Industry Insider - April 2008

So You Want to Make Games for a Living? Compete!!
by Eric Marlow

Since coming to the Philippines two years ago, I’ve been on a mission to promote game development locally. I along with a number of my colleagues have visited local campuses, held develop competitions, and even gone to the airwaves to promote the industry. I personally have sifted through hundreds of resumes of those wishing to throw their hat into the ring and join a game company.

First off, allow me a moment to chastise some of you. You know who you are. You blindly throw your resumes at companies hoping you might get a lead. You don’t read the job ads very well, and choose to apply for positions you apparently have no interest in applying for, otherwise you would have better prepared yourself to compete.

Yes, I said “compete”. It is a competition, and I know finding good jobs is tough. But it doesn’t take much time to do well and land an interview. You just have to do a little prep work.

My hope here is to offer you a nickel’s worth of free advice to better prepare yourself is you are interested in the game industry’s career potential:

1. You must read carefully the job advertisement. The job ad will hopefully list for you the REQUIRED attributes of the position, and other skills that might be nice to have. If you don't have at least most of the required skills, you only do yourself a disservice by applying.
2. Include a cover letter! This is such an important point I will say it again - include a cover letter! Very few applicants take the time to include a cover letter. The cover letter is your one chance to overcome any objections the reviewer may gloss over when reading your resume. Without a cover letter it will be difficult to understand the full value of the candidate.
3. Make sure your cover letter is tailored to the job at-hand. Including a generic cover letter that says how hard you will work and that you wish to expand your career is not good enough. Talk briefly about your skills that are appropriate to the position, and how your past experiences will give value to the company in this role. Be specific and draw links directly from the job advertisement text. And it should be obvious, but as a gamer, tell me what games you play! Duh.
4. It helps if you have some game experience in your background before applying for game development position. This doesn't necessary mean that you have had to work for a game company before, but rather that you have taken it upon yourself to demonstrate your interest and passion for this career. Spend some time working on your portfolio or on a game demo. Show you know what you are talking about by speaking intelligently about the games the company might make. Game development is all about PASSION, and if you don't have the fire in your belly (i.e. you are just looking for a paycheck) then it's best to move along and find something else that is more suitable.
5. You would think this is obvious, but apparently it's not as obvious as it should be: if you are scheduled for an interview at say 10am, it's a good idea to be there on time. Maybe even five minutes early. DO NOT BE LATE. Sorry guys to be harsh here, but the tried-and-true in Manila doesn’t cut it - traffic is not an excuse. I know traffic in Manila is bad, but I learned pretty quickly how bad it is - most of you have been here a lifetime, so you should know to plan around it so you aren't late. Being on time tells me several things, including that you know how to set priorities and how to manage your time.

Much of this article is devoted to landing the interview. In a future article I’ll also touch on how to build the skills necessary to land that dream job. This information and much more can also be found at my blog http://snacko.blogspot.com/.