Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - Drive to Work #145 - Getting a Job in R&D

Episode Date: August 1, 2014

Mark describes how to get a job in R&D

I'm pulling out of my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another drive to work. Okay, today I'm going to answer probably the question I get asked most in email of any other question. So today I'm going to explain how do you get a job in R&D. So I get a lot of mail, a lot of mail. a job in R&D? So I get a lot of mail, a lot of mail. And a very, very common question, the letter would be something along this, which is, you know what? I've thought long and hard about what I want to do. What I really like to do is what you do. How do I get a job in R&D? And I get a lot of different variations on the question. I get sometimes people asking me, I'm about to go to college, what should I study?

I get people saying, I want to get noticed, how do I do that? I have people like, what are the requirements that are necessary? So anyway, today, I'm going to walk through all of that. I'm going to spend my podcast today talking everything you ever wanted to know about how to get a job in R&D. Now, I will say, listen to this podcast alone won't get you the job, but it will give you some valuable information that perhaps you could use to one day make your own podcast. Okay, so let's start with college. So I often get the question about, okay, long term, I'd like to get a job in R&D. What do I need to do in college to do that?

And my answer is, A, you need to go to college. One of our rules is that we look for an undergraduate, a minimum of an undergraduate degree in R&D. So if we're trying to hire somebody, I'm not going to say we've never hired someone without an undergraduate degree, but it is something that we consider a prerequisite and you very much want to

have one. It'll make your job immensely harder if you don't. So, what do we want you to study? And the answer is, there's not a particular thing. There's some individual skills that are, and I'll walk through those. So, the skills that you want to acquire, number one is just general communication skills. The ability to understand, well, actually I'm going out of order. Number one is you need analytical skills to be able to look at something and analyze them.

Number two, you need communication skills to be able to communicate what it is your feelings are and how you analyze things. Those are the two most important skills. Now, there's general people skills. There's general skills with magic. Actually, let me make this caveat before I go anywhere else. Not that this one's a hard one, but the number one thing we look for if you want to work on magic is that you know and understand magic. Which means is, I've had the opportunity to work with some very talented people who didn't know magic.

And what we found was that magic, 21 years in, there's so much craft to it that someone who is talented that doesn't know the game is less valuable to us than somebody who has a lot of raw natural talent and potential that really well knows the game. Because a lot of designing magic or developing magic is understanding the nature of what has been done and what is there. Now, that's not to say someone who's talented can't learn that eventually,

but the first real skill that's important is a true understanding of magic, which means you want to work on magic? Play a lot of magic. And not just a lot of magic. Play a lot of games. One of the things about, for example, whenever you ask people about how to be a great writer,

one of the responses you always get is read. Why read? Because if you want to know how to write, look at people that know how to write and learn from them. If you want to know how to be a game designer, play games.

For example, the best game designer I know, Richard Garfield, is an absolute, I mean, the reason I think he's so good is he loves games. He goes out of his way to play every game he can play. So he is just filled to the rim with knowledge about games. He knows all the ins and outs of how games work because he's played them all. And a lot of times, part of playing a game, or part of doing design, is thinking of how different things are done,

so that when you need to solve a problem, you have an arsenal of tools to solve that. Every time you play a game, you learn about how that game functions. And every game's a little bit different. So every game you play, you learn new tools that are available to you. And a lot of really good game design is just going, oh, hmm, here's a problem. Here's a game that had a similar problem and solves it in this way. Now, maybe

you won't solve it the same way, but it helps you understand how you can solve problems. Okay, so number one, play a lot of magic. Number two, play a lot of games in general. Number three is, and this is a valuable skill, and this comes with game playing, which is allow yourself the ability to adapt games. One of the things that I find when people play games is some people are very hesitant to ever change the rules of the game they play. Now, I recommend normally when you play, the first time you play a game, play the way the people who intended it wanted you to play.

