As a minor point, I’d consider potential publication biases when interpreting articles about how hard it can be to get these jobs. I imagine if someone had an easy time getting one of these jobs, they might be hesitant to write a post about it, to avoid looking self-celebratory or insensitive.
I think this is a major factor. From what I can tell, some people have very easy times getting EA jobs, and some have very hard times getting EA jobs. This in itself really isn’t much information; we’d really need many stats to get a better sense of things.
For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t read this as, “the people who have a hard time… are just bad candidates”. It’s more that EA needs some pretty specific things, and there are some sorts of people for who it’s been very difficult to find a position; even though some of these people are quite brilliant in many ways.
As a minor point, I’d consider potential publication biases when interpreting articles about how hard it can be to get these jobs. I imagine if someone had an easy time getting one of these jobs, they might be hesitant to write a post about it, to avoid looking self-celebratory or insensitive.
I think this is a major factor. From what I can tell, some people have very easy times getting EA jobs, and some have very hard times getting EA jobs. This in itself really isn’t much information; we’d really need many stats to get a better sense of things.
For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t read this as, “the people who have a hard time… are just bad candidates”. It’s more that EA needs some pretty specific things, and there are some sorts of people for who it’s been very difficult to find a position; even though some of these people are quite brilliant in many ways.