Dealing with Staffing Agencies (aka Contract Work)

The current trend of the video game industry is to be hired on a contractual basis. These are usually shorter contracts, ranging from six months to one year, although I have seen laughable contracts for only three months. My first advice to you, is that you are offered a short-term contract like this, and you already have a little bit of experience, then ask if it can be extended and wait. Sometimes, waiting silently is your best negotiation tactic. Many times studios may not contact you back anyway, so it's better to at least ask for the possibility of a lengthened contract than to quickly accept whatever they throw at you.

It seems that all staffing agencies are in the business of low-balling potential employees, and employees are expected to negotiate up from there. Just like when HR at a company would give you a fairly low figure just to see if you'll take it, but they are fully willing to increase that amount at least by $5,000. I had a three month contract pitched at me, unexpectedly, by a highly positioned recruiter for EA. I asked if it could be extended, and didn't think anymore of it. I thought that the person would be turned off or not want to contact me again, and I wasn't serious enough to go for a three month contract anyway. About a week or two later they got back to me, saying that it could be extended for one year. I didn't end up taking th
e job after goring through the interview, but it was comforting seeing that with such little work such a huge benefit can be had in the realm of your career, financial planning, and future lifestyle. Most people may be to prideful or shy to ask for such a thing, but this is what they are counting on to extort you for more money that should have been yours. A large amount of effort must be made on your part to change gears to a new job, especially if it requires relocation. This is why most recruiters don't bother pitching these short term contracts to candidates who are not already local.

This brings up another good point: it is probably wasting your time to talk to an agency recruiter if you are not local. They will be much more serious if you are local and will be scouting for positions specifically in that area, because they are local themselves. There is not a type of agency who can just hire someone from different cities and pass them new opportunities that way, although a big company such as EA can hire in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco, but probably are not willing to search for jobs as far as Seattle or Austin, even-though they have the capacity to do so. They would rather pass you to another recruiter, who is actually local to that city, at that point.

When recruiting agencies send you a comp, or quote, of your salary and contract length, this is not set in stone. I recently signed a contract with Microsoft, and the contract terms and title of the position literally changed three times in a matter of a couple of weeks. Don't think you can't negotiate or walk out on the contract because the agency will definitely make it feel like everything is official and that you are employed, before you even get a green light from the actual parent company that they are soliciting you for. This is also good to keep in mind so that you do not get your hopes up when you keep talking to a recruiter and they sound positive about the outcome, because what they think or feel doesn't really matter until the actual game studio wants you. I would still keep in touch and call them around once per week, just in case they are not diligent about checking in with the parent studio. This will also show interest on your part and be communicated through the recruiters check-up attempts with the studio.

A colleague of mine, who is familiar with the contract lifestyle and has been on one year contracts for the last five years, for the same studio, informed me that when he gets hired each time he positions competing staffing agencies against each other. He does this by getting a figure from one and then letting the other know about the offer, and seeing if they will match it. Some agencies value benefits more and other prioritize salary more. The benefits will be harder to compare and is a little more obscure, so he chooses the agency that will offer the higher salary figure. This is a good strategy and shows that even if you are dealing with one agency, primarily, it's never to late to shop around. Since I was local to Microsoft, I was getting inquires from different staffing agencies throughout the process of talking with one main one, because they must have automated search features and aggressively search for local talent when a position first goes live.

Contract work seems like it is here to stay, and is the new level of intern for people who are actually experienced. Once you successfully endure the test of the contract, you may have a chance for full time employment, but the most usually reward for good work seems to be an invitation back to the same studio with a new contract. I hope that everyone is contacting staffing agents or at least realizing that this is the process you will have to deal with, that way you won't be annoyed with how convoluted it is...because it is convoluted.

Happy contracting,
Ken

A Must Read Blog About the Hiring Procol in Game Development

It seems hard to find information about what video game studios are looking for, on the internet. The industry is fairly hush-hush and it seems that every single one has their own opinion on what they are looking for or who is the perfect candidate. There are a few people who have twitter accounts and may share occasional helpful advice, but it is not concentrated into one webpage with updates that are relevant to truly getting you hired. Well, it seems that from all the studios, Insomniac seems to be the most vocal with this information.