Why? Because they spent a lot of time on it. They might know things you don't know. But as you play the game, there's nothing wrong with adapting the game you are playing. You know, that part of learning how to be a game designer, a good training wheels, is just adapting games you already have. Of saying, you know what, I think this game would be better if such and such were true. And now, like I said, you want to respect the original designers to figure out what they were doing, but don't be afraid of experimenting. Don't be afraid of trying things. You know, some of the earliest games people tend to design are just taking other

people's games and just playing different games with the components of somebody else's game. You know, there's lots of famous examples of, you know, something started as people adapted or did a mod to an existing game, and that turned into its own game that then later on would become its own separate game. So anyway, feel free to experiment with the games you're playing. They are your games. You can do with them what you must. What you must. I mean, one of the things about Magic that's awesome is all the people that have created variants. You know, Commander's a classic example of

people just said, we're going to make our own format and have some fun, and other people said, you know what, this is a lot of fun, and it caught on. But that was just somebody saying, we're going to try a different way to play. And make your own Magic formats. That's awesome. Make your own Magic drafts. Make your own... Have fun.

Magic is a very modular and flexible game. You know, have fun finding your own ways to have fun with magic. Just like with any game. When I say I want you

to adapt games, I don't just mean any games. Magic is fine too. Come up with cool and interesting ways to use magic cards to do new things and new formats

and new drafts that you've never done before. Okay. Now, now, in college, you need to go to college. You need to acquire analytical skills. What analytical skills means is the ability to understand why things

do and don't work. A lot of what the job in R&D is, is being able to say, oh, here's the problem. Hmm, if you did this, that might solve the problem. You know, and now, actually, there are two different skills. First is just analyzing what the problem is. What's, you know, like, one of the skills that's very important is looking at something and going, oh, this is the problem. And the reason that's a really important skill is, this is a team project, if you will, that designing magic and developing magic

is not just one person. So if you're able to identify a problem, even if you can't solve it, there's a whole team that can solve it. And correctly analyzing problems is very important. Now, the second thing is, they're going to solve problems, right? Analyzing problems is important,

but they're going to solve problems and come up with solutions. And like I said, I recommend this all the time, but A Whack on the Side of the Head is my favorite book on creative thinking by Dr. Roger Van Eck. And it is a really, really good book about thinking about the creative process.

And I find it very useful. A lot of problem solving is creative thinking and understanding how you think and where you limit yourself, which is what the book's all about. It's about these ten mental locks that keep you from being as creative as you can be. The purpose of the book is that anybody can be creative, that you keep yourself from being

creative. Anyway, I've talked about it a bit. Go read it if you haven't. It's an awesome book. So, you have to learn to analyze problems. You have to learn to solve problems. You also have to learn to communicate. Communicating is really, really important.

That, for example, for years, I would have ideas, and I would just fight about them. And I'm like, we should do this. And what I finally learned is that I had to be better. I mean, ironically, I'm a pretty good communicator. I've ridden my comm forever. But it took me to realize that I needed to use those skills interpersonally to explain why I wanted things made. I'm a very instinctual person in that just saying, I feel it should be this way doesn't get the job done

because people are like, well, I feel it should be this way. So you have to explain why you want something. Communication skills are really important. Now, what should you study in college? You should study something that you are passionate about. So this is another thing that's important to understand about R&D, which is our goal, there's no preset thing. There's like, I'm going to talk today about how some of the

people got hired in R&D, okay? And it is not like they all got done in the same pattern. It's not like all of them, it's not like, oh, well, you just study these three things and you're a shoo-in. In fact, really what makes you most attractive to R&D is that you have a mix of skills that R&D does not already have. The thing that makes you most attractive to us is to say, I understand magic. I understand magic well.

I have the analytical problem-solving skills or problem-recognition skills. I have the problem-solving skills. I have the communication skills. And I bring to the table something unique. Something that you don't have. problem recognition skills, I have the problem solving skills, I have communication skills, and I bring to the table something unique, something that you don't have. So here's a really important thing.

