Hello ECA members,

My name is Marcello. I am a 26 year old recent college grad with the goal of having a successful career in the video game industry. I graduated San Jose State University with a BA in Sociology with an concentration on the Family and Business with a concentration on Marketing. I have always wanted to work in the video game industry since the end of high school. When I started college, I knew I could not draw at all. Not even a straight line. So I started college off as a Computer Science major. Half way though my undergraduate career, I found myself to be a very social person, which is why I joined Theta Chi Fraternity, and enjoyed working with people more then with machines. So I changed my major to Sociology and Marketing. The change was for the best. I was so good in my Marketing Research class that the professor got me a job as a Marketing research tutor for the class I was still taking. My education gave me the skills to research and understand gamers and gaming communities on a social level as well as a consumer level.

So basically I want to be the guy that helps gamers get excited for the games my company makes. I want to work with gamers to help my company and the gaming community understand each other for a more solid relationship. I am currently looking for Community Manager positions, entry level Marketing positions and positions in Promotions. So far I have been interviewed by SCEA twice. For me that is great because I am getting closer to achieving my dream. However I am finding it VERY difficult to get work because of my lack of experience and sadly I do not have a friend or mentor in the industry to help guide me in achieving my dream.

In the meantime, I have been volunteering with a couple of gaming sites as I look for that first job. I am a Northern California correspondent and chat mod for Scot Rubin's Allgames.com and volunteer event reporter for Terry Munnich's VGevo.com. I have covered GDC '08, The Sierra Gamer Day '08 and The SF Kojima signing of MGS4. Terry has even encourage me to try my hand at applying at 1up.com and would recommend me for a preview editor position. Its funny to go to college and studied one thing you felt you where good at and it turns out that you where good at something completely unrelated as well :p .

So thats why I have decided to get active with the ECA. I hope to become a valuable member and contribute in anyway to the ECA. I also hope to make a lot friends here as well. By being active with the forums I can learn from industry professionals and get advice on how to improve my ability to get a job in the industry. I currently live in the SF Bay Area ( land of the game publishers hahaha) and if there is an event that needs to be reported on or a person of interest to be interviewed then let me know.

PS: sorry if this post is long and very cover letterish, but I hope it proves that I am serious about the games industry. This is the only industry that I truly want to work in. I would not know how to market a Toyota but I can sure market and sell Barbie's Horse Adventure for the Wii with a grin on my face.:p