If you would like to see what I'm talking about, visit http://www.insomniacgames.com/category/bakers-dozen/. It has a ton of helpful posts from the HR manager at one of the industries biggest and respected studios. Her name is Angela Baker and she has been with the company for nearly eight years. What she says has a lot of merit to it. One issue I have found is that she is a bit opinionated and some of the advice she tells you may not apply to smaller or more casual studios, but nonetheless it is important to get a view of how professional HR managers really think. HR is supposed to be the most non-biased department and serve as a neutral party in selecting candidates based on their personality and how it aligns with those of the others who already work at the studio. They also want someone who is going to be cooperative, even borderline submissive, to know that the teams there can count on the individual to get the maximum amount of work done and create harmony among their coworkers.

Even if you are not specifically interested in working at Insomniac, it is important to note that they have been voted the best video game company to work for a couple of times and they have an ongoing reputation for fun and good work culture among industry professionals. I have never heard anyone with anything bad to stay about the studio, and that's hard to find for any studio. Go ahead and give this blog a read and hopefully you will be more empowered by the information and also know some more subtle strategies that can help you to ace your interviewing game.

-Ken

Want to Have Recruiters Approaching You With Job Openings? Optimize Your Resume!

I have been doing a few small tweaks here and there to my resume, and eventually came across a link for a website that turned out to do what far too many services cannot: it delivered on it's promise. And, it's free! Want to know what the website was? Hold on just a second...I will tell you a little bit about what it can do for you and how to use it, first.

If you have ever submitted your resume online, you must know that for studio after studio, you are required to enter your work history and skills and basically input your resume each time. But, if your resume is not what they are looking for each time, you may be doing a senseless amount of work for nothing.

Are you tired of posting your resume on job boards like monster.com, indeed.com, glassdoor.com, and gamaustra.com? Did you know that when HR managers and recruiters are searching these sites, they are not actually hand-selecting you? Just like everything else in this world, "there is an app for that." They actually have technology now that allows them to scan specific keywords in all online resumes and sort out candidates that are the most congruent with the job that they are seeking to fill. Does a recruiter know what a an RPG Quest Designer does? Do they care? Most of the time, the answer is "no." They are seeking to fill tons of open positions that are all different and require highly specialized skill sets that are always changing. They may be representing 3 to a handful of clients that are providing them with new jobs (clients meaning individual game studios that are all different and require different skills for the jobs of the same title). The recruiter may know about some basic buzzwords for skills here and there, and to be able to spot basic talent in a portfolio. Their major crutch is using keywords in a resume, though. So, what should you do? Cater your resume to exactly what they are looking for!

Say that you have three job listings for a Junior Programmer at three AAA that you crave to work for. You can have your own software scan the job listings, individually, and pinpoint the keywords that are used the most. These are the ones that you want to absolutely have in your resume. Once you have scanned three job postings, you will begin to notice a trend forming and can target the phrases you use to cater to the broadest range of job listings by focusing on key words that are shared between all of the listings. From there, you can pick and choose more obscure descriptive words that you would like to have in your resume, even if not all of your dream employers share them. So, let's say that for a Junior programmer the top keywords for job listings are: "Problem-solving, C++, Team-player, Object oriented programming." You should add these to your resume somewhere: either under a description of a previous work experience, or to a skills and accomplishments section. Make sure that if the phrase has a hyphen, then your keyword has a hyphen, rather than separating the phrase into two separate words (you should use "problem-solving" instead of "problem" solving"). Now, when your resume is searched, it will propel to the top of recruiters' list and you will most likely be getting a LinkedIn connection request with some details about a job they have for your department of expertise (as this seems to be the usual method of communication for recruiters).

If you don't believe how important keywords are to your resume, just take my recent experience as proof: When I updated my resume I was contacted by a new recruiter about a position with 343 Studios in Kirkland, WA, a day later! Additionally, when you are interviewing for a job over the phone or in person, it's good to memorize the key words of the job listing, as interviewers love hearing the exact words they are looking for communicated back to them. They won't know that you studied their job listing, as they are subconsciously going through a checklist in their mind to make sure you are a good fit for the position, and all of those keywords match the position exactly. Chances are that the job listing was written by someone else on the team or that the interviewer has not seen the exact text in a while, so won't realize that you sound too perfect, anyway. And, who doesn't love "too perfect?"

Here is the website that can help you to start getting contacted by recruiters:

http://www.jobscan.co/

Now, I know that a lot of you are thinking: "I never get any help from recruiters and they are usually useless to my job search, so why would I want to attract them?" That is a good question. Most of these advances from recruiters will be futile and you will end up as jobless as before. But, when you edit your "copy" in such a way that it can sell to anyone, recruiters will take notice. Being contacted by recruiters is a sign that your resume is good and that it will pass the stress test of sending to HR departments and will be rock-solid during interviews. Try the site out and see if it helps you. It is never bad to keep improving your marketability and broadening your reputation. This one trick may be the difference between you being invited to interview and being ignored.

