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As a founder of two mobile gaming companies, I've done a lot of team building and hiring for all kinds of roles over the years, including designers, producers, project managers and developers. Of course there is no guaranteed formula for success for jobseekers, but the following qualities are what I've learned to look for in order to identify the best and brightest candidates. To the extent that you can demonstrate these, you'll vastly improve your odds of landing the job of your dreams.
Smart
Proving to a potential employer that you're smart is not an obvious task. Certainly your ability and desire to learn and adapt quickly are key, as are your abilities to identify problems and opportunities and resolve them effectively. Specific, relevant examples demonstrating your ability to problem-solve will go a long way in proving just how smart you really are. Gleaning some piece of meaningful insight from an analytics report, or even identifying and troubleshooting a particularly tricky bug are both great examples of this.
Passionate
How much do you really care about the industry you work in, or want to break into? Loving what you do can drive you to excel, and any evidence of this that you can demonstrate will reflect very well on your motivation and desire to succeed. Passion can take many forms: staying up-to-date with the latest developments in the game industry, actively blogging on industry topics, or attending informal meetups or gatherings of industry professionals. Also, spending some time outside of work on related personal, group or open source projects, even if they are more experiments than anything else. Even discussing your personal gaming preferences and achievements - like when you stayed up for 48 hours straight playing Call of Duty - can help convey your passion for the industry. Find ways to demonstrate your thirst to learn, grow and excel.
Plays Well with Others
A very important quality that has less to do with you individually is your ability to work and thrive as part of a team. This is often overlooked by candidates, as people tend to focus on individual achievements; but being part of a winning team is an accomplishment in itself, and can tell a manager that you can recognize success and know what it takes to get there.
Gets Stuff Done
Ultimately it all comes down to this. Are you capable of getting done what needs to be done? Meeting deadlines and living up to expectations are just the starting the point. The real question is, do you drive things to completion? A manager wants to know that you don't need to be micromanaged, but that you can take initiative on your own, as needed, to see a project through. Give specific examples of instances, no matter how small, when you’ve recognized a problem or opportunity, stepped up and acted effectively.
If you can demonstrate these four qualities in your cover letter, resume, interview, and sample projects, potential employers are bound to notice. And here’s a bonus tip: mobile game developers are in demand right now, especially those with experience in HTML5. Be sure to list any development experience you have on your resume, and be as specific as possible.
Good luck!
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That says a lot about you but nothing about being passionate about working on video games. I'd maybe try and get a different perspective on life if spending 48 hours straight playing a video game seems anything but insane to you.
At the very least, don't you feel responsible for young people reading this and thinking that their playing binges are not only OK but will help them get a job in the industry?
Playing a game for 48 hours straight is not an achievement, it's stupid, it's damaging your health. Want a job in the industry? Work on a mod or a game of your own, preferably with a team of other people. That's tangible experience that will not only help you get a job but you'll learn a lot along the way.
Personally I'd never hire that 48 hr marathon gamer. How many responsibilities were ignored during that time period? When a new game is released, how do I know said person will show up to work with enough energy to get the job done?
I gather together as many able-bodied men as I can, equip for versatility and rapid movement and make a surprise attack, ensuring to take minimal casualties until our commanders return and the main bulk of our fighting force can be marshalled and deployed for a proper take over and securing of the area.
A good example of my taking the initiative, seizing an opportunity and doing so for maximum gain and minimal loss. The trouble is this all takes place in Eve-Online, an MMO set in space.
Am I realistically going to impress an employer with my in-game exploits?
In many cases, these four traits should be read as:
- smart enough to solve emergencies created by others,
- passionate enough to not mind abuse,
- plays well with people who don't play well with others,
- gets stuff done no matter what.
I've also encountered a variant where "passionate" meant "will work for half the national average salary", and a variant where reporting impediments counted as "not getting stuff done".
When applying for a job, ask your potential employer which of these they value more:
- efficiency or creativity,
- teams or individuals,
- achievement or predictability,
- self-expression or consensus.
If they pick either, that's fair enough, because these are values rather than policies. For instance, a company that puts individuals first is still going to do a lot of teamwork. There are many ways to perform tasks as a team, and they require varying skillsets and mindsets. For instance, a methodology called Scrum requires you to be able to organise your work by yourself, while traditional asset pipeline calls for good response times to requests.
However, if they tell you they "try to keep a balance" - it probably means they haven't really decided, and that's a warning sign. When a conflict of interest emerges, and it always eventually does, they are likely to have trouble acting consistently.
And when they tell you they want "both", or claim there is no tradeoff involved, they either don't know what they're talking about, or they're setting you up. In both cases, there's a big chance you don't really want to work for them.
Getting back to the original topic - you're a good fit for a typical large development studio job if you can describe yourself as efficient, predictable, team-oriented and focused on consensus.
Absolutely the best and most successful way I can demonstrate this is to come to an employer's attention through someone they know instead of through the emailed resume route. Games people are some of the smartest and friendliest people I've ever met, and I dare say easy to befriend if you're like-minded.
Game Jams, Indie Developer Meetups, Ludum Dare are all great ways to make awesome friends who tend to let you know if they hear of any job openings - and introduce you to the right people :)
1) Smooth Real-Time 3D Blame Shifting
2) Preemptive Management Mistake Obscurantistic Multi-Tasking
3) Imaginative Product Delay Excuse Generation
4) Looking Busy
Any Coder that has a reputation for "getting stuff done" is quickly silenced, sabotaged, and stuck in a powerless position where he can be abused by savvy managers. However, if you are in marketing or sales then the world is your oyster.
