Silly Season

So I was working at this startup, Tiny Speck. They were a game company working on their first game, a flash based MMOG called Glitch. I say "were" because as of Tuesday, 13 Nov 2012 they are no more.

It's sad, they were a good people to work for, they treated their employees really well and the game was well engineered. I'm not a gamer so I'm not a good judge of these things but what I saw looked pretty neat. I liked working there and I was learning new things all the time but I guess the one thing the world does not want is another on-line game. Where this leaves me is looking for a job at the beginning of Silly Season.

Silly Season is a term I picked up while I was living and working in Chicago. Basically what it refers to is the period of time between Thanksgiving and New Years. The deal is this; almost no one is hiring during Silly Season. People are taking time off for the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, etc.) Shopping, taking vacation to burn off their extra PTO hours before they loose them, budgets are exhausted, people who are need to approve a new hire are not around, etc., etc. Generally the process of hiring stalls until after New Years.

When I was living in Chicago, if I happened to have a contract end during Silly Season I would just chill until after New Years. Beating ones head against a wall was never my idea of entertainment. Here is the Bay Area Silly Season is not quite as prevalent but I notice there are less recruiters calling and emailing. So, while I am looking for a job I'm going to chill until the first of year.