If you are trying to get a job, any job, this is true for magic, the goal is not to explain why the job would be good for you. The goal is to explain why you would be good for the job. So many people, when I've gone through people

trying to get jobs in Wizards, so many people keep stressing how much they would love the job. And I'll let you in on a secret. It doesn't, I mean, I'm glad you would love the job, but you know what? R&D is filled with people that love the job. R&D is filled with people that love magic

and love doing game design and game development. That doesn't set you apart. There's nothing wrong when you apply talking about your history of magic and how long you've played. Some of that is good. I mean, in fact, we look for people that really know magic,

so that's not a bad thing. But how much you want the job is not ever going to get you the job. Nobody hires you because of how much it would make you happy. They hire you because of how much you would be good for the job is not ever going to get you the job. Nobody hires you because of how much it would make you happy. They hire you because of how much you would be good for the job. So remember, when applying for a job, your job, what your goal is, is to convince the employer that you, the future employee, would help them. Pretty much, whenever you have a job interview, your goal in a job

interview is to say, you want to hire me because I am the best candidate for the job, that me being hired would help you. That if you bring me on to make magic, I will help make magic a better game. Remember that. That is really important. And all of that. So I'm going to explain how to try to get to the point where maybe one day you get an interview. When you get an interview, please, please, please spend the time and energy explaining why you would benefit us. Okay? We know you would love the job. We know it would be awesome. We know it would be a dream come true. I get it, and that's great. And a little bit of passion about how much you love magic is awesome.

But spend your energy explaining why you are valuable to us. I cannot stress that enough. Okay, so go to college. Get some degree that, learn important skills. I mean, learn the basic skills you need to function in R&D. And besides the analytical and the problem-solving and the communication skills, also people skills are valuable.

When you come to work in R&D, we are a team-based group. We work in teams. And so what that means is we got to sit in a room with you over a long period of time. And you know what? We want to feel like you are a team player, that you're someone who will get along.

Not, by the way, that you won't contradict or say something different. That is fine. In fact, R&D likes people that are willing to speak up for what they believe, but doing so in a way that is polite and not offensive to people and in a way in which you're explaining why you are disagreeing on something. It is fine to say, I think that's a mistake. When you come into your R&D interview,

it's okay to say, hey, this thing you do all the time, I don't think that's the right way to do it. That is fine. But then explain why it's not. The point is not to be adversarial. The point is to be cooperative, and you can argue cooperatively. That's really important.

Okay, okay, so now you spent your teen years playing Magic and playing games, and you finally got to college, and you went, and you learned all the skills I'm talking about, and you got some new skills that are unique to yourself. Okay, you now are a college graduate. What's the next step? Okay, the next step is you need to get noticed. So here's the big problem that explains to you the challenges you're up against.

There are a lot of people that would like to work in R&D. It's the number one question I get in my email. There's a lot of people like, you know what, you're going to be awesome. That would be awesome. The problem is there's not a lot of jobs in Magic R&D. And the people who have the jobs tend to stay for a while. Why? Because it is fun.

It's a fun job. I mean, there's a reason a lot of people want to do it. It is a fun job. It's work. I should stress this, by the way. There's a famous saying that says, find a job you'll love and you'll never work another day in your life. Which is a little bit of a lie because I love my job. It is a lot of work.

It's good work. It's happy work that I get up in the morning and I'm excited to go to work. And that I'm not, at the end of the day, it's like, oh, I have to go home because I need to go home. And I'm like, whew, I'm so desperate to go home. I mean, I remember I had a job, I had an internship, I think, one summer in which I remember, like, at 5 o'clock I got to leave, and at, like, 4, every day at, like, 4.58, I'd watch the clock for the last couple minutes, you know, because at 5, the moment I was allowed to leave, I would leave. And I'm like, I don't ever want to live, I don't want a job like that, where I'm so unhappy with my job that I'm just waiting for the

opportunity to go. You know, now it's like, you know, I usually't want a job like that, where I'm so unhappy with my job that I'm just waiting for the opportunity to go. You know, now it's like, you know, I usually leave at six and sometimes I'm like, oh, it's my six, I got to get going home. Not like, oh my God, I'm so happy to leave, let me watch the clock at six o'clock, I can go. Okay, a part of internship, interesting, the story happened to me with internship. But, so, the way R&D works, by the way, is with rare exceptions. And the rare exceptions are you've already established your expertise in other fields. For example, you're a game

