E.M. worked as a Software Engineer for Microsoft Game Studios in 2012, working on numerous projects which required extensive amounts of time and energy beyond what was originally expected for the job.

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What was originally expected of this job?

> "Just the regular 8 hours, we were told some overtime was to be expected but not required initially."

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What was your initial reaction to your first experience with crunching?

> "It actually started off fairly slow and then progressed to putting in weekends nonstop just to meet the unrealistic deadlines. I had to sacrifice a lot, and that is easily one of my biggest regrets."

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What sort of sacrifices did you have to make?

> "My family was the biggest one, my kids were still young and I felt that I didn't have a lot of time to be their for them during key moments in their life."

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How long did you end up lasting in this job?

> "About a year and a half."

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What was one good experience you did have?

> "To this day I still miss the interaction with the fans, while it mostly happened at company-supported events, seeing the fans enjoy what we worked so hard to work on was the best part."