Celebrating 2KPride Community
June is Pride Month in several countries, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the UK. During Pride Month, we embrace the LGBTQIA+ community, affirm their rights, and stand united against discrimination and prejudice. We truly believe that together, we can create a world where everyone is free to love and express themselves authentically, regardless of who they are or who they love. We’re honored to introduce you to the everyday leaders at 2K who are leading the way.?
álvaro Salgado (QA, Madrid)
Tell us about your current role and responsibilities.
I am a Senior Localization QA Tester for the Spanish language. As part of the LQA department, I report issues found in the games and provide translation fixes in the database. I also mentor new testers, and support the Lead with several tasks, such as supervising testers, database management, and writing daily reports.
How do you bring your whole self to work at 2K?
I believe that 'Come As You Are' (one of our values) is at the heart of everything I do. 2K is an extremely welcoming environment where you can be yourself, together with your strengths and weaknesses. This makes a very good match, as authenticity is my core value, and it is essential in order for me to do a good job.
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What does Pride Month mean to you and why is it important to celebrate?
To me, Pride Month is not just a celebration, but an opportunity to remember all those who fought for the freedoms we have nowadays in some countries and more than often died for it. It is important to remember that queer people have always existed, and that they keep being murdered every day in many parts of the world.?
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What is one quote that inspires you?
I’ve always had a fascination with Latin, and this quote from Seneca (who was born in Spain) has always been dear to me.
“Non quia difficilia sunt, non audemus; sed quia non audemus, difficilia sunt.”
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; but it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.
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What project and/or accomplishment are you most proud of at 2K?
I am very proud of my work on Civilization VI Leader Pass. Thanks to the trust that was put in me I was able to contribute with my knowledge of history and languages, which, together with the hard work of my wonderful team, resulted in a high-quality localization.
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What career advice do you have for young professionals aspiring to follow your career path?
Please don't give up on your dreams. With a good plan and patience, you can get almost anywhere you want. Also, don't be afraid of taking detours, as detours provide you with knowledge and skills that will certainly prove useful to get where you want to be.
Eleanor Chambers (2K Vegas)
Tell us about your current role and responsibilities.
As an Associate Lead in QA, I support the team with Database Management for bugs, I create checklists for Testers, and I guide any Testers to the correct resource for any given issue.
How do you bring your whole self to work at 2K?
By being unabashedly myself.
What does Pride Month mean to you and why is it important to celebrate?
Pride Month is not only a celebration of our identities, but a celebration of how far we have come, as a movement, and as individuals.
What is one quote that inspires you?
Trans people are extraordinary, strong, intelligent, persistent and resilient. We have to be. And we will not stand for the picking and choosing of rights. We still have hope. - Sage Dolan-Sandrino.
What project and/or accomplishment are you most proud of at 2K?
WWE 2K23, I have been on WWE 2K Projects since WWE 2K19, and the testing cycle for WWE 2K23 was without a doubt not only the most exciting, but most productive we have ever been.
What career advice do you have for young professionals aspiring to follow your career path?
If you're in QA, be the best resource that you can be for your team. Be the person that people will go to when they need help, and keep the metaphorical train that is your project moving forward.
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Harry Large (2K)
Tell us about your current role and responsibilities.?
I’ve been at 2K for over 3 years now and my current role is a Junior Influencer Manager across UKI and Export. As part of the influencer team, I’d say no two days are the same and responsibilities change based on the campaign we’re working on. Some of my day-to-day main responsibilities include:
How do you bring your whole self to work at 2K??
With Borderlands 2 and Civilization Revolution being in my top 5 games of all time, I have an underlying passion for many of the titles/franchise at 2K – so jumped at the opportunity to work here. To remind everyone of this on a daily basis, my desk is full of different memorabilia and merchandise from many 2K franchises – including Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Borderlands, BioShock, LEGO 2K Drive and WWE 2K.
Having also worked alongside some brilliant colleagues and their vast wealth of knowledge/experience has provided me with lots of opportunities to grow within my own skills and personal development. This has given me confidence in my own abilities and just be myself.
What does Pride Month mean to you and why is it important to celebrate??
