u/PajamaChess

I have exclusively played supports in QP and ranked for years now, so I’m used to being the main target to kill… but so far this season it’s felt like I’m playing a horror game. Every dps is likely a dive character and the tank half the time makes space purely by focusing me wayyy in the back line. Strategically this all makes sense, but gdamn!

TLDR Is it just me or are players focusing supports far more than they have in even the recent past?

FINALLY, after 1 year and 2 months of job searching, multi-round interviews that went nowhere, and countless rejections and almosts… I GOT A JOB!!

Posted this here as a way to help others out who are in the same situation I just got out of in whatever ways I can, and also to give anyone who needs it some hope. There is a way out of this hellhole situation after all.

In terms of what I’ve learned works and does not work in my job search, this is what comes to mind:

-Tailoring your resume and cover letter to each job is, unfortunately, the most effective method. What I did was add a “skills” section that I would interchange my actual skills with how the job descriptions worded those same skills. It’s tedious, but seems to be worth the effort.
-QUALITY OVER QUANTITY! I began my search over a year ago now, and sent out the same resume and vaguely-written cover letters to as many jobs somewhat matching my qualifications as I possibly could. And, do you know how many interviews I got back in those first few months? 2. For the same position.
-Create 1-3 different cover letters for the specific industries or positions that you will be applying for, with each version serving as your template to fill in for each job you apply for in those areas. This saved me so much time once I had 3 good templates that I could fill in with info relevant to only each particular job I was applying for.
-Depending on your personal financial situation, please give yourself time to take a break from applying. ESPECIALLY after being rejected for a job you were either really excited about, confident you would get but didn’t, or had been through multiple rounds of interviews only to be rejected. Be easy on yourself. I wasn’t, and the self-loathing ate me up every time, no matter how many times I’d been rejected in the past.
-Since ATS systems usually prioritize local hires, make sure to include a section in your resume (mine was at the end of my short summary section) where you state that you are currently living in [your current location], and both willing and able to move to [the exact location of that job]. Or, something along those lines. This “tricks” the ai filtration into placing you in the same category of local hires, or at least that’s what I’ve done over the past 2 months and have noticed a genuine difference.

Obviously, this is all my own experience but it’s the best I can offer any others going through this same experience.

Open to answering any other questions too if anyone has any, and I’ll answer as best I can.

Naturally, I’m a fairly enthusiastic and agreeable person who can maybe come off as scatterbrained or unorganized thanks to my ADHD and social anxiety. This, I believe, is the reason why I’ve made it to so many interviews and yet can’t seem to jump over that final hurdle.

I’ve tried scattering my desk with notecards of things to bring up or discuss, questions I have for them, background, accomplishments, etc. Yet, that’s only helped to a certain degree and nothing else I’ve tried has helped much. I still always slip back into my natural habits and cadence, and become flustered because I can tell that the mask is slipping.

It’s just so rough going through this bs as someone on the spectrum, because what seems so simple for friends and family to be able to do, I physically cannot pretend to be someone else for the sake of “professionalism.” Idk, if any others out there with similar experiences has found anything to help them, I’d love to hear what’s helped you.

For anyone that’s been working in social media content creation for organizations or companies, the buzzword of the moment definitely seems to be “relatability.” Every video, photo, or text released by any organization or brand I’ve worked with seems like it needs to come across as indisputably human-made and relatable. While I understand the sentiment, with ai forcing itself into literally every part of our lives whether we want it or not, it does make me worry about the future of graphic design and even art in general.

Myself and many others I know in the field have worked hours, days, weeks on gorgeous designs or visual content for the orgs they work for, yet these posts seem to continually get less views than the posts we spent a couple minutes or an hour on. Obviously this is in social media which is far more unforgiving with the concept of “relatability,” but the trend still worries me.

As an exercise to try to figure out how to best navigate a future where design or visual content of any kind requires an aesthetic of “relatability,” I’m trying to compile a list of traits, features, and rules that such a design style might take on (or has already taken on).

Any ideas, or things you’ve noticed in how to best navigate this?

I know this has been asked in the past, but man am I struggling with this horrible dichotomy at the moment. I’ve never really related to any of the Virgo traits despite being a TRIPLE Virgo, because I am incredibly unorganized and thrive in chaos with a largely extroverted personality.

That being said, I love nothing more than to plan things out, analyzing and optimizing my own work and life, and I have a crippling desire for perfection in everything I do. So, in that sense I can relate to Virgo’s need for control and structure. Yet, any time I try to schedule out my days or organize my time in any way I can, my brain rebels and sabotages all of the work I’d spent organizing in the first place.

It’s frustrating to say the least, and I was curious if any fellow ADHD Virgos had any advice that’s helped them use these traits to their benefit, or at least to help manage the bad.

I’ve been unemployed since graduating from my masters program, and I’m currently at my wits end trying to find some way to salvage a career here, but the money is running out. I knew the job market was bad, but not this bad.

My field is in multimedia and social media video production, and I’ve been trying to get a job at any nonprofit or organization here in the DMV, but it’s been mostly for naught.

Either way, how’s the market been for the rest of you? Especially recent grads trying to make ends meet to stay here.

I’m not sure if it’s the air quality outside (I haven’t been outside or opened any windows today) or something in the water, but I’ve been feeling incredibly tired and disinterested today. Was fine last night and all week, but I’ve felt like a walking zombie all day today.