designer that's worked at other companies and done game design, so you come to us with lots of experience. Other than that, most jobs in R&D, we hire interns. Our job interview process essentially is we hire you as an intern. You have six months, and it's a paid internship. You have six months essentially to show to us why we should try to convert you from an intern into a full-time job. And almost every single person currently working, with only a few exceptions, I mean, I'm one of the few exceptions because back in the day we didn't do internships. But pretty much all the people working for R&D now,

with a few exceptions, were interns. Because that's how we do it. We bring you in, you have six months to demonstrate what you can do. And the reason for that is there's a lot that goes on in R&D. It's hard in any one interview to get a sense of whether someone would really be good or not. I mean, you have to get by the interview to the internship,

so I mean, that is one important level. Okay, so how do you get noticed? You want to get a job. You want to get one of these internships. You want to prove what you can do. How do you score an internship? So there are three major ways to do it, and there are some minor ways.

So let me talk about the major ways. Number one, you can excel at competitive magic. That doesn't necessarily about the major ways. Number one, you can excel at competitive magic. That doesn't necessarily mean the Pro Tour. There is, you know, Star City Games has a circuit. There's circuits. There's different places you can play. But what you need to do is you need to demonstrate that you understand.

Because part of being good at competitive magic is understanding how the game ticks, understanding how cards work, that when development is looking for new people, one of the best places to look is people that have shown they've been dominant in how they break magic. I made little air quotes there. And another really important skill for development is the ability to make decks, is the ability to go, I think this card is broken, let me demonstrate this card is broken. And so, just being

now when I say competitive player, I don't mean you have to win pro tours, I mean you have to do it well enough that people are aware of who you are and that you have to demonstrate analytical skills, you have to demonstrate deck building skills, you have to demonstrate card evaluation skills. So that is number one. If you want to get into development,

that is the easiest way, or the most common way to get into development. Now, and one thing I should stress, the people who are in development are, we're not necessarily top-tier Pro Tour players. It's not like you had to be, you know, top-aiding every other Pro Tour to get a chance to get into development. No.

You have to be good enough that people were aware of who you are and that, so this ties in the second thing. The second thing is writing articles. Now, the first one is helped

by writing articles because you want people to know who you are. Now, being a good pro player allows you to write articles and so, but you do not need

to be a pro player to write articles. Another way to demonstrate R&D is to write to show that you understand how magic ticks. That's another way to demonstrate R&D is to write to show that you understand how magic ticks. That's another way to demonstrate

that you get magic, that you get how it works. And there is, look, write articles. So, for example, you know, we talk about the Pro Tour. Well, most of our interns, not interns, our development right now,

Eric Lauer, Dave Humphries, Adam Prozac, Ben Hayes, these are all people that, Ian Duke, these were people that had some Pro Tour experience. They're not necessarily, I mean, okay, Humphreys is in the Hall of Fame, Eric Lauer is pretty good. But, I mean, the rest of the people were on the Pro Tour, were good enough that they got noticed, but were not top tier, you know, top eight, you know, they're not people that were contention for Hall of Fame. But they proved that they were good enough. Now, writing articles. My two best example of people who got in writing articles, number one is Tom LaPille. Tom LaPille was like, I want to work in R&D.

And he said, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take some fast, and he decided cubes, and said, I'm going to demonstrate to R&D that I can master this one aspect. I will write about it, become the expert on it, and demonstrate through this aspect that I understand card evaluation, that I understand how cards work. And then Tom LaPilly, pretty much through recognition through writing, I mean, Tom did end up in a pro tour, too.

It's not like Tom was a good enough player that he could get to a pro tour. But really what made him stand out was this using articles as a means to draw attention and to show that he understood what made magic tick. The other person who got an R, well, actually, this was a little more indirect, but Aaron Forsyth was hired. I was the person who... I mean, I recommended him to run the website.

