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HISTORIC CAREER EXPERIENCE

The early career experiences that shaped Jesse Hayes before founding Eclat, spanning digital production, software quality assurance, environmental analysis, live events and military service. It establishes the multidisciplinary foundation behind his later work across coworking, hospitality, technology, design and operational strategy in Melbourne.

In 2013, returning from the Australian Army, I took stock of the paths I'd already walked. Different industries. Different countries. Different pressures. Different disciplines. On paper, some of these roles appeared unrelated. In practice, they built the underlying architecture of how I think and work.
 

Live events in Las Vegas. Digital worldbuilding for Microsoft and Rockstar Games. Software quality assurance at Nintendo. Four years of military service. Each environment required something different from me, technical precision, creative interpretation, logistical composure, physical and psychological endurance, and each left behind something I would carry forward.
 

What connects these years wasn't a job title or an industry. It was way each role sharpened a particular layer of capability: systems thinking, visual judgement, spatial awareness, service discipline, cross-functional collaboration, and the ability to execute when conditions are imperfect and timelines are fixed. Quality, I learned, is rarely accidental. Strong outcomes are built at the intersection of many disciplines, not from the mastery of one.
 

These were the years my professional foundations were laid. Everything that followed was built on them. 



SCOPE OF EXPERIENCE

Microsoft Game Studios
Designer / Programmer
Redmond, Washington, USA
February 2005 – June 2007
 

My time with Microsoft Games was an early immersion in large-scale digital production. Working across Flight Simulator X and related expansion titles, I contributed to the creation of highly detailed digital environments grounded in real-world data, visual reference and technical precision.
 

The work sat at an unusual intersection: design, simulation and environmental accuracy. It required not just an eye for how something looked, but an understanding of how faithfully it represented physical reality when translated into an interactive medium. Buildings and airport runways and circulation had to read correctly. Airports had to behave correctly. Environments and scale had to register as true. This was a simulator after all.
 

Working in large cross-disciplinary teams, art, engineering, design and production had to align continuously, I developed a permanent sensitivity to how systems interact, how iteration improves quality, and why getting the foundation right before building anything else saves enormous effort downstream.
 

Key areas developed:

  • Digital environment construction and real-world-to-digital translation

  • Creative accountability and butterfly effect mechanics

  • Visual accuracy, environmental analysis and iterative production discipline

  • Collaboration within large, cross-functional software teams

     

Nintendo of America
ST Quality Assurance (Part Time Evenings/Weekends)
Seattle, Washington, USA
August 2006 – October 2007
 

Quality assurance is frequently underestimated. From the inside, it's one of the clearest schools of systems thinking available, a discipline built on precision, pattern recognition and the ability to identify what others miss. At Nintendo, I worked across pre-release testing and localisation review. The role demanded methodical documentation, reliable reproduction of issues and an instinct for where systems broke down under real conditions. The lesson was not technical. It was philosophical: rigour applied early saves far more than it costs.
 

Key areas developed:

  • Quality assurance methodology and edge-case thinking

  • Structured reporting and defect documentation

  • Patience, procedural discipline and sensitivity to user experience

Rockstar Games
Digital Capture Artist
Various Locations
June 2007 – April 2009
 
Contracted to Rockstar's San Diego studio, my work centred on real-world photographic environmental capture and visual analysis in support of AAA game development. Far more than photography. It was forensic architecture and environment observation, studying physical places for their texture, scale, light behaviour, material character and atmospheric logic, then translating those qualities into usable digital reference material and vast texture libraries for worldbuilding.
 
The work demanded a rare combination of artistic observation, technical process and both physical and mental resilience to work on location, indefinetly. It produced a way of reading built environments that I still use: the ability to look at a space and understand it as a designed system; what it communicates, how it performs, where it succeeds and where it compromises.
 
Key areas developed:

  • Environmental observation, lighting analysis and material reading

  • Architectural and spatial awareness through systematic reference capture

  • The capacity to study real places as simultaneously physical and experiential systems

  • Detailed visual analysis of real-world locations for digital reconstruction

  • Working to a level of visual scrutiny appropriate to world-class interactive entertainment production
     


Encore Productions
Event Manager
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
November 2007 – May 2009
 
Las Vegas is an unforgiving environment for live events. Scale, expectation and operational scrutiny combine in ways that develop a particular kind of professional sharpness; the ability to remain composed while managing many moving parts, difficult stakeholders and potential consequences that are visible in real time.

Coordinating corporate events, conferences and exhibitions across major venues and casino environments, I learned that hospitality-led experiences are not delivered through intention. They are built through orchestration. Every touchpoint has to be considered and every risk has to be planned for, before it becomes a problem.
 
Key areas developed:

  • End-to-end event logistics and live operational coordination

  • Technical planning of hardware and theatrical media and application

  • Vendor and stakeholder management under high-expectation conditions

  • Composure and understanding that engaging experiences are built through orchestration
     


​Australian Defence Force
Department of Defence / Australian Army
September 2009 – October 2013
 
Military service was unlike anything that came before it. It stripped away comfort, ambiguity and ego, humbled me appropriately; and elevated my standards, sense of responsibility, and the expectation that you must be prepared to perform under pressure. Not just when convenient. When it is difficult.
 
The Army developed more than practical competence. It built physical resilience, psychological endurance, clarity under pressure and a deeper understanding of what it means to carry responsibility as part of something larger than yourself. It taught me the value of consistency, standards and service beyond self-interest.
 
Key areas developed:

  • Physical and psychological resilience under sustained pressure

  • Leadership through responsibility and example, not authority alone

  • Mission-critical decision-making, team discipline and operational accountability

  • A sense of duty and stewardship that has informed everything since.

     

SUMMARY:

Before Eclat existed, a decade was spent learning how organisations actually work — not from textbooks, but from the inside. Each environment demanded something different and gave something lasting. By the time I had left this chapter behind, I had the raw material I needed, what I needed next was a reason to build something.

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