Pride month is important to celebrate as it’s the time for the LGBTQ+ community to express themselves and their own unique individuality however they want to in a supportive and inclusive space; whilst uplifting the voices of the LGBTQ+ community to educate and raise awareness to everyone. Pride month is the time I can further express who I am and working at 2K helped me to do so. With one of the core values being ‘Come As You Are’, I believe that having such a supportive and welcoming team empowered me to not feel the need to hide who I truly am.
What is one quote that inspires you??
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” – Maya Angelou.
What project and/or accomplishment are you most proud of at 2K??
In my first year at 2K, I was lucky enough to be involved in the first 2K Foundations project in Europe, which was to help rejuvenate the City of Birmingham Rockets Basketball Club facilities and provide further community programmes. Seeing the project go from several Zoom calls, during the pandemic, initially discussing the project, to being able to be at the court for its grand opening was incredible and I’d happily do it all over again. It still amazing to see the positive impact and growth the club is having today across the community in Birmingham and am happy that we could support the club in this way.
What career advice do you have for young professionals aspiring to follow your career path??
If you want to be in the industry and have a passion for gaming, the main thing is to be yourself and showcase this passion and your knowledge – speaking to people at industry events is a good way to learn how they got into the industry and advice on what you need to do to succeed. You also don’t necessarily have to have a specific degree/qualification for all roles out there, so don’t ever have this stopping you from applying. My background qualifications are in a different field and feel happy to be in this industry every day.
Spank Sage (2K)
Tell us about your current role and responsibilities.?
As the Director of Business Planning & Strategy for our Game Production and Live Services division, my team drives and supports all projects that deliver operational efficiency to the systems, data and processes we use to do our day-to-day operations. In a nutshell, we’re the resident continuous improvement zealots.
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How do you bring your whole self to work at 2K??
Well it’s pretty hard to only bring a part of me anywhere physically; what with connective tissue and skin…but I’ve been allowed to be exactly who I am from the minute I started at 2K. I’m no longer the fringe, bi-sexual goth with tattoos, piercings and odd hair colors. I’m just a well-paid professional with a voracious appetite to make things better at 2K; it’s about the work our team does and how we do it, not what we look like or who we sleep with. Not something I can say about any other job I’ve had in 25 years.
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What does Pride Month mean to you and why is it important to celebrate??
Every month is Pride Month for me. So many of my friends and family identify as queer, it’s omnipresent in my day-to-day life. Pride Month does increase publicity and prevalence of historical and educational materials that remind me inaction and ambivalence, not being an active ally, is as bad as being anti-LGBTQ+. Also, it’s important to remind folx that the worst persecution and bias can sometimes come from within the marginalized group you exist. Bi-sexual folx are frequently discriminated within the queer community in a more detrimental way than out in the ‘straight’ world.
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What is one quote that inspires you??
“You cannot have what you’ve never had if you do not do what you’ve never done.” – this applies to all things personal and professional in my life. It’s why I have so many ‘Hold my beer.’ stories; which can vary from tackling a broken process at work that has nothing to do with “my job” or learning how to ride a motorcycle at 40 or earning the anguish and complete joy of rescuing hospice animals. It is indeed better to have tried, failed, loved and lost than to have not done anything at all.
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What project and/or accomplishment are you most proud of at 2K??
What to choose from…2K has given me a lot of rope… It’s unbelievable, to me, what they’ve entrusted my team with to try and make better. I’d have to say overhauling our IT Expense processes soup-to-nuts and pulling off a Mental Health Panel Discussion as part of the 2K Mind ERG rank at the top.
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What career advice do you have for young professionals aspiring to follow your career path??
You don’t need a fancy college degree to kick ass. I clawed my way out of a trailer park, worked through a couple of community college degrees, scrapped through 25 years of IT Enterprise systems roles (and a LOT of chauvinism) and last I checked, my career is pretty {explicit adjective} baller. You just need to get off your ass, be a voracious learner, fail fast and ask for help. There are SO many resources available for education support. AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, take your mental health seriously. You ARE loved and mean the world to somebody.
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