And why? Because he wrote articles that demonstrated to me and edited articles that he really understood how magic ticked and that he'd be good at running the website.

And then, once he got the foot in the door, he was able to have an opportunity. He worked on Fifth Dawn. In fact, we brought him on regularly so he could write an article about it. And he did such a great job, he ended up getting a job in R&D.

That's another thing I will say, by the way, which is getting your foot in the door at Wizards, even if it's not in R&D, is also very valuable because once you're in the door, you have opportunities the average person does not. You have opportunities to come and do playtesting. You have opportunities to

do hole-filling. You have opportunities to come to design seminars. You have opportunities to do rare pulls. You have opportunities to do things in which you can get noticed. So that's another thing, which is, if you're in R&D, that's another

option. Now, I should stress, if you get a job in R&D, if you're in R&D, that's another option. Now, I should stress, if you get a job in R&D and you're not in R&D, you better do really, really good at that job you are being for. If the people you hire feel like your only goal is to be in R&D and you're not doing that job well, well, guess what? You're going to be booted. And once you're booted, it makes it even harder to get an R&D. But if you get in the door and you excel and you just show that you're reallyed, it makes it even harder to get an R&D. But if you get in the door and you excel and you just show

that you're really good at your job, there will be opportunities to demonstrate to R&D what you can do. And for example, Dan Emmons is a good example of a designer

who started in customer service, what we call game support, and he came to me and said, you know, he had worked on the Great Designer Search 2, I'll get to the Great Designer Search

in a second, and he had said, I really wanted to be a designer. I said, okay, here's what you do. Go to the seminars, do pole filling, do all these things to help get you noticed. He did, and he eventually landed a job in design, in R&D, because he demonstrated through these things that he was dedicated and talented. Okay, the third way. So there is doing well in the Pro Tour, there's writing articles, and the third way is the Great Designer Search.

Now, the Great Designer Search is tricky because we don't do a lot of them. We've done two so far. The way the Great Designer Search works is you have to apply. It begins by writing some essays. Then there'll be, I mean, that's the way we've done it in the past. Then there's a multiple choice test.

Check your magic knowledge. Then there is a design test. And you've got to get through all this gauntlet to eventually get to the top eight. And then there's like a reality show competition where there's five competitions. Each time one person's knocked out until we get down to three people. Those three people get flown in for a job interview, a full-blown job interview. So a few caveats for the great designer search. You need to be 18 because it's an employment and you need to be 18 for employment. Number two, and this is a tricky one, you have to be able to work in the United

States. I know I get a lot of flack for this every time we have a great designer search. As much as we are doing this cool thing, in the end, it's a job search for an internship. And the problem is, in order to get an internship, you have to be able to work in the United States. It is very, very hard, almost impossible, to get a green card for an internship. It needs to be a full-time job. But we don't hire full-time jobs. We start by hiring interns. So it is very hard. So in order to apply for the GDS, you have to be eligible to be able to work in the United States because that is what the prize is, a job working

in the United States. I know, I know, I know there's talented people from around the world. And I mean, I do not control how the United States does their job processing. It is very difficult to get outside people in for a job. It is almost impossible to do so for an internship. Now, we have tried to set up the GDS so that outside people have the

opportunity to be involved and get some recognition of their skills. But anyway, you need to be 18, you need to be able to work in the United States and But anyway, you need to be 18. You need to be able to work in the United States. And number three, you need to be able to relocate to Seattle. That is where the job is. If you can't, then it doesn't do you any good. Winning an internship that you can't partake in

is not particularly of value to anybody. But anyway, the great designer search, really what we're doing is, I had a hard time trying to find designers it's a tricky thing developers can kind of look at the Pro Tour and there's a lot of development skills you can see through competitive play

design, there's no designer Pro Tour there's no thing that plays up those particular skills so the Great Designer Search was really made as kind of a process by which I can just look at design skills it is elaborate and if you happen to get into GDS kind of a process by which I can just look at design skills. It is elaborate, and if you happen to get into GDS,

it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. A lot of work. And it's kind of crazy, much like if you ever watch Project Runway or The Apprentice or any one of these, you know, Top Chef or any one of the things in which you're trying to get a job, and to do so, you have to prove what you're capable of doing and they make you do crazy challenges to prove it.

