And with that, my journey begins. After an application essay, an interview, a full background check, and director approval, I’m in! Merry Christmas to you, too.
Major 0.0 corporations pretty much all have admissions processes of varying complexity. Corporations have two primary concerns about new applicants – they want applicants to be effective contributors to the corporations’ mission and they want them not to be spies.
The interview and application address the first issue. I had to demonstrate that I understood the goals of The Graduates, had a skilled-enough character that I could be useful in combat, and could carry on a conversation in English – the main language TGRAD. They also wanted to make sure I had enough money to be self-sufficient. In my case, I have about 900M ISK liquid, with a few hundred million more in ships, equipment, and other items, which seemed like enough to my recruitment officer.
A big part of any of these admissions processes is waiting and perseverance. Corporations want you to prove to them that you really want to join by actively tracking down a recruitment officer to administer the interview, and waiting for the cogs of the admissions machine to turn. If I was content to join any old corporation, I could find a less rigorous one that would take me faster. Making me wait ensures that the corporation is getting dedicated and hopefully loyal applicants.
Waiting doesn’t help much with prospective spies, though. That’s what the background check is for. To support third party applications, EVE has a mechanic where you can give a “full API key” to someone. This key gives the holder (usually a piece of software that provides some service) complete read-only access to everything about your character. Every market trade, every mission run, every corporation joined, for every character on my account. This is a pretty high threshold – to be a dedicated spy you would need to cultivate the account for months and behave like a normal player to build a credible history. Plus, that history has to jive with your interview. A big disconnect between the story you tell and the background check on would be a big red flag that might get you reject.
I was kind of irrationally worried there would be some problem with my background check, since my account is four years old, but I haven’t played consistently over that period. Apparently I worried unnecessarily. Time to get my gear ready and report to the rally point!
Comments
2 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.This is awesome, I’m really excited to read about it. But I have a few questions:
What is a 0.0 Corporation?
What is TGRAD?
How much is ISK worth? Both in real world and in game terms. Like are you insanely wealthy in game or middle class?
0.0 is a particular part of the EVE galaxy – the part where corporations can claim sovereignty over particular solar systems. 0.0 Corporations are the people that do that. Most corporations aren’t 0.0 based; it takes a lot of money, time, and energy to maintain territory, so it’s mostly experienced players that live out here. More on how 0.0 differs from the rest of the galaxy here.
TGRAD is the ticker symbol for my corporation, The Graduates. It’s a split off the EVE University corporation (ticker EUNI), hence the education theme. All alliances and corporations have these ticker symbols, and people rarely refer to them any other way. These tickers are what show up in-game when you click on an enemy ship. So if you clicked on me, I would have a [RAWR] prefix. RAWR is my alliance, TGRAD is my corp.
Assuming I have a net worth of about 1.5b ISK, that’s about $100 USD. I’d say I’m lower-class in 0.0. The alliance would like us to have maybe 600-800M ISK in ships lying around ready for deployment in different situations. I have probably 1/2 that right now. Supposedly 0.0 has lots of great ways to make tons of money quickly, but I haven’t been able to move my money-making ships into 0.0 yet, so I’m not sure how easy it will be to refill my coffers. For reference, capital ships cost anywhere from 1b ISK to 80b ISK, while the sub cap ships most people fly in combat cost around 200M-500M, equipment included.