À propos of nothing: the first in a series of recruitment war stories. 

Back in 2006, just after the closure of Rockstar Vienna, where I had been a producer, I received quite a few contact request from HR departments and recruiters. One in particular has always stayed in my memory, for reasons which will become obvious.

I received a LinkedIn contact request saying:

Hi Jurie 

Let me formally introduce myself, My name is [REDACTED]. I am Lionheads official recruitment manager in the UK. The hiring managers have recently constructed a list of what they believe are the best design talent in the world and they have specifically asked me to contact you to see if you are interested in potentially working on their latest projects in the future. 

Due to your location I wanted to sound out 1st if you could possibly be interested in an opportunity at Lead Designer level working on Fable 3 

If so please can you email me your contact details ASAP and a time/date to call you to catch up formerly

Unmodified except for the removed name. Who needs grammar, eh?

Please remember that Fable II had been announced in 2006 and was released in 2008. So working on Fable 3 seemed interesting, and gosh wow I was on a list of the best design talent in the world? Younger, more gullible me accepted the request.

The job offer I then got back was:

Associate Producer

This person must be an experienced, communicative individual able to take on management of a 22 man code team.

Duties include scheduling, meeting tracking and issue chasing.

If I remember correctly this was for a port or something, related to Fable 2. Nothing against ports or associate producers. I've done both, fun work.

Still, not quite "lead designer level working on Fable 3".