Ten summers ago, we opened our gates and welcomed the very first group of intrepid Blizzard interns onto our campus. Now, a decade on and hundreds of blizzterns later, we're taking time to honor the anniversary and reflect on how far we've come together. We recently gathered our entire 2018 summer class (93 strong!), their mentors, and Blizzard in-ternship alumni who are now fulltime employees to celebrate Camp Blizzard's 10th birthday with food, drinks, music, and good company.
To share more about the program, here’s Janine Tedford, manager of our University Relations team, blizztern historical tour guide, and head counselor during.
Camp Blizzard! For 12 weeks every summer, we bring interns to Blizzard to work on exciting new projects and develop professional skills while taking time to kick back and enjoy their summer. We offer paid internships, summer housing close to campus, and most importantly, we provide amazing work opportunities. Interns are embedded with our development and business operations teams, where they’re given real work and the chance to make an immediate impact. It's not unusual for content produced by interns to end up in-game or on our sites. Interns at Blizzard are here to learn to be part of a team, contribute right away, and develop skills that will serve their career for years to come.
Camp Blizzard started as the brainchild of a colleague (hi Dave Wilson!) and myself several years ago. We talked a lot about what a Blizzard-quality internship program might look like. We knew it needed to be a more dynamic experience, a balance between having fun and experiencing serious professional development. In short, a program that wasn’t just another internship for students to put on their resume, but an experience arming them with a comprehensive understanding of the gaming industry they’d be able to carry with them into their careers.
From the start, our goal has been to give interns opportunities to connect with all levels of the business, so we put a focus on networking and workshops when planning summers at Camp Blizzard. For instance, /lunch is a series of exclusive lunch and learns with principal designers, executives, and senior leaders from across the organization. Small groups of interns and new grads gather in small rooms—not a lecture hall with hundreds of people—which helps to break down the barrier both ways. Interns get to have real conversations and learn how our business operates, and our senior leaders are able to give back and relate their experiences in a direct and meaningful way.
Of course, our other priority is to make sure our blizzterns also have a great summer experience. That’s really where the ‘camp’ part of Camp Blizzard comes in. It’s like a summer camp in that our interns can improve their craft and enjoy their stay with a calendar loaded with things like exclusive game tournaments and events like escape rooms, barbecues, and my personal favorite: the Tiki boat cruise.
As part of our look back, we sat down with ten former-blizztern-turned-fulltime-Blizzard employees, each one representing their respective summer intern class. Settle in, grab your coffee (an intern didn’t get that for you, did they?) and dive into a decade’s worth of Camp Blizzard memories!
It wasn’t called Camp Blizzard back then; we were simply interns working at the company during the summer. That’s not to say that we all we did was just work—we did some activities together as interns, but nothing like the events that are held nowadays. As for the company, it's grown a lot over the past decade in terms of people, but in terms of culture, Blizzard is just as geeky and driven as it was back in the day.
Not really, which was great. As an intern, I was developing real content in an actual work environment and learning how to be a professional engineer. I was always treated as an equal and valued member of the team, even as an intern. When I came back to Blizzard fulltime, I picked up right where I left off. Been here ever since!
Personal projects. The number one thing that helped me stand out was that I was able to show the team all the games I had created. To me, personal projects are more important than perfect grades. The latter shows you’re good at schoolwork, but gives no insight into your passion. Yes, grades are critical to any degree, and it’s a huge benefit to be well-rounded, but when trying to stand out in a crowd full of well-rounded students, it's what else you bring to the table that can tip the scales your way. People at Blizzard come from all walks of life, and we’re united by our passion for the work we do and love for creating the most epic entertainment experiences we can as a company. Show us that you belong; demonstrate that you have the skillset to succeed, and the drive to back it up. For me, the best way to do that was though personal projects.
No. Only if you consider milk a broth, which I certainly don’t.
Honestly, you can’t get much better than Blizzard. Everyone is so friendly and willing to help. I was able to ask the people around me for assistance at any time; I could learn about what they did, and at the same time figure out what I wanted to do. Back when I was working on my degree, I was told by fellow students, “If you want to get into Blizzard you’ll have to go through a bunch of smaller companies first and then work yourself up.” And it was funny, because I remember thinking, “Oh, I’ll show you.” It really put that drive in me and made me think, “No, I know where I’m supposed to be. I’m supposed to be at Blizzard.” There was really no other option in my mind, so I went after it.
I had a romanticized idea that everyone at Blizzard knew exactly what they were doing because they make the best games in the world—in my opinion. The reality, of course, is that we’re all figuring it out as we go along. We trust our collective instincts and depend on great mentorship and knowledge sharing. We're human, so mistakes are going to happen. Using what you learn from mistakes and working as a team to improve, that’s the actual Blizzard magic. We have a real willingness to try things and fail at them in the pursuit of fun and quality, and I think that makes us great. Refolding and reshaping elements of different projects into something that’ll ultimately be better. Our willingness to take time to consider what we’re doing and how to learn from the mistakes we’ve made along the way is where we really shine.
I've got two. I really like 'Gameplay First.' When I'm making my art, I'm considering how it's playing more than how pretty it looks. Gameplay is my first step, and it's what we all focus on. I also really like 'Embrace Your Inner Geek' because it solidifies the culture around me. I don't have to be ashamed of the fact that I was literally just playing Pokemon Go walking over here to meet with you.
Blowing Things Up and Making Them Sparkly. Rachel McAdams—she's pretty cool, and I think she can handle it.
Yes, I firmly believe that. Also, Pop-Tarts are ravioli and hot dogs are half-sandwiches.
I wanted to move into a design career, and I thought the easiest way to make a big shift was to go to a company that made products I’d been playing for a long time. I’ve been playing Blizzard games forever. The internship was a great opportunity because I didn’t study design, so I could come over here and work with something I did know—which was games—and put my existing design skills to use. When Blizzard called, I just dropped everything and moved. It's funny, because I never thought I'd work in the games industry . . . I just really loved playing games and liked designing. But now, at Blizzard, I get to do both! As an intern, I met a lot of people that are still here because Blizzard’s a very stable company, which says a lot, considering it’s in a constantly changing industry.
It's challenging to get a job here, but it's worth it. In any job, it’s important to be open to feedback and listen to the expertise of your coworkers. Because of how many things we do, and the high bar for quality we set for ourselves, it can be natural for people going into a meeting or project thinking they're the smartest ones or that they’re the most senior or highest achieving. But at Blizzard, everyone is very good at what they do. When you’re in a meeting with 10 people, all 10 of them are all-stars. It’s important to understand that everyone brings something amazing to the table, and that tapping into everyone’s skills helps us make what we make.
Failing Forward. Probably Michael Cera. I feel like that's his whole shtick.
