*Applauds*

Theoretically a product being developed with certain forms of Agile Management won't require any over-time. So far, that is just a theory and 100 hour crunch times are the norm before Gold.

Most people I know, including myself, that work the 60+ hours do so because they absolutely love it (and ofc they do get compensated and noticed for it). Also, the biggest advantage is that when the place clears out after most everyone goes home (because there are some people who routinely punch out after 10 hours of work), it opens up a huge opportunity to experiment with potentially neat ideas among the people who stay. I've seen a lot of neat ideas come straight out of the after hours, and it would not surprise me if a lot of the cooler mechanics we see in Skyrim were the result of some employees staying late at night saying "dude check out what I just did!"

Wouldn't it have been better for that creativity to be present during work hours and you got to go home normal time? If you're not overloaded, not overworked, that's possible.

Mostly, though, while I can appreciate the drive passion gives you -- been there, done that, worked my 100 hour weeks before -- you need to remember one very important thing: doing so reduces your value. If the company pays you a salary of X for a 40 hour week and you work 80, you're working for half the amount of money you actually deserve. And if you're willing to do that, there's no incentive to pay you more, because you're demonstrating you'll work for less. This is very important -- what you are paid in a role isn't just what the job was advertised for, it's what you're willing to accept. The last full-time job I interviewed for the salary wasn't quite what I wanted, but I went along anyway because the company sounded good*. When they realised they wanted me and asked what I expected for renumeration, I told them what I expected -- my value. It was higher than they had allocated for the budget for the position, but they went away and came back with a counter offer that was close to what I asked, and substantially higher than the advertised salary. If I was someone who didn't value myself higher, I would have asked for less, and got less.

Don't devalue your work by working more than you're being paid for -- I know this is hard sometimes, I've certainly done overtime in my roles because I care about the product, but make it the exception not the rule.

* The other thing about interviews -- it's not just them interviewing you, you need to interview them. Not only do you get to find out more about the role and the company, but merely asking questions that demonstrate that you haven't yet decided if you want to be with them gives you value in their eyes. After all, if you're finding out if they're good enough for you, then you must value yourself and when it comes to asking you onboard they will know they need to pay you enough to match your value.

Martigen, I love you.

I share your sentiments. Having passion is great, and not being afraid to put in extra hours to show you have passion is a good thing too. If I worked on a project I loved, then a concept like overtime isn't all that bad for me. However I do know that it's not something I would ever want to do on a regular basis, only on exceptional ones. Work life balance is very important to me, because part of being a creative individual is having room to be personally inpisriing and creative to yourself. If you don't have that room or capability to "work" your personal life and hobbies and ideals, then you'll just turn into someone who is incapable of growth and personal fufilment outside of the workplace. That's not a spot I can ever see myself in.

I value good work, but I value my time more than anything else. Time is your most precious resource, because once you lose an hour you'll never get that hour back. Spending on your work, even if its a great project you love, is good - but too much spending on that IMO is spending away your livelyhood and potential energy you have in other areas of your life that are equally important. Life is too short for busy work, wasted hours, bad physical conditions or feelings, and other such things. If you get the right job, it's a great way to spend your life. But I believe it's possible to have too much.

I know I can't be picky but honestly I'd selectively avoid working for companies that expected 60+ work weeks reguarly every week, except if view them as disposable resources that I'll simply exploit to get to a better future job within a short time after joining. I value my time too highly to "waste" away 20+ hours a week my whole life. If I get a job that involves working crazy hours at times though (not reguarly), then I don't see that as a waste of time - there's a lot of great things that can happen during gauntlets, crunch and other such things.

A number of companies agree too - Gas Powered Games is known for doing talks at GDC for how they've 100% eliminated crunch time and everyone must work mandidtory 40 hour work weeks max, and have demonstrated the benefits of such a practice.