I applied in a strange way.

I sent an email to Gabe Newell and Eric Johnson outlining issues with Steam CS and advertising myself. Since I am in the EU and Valve is located in Seattle, I had little hope. Thus, I was very surprised hearing back only hours later from Eric and being promised a conversation.

Afterwards, I sent over my CV so they could see that I have significant experience in bilingual customer support. The next stage was a 1-hour phone interview where they seemed to be interested in my brainstorming process. I found that a very pleasant conversation and at least something different from the standard phone screen.

I seem to have passed that stage and was given a text to translate, which I did. Two weeks later, I got an invite for another phone screen with more people from CS. That was a traditional recruiter call with standard questions. I may have talked too much of the benefits of social media for customer support, an area Valve is neglecting.

The end of that interview came abruptly. The interviewer didn't even ask me if I had any further questions, nor how the process would proceed.

The next day, I received an email that they will not proceed with my application.

Overall, I was surprised that I received a reply at all and that I was given the opportunity to apply for a US position from Europe.

Q: How and what would you improve on the Steam platform in detail, step by step?

Q: How would you reply to a customer with frame rate issues in Dota 2 where no known workarounds have been successful?