-Ken

Perception is Everything in Your Portfolio

Since interviewers are increasingly becoming non-social, they want to read who you are upfront and basically stalk you before they even give you a chance to talk to them in person for an interview. What this means is that they are going to read what you show online with your portfolio and resume to figure out an idea of who they think you are, even if it is incorrect. This is why you can't give them any wiggle room and must align what you show with exactly what type of project you want to be working on.

Most applications will be to big AAA studios, who's motto for employees is "specialization, specialization, specialization." They don't care how well-rounded you are, as long as you are the best in a given department or niche skill that they need at their studio. Therefore, if you show off some other work that you really worked hard on and is part of your previous work history and it's impressive work: if it is not what they do at their studio, it will actually hurt you more than help you. For example, if you have worked on stylized games or casual games in the past but have always been more interested in realism and First Person Shooters, and do nothing but realistic work in your spare time, if your prospective employer sees this they will think that you like more stylized work and that you won't be able to keep up in the more realistic environment of their workplace. It is like fighting an uphill battle to argue otherwise. Especially since the person reviewing your website is judging you based solely on what they see online, after all.

What to do about this? You don't want to erase that hard earned work in case someone at a small startup wants to see it, or you happen to need a job so you take a stylized position for the time being. What you can do is setup two separate websites: one for one particular style and another for the other style. This is a lot of work, but at the end of the day this may be one of the smallest and last steps that is preventing you from getting the job of your dreams. So, even if you don't want to setup two separate websites--using the same template of course and just replacing the content--you should at least remove the type of genre that you would least prefer working on, and focus on targeting studios who work on the genre that you'd most enjoy working on. The old adage "less is more" works in your favor, here. I've seen rockstar professionals such as those working for 343 Industries on Halo with only about five unique pieces in their portfolio. Check out this website for an example: http://www.timdiaz3d.com/. Some job listings may say they want 10-15 pieces, but if someone like that can get away with it, anyone can. In reality, 4-6 really good pieces is more than enough.

So if you have worked on it all in the past, just make sure to not highlight that in your portfolio. An interviewer will judge you based on your last work and also whatever the first piece is on your portfolio. Don't give them a reason to doubt your interest in their studio or your compatibility with the job. There are more important things to worry about!

-Ken

Make Sure Not to Make this Simple Mistake when Accepting a Job Offer

Recently I applied to a new job and everything went really smoothly--which is often not common in an interview and hiring process. I sent in my application to a start-up studio, had a Skype interview with, what seemed to be, the whole art team, and they got back to me a few days later with a job offer. Unfortunately, the offer was lower than I expected for the area (the job was in Los Angeles). I used the tactic that I teach: negotiating the salary after the offer had already be granted. As a side note: it seems that most negotiations and offers are given through email these days, whereas in the past I spoke directly with an HR manager about the job details. I interpret this as a tactic to make the offer seem more set in stone and that there is no room for interpretation: like when a car dealership brings you a print-out of the comp of the final price of a car you are looking at. Here's a secret: that is not the final price! The car salesperson can make another print out and the HR manager can edit the pdf document that your offer is neatly sent in. Also, the deadline of the offer was about one week. I have not yet witnessed a formal deadline for an offer letter.

I told the HR manager that the salary was low for my original range that I quoted. As those of you that have been applying for jobs and speaking with HR managers know, one of the first questions they ask you during their very first contact with you is what salary range you are looking to make. You should definitely give a range and definitely research on glassdoor.com beforehand. HR practically expects you to know what others in your field are making, even though once you are at the job they try everything they can to restrict employees from comparing salaries with each other. Thus, it's a double standard and I would fret talking to others about salary, just do it smartly as not to cause animosity between you and them. The best method is to get close to that person, first, as a friend, and don't pop the question until you feel they are ready. This is almost like asking about marriage (for some people it is really serious). Alas, I have deviated, though. The point is that HR tried to low-ball me by not even respecting my original salary range that I quoted them.

They responded with a counter offer that was $5,000 more than the original. Not bad. I would have been comfortable with that offer, but I wanted to see if I could get even more from them. So I let them know that I had been making more than that current figure at my current job, which is in a less-expensive area than Los Angeles. She got back to me with a final offer for the same figure that I was making.

