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Reflecting on 18 of the Last 9: Macy Mills

macy sits in a classroom of students

By Megan Schulte, Communications Specialist 

The next alumni feature in the 18 of Last 9: Global Impact series is Macy Mills, a Business Development Director for the Asset Store within Unity Technologies. Mills had the opportunity to attend the San Francisco Digital Innovation program, and from that point began her career in gaming, which led to her working abroad. During our interview, she described working in such a dynamic industry, as well as the pros and cons of working internationally. 

Beginnings in San Francisco

Mills participated in the San Francisco Digital Innovation Program during her junior year. This Miami program gives students the opportunity to have an internship Monday through Thursday and to spend Fridays visiting companies such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter. About the program, Mills said she enjoyed having an experience that was very different from Oxford, and getting an opportunity to realize her potential and jumpstart her career in the tech industry.

Mills loved San Francisco and the tech industry so much that after completing the program, she stayed there at a full-time job while completing her IMS degree from Miami online. This allowed her to get ahead in her career. Her next job was at HitSense, a mobile game developer and publisher, and there she received the opportunity to set up an office in San Francisco and raise awareness about the company.

Leap of Faith: Moving to Germany 

Despite loving her time in San Francisco, Mill’s biggest adventure has come from her move to Germany a few years ago. She had been working for HitSense for 3.5 years and had just launched two big games: Godfather Family Dynasty and NBA live. When she was presented with the opportunity to move to Munich, Germany, to work for a start-up called Game Influencer, it seemed like the perfect time in her career to say "yes."

Despite later moving to a new company, whose headquarters are in San Francisco, Mill has decided to remain in Germany. “I’m having so much fun living in Germany, and one of the big parts for me moving here was understanding the European gaming market," Mills said. "I had a really good understanding of the US-based market, so being able to be in Germany and seeing studios here as well going to other hotbeds of gaming such as Helsinki and London has been really cool and influential to my experience in the gaming market and overall knowledge of the global industry”

Challenges and Benefits of International Career

Challenges:

With the excitement and living and working abroad also comes some challenges. “I think people really downplay the difficulties of time zones," Mills said. "I just started a new job four weeks ago at an international company called Unity Technologies, and I’m based remote in Munich. My team’s in Singapore, Copenhagen, [and] San Francisco, so it’s really hard to find a time where we can all get on the phone. You know, I’m really excited that they let me work remote as I’m head of US and EMEA, so I can spend time with clients in Europe, and it’s easy to get around, but you know the 12-hour flight to San Francisco or trying to be on a call with them in Asia is 2 am my time, so it’s really difficult to try to coordinate."

Benefits: 

Despite the difficulties of time zones and being away from family, Mills loves working abroad, especially with perks like the travel opportunities. She said she tries to go somewhere at least once a month, citing a recent trip to Morocco that was 30 euros roundtrip.

On top of leisure travel, there are also added work benefits. Mills has gotten many opportunities to travel for business and attend different conferences. Destinations include Jordan, Dubai, Ukraine, Helsinki, and London.

Mills described her favorite experience working abroad as “the experience that we had in Jordan because there were 10 gaming executives from the Western world, and they treated us like royalty. They took us around, and we spoke at this conference. They have a very big initiative for gaming with a young audience, so they’re basically teaching it in schools. They have these gaming labs, so it was really cool to see a country that was sort of off my radar and really focusing in on gaming and teaching people how to code and how to make games.”

 

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