From the beginning, I have to mention that I’m a Romanian studying at TAMK so this exchange was more of a homecoming. I landed an internship and then a job as a sound designer in a country that I thought was not possible.
For my practical training, I worked at Dream Primer, a small indie game company focused on old-school ARPGs. Their office is in downtown Bucharest.
They started their new game a year ago and the timing was perfect as they were in need of a sound designer and I was trying to get in the industry. During my internship months, I was responsible for audio systems like a dynamic music system, sound design, and in-game implementation. I didn’t have too much guidance and basically, I was left to my own devices. Of course, this happened because they didn’t have anybody really knowledgeable about audio but I also saw an intern who got a lot more guidance because he was doing gameplay programming. Still, I saw the project as an opportunity to learn and develop myself and used a lot of online materials to learn new stuff while also using the office hours to develop my sound designer skills.
Because I was born and raised in Bucharest I had a lot of fun connecting with old friends in my free time. Even though Bucharest is gloomy in winter times and too hot in the summer it has a lot of cool bars, cafes, gardens, and in general lots of activities to take part in every day of the week. I got to see some concerts from time to time and go out for some beers every week. The downtown part is also very nice for getting lost because you have lots of alleyways with secrets that I’m still discovering. On the weekends with nice whether I would pick a neighborhood and go on a walk with a friend. One advantage of Bucharest is that even though it’s a big city it’s still a safe city. Overall is very hard to get bored here but it’s also easy to get frustrated because of the density, traffic, noise, pollution, and limited green space.
Also, you can get to the beachside or mountainside in less than 3 hours. I don’t really like the sea but I love the mountain villages and their breathtaking views so I also had some trips there.
I had the chance to work for Nokia in Finland on a project which was probably the biggest corporation that I’ve worked for. Comparing that experience with my internship here it’s hard but what I could say is that I find Finns calmer and more reliable and Romanians are more direct, they have an expressive communication style and they are easy to joke with but these are mere generalizations.
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