A lot of things we make you do, it's not that we don't do the same things in R&D we do, but usually the constraints are a little different and the timeline is way different. We usually have a lot more, we have more people, more time and more resources. But the Great Design Research has proven to be a really good tool for finding R&D people. We now have eight people in the company that come from the GDS,

seven of which, sorry, yeah, seven of which are currently in R&D. Alexis is still in digital. But anyway, and the Great Design Research, one of these days we'll do a third Great Design Diamond Search. It will happen. I can't tell you when, but I do know that eventually we will do another one.

Only because the first two were so successful for us. In fact, not only have we gotten eight people from it, but we even won an internal award. It was called an INI Award. It's a Hasbro Award for innovation. And we won an INI Award, actually, for GDS2. We didn't apply for GDS1.

We won it for GDS2. Okay, so now somebody's noticed you. You're going to come in for the job interview. I'm going to tell you how to do better on the job interview. So number one, I explained this part before. Explain to us why you would be good for the job, not why the job would be good for you. Number two, explain what you have to offer that is unique. I mean, you definitely want to go through your resume

of what you know about magic. That's important. But then, explain to us what you bring to the table that we do not currently have and why that is very valuable. Next, it's important when you're interviewing an R&D, it is a big positive to us that you have opinions and that you stress those opinions.

Now, do it politely, do it constructively, do it in a way that says, here's somebody we want to work with. And remember that the decisions that have been made that you might be arguing against were made by the people in the room interviewing you, which means if you think we could do something better, voice as if there's something better. Not that we were stupid to make that decision.

Not that somehow, don't fault us for making the decision. That's a general interview thing. Your job is to make us want to be with you. You attacking the interviewer does not do that. I get a lot of email, for example, where somebody both attacks me and then in the same letter asks me how to get a job. Well, my advice to you is, for starters, don't attack the person you're trying to get a job from.

There's ways to be constructive in your criticism. For example, you might say, you guys do Thing X. I understand why you do Thing X, and I think when you came up with the rule, it made a lot of sense. But things have changed, and here's why I believe Thing X might not be true anymore. Now, if you look at Magic, R&D, we've made tons of changes over the years. It is not as if we are unwilling to change things. In fact, we are very willing to change things if we think the change is good. The key is, if you're coming to interview, explain why.

Also, a job interview does not mean you have to explain why everything we're doing is wrong. Part of it could be you talking about what we do right and why. Once again, the key of an interview is multifold. One is we want to see do you have what it takes. The second thing is we want to understand how you fit in R&D culture, how you fit with the group. And the third thing is we want to understand what you bring to the table. What makes you unique? You know?

And, if you can come and say, here's some, like, you're going to prepare for, you somehow got an interview at R&D. Awesome.

And be aware, by the way, one of the ways to get, that, once we notice you, there are a bunch of steps that you will go through before you even get

to the interview. The great designer search, obviously, we put you through there are a bunch of steps that you will go through before you even get to the interview. The Grid Designer Search, obviously, we put you through the Grid Designer Search. For, like, development internships, there will be different things

we will send you. There will be different, sometimes we call them the Vapor Op Tests, where we give you cards that are undeveloped and ask you to develop them. Sometimes,

we might just get your opinions on things. We might ask you different questions. But you will go through something to get in the door. But once you're in the door, okay, what is very, very valuable is come armed with, here are some ideas

on how I think magic can be improved. Once again, politely, constructively. And not just how, why. Because the key is, and this is the most important thing, most of what will happen when you are an R&D will come from the training you get. That most of what you need to know, you do not know. You will not, I mean, I write stuff, Sam writes stuff.

