WHO?
Celine Pasula
WHAT?
Grand Cru, Chief Financial Officer, for 2 years;
Mr. Goodliving, Finance and operations manager, for 3.5 years;
Before that: Finance at a big pharma corporation.
QUICK! WHAT DO THESE BRING TO YOUR MIND?
Mikrobitti – Heheeh… Commodore 64 and when I programmed pieces of code from Mikrobitti.
Creative vs. business – (long pause) Choice of jobs
Big, medium, small firms – All are needed
Game I play now – Our Supernauts, and then kids games. I’m really impressed by Toca Boca games like Toca Doctor. I think one of the first words our child said was Toca Boca!
HOW DID YOU END UP IN GAMES BUSINESS?
Well… It was a total accident. When I came to the interview, I didn’t actually know Mr Goodliving… it came up more like, I got the interview through someone I knew, I wasn’t really looking for a job. But sitting there I thought, this is actually pretty fun. The job description was of course the thing that interested me, and it was a clear step forward, a smart move to take from what I had been doing for a couple of years then. And the same evening after the interview when I was about to go jogging, they called me, “you want to join? Can you start like tomorrow?” And I went like, “hmm well could you give me some time to think?” So I went out and once I got home I called and I haven’t regretted for a moment. In a few years, the job changed actually. The job was much more challenging than I originally thought. And that was huge for me, because I learned so much and could see my own career development.
Even at the beginning, my predecessor was leaving in a really quick schedule, they were returning to their old industry, it was more of their thing. I was introduced to the job in one day and one evening, that is a really really fast schedule, and because I had another project going on in my old business, I was actually working two jobs at the same time for a while, I went to work for my old job in the evenings. Of course I got advice from the predecessor, but you don’t want to bother people, and learn yourself. And also I think, there were new things in the job, you could do things yourself, and probably you were doing them differently than your predecessor. I mean, if you have long job introduction then you learn, but may end up doing the way it is done earlier, because that is the way it is done. So I got to do it in a new way because I didn’t know the old way! And it was so different business… I realised I want to work at the creative industry, even if pretty often I’m the not-so-creative person around! It sucked me in.
ARE YOU A TOTAL PRO OR IS THERE SOMETHING MORE YOU’D LIKE TO LEARN?
Perhaps my basic job, the finance part, I’m a pro at that. But there’s lot of things I could learn. I think it is more about the attitude I have in general, I feel like I want to learn new things. I always do. Like in high school, I wanted to study everything, I wanted long maths, long Swedish… I was actually knee-deep in it with my courses. And now I have the same feeling. When we started the company, some things were easy, so I realised I’m a pro at them. Like, I was two weeks away of starting my maternity leave when we heard that Real Networks will close Mr. Goodliving… but I thought there won’t probably ever be another chance as good. And especially my job at the beginning was pretty much about organising. There were like two bills per month so the bookkeeping was pretty minimal. But the business world, the investor part, that one is new to me and something I want to learn. Also HR is something where you are never ready. Basic stuff like agreements are the same, but you can always develop the rest and think what would be the next thing that would add to people’s satisfaction.
I think it might be bad if you thought, I am a pro now, there’s nothing to learn anymore. Usually it’s best to learn by doing. I’ve noticed in this industry there’s plenty of people who are ready to help if you just go and ask. Sometimes you meet helpful people in unexpected places, like our child’s day care friend’s dad was working in the same industry! And there are also good schools now, like in Kajaani. But there it’s probably more up to your own activity.
HOW DOES WORKING IN THE GAMES INDUSTRY LOOK LIKE FOR A START-UP CFO/HR PERSON?
The basic finance job is fairly the same in every business. But the spirit! You yourself get so motivated because all the others are like “yeah! So good to get to work today!” Perhaps not every morning! But the basic attitude, the feeling is that, even if things might be tough and stressful at times. Overall it’s more about that their job is appreciated. Everyone feels like they are wanted, they’re not just one pawn in the game. Or like in a big corporation, if you did something differently, it wouldn’t be necessarily be good. The attitude is such that everyone helps each other.
The spirit and the culture of the company is “this is nice even if this is a job”. And I think that this is actually the challenge for this industry, because to many the job is also a hobby. It requires… you should realise you need to take pauses. No matter how nice it is, it is a good thing to take a holiday sometimes, to not play even! But I think the flexibility the companies offer is good, like you get to work late, if you arrived late, and such. I mean, for myself, I tend to read the emails, even if I don’t act upon them. But I read them from my phone, and also during the holidays. Myself I don’t find it too stressful, I have always had a laptop and a mobile with me.
I think there is more coming to the industry. I suppose the investors see the industry as very risky, you might make nothing, or it could result in a huge jackpot. So the current investors are such that they know the business, but it is tough to go ask a few millions from someone who isn’t familiar with the industry. If you are totally indie, and idealistic in your own vision, and totally focused on it, so you don’t ever think whether the game will get an audience, then the investors won’t necessarily believe in it, and they might not support you. And if you want a wide audience, there’s lots of things to consider. But I think it is important people are coming to realise that’s how things are, and that’s how the industry gets appreciation: that there’s money to be made. No more mothers saying, “Oh I thought you would never make money with that”!
* Note: interviews are done in Finnish and translated directly to English, so some minor edits get done after the publishing now and then *
* EDITED 26 April 2013 for links and consistent outlook *
how i begame me *---(^_^)---* 