Meeting Students

From time to time, I get the chance to speak to students about video games and the various career paths available in the industry.

Family Business

My family is largely made up of teachers and professors. It is what we call in France the “social lift” (l’ascenseur social). This is the idea that you can come from a lower social background and elevate yourself through education to land a better job than the one you were predisposed to by socio-economics.

My grandfather was a blue-collar worker from a poor immigrant background (Italian), assembling industrial tools in a factory in the north of France. He took night classes to learn technical drawing, eventually becoming the dean of a technical college in the south of France after studying non-stop until he was 34 years old. He knew how to do everything; he built two houses himself, a caravan, and much more.

My mom, his daughter, became a teacher for most of her life after a short stint in a shoe factory. She was the director of our small town’s elementary school for most of her career, leading with integrity and conviction.

My dad, born to a single mom with a twin brother, also started as a shoemaker in a factory. Later, he became a professor after completing the necessary certifications, and he became widely recognized as one of the best in his field.

In France, getting these civil servant jobs means you have to pass a national public exam (concours) where only the top percentage are selected, depending on the number of job openings that year. This is the Republican egalitarian principle. Based on merit, many systems in France work this way, including access to universities and engineering schools (which are mostly state-managed and free, but limited in capacity).

La classe, Papoune & Mamoune

My destiny is intertwined with teachers, professors, and the act of teaching. I have utter respect for the profession, and I feel that if I ever moved on from the video game industry, teaching is certainly the craft I would choose to practice. There is something fantastic about sharing knowledge and elevating others, particularly kids (now that I am very old, kids include people in their 20s).

It is also a wholesome way to give back; no one is self-made, and many teachers and mentors pushed me to where I am today. In this system, I acknowledge that statistically, the children of teachers perform better than others.

The Talk Jam

I regularly give talks to my uncle’s classes when I return to France. Earlier in my career, while at Ubisoft, I gave lectures specifically about video games at the University of Savoie. Recently, I gave a short talk at Epitech.

I want to share a little trick I learned by watching a talk by Rami Ismail.

It goes as follows:

1. You start with 10 blank slides, numbered 1 to 10.
2. You let the audience ask questions. You don’t answer them immediately; instead, you extract the theme of each question and write it on an empty slide.
3. Multiple questions will often fall into the same category or slide; this is good, as it gives you more ideas for the answer.
4. Once you have enough content, give the talk.

It is so simple but so effective. You get audience engagement in the first few minutes, and you are nearly guaranteed to speak about things they actually care about. Be a little funny, make suggestion to get them started.

I also have two intro slides:

Spreading those memes made by Sam

This slide, as time passes, becomes less and less relevant

Kisses