CST 349 Industry Expert / Executive Interview

I have chosen to interview Jacob McCullough, Senior Software Engineer of Anti-cheat at Riot Games. Jacob has been a friend of mine for years now and as someone who has played Riot Games' products, their anti-cheat software has been installed on my PC since it was first rolled out to the public. We both share a passion for games and he has often mentioned his involvement with this project and how it shaped his life. 

Jacob's software engineering journey started out with him working as a contracted software developer in 2013 all the way until 2019 at the now shutdown AllGamer LLC. During that period, he also worked as a Python Developer at Premier Digital Services, which too lasted until 2019. While he is appreciative of the opportunities these jobs provided for him, Jacob expressed how stressful this period was as he scrambled to make ends meet and was swamped in contracted projects that he was developing, as well as his own personal projects to expand his portfolio. Those jobs ended for him when he was brought into Riot Games in Summer 2019 to work on their new anti-cheat software (titled "Vanguard") for their upcoming new game release. After several years of maintaining the project, as of 2022 he was promoted to Senior Software Engineer of Anti-cheat and Vanguard is a very personal project for him.

 Being in charge of anti-cheat software, Jacob stresses the challenge of staying on top of any security vulnerabilities that can arise. This is especially troublesome as Vanguard has been expanded to cover multiple games and several different platforms. As the PC version of the anti-cheat is kernel-level software, Jacob takes his job seriously to ensure that users are never vulnerable to exploitation because of Vanguard.

 For emerging trends, Jacob notes that AI plays a key role in Vanguard's function and has been trained to detect, label, and ban cheaters based on abnormal behavior when outside software may not be caught. Jacob recommends that all aspiring students get comfortable using AI, build a strong portfolio of programming projects, and strive to stay on top of emerging technologies.

One of the key takeaways from my conversation with Jacob include the progression that I can expect as an aspiring software engineer whose dream is to work at Riot Games. It was an almost decade-long journey for Jacob as he took on several jobs and projects that built up to his eventual hiring at Riot. He stressed building a diverse set of skills so that you can take on tech jobs as they come instead of just waiting for the perfect one to walk into your life. With a highly competitive and multifaceted company like Riot Games, you need to be versatile, have a long history with lots of experience in the field of of programming, and set yourself up with success by networking through peers and internship programs if possible. Riot Games in particular values passionate individuals with a wealth of experience that they can bring to the table instead of fitting narrow, technical archetypes of engineers.

For the future, I was inspired to begin seeking internship through CSUMB's extensive resources such as Career Gateway events and their connections through Handshake to find work as soon as possible and hopefully build up experience during my time at the school.

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