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Community Management Representative
Jagex

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Mark H

00.02 I’m Mark H, I’m a community management representative and I work here at Jagex Games studios. A community management representative is kinda like um a games industry odd job man, in the sense that we do lots of little things that will make up a big part. We are very customer and player related so we sort of act as the front lines between our players and our customers and everybody else in the company. Part of our job involves managing our online forums which are like these big sort of like message boards and we go on there and we sort of like help people out, answer questions, chat with people get their ideas, get their feedback and that’s really the best thing ever. I mean my job is basically getting to hang out with a bunch of people who are very much like me, like the same stuff as me and I just get to sort of like hang out with them and have a good time and help them out.

00.48 I think when I was 5 or 6 years old my dream job probably was something like a dragon slayer or something like that. I was you know just off in a fairy world, but as I grew older I always wanted to be an actor, that was one thing I wanted to do, I loved drama at school, I always did that. And that kind of all came from my huge imagination, I just loved playing all of these roles and getting to pretend to be this one minute, that another. I was never one of these people that wanted to go off and do something just to earn money. I always wanted to do something that I would enjoy. Because I knew, if I was doing the things I enjoyed I would generally enjoy my time at school and GCSEs and A levels a lot lot more.

01.25 When I first did my A levels I left my high school and went to a college it was quite far away I was travelling for about 2 hours every day. I always kinda felt a bit of a, you know an outcast at high school and stuff like that. I wanted to get away, I thought that if I went away from that school you know I can put all that behind me, I wanted something fresh, something new. But I really didn’t enjoy it, I, you know, I didn’t know anybody, I felt really distant to all my friends, so I ended up going back to my high school and going to sixth form there where I continued with the drama and I was very sure that I was going to go to a drama school or a university drama course.

02.02 For a long time my mum was a manager of a charity shop and my dad was an advertising sales man, and sort of like industry liaison for an advertising company. My mum would say that you know, she thought that I was going to be the next Orlando Bloom or something like that. My dad was always one of the people I mean, I think he was a big driving force behind the idea of do something you love, because you don’t want to do something you’re going to hate and he always said that to me and that was sort of what he always encouraged me to do.

02.29 I applied for a drama course at Bath university and then 2 friends of mine were working at a games company in Cambridge and they said that we have some openings here and I kinda sat down and I spoke to my parents about it and I thought you know, I think I should try this games company thing, you know, apply and if I get it then that’s you know a secure wage, its got good prospects. And then I applied for this job and then I got a call back saying yeah we’d like to hire you at Jagex and so I ended up pretty much coming here straight after sixth form.

03.00 I’d never lived away from home before, I’d never worked full time before, so it was a really really big step for me. I mean I moved in with 4 people I didn’t know, I’d never met before in my life. I think that was a really big turning point for me. It was incredible change, you know I’d gone from living at home to working full time for a big company. And that was really life changing for me.

03.21 In my spare time I like to do loads of stuff, very geeky stuff. I love to play dungeons and dragons which is one of my big hobbies. I’ve got a good bunch of friends and I liked to get together with them and we play D and D and stuff like that. I go to the gym occasionally, I like to just go down to the gym and keep myself sort of like healthy and fit and stuff like that. I like to write, in my spare time I do artwork, very sort of creative hobbies and things like that.

03.45 My dream job in Jagex would probably be something more related to designing and writing. I’m a big fan of creative writing and I love sort of like games design and creating ideas. I’d love to do that on a full time basis. I’m a very creative person, I like the idea of sort of like writing these grand adventures for all of our players to go on and stuff like that. That’s definitely something I’d like to do.

Mark H is a Community Management Representative at Jagex Games, “we sort of act as the front lines between our players and our customers and everybody else in the company”. He had applied to university, but got offered the job at Jagex before he went, “It was incredible change, you know I’d gone from living at home to working full time for a big company. And that was really life changing for me”.

More information about Programmers and software development professionals

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£50,440
average salary

The UK average salary is £29,813

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36
average weekly hours

There are 37.5 hours in the average working week

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85%  male 
15%  female 

The UK workforce is 47% female and 53% male

Future employment

Future employment?

Description
? Programmers and software development professionals design, develop, test, implement and maintain software systems in order to meet the specifications and business objectives of the information system; they also design and develop specialist software e.g. for computer games.
Qualifications
Entrants usually possess a degree or equivalent qualification, although entry with other academic qualifications and/or significant relevant experience is possible. There is a variety of vocational, professional and postgraduate qualifications available.
Tasks
  • Examines existing software and determines requirements for new/modified systems in the light of business needs;
  • Undertakes feasibility study to design software solutions;
  • Writes and codes individual programs according to specifications;
  • Develops user interfaces;
  • Tests and corrects software programs;
  • Writes code for specialist programming for computer games, (for example, artificial intelligence, 3D engine development);
  • Implements and evaluates the software;
  • Plans and maintains database structures;
  • Writes operational documentation and provides subsequent support and training for users.
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