✨ Lara Willis
Studio Manager
Lara, Lara, Lara – what a woman is Lara! Anyone who knows anything knows Lara is an office saint, and the source of much joy and inspiration. And that isn’t only because she supplies the Pastry Wednesday platters. No, there is so much more to this wonderful woman – so let’s crack on and get to it, shall we?
Lara, tell us everything – what’s your role here at Glowmade? What makes your brilliant brain tick?
I am Glowmadeâ’s Studio Manager. What that means is I ensure that the studio and all those in it are happy and know what’s going on. I enable all the staff do their jobs well whilst working behind the scenes in HR, recruitment, events, studio management, etc.
(In short, Lara is a very busy bee indeed!)
How would your parents describe your job?
The perfect job for me! They would say I organise the people and day to day running of the studio. It’s much easier to explain to mum than the more tech-y ones round here.
So how did you get to this point in your career? What brought your glowing self to Glowmade?
To be honest, I don’t know. I’ve been incredibly lucky with my jobs.
I used to work in Events and Operations but chose to leave that so took a break working for TempleSpa (a luxury skincare brand) as a Quality Assurance Manager before being approached by Glowmade to join the team.
The games industry is something new for you, then? Did you think you’d be here?
Totally new. And no, I didn’t! As I say, I was approached – not for my games industry experience but for my operations and event management background. I’ve not been in this industry before but very, very excited to be part of the community.
Share something you love doing outside of everything video games.
Cooking and baking. I find creating a delicious meal or treat to be therapeutic and to be able to share it with others brings me joy. I’m also a lockdown self taught crochet fanatic!
Who or what inspires you?
So many people!
Michelle Obama, Brene Brown, Simon Sinek all just have a great approach to people, life, work and share love and wisdom to everyone.
Share something you appreciate about yourself.
My “yes” attitude. I love it as means I get to do lots of great things with my friends but can also mean you end up baking a 3-tier wedding cake for a friend when you really don’t have time to do it… oops – but also, nailed it!
What’s the best thing about working at Glowmade?
The diet cokes in the fridge…!
What do you want from your career? What goals are you looking forward to vaulting past?
To just love what I do and the people I do it with. I’m looking to develop both personally and professionally in as many areas as I can and learn new skills whilst doing it.
If you could have been involved in the development of ANY game, which would it be?
The Sims! So many good memories from that game.
What are your top tips for someone looking to get into games?
Don’t give up hope.
You may not be on the right path now but sometimes life takes you away from your dream job, puts you elsewhere (much to your confusion) but then the perfect job comes along, at the right time just for you.
If you had to pick one game to play for the rest of your life (let’s hope it never comes to that), what would it be?
Computer game – The Sims
Board Game – Articulate – think of the random variations you could do!
Also both these have expansion packs!
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Watching reruns of Gilmore Girls.
