Okay, so the last eight months of my life were spent searching for that perfect job in the games industry, you know, any job. If you've tried seeking industry positions this past year, you might know just how frustrating a process this can be. The economy is improving at a snail's pace and it's not like we're getting any younger here.
That being said, I feel like I've honed my job searching process down to its essentials and I'm happy to share some of the more successful elements with any person who is desperately seeking employment like myself.
So, you're seeking employment and you don't know where to start? Some suggestions:
Some kind of work to show off... Okay, this is an easy one: if you want to find a job somewhere, get crackin'! The more work you get under your belt, the more impressive you'll seem to potential employers and the more confident you will feel in your own abilities. If you don't know what to do, find a game that you like with a freely available development kit and start making content. Even better, find a mod team; nothing tells a prospective employer that you know how to work on a team better than real team experience. The more of a contribution you can make to a project, the better. Your prospective employers will want to know what you did to add to your project, and you want to legitimately tell them quite a bit.
Somewhere to show off that work... Online portfolios are an absolute must for aspiring game design professionals. Not only does a portfolio site give you a chance to present your hard work, they are a great way to get your name out as well. If you are working with a limited budget, use a free site like wordpress.com or blogger.com. If you need utmost control of your portfolio (like me) and don't mind spending a few bucks every month, you can find reliable web hosting fairly easily. I use hostgator.com and I'm totally happy with it. You're going to need to know html and css to make a decent site, though you can learn the bulk of it from w3schools.com, at least enough to make a functional site.
Regarding the portfolio's content, make sure to include:
- Your relevant work in a format that is easy to parse through
- A detailed written description of all of your contributions to your work (I am complimented on this regularly, it surprised me just how much companies love these things)
- Pictures of everything. Pictures are easy to take and easy to post, and as the old saying goes, "Pics or it didn't happen."
- If you've got the time to do it, take a video of your work using a program like FRAPS and upload it to youtube. If the video's quality is high enough, it gives your portfolio an extra special edge over the competition.
- Your resume, in a format that is readable online and in a format that is downloadable.
- Your contact info, as much of it as you can think to post.
Shameless plug here, if you would like some examples you can visit my site at kylehadley.com.
Companies to work for... This is a surprisingly challenging one: you need work and you need it now, with hundreds of companies operating in the United States alone there should not be a problem finding something somewhere. It's just that, what companies are there and how do you know if they're hiring? gamedevmap.com is the most comprehensive listing of game developers I've ever seen; if there's a company that's selling games for profit, you can find it here. I used the site to make up a spreadsheet of eligible companies, and then checked each company individually to ensure that they were a company that I could conceivably work for. I think my own personal list is made up of some 200 developers or so. Check each and every one of their websites to see if they are hiring or accepting applications. Apply to each and every one that is seeking, and make sure to keep track of whom you applied to work and when (that will save you the trouble of remembering a few months down the road when you need to send out more applications). Websites like gamasutra.com will show job listings, just keep in mind that half a million other people are applying to those same positions.
A decent resume... This is something I can't help with, there are many approaches to making a resume and I don't know how to tell if one is really better than another. You can visit my website at kylehadley.com to see my own, though I recommend using some online help if you need to know exactly what to include.
A decent cover letter... So now you're emailing your resume to the companies you like, and you want to really stand out. Unless you plan on trying something wacky and zany (which I highly do not recommend), you will want to make your impression with your cover letter. Some things to remember when writing your cover letter:
- Keep it short. I cannot stress this enough, these guys get several dozen if not hundreds of applications each month, there's no way you're going to get noticed if your letter is too long. I'm speaking from experience, the improvement that I witnessed from shortening my letter from 750 words (LONG!) to 450 words was ridiculous. Just stick to the facts, tell them a few things that you couldn't cover in the resume, why you like them, what you think you can do for them, etc. Don't repeat things from the resume unless you think they really need stressing.
- Link to your portfolio. Since we're living in the digital age and we're applying to gaming companies, I'm assuming that you're sending everything via email. Make sure to link to your portfolio at least once in the letter, if not twice. I use two links in my own letter, one in the first paragraph (in case they're merely skimming and want to get to the good stuff), and one in the last. I saw four times as many hits when using this approach as I did from my old, too long letter.
- Again, list all of your relevant contact info.
- Try finding the hiring director's name and email address, and make sure to use it in the letter that you send them. If the studio has a phone number, try giving them a call; sometimes they will refuse to give you the contact info you need, sometimes they won't. And for the love of god, spell the name correctly!
Keep track of who's keeping track of you... Scouting is key when you're job searching. Knowing who is viewing your portfolio and when is the first step in refining your application process. If you send out twenty apps and you get a couple of hits, you know you need a new approach. If you switch things up and see that traffic has doubled or tripled, you know you're on the right track! statcounter.com is a marvelous tool for saving your portfolio's traffic stats. Quite a few of the companies that give your site a quick viewing will show up in your pageload history by name, and other's will show up as hits from specific cities (this is helpful is you get a hit from Topeka the day after you applied to that company in Topeka).
Prepare, prepare, prepare for your interview... Learn as much as you can regarding the company interviewing you. Know their relevant history, their games, their development practices (read their blogs to get a good idea of the way they work and think), etc. Write it down. Write down questions for them, they'll know you're serious if you make the interview a two way thing. Make a list of relevant games you've played, know why you want to work for that company, keep a concise history of your development as a designer in your head to recite to them, and make sure to give yourself some time to relax and feel ready for it. Since so many companies are located in other cities, you'll most likely go through a couple of phone interviews prior to the in-person interview. This is a long process sometimes, so prepare to spend a month or more interviewing with one company. If you sent out enough applications, you will most likely have at least two or three companies interviewing you at one time, if you're prepared and lucky.
Get the job... Okay, this is the one that I can't really help you with. When I get to that point, I will make sure to report back with my findings!
I hope this helps you guys who are finding yourselves dumbstruck and clueless, I know I was there just a year or two ago. It's easy to get in the flow of things once you've put in the effort, and by that time I think it's safe to say that the job search can feel exciting and fairly rewarding, even if you don't get every job you apply to.
So, happy hunting!
Posts