Luckily work was remote for me today, but focusing on even basic tasks just felt like climbing Everest. Anyone else?

I started playing my first run of this game in late-June, and I’ve just completed my second run through not even a full month later. To say that I’m obsessed is an understatement.

Yet, I can’t help but feel guilty about it, because the game essentially is one big cautionary tale against using imaginary worlds to escape from the painful realities of your own world. I know this, and it makes me sob uncontrollably at certain areas of the game because I can’t help but notice the parallels with my own life, as I’m sure many others do too.

The combat system, world building, characters, and even camera angles are incredibly nostalgic for someone who had their childhood in the late-90s and 2000’s. Everything about this game is so captivating and makes me want to dive deep into an imaginary world that doesn’t even have a complete lore, rather than even attempting to make my own IRL existence a better experience.

Verso’s Drafts was an especially emotional experience for myself, in particular. The music, the visuals, learning what Esquie actually is based on IRL. Just remembering the promise of the world I grew up in and expecting myself to inherit as an adult, only to be reminded that the Verso who painted this imaginary world is dead. And that the world I grew up in and want to come back is dead too.

I just finished >!Verso’s Drafts!< for the first time on my second playthrough, and so badly wished I had played it >!right before the final fight with Renoir!< in my first playthrough. I see it as the perfect final stop before >!heading to Lumiere and ending the game!< because just the act of being there puts so much into perspective before you >!choose Verso’s ending, and destroy it all to save his grieving family.!<

Either way, it made me ask myself what order of locations I’d recommend a new player play the game in for maximum immersion.

Obviously, each area does have an actual level that the enemies are supposed to be fought at, but I just mean story-wise. Which order would you recommend the major narrative locations be played in? **side areas included, because I’d consider >!Verso’s Drafts!< and >!Flying Manor!< as essential for the plot to best be understood**

Over the past year, I’ve been freelancing but still actively looking for more stable work. Despite sending out hundreds of applications across the country, the only places I’ve had contact me back were from jobs located in the two areas stated on my resumé. This leads me to believe that, especially with applications through workday, the ai filters out applicants who do not have an address located in the area of that job.

So, to try to get around this I’m debating stating my place of address as a USPS location in that city or state as if it were my PO Box location. Starting this experiment today, and might update as time goes by to see if this is a legitimate strategy to try to beat recruitment ATS, and see if there really is a hard or soft lock around prioritizing local hires.

Thoughts? Any experiences of your own to share?

Growing up in a middle class white family for most of my childhood, I was always taught by my parents that homeless people were lazy freeloaders who were probably high or drunk and mentally unstable. Are there some like this? Sure. But after the past year of being unemployed despite constant attempts, changing strategies, reaching out to contacts, and practically begging places for jobs… I get it.

I understand now how intoxicating it is to just say “fuck the system, I’m not going to play their game anymore.” Or, to be pushed into a corner despite your best efforts and unable to land anything as you’re evicted and tossed to the streets with your belongings taken as collateral. I understand now, because my savings are drying to their conclusion and if I didn’t have the privilege to fall back and move in with parents again, I’d be homeless myself.

Lesson learned, don’t look down on those who have been broken by the system when the system itself is broken.

I’ve been unemployed for over a year now with most of my grad-level academic and freelance experience over the past 3 years being in visual media. However, due to my lack of success in finding work in this area, I’m considering switching into education instead.

My BA in History was completed back in 2020 however, and I was seriously considering going into education before COVID happened. And, much of my visual media work has been educational and especially history-based in its content. So, the switch hopefully wouldn’t be as jarring as it might appear for someone with mostly media experience credentials. I genuinely do enjoy teaching others, and I’m also incredibly good with kids and teens, so perhaps I might make a decent teacher after all.

Regardless, how saturated is the education field at the moment when trying to become a history, geography, government, or social studies teacher in today’s job market? I hear it’s surprisingly under-saturated from family in upstate New York, but I’d like to hear from others as well.

I’ll fully admit it, I’m a 6’2 30 year old man who cried many, many, many times while playing this game to its completion. I went into this game just 4 days ago, and all I knew about it was that the game is an emotional experience that confronts grief and loss head-on. I completed most of act 1 and couldn’t figure out why, since I was having a grand old time figuring out the game mechanics, laughing at gestrals, loving Esquie and the fully childish innocence of so much of the characters and dialogue and locations.

Even the death of Gustave was more of a shock than a moment of loss or grief for me. Weirdly, the moment that really hit me hardest and “messed me up,” emotionally-speaking, was a quick, simple moment in the Act 2 fight against The Paintress where you’ve seemingly defeated her and she is left in a crippled, withered state. And the first move she makes in this condition is to heal Maelle, who is currently fighting to “destroy” her. When I saw that happen, I sat there shocked and didn’t know if I should even continue fighting her anymore. As an aside, and my theory for why this affected me so strongly, my mother and I have a complicated relationship IRL, and when I saw that it really fucked me up and me think. Just sat there for several minutes crying to myself… all over a game I’d only began 2-3 dats prior.

I feel like the people who resonate strongly with this game are those who have experienced loss, complicated family relationships, or worry that they are on a path of self destruction and delusion. And those who consider E33 an overrated or boring game have been lucky enough not to experience these things in life yet. But that’s just my theory.

Either way, I’m curious what moment(s) really got to you in the game personally. Even minor details or side quests, anything.