On 30th October 2006, I worked my first day in my first job, a part-time sales assistant role at a games retailer in York. I’d finished my teaching degree earlier that year knowing I wanted to pursue my passions of writing and gaming. I basically took the summer of 2006 off, relaunching the site in WordPress in June 2006 and then publishing all sorts of odd bits and pieces: complaining about Vernon Kay, for instance. I won’t list the rest because it was weird and hardly seems relevant now.

I seem to remember I’d applied for a lot of jobs around that time but only got one interview, at Gamestation in York. I remember seeing my CV on the table with a big circle around “Employment experience: none”.

I really enjoyed myself there. I got games (and sometimes consoles!) a few days early, which in those days was incredible. I met a lot of really nice people, and struck up some good relationships. It was always cheering to see the regulars, and know they’d come in specifically to ask your advice or tell you how the last recommendation worked out.

After about three or four years, I had a chance to apply for a senior position. It didn’t work out, and I took that as a catalyst to start taking my writing more seriously again. I’d already been writing for a gaming website for some time, and knew that was where I wanted to focus my energy

Fast-forward to spring 2012, and for some reason, I wonder what jobs are going at Nintendo. I find an online editor position and think, “Hey, I’m an online editor!”. A nerve-wracking few months followed, but on 26th July 2012 I moved to Germany.

In the near-five years since then, I’ve had the chance to work with some amazing people, and on some fantastic projects. When I think about how my first job was a few hours a week in a tiny game shop in the UK, and now I’m part of an amazing team at Nintendo, I can’t really process how far my career has progressed.

I’ve been very fortunate to have such an enjoyable and fulfilling ten years of work, and there’s a lot for me left to learn and accomplish, to build and rebuild. It should be fun.