🌱 Sara Dadafshar · @npcSara
21st Jun 2020 from TwitLonger
My 2015 Blizzard Internship
I was a Blizzard intern in 2015. I hadn’t graduated yet, but I was studying to get my B.S. in Computer Science. It was honestly such a thrill being able to work alongside so many brilliant people that you looked up to! The number of people you could learn from was unlimited, but there were plenty of people just waiting to take advantage of that.
I’ll start with my first negative experience in the workplace. Trust me when I say I have plenty more, but it’s exhausting writing about them all at once, so I’ll save them for another time.
*** *****, this one is about you. You were a brilliant mind. Someone I could really learn from. Principal software engineer was a title any college kid would gasp at. “How cool! That could be me one day!” You were a good sounding board for a while. I’d ask you questions, you’d give me new learning resources - my brain was a sponge and I was absorbing all the information you were giving me. Little did I know that you were going through a divorce in your personal life and were starting to fixate on me, the intern.
You started looking for my car to pull in as you sat in your window office. I thought that was strange but I brushed it off when you’d message me about how you saw my blue bmw drive through the gates. You took me to lunch a few times off campus, just the two of us. 1:1 time to ask more work questions, right? You offered to have a movie night after work one day. I said yes, thinking it was a great way for interns and mentors to get together and learn from each other. I invited all my intern friends, but you showed up at my intern dorm alone, with no other mentors, looking confused. You later invited me to lunch once more. No harm, right? Just two coworkers going to get food. You started talking about how much money you made, and how you had two kids that I would love. Weird...I don’t like kids in general. Why were you bringing this up? Then you asked if I’d go out on a dinner date with you. An intern, going on a dinner date with a principal at Blizzard. Flustered, I got up and walked out of that restaurant. You’d visit my desk on the daily, obviously feeling awkward about the situation. It made me uncomfortable. After my internship ended, I was so paranoid that you’d hold that rejection over me and I wouldn’t be able to get a full time job at my dream company. Luckily, I managed to come back to Blizzard full-time when school ended, but you were right there waiting for me. A buddy of mine noticed how much you lingered around my office and reported it to HR on my behalf and I think you got the hint then, but the whole experience truly left a sour taste in my mouth.
It feels kinda liberating writing about this after all this time. As someone who has been part of the #MeToo hashtag since I was 5 years old, having unwanted advances like this in the workplace left me scared of what might happen. This is just one of my stories about my experience in the gaming industry. I’ll write more when I have the emotional capacity to do so.
If you happen to be reading this, please don’t attempt to contact me and apologize. Just please don’t do this to other people. I believe you actually re-married shortly after this, and I hope you’re happy in that relationship.
I also want to close this by saying I have no ill-wishes for Blizzard. Truly, the people who put together the internship experience are stellar people and I love them dearly. My internship was one of the most memorable experiences of my life, and probably one of the best summers ever. I just want to tell future interns to not be afraid to report anything that feels off to you. I know it’s scary, considering how you’re hoping your internship turns into a full time offer, but PLEASE, take care of yourself and anyone around you by talking to HR if anything happens. I didn’t do that. You should. It’ll spare you a mental breakdown.