The overall problem with this transaction was that I was out of the country at the time and was not checking email as frequently as I would have, as I didn't want to spend the out of country charge for my phone provider's data plan. I ended up accepting the offer the day of the deadline. I thought I had been in the clear as I didn't know that the deadline had a time that was early in the afternoon. It turns out that I was a couple of hours past the expiration. I couldn't believe it, obviously HR was turned off by me taking time to respond to their emails from being out of the country, and felt that responding too late in the last email was the last straw. I tried reasoning with her and letting her know I had been out of the country, but with no luck.

I have completed numerous art tests before and had been late with my submissions, and everything had been fine, but this is the first time I've experienced being late with a deadline that actually had consequences. The moral of the story is to try and be on time during the application process, for all aspects (especially when accepting the offer). If you expect being late, at least send the HR manager an email update to let them know you will be a bit late. I have done this recently for an art test with another studio, where I knew that they absolutely wanted the test on-time, and have had luck with it. HR is super-sensitive as to personal behavior and demeanor for each of the many job candidates they are juggling on a daily basis. So, make sure to be on your "Sunday best" and don't give them a reason to be upset with you. I wanted to share this story with everyone so that you don't end up making the same mistake.

-Ken

Unwritten Code for Keeping Your Name in the Credits of a Game

"Shipping a title" could be construed as actually having played a part in any part of the development for a game that gets released publicly. So, for instance, if you had started the project in it's beginning and concept phases, were working full time for most of the project, and left near the end, you should be granted your name in the credits, right? Not exactly.

In fact, there are a lot of politics that dictate who's names get put into the credits and where. So, like the above example, you would more likely be put into a "Special Thanks" section near the end of the credits, rather than with the members of the team who served until the end of the project.

A professor in school used to frequently remind students that if you leave a studio before a project is finished, then it is considered a "kiss of death." This may not be as relevant today as in the past, as there are many more contract and short-term positions on a team and studios know that their employees may leave to other, more secure opportunities. It may still not be the best etiquette, so instead of having your name blacklisted you may just not get credited as highly on a project as you would have liked.

At the end of the day it's just a title and doesn't mean much to anyway as it does to your own personal satisfaction. There was an intern that I worked with at the beginning of my career who's name was removed altogether from the credits of a game because the team did not like him and he didn't speak up for himself because he was shy. He found out about it by buying his own personal copy of the game to finish at home and did not see his name anywhere. He was so infuriated that he sent his ex-lead a nasty email about how it was unfair and how wrong the lead was, etc. This may have ended up being a career-threatening move, although the said person has since been able to find work albeit probably not as easily as he might otherwise encountered. Therefore, it's not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. The reputation you leave imprinted on your colleagues' memories is far more important than where your name is positioned in the credits.

If you did happen to want your name in a good spot in the credits, the best strategy is to stay on until the credits assignments are being decided, which is usually a few months until the completion of production. If you are hired to help finish a project--at the end--then you should be a shoe-in. You should advertise yourself by the games you've shipped, which basically means games you've worked on that were publicly released. So, if you were only on a project for a 9 month contract and didn't end up staying until the exact end of the game, then you are fine counting this as a shipped title on your resume.

-Ken

Monumental Book Price Drop!

I've got great news! I know that April fools day just happened but I'm not fooling about this update: How to get a Job in Video Games has just had a massive price drop. The book was $20.85 and now has dropped to $14.50 on Amazon. That is a savings of 30%.

The book has been selling much better than expected and the publisher has decided to celebrate by offering the book to a larger audience and keep the momentum going! Don't mess around and there is no reason to not start taking your career progression seriously. If you like the information on my blog then you will be blown away by the increased breadth of knowledge that is packed into each powerful page.

Go forth and conquer your dreams.

How to Get a Job in Video Games - Buy on Amazon

Punctuality is Important!

Punctuality is something that is important to any industry. It seems a little more lenient in the video game industry, though, because there are usually core hours from 10AM-4PM: this means that you can get in any time before 10AM as long as you stay until at least 4PM. Well, from my experience a majority of employees at game studios usually opt for the later option, arriving a few minutes before or after 10AM.

If you want to make a good impression and give the boss/studio less reason to fire you, then make sure that you arrive on time, every time. In fact, it's better to get to the studio early just in case you have car trouble or have to deal with unexpected events such as traffic. I usually aim to get in around 9AM or 9:30AM, and I fill this into my time sheet accordingly (for contract positions. For full time, you don't have to worry about filling in a time sheet but will still want to get in on time). If you think it doesn't matter if you're only 10 or 15 minutes late, just consider this: the more times you are late, the more you're branded at the "late guy (or girl)." This will negatively impact the way the boss or your colleagues think of you. If there are others that get in late