll work together someday!
TLDR: Interpersonal skills (teamwork, communication) areincredibly important. Magic rules knowledge can be useful. All of that needs tobe on top of solid technical skills.
(Thanks to my software developer friends Matt and Michelle for helping me refine thisanswer. I’ve got a small coding background, but they’re professionals. And awesome.)