On the Job: A Graphics Engineer’s Story
What does the average day-to-day actually look like for an engineer, or for any other position, at Supercell? If you’ve ever given a career with us some thought, you’ve probably wondered about that. And for good reason, because there’s only so much you can fit into an ‘open positions’ notice of bearable length.
Of course, certain aspects of a job are universal. If you’re an engineer, depending on your specialisation, you’ll be designing databases, developing clients, churning out code and tinkering with curly brackets. That’s just as true for Supercell as it is for other places.
What makes work at Supercell stand out is that whatever role you’ve been hired for, you’re in those shoes because...
you’re an expert at what you do
you don’t hesitate to put that unique expertise of yours to use, and
you’re committed to cooperation.
What we mean by applying your craft is probably self-explanatory, but what do we mean when we say we’re looking for cooperative types? In practical terms, we’re saying that your team’s goals take precedence over personal agendas, that you’re never too proud to ask questions, and that you appreciate the importance of helping others. Being friendly is essential, and an earnest respect for your team-mates and colleagues is indispensable.
Supercellians don’t count years of tenure at the company when they choose who they listen to. You’re trusted from day one to be a fully formed voice within your team and the company, contributing towards everyone’s success.
You won’t be expected to conform to any corporate structures or layers, and you won’t find any red tape even if you walk all the way down the office corridor. Having rigid formalities in place would make for a slightly more predictable organisation, but we optimise for speed. To that end, there’s nothing like giving employees ownership over their work and the tools to operate with independence and speed.
A graphics engineers describes his early days at Supercell after joining the Tools & Tech team, who support our game development teams with the technology that they need:
"When I joined the company, my team had already agreed with the game teams to build a new renderer for our games. I got to see what had been developed up to that point, and I was given the option to either keep it or rewrite it. What was already there looked really good and was a close match with how I would have approached the problem. So I picked it up from there."
"This was no small task, because to modify our games for the new renderer, I would have to get a feel for all the different game teams and their characteristic workflows. I started with Hay Day. Supercell’s culture allowed me to collaborate with the Hay Day team directly, with minimal bureaucracy. Both my own team and the Hay Day crew all trusted me to make the necessary decisions to get the job done, and to handle all communications with the relevant parties first-hand. Whenever I needed a hand with something, everyone was always happy to help."
"Having shipped the new renderer in Hay Day, I am now navigating the other game teams and making sure their code base works with the new renderer to eventually bring all games onboard. Without the culture that we have, building and implementing the new renderer would have been much more difficult and time consuming."