I’ve been asked before what should be done, in order to get a job in the computer games industry. There’s no hard and fast rules regarding this, but there are some steps you can take to improve your chances.
The first thing is, make sure your basic education is sufficient. Depending on the job you see yourself doing, your going to need to have enough basic writing, spelling and maths skills to do the job. Some jobs require better than average skills, especially programming : maths skills in areas such as matrix multiplication, quaternions, vector and trigonometry etc.
Other roles are less reliant on these kinds of skills, but an employer will favour those applicants who can handle basic skills.Your application to an employer is your first, and potentially your only change, to impress them. Detail your education, and any certificates, degrees etc.
One of the most important ways to impress an employer – show that you have spent your own time in furthering your interest in the technology. If you want to design – show your own designs, using free packages such as Unity or Unreal. Programmers – write demo code, with comments that can demonstrate your technical abililties. Artists should have portfolio – again, use it to sell yourself.
Always, always spell check! Nothing puts off a potential boss than a CV that contains spelling mistakes – use freely available word processors to check your spelling. Remember, for every job advertised there will be dozens of applications – yours need to stand out as being professional. Make your CV easy to read, but not too long. Anything more than 6-8 pages is probably too big – trim it down.
Finally, persevere. It can take a long time to get that first job – and while your waiting, don’t sit there doing nothing. Get involved with other people in designing, programming and constructing projects that interest you. If you can’t find such a project – start one! Showing an interviewer that you enjoy the job will help convince him you can do the job.