I mean, then again, maybe I'm just stupid, lacking in passion, a bad communicator and a slow worker. But if that's the case then I shudder to think what sorts of space-age machine-men I'm being measured against.
I got offers to work in game industry, at 1/5 of my current wage (in the mobile applications industry).
So... no thanks game industry.
I live in Toronto and am hoping to get a job in the general vicinity or at least the same country - there are a lot of developers around, but it seems that things are pretty competitive even still, and it doesn't help that the places I apply to go out of business two weeks later. My talents lie in level design and game design, and I'm hoping to get in through QA or some such if nothing else. As for experience outside of my own mod and hobby projects, none, but then, that's the eternal catch-22.
It seems we are in the same boat, Eric. It's especially hard to get a game-related job in Toronto with the industry here being as shallow as it is. Well, you can only hope for the best, I guess. :)
How else will the games industry bring in young talent to put through the death march grinder and boot out the door when the project is finished, afterward forgetting to credit their accomplishments and contributions, allowing them to discard their youthful dreams of creating interactive art for the more realistic and stable software engineer careers such as building accounting and office applications?
I'd like to state the passion is not just loving video games in marathon play sessions, but also hating what video games and the games industry has become; ever more shiny kill-monsters/terrorists/robots-in-a-maze simulators, the Hollywood-ization of budgets and the increased focus on spectacle (more polygons, more textures, more explosions) rather than substance (emotional attachment, social commentary, detailed worlds where there are more uses for forks and spoons than just stealing them when NPCs aren't looking), the bankruptcy of creativity and fear of innovation that can be seen in both modern films and video games.
... I think I hate video games or something. Hate is a form of passion, right?
Make games/ game related things
Meet people who work in games
Impress other people who make games
get a job where they work
9 out of 10 people I know got a job in games this way. Cold resume drops only work for so much, having someone vouch for you is worth a lot, and remember people in your school might end up in games studios you want to work in, as well, so don't be a jerk.
- Previous experience producing something tangible (participation in mod development, demo scenes, game making competition...)
- A strong portfolio filled of interesting projects
- A good degree, although it doesn't seem as overrated in this this industry as in others
In term of character/personal traits:
- Strong problem solving and adaptability to new situations
- Good handling of stressful situations
- An ability to put the greater good of the project/team before your own ego
Also, showing that you can nerd out playing a video game for 48 hours in a row isn't really a major plus... that might however give the sentiment that you're not very productive in your spare time. Would definitely be better to say that you've spent 48 hours non stop making a game from scratch for a game dev competition.
1. CONTACTS IN THE GAME INDUSTRY.
If you're looking for a job in the games industry, don't just sit around waiting. Make something. If you're hardcore and can program, there are no shortage of cheap or free game engines. Otherwise, many games ship with editors and modding tools.
This will:
- give you valuable experience
- give you something interesting to talk about in the interview
- prove you're self-motivated and skilled
If I interviewed someone who was unemployed, and asked to see something they'd been working on, and their answer was "nothing", that's a nail in the coffin. The job will instead go to a person who is productive with their (unemployed) time and can show me something cool that they've done These are the people who love making games. These are the people I want to hire.
Amateur portfolios do a good job of proving the candidate has a skill or two, but the range of skills that can be proven this way is very limited. Most amateur portfolios prove simple execution skills only, such as:
- an art technique - but not the ability to maintain an "art direction",
- familiarity with a programming language - but not the ability to engineer software,
- the ability to copy a well known design - but not the ability to invent a game,
- the ability to get stuff done - but not the ability to get stuff done on schedule.
Having done stuff in one's spare time also has relatively little to do with caring. Many amateur game developers are fueling their *gamer* passion - they're trying to make more of their favourite medicine, so to speak. When faced with actual game *development* challenges, they basically need to forget everything they know and learn from scratch.
And many people who truly care never get stuff done, because they're not properly motivated. Personally, I'm motivated by recognition. I make things so that others can appreciate them. I have trouble motivating myself when I don't have an audience. Am I a bad candidate? Well, I have five shipped commercial games on my resume.
And it's really sad how often this whole "self-motivation" thing is just another way to say "blind obsession". In one of my jobs, I was told I wasn't sufficiently self-motivated after I had complained about being repeatedly insulted by a member of the studio's management.
On top of that, amateurs without real background tend to develop bad habits. I mean, most programmers go through the messy code phase, and many never grow past it, because there's no one to tell them they're doing it wrong. Artists develop personal styles, but many of them lose the ability to focus on technicalities in the process. Designers... sigh, I'm a designer myself, so let me just say a company I worked for once hired a complete noob with no portfolio for a level design job, and in less than six months he was as good at it as anybody else in the studio.
Also, the best receptionist I ever worked with wasn't very good at ordering lunch in bulk or filling out tax forms - but she could quote Shakespeare or make references to post-structuralism in a casual conversation. Sometimes the best co-workers are the ones who keep surprising you.
Porfolios are good, and one should never underestimate the value of practice. But don't focus on those unless you're looking for a workhorse.
Although I suppose different interviewers will approach entry-level hires differently. Some might place more emphasis on education, or portfolio, or interview tests, or on some kind of tricky psychoanalytic interview questions.
I suppose the company culture has a lot to do with it, too.
So, as far as I can see, where I work, you could get a list like (in decreasing importance):
1.Connections
2-3. Passion and experience.
4. Endurance
Of course, having a huge portfolio and big (read: successful) titles under your belt can easily replace #1 as a criteria, since the rest of them can be easily surmised from your portfolio.
Of course, landing the job AND having a good, progressive career path are two entirely different things...