I mean, there's design and development columns, and you definitely, definitely, if you're applying for a designer, read my column. If you're applying to be a developer, read Sam's column. You know, if you're applying to a designer, read my column. If you're applying to be a developer, read Sam's column. If you're applying to creative, read the creative column. Well, it's now short stories. But anyway,

whatever you're trying to know, make sure you're familiar with the element as much as you can. We're very open as a company. Be familiar as much as you can with what you're applying for. You want to be a designer? Understand design. Read my design columns. You want to be a developer? Understand development. Read development columns. You want to be a designer? Understand design. Read my design columns. You want to be a developer? Understand development. Read development columns.

You want to be a creative person? Read the short stories. Understand our story. Understand what's going on. Be knowledgeable. That's important. So we want to make sure you're knowledgeable

and then try to explain to us what you will do for us. How you will... And one of the great ways to do that is to come in saying, here are things that I think you could do better. Here's why.

And once again, constructively explain why. That is something valuable to us. The reason we want to hire somebody is we want to say, this person will help us make magic better. Now, once again, I stress this. I talked about this a little earlier. Don't underestimate the importance of group dynamics and that we have to work with you. You need to come across as somebody who wants to work with other people.

That's why, for example, being hypercritical and insulting the people that you're coming in says, oh, well, they're insulting me in an interview where they're trying to get a job. That does not bode well. That we want to hire people that are constructive, that will work well with other people. Okay, now, let's say you have gotten through the first thing, gotten noticed, gotten through whatever test we gave you, gotten an interview, done the interview.

Now, we're inviting you into R&D. My advice there is you're a new hire in R&D. Listen. Not give your opinion. We want your opinion. It's why we hired you. But it's very important to come in the door and listen and learn. And there's an amazing amount of things to read when you first get here.

We have a lot of documentation. We have a lot of stuff on our wiki. There's just a lot of material. Plus, you'll have missed two years worth of cards. There'll be two years worth of cards that we know that you don't, that you'll have to catch up on. What people call their black hole. That when you come to Wizards, there's a period in time in which you weren't playing with the sets, but you weren't there

making the sets. And that you looked over the sets, but you're not as familiar with them, because you didn't play them as extensively and you didn't make them. Usually if you either played them or made them, you're familiar with them. But there's a black hole where you haven't played with it, but you haven't made it. But anyway, study, study,

study, study. When you finally get in, absorb as much as you can. And here is a very valuable thing. Asking questions. If you want to help bond with people, it's a good little life lesson. Asking questions is a good way to do that. Because what you're saying to somebody is, you have information that I can need.

Please help me. One of the big things about people dynamics in general is asking for help. People often see it as a sign of weakness. but actually it happens to be a sign of strength. Because what it says is, I'm willing to get somebody else to allow you to help me. When someone comes in early on and they ask questions, I'm like, awesome, here's a person that's trying to learn how to do their job. You are not going to know what you're doing the day you walk in. I mean, you have some idea. I'm not saying you're helpless. Obviously, we hired you. But you have a lot to learn.

And so, the attitude I love to see on a new employee in R&D is someone who says, I'm eager to learn. Help me learn. And anyway, I now see the parking lot. So, I'm hoping today, like I said, getting a job in R&D is very difficult.

A lot of people want it, not a lot of jobs. But, I do believe, if you look at the... In fact, I was going to talk about how people got their jobs. Maybe that'll be a different... Maybe that'll be its own podcast. There's actually probably an entire car ride full of how the different people in R&D ended up getting their jobs. So maybe that'll be a different podcast at some point.

But anyway, what I'm trying to say is if you want to get a job in R&D, there are paths and ways to do that. But you have to be smart about it, and it requires a lot of work and energy. It is not easy. It is not, you know, the people who got the job at R&D all earned their way into R&D. And that if you want a job, you have to earn it. It is not something that will be given to you.

And it doesn't matter how much you would enjoy it. It matters how much you would be good for the job. I said that, and now I have parked my car. So it means it's time for me to be making magic. So thanks for joining me today. Thanks for joining me today, guys. I'll talk to you next time.