The Art of Making Tough Calls: How I Left the States for a Dream Job Elsewhere

“Why did you move to this country?”

This has to be the question I get the most when I tell someone I lived in Chicago for 25 years. My answer? Always the same. “Well, I met a girl.” Guess that’s how every great adventure starts!

How my tale began

Cue early 90s. My folks wanted to find a better life elsewhere. They knew life in America was going to be a whole lot better, because the value of US dollar was so high at the time that you could buy groceries for a week in Poland for a single buck. 100 of these was enough to plan and pay for an entire wedding!

There’s this thing called the Green Card lottery. If you win, you can move to the United States of America. At the time, people saw the US as the land of freedom, a utopia where all your dreams could come true. There was money to be made. This worked as the carrot on a stick for most Poles looking to get out of their country and go live the American Dream.

Little did they know that this would mean living in debt for the rest of your life and working your hands to the bones. But…that sounds like a topic for a different time.

Faceplanting from the 1st floor

My Mom entered the lottery and, you guessed it, she won. My parents decided to leave everyone behind and start a new life…for me. So, some time in 94′ they flew to America with nothing but a few dollars in their pockets, clothes on their backs, and little Mikey in their arms.

Funny little side note: 2 weeks before that I fell out of a 1-story window at the ripe age of a year and a half. My family went bananas. This was around April 1, so when the person rang the intercom to tell my parents about my misfortune, my fam thought it was just a prank, bro.

I spent the next 2 weeks in a hospital.

Fast forward to America. I was growing up in the States. Still, I kept visiting my family in Poland whenever I could. Aunts, uncles, cousins, you know the drill. So I always knew what this country was all about. Still, it was boring for me after the first couple of weeks. I simply missed my family and I could’ve NEVER imagined living there for longer than a month. I gotta admit, though — it was fun spending time with my cousins. They showed me around the city, and my fam always took me places I found cool and interesting. I always got special treatment, as I visited them like once every 2–3 years when my parents could afford my ticket. I always flew alone, even as a little kid. They had these stewardesses that flew specifically with kids to “nanny” them. Of course, when I got older, I didn’t need a nanny, ’cause that would’ve been weird.

Things that made me stay in Poland

When I got older, I visited less frequently, but for extended periods of time. One time I came here for about 6 months. This is the moment where my journey at G2A started and my life was completely reset.

Guess moving to another country can really do that to you.

I was staying with my cousin’s family. I loved my grandfolks very much, but my living with them was not going to happen. My cousin’s family was just much more chill. Up until a point. One day there were like “hey, you’re 24, time to get a job, ya bum!” Not the exact wording, but you get the idea.

So I applied at a gas station. My aunt and uncle actually came to the job interview. They absolutely NEEDED to explain to the manager that I didn’t really understand Polish that well and I wouldn’t know how to respond. Which was partially true, but c’mon, my Polish wasn’t THAT bad! Or maybe it was. Anyway, I didn’t get the job, so the search continued.

I sent out my CV to a couple more places, but one day my cousin came up to me and was like “hey, you’re a gamer, why don’t you apply to this place that sells video games.” The place she meant is an international company which happens to have its biggest R&D center in Rzeszow where my fam lives. Lucky me, right?

I was like “yeah, sure, but I doubt they’ll hire me.” Yup, that was just my usual outlook on things that seemed impossible to me. Expect the worst. But also hope for the best. So I applied, and lo and behold, I got a call back from G2A.COM!

This is where the fun begins

I was excited, confused and worried at the same time. Excited, because this is a GAMING company and I LOVE video games. Confused, because I wondered why they even wanted to talk to me. I had absolutely no prior history working this kind of job. I did everything else in the world but this. And worried because of my Polish. I was basically relearning how to speak the language at the time. I had a good basic understanding, but I was far off from being perfect. And I thought to myself: “Jeez, I’m gonna make a total ass of myself in this interview when they start talking to me in Polish.” But then I was just like “meh, I’ll just imagine them in their underwear, and it’ll be fine.” And it worked.

So, I go to the interview. My cousin drops me off and I ring the little doorbell before the gate. I let the guard know I’m coming in for an interview in my broke ass Polish, which I am sure that he clearly understood.

As the guard lets me in, I enter the office and I’m amazed. Pictures and figurines of my favorite video game characters all over the place. There’s the statue of the Witcher killing a monster, everyone’s walking around with coffee in their hands and smiles on their faces. I get the whiff of corporate culture for the first time. But it’s not like your average company where people work in cubicles with managers breathing down their necks, all to make sure they fill out they fill out their end-of-the-week report for Jill in HR, like you see in the movies. No, it’s not like that. It’s a place where magic happens, where careers start and dreams come true.

OK, at least these were the feelings I had when I entered through those glass doors. I wanted to work here. Bad.

So I anxiously await my interview. A short, skinny, short-haired guy named Bart comes down to me. He takes me on a tour around the office, with more gaming paraphernalia and funny memes on the walls in both English and Polish. I’m fascinated by all this.

I’ve got quite a decent feeling about this

Bart takes me into a small meeting room which is like 2×2 meters big. We sit down and begin what has to be one of the strangest and most hectic job interviews.

I get asked questions like “What would you do to find out who invented the piano in Portugal?” (absolutely nonsensical), “What kind of characteristics do you look for in a person?” and “What kind of video games do you play?” At one point the CEO, who was casually strolling by, walks in for shits and giggles, shakes my hand, asks me a few questions and leaves.

I was shocked. I thought to myself: what the hell is happening? Half the conversation was in English, half in Polish. I could barely keep up! Then it ended, so we shook hands, made some more small talk, and I packed up my stuff and left. The first thing that came to my mind was: “They are NEVER going to hire me after that performance!” I just let my head down, called my cousin to pick me up, and when she asked me how did it go, I just said it went great.

2 weeks later I’m just playing The Elder Scrolls Online when I get a call. “Hi, this is so and so from G2A.COM, we’re offering you a position at our company, would you mind coming in to sign some paperwork and get briefed?” My mouth drops. I just can’t believe it! I tell my cousin I got the job and everyone’s super happy.

So, I came in the office, signed what I had to sign, and started the next Monday.

This is where the story would end. However, some other stuff came into play here. I mentioned I met a girl. I also got homesick. Things got a bit complicated on my end. But more on that next time.

By the way, if you’re into streaming and great gaming content, come check out my channel on Twitch! I stream everyday from Monday to Friday, always starting at 3:30PM GMT.

By Michał Szajna, Streamer, Content Creator and Community Specialist at G2A.COM