Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls Interview SimGuruJill

A true Smart Girl, Jill Johnson originally pursued the fashion world, but eventually found herself working as an Associate Producer on The Sims™ 4. When she’s not immersed in digital simulation worlds, she spends her time making her very own teddy bears by hand, which we think is a very, very smart hobby!

We had the pleasure of spending time with Jill recently when filming our new series, Smart Girls Build with The Sims 4.  In our second episode, Jill meets a fellow Smart Girl, Tcarla, and shows her Sim how to master what Tcarla knows best: the guitar!  We had a few moments to sit down with Jill and do what Smart Girls do best – ask Smart Questions!

Smart Girls: How was your experience meeting and working with our Smart Girl, Tcarla?

Jill Johnson: Hanging out with Tcarla was a breath of fresh air. She was a great co-pilot while we played the game and I was impressed with how knowledgeable she was with giving me guitar tips. She really knows her stuff and she’s already got the confidence and poise to win over a crowd.

Tcarla is so inspiring and so are you!  How did you get your start working on The Sims?

JJ: It was a serendipitous turn of events, actually! I had just finished up earning my art degree in fashion design when I was approached by a recruiter for EA at our portfolio show. Instead of walking at graduation, I went to an interview for a production assistant [job] on the first MySims Wii game. They hired me based on my knowledge in art and Photoshop, but it turned out I actually had a natural knack in project management and design. Who would have thought! Before graduating, I had never seen myself as “qualified” to work in software or video games, but it turns out it was a natural fit. Just goes to show that you can really surprise yourself with a little confidence and willingness to step outside of your box and try something you may not have thought you could do.

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