I received an email that EA Underground published an article on our very own Community Manager, Andrea Wendland.  It’s nice to know for a change what a CM’s job really is like…and by the looks of it, it does indeed sound very busy!  Thanks to EntirelySims for the email!

As Andrea Wendland puts it, “working in The Sims studio is very fast paced since we produce more games than most studios.” Her job as the Lead Producer for The Sims 3 website then makes her the person that needs to make sure all the studio’s happenings are being communicated properly to the world (yes, I mean world). Because of this, she has more meetings in a day than I have in a week.She starts her days off with an international conference call with other EA employees, then she meets with the web engineers, then with the marketing and game team, then with community managers, and finally the with store team. And all this is before she actually sits at her desk to do some work.

Can you start by telling me your name and what you do here?
I’m Andrea Wendland and I’m the Lead Producer for TheSims3.com.

What kind of things do you do as a Lead Producer on a web site?
I manage the live operations such as game announcements. I also manage the feature development such as adding news to your RSS or buying avatar backgrounds. I also manage our team of Community Managers.

Have you been working on the web site from the very beginning?
I started on TheSims2.com then moved over to TheSims3.com. I started managing it after it went live last June.

Oh, so it isn’t part of your position to handle the development of the sites?
I developed MySims.com and SimCitySocieties.com, but the timing for TheSims3.com didn’t quite work out because I needed to manage all of the marketing efforts that were going out on TheSims3.com before the full community site was launched.

I see. With those two sites you did develop, can you briefly walk me through the process from conception to launch and how long that takes?
Oh wow, that’s a lot. I’ll try to make it brief.

The lead game producer for MySims and it’s product manager approached me about making a web site. The game had been approved for development, so we needed a site.

We had one of our outside agencies develop the look/feel of the site. We then worked with the game team to get cool animations, the audio team for sound, and Marketing for the correct wording.

We then had a Web Producer on the Web team code out the pages, get all of the wording translated, and had everyone in the studio approve before we pushed it live.

And viola! In 6 months, you have a fully functional site that’s translated in various languages.

Lots of bouncing around from audio to marketing to game team… How do you manage the site when it’s in all these different languages when it comes to updates?
We have a content management system that allows our employees in other counties to go in and make updates. Coordinating those efforts is a lot of work.

I can imagine. What is your background like by the way? Do you have experience in Marketing, or in coding web sites or anything like that?
I studied Digital Graphics and Multimedia in college. I received a minor in Marketing. I wanted to be the person who designed magazine covers. But then the internet was introduced in ’95 and I loved it. I loved designing for it and coding out the pages. The Web experience grew from there. From start-up companies to Fortune 500 companies.

Oh wow. So you’ve been in the web industry for a while. What other companies have you worked with?
I’ve been around a long time. I worked at a start-up that built analytics software. Then I moved to Oracle and worked on their homepage and international sites for about 5 years. Then I came here!

I celebrated my 5 year anniversary this year at EA on Valentine’s Day.

Congrats! Did they give you a cake or anything like that?
The team had cupcakes and cookies. It’s the only proper way to celebrate around here! We love the sweets.

What drove you to come from Oracle to EA though?
Oracle was an amazing experience. But, I’m a very artistic person and wanted a change. I wanted to be at a company with other creative and artistic people.

Do you still get to be creative and artistic though? It seems like you are more hands off now right?
I do. I have a graphic designer/contractor that designs a lot of our banners, web pages, and now our My Goodies–avatar backgrounds and stickers.

I work with her on what the community might want to see. We also have some very cool web projects in the works that are very creative. You’re not allowed to ask about those though!

Fine… Fine… Were you a big Sims fan before you joined the team?
I played a lot of sports and racing games before coming to EA. I had played the original The Sims on Xbox.

And what about now. Do you play games much still?
I play The Sims when I’m at work to test out the Exchange and Launcher to make sure we’re compatible. If I have time, I still like to play the game so I can torture my Sims. I’m pretty deviant when I play.

The community managers call me “The Pyro” because I like to set fire to things in my game.

No… You’re so mean. Maybe you just like to take your aggressions out that way…
Don’t know what you’re talking about…

Aside from burning things part time, what is a typical day like for you? I know typical is hard to define though…
My days are VERY busy and go by very fast.

I start off with having a conference call with our International employees to get everyone synced on the work for the next day. I then have my daily meeting with the Web Engineers to go over any bugs that have come up, new work that we’re developing, or our continued efforts to improve the site

I’m then in meetings with marketing and the game team to go over any announcements, new screenshots, new videos, magazine articles, etc. What gets announced must go up on the site!

I then meet with the community managers to see what they’re up to on the forums, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Then I head off to meet with The Sims 3 Store team to see what’s being built and how can we best promote it.

Then I’m at my desk to actually get some work done. My days go very fast and there is A LOT to do.

Wait, that’s every day? That’s not just a particularly busy day?
That’s every day. Working in The Sims studio is very fast paced since we produce more games than most studios. It’s fun and exciting though–keeps me on my toes.

I actually had the exact same major as you, except it was called Digital Art and Multimedia. Did you find that college was good experience for you though? And that a lot of what you learned you use now?
I use my marketing experience more than anything. I think had I stayed in a digital graphics job, I would use my degree more.

I was fortunate enough to be doing what I love while I was in college. Getting the degree at that point was just a formality. However, that’s not the case for everyone. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time when the Internet surfaced in the ’90’s.

What kind of advice would you give to someone now who is in or about to start college and wants to get into a position like yours?
I have a couple of things…

First, if you want to work on web, you need to have a strong understanding of both web development and web design. Take some HTML classes and get to know Photoshop. Learn how sites are made and start to look around at the big sites that are easy to use. How do they do it?

Get a portfolio going while you’re in college. Freelance and put some stuff up for free. Getting the degree will get your foot in the door, but having a strong portfolio when you graduate will be the differentiator over the other candidates.

Definitely. A lot of people graduate and all they have is what they did in school. But if you do internships or just make stuff on your own outside of school, you’ll stand apart from a lot of your classmates.
EA offers some really excellent internships. We have interns starting in their 2nd year of college. Be thinking of internships during your freshmen year and remember that applications usually need to be turned in about 8 months prior to the May-Aug internship time. Internships are so important!

Did you have any when you were in college?
Unfortunately I couldn’t. At that time, most internships didn’t pay. If I had quit my real job, I wouldn’t have been able to afford college. I had to work extra hard on my portfolio to make up for it.

Do you, or did you find it hard to get to where you are now being a female?
There are a lot of women in the industry. We have Meg Whitman running for governor.

I don’t think being a female in this industry has ever been a problem. If you work hard at what you do, show passion for your job, and progress your portfolio, you’ll be the ideal candidate for the next job opportunity.

Cool. I think we can stop here then. Thanks for doing the interview.
Thanks Lucian!  It was great talking with you this morning.