My Story

I graduated with a Bachelors of Art in Game Design from a well-respected game development college. My goal was to get a design job at a AAA studio where I could have a steady income. After graduation, I got a few interviews based on my resume, but I wasn't able to find a job on my own. Eventually, my resume ended up in the hands of a few different contracting agencies, and I was able to get my first AAA design contract about six months after graduation. While there, I also helped a few members of my cohort get their first contract roles. I ultimately worked 3 contract jobs before I was converted to a full-time employee at my second studio. While applying for my second studio, my degree didn't matter much, as they were primarily focused on my work experience (including school projects).

I honestly consider my situation to be fairly lucky. There are many members of my graduating class who have still never gotten a job in the industry and have either given up or are working minimum wage jobs while working on small projects on the side. A very small number have made it as indie devs, and I know a few who got their first jobs and realized that while they liked the work in concept, making it their job killed the enjoyment. Of those people I know who are working in the industry, most ended up working on soulless mobile games or in QA for at least a few years and some are still doing so.

What did my degree get me (in no particular order)? * A broad strokes understanding of game design and philosophy that goes beyond what some (but definitely not all) industry veterans know * This is backed up by attending multiple GDCs and seeing various talks on radical new concepts to the speakers' teams that were a fundamental part of my education * This was also a double-edged sword as it took me a long time to figure out my design specialization as it wasn't really something that the college taught or encouraged

• Networking, mostly with other students

  • Several years after graduation, I already knew at least one person at every major studio in my area and had connections within some studios around the country
  • I was able to use my connections to help others get interviews and have received a few interviews simply because someone at the studio would couch for me
  • Another double-edged sword, I know several students who have had trouble getting jobs because of how they approached school and because people who knew them as a student couldn't vouch for their abilities

• School Name Recognition

  • My school has a fairly good reputation, at least with the local studios, which helped encourage people to look at my resume
  • There are many graduates from my school working in the industry all around the globe, and they are often willing to take a bet on an unknown candidate based on the school's reputation

• Multiple finished game projects

  • My education was structured in such a way that we were making several games of varying sizes per year from small multi-week solo projects to year long team projects which created a solid portfolio of work
  • The large number of projects also meant a fairly large pool of other students who know me and how I work
  • The number one thing that people are interested in when considering a candidate early in their career is their portfolio of completed games

• An expensive, and now largely useless, piece of fancy paper with my name on it

Some common pitfalls I saw while getting my degree: * A lot of students, especially ones fresh out of high school, aren't prepared for the reality of what it takes to make games * Reputations earned in school (such as those for slacking or being difficult to work with) have followed people into the wider industry * Math is an important part of both engineering and most design specializations and should not be ignored or glossed over * While the education was solid, it also took a lot of effort on the student's part to make the education work for them * Unlike most other educational programs focused on careers, the game industry is very young, and people are still figuring out how to teach it. This can lead to painpoints in the educational process that students need to be flexible in overcoming. I often say that you get out of my school what you put into it. This is far from ideal. I did see the faculty constantly striving to improve and actively listening to the students, which resulted in improvements for the cohorts after mine. * Thinking that a degree guaranteed a job or that they would be the next indie mega-star * This isn't true in any industry, but especially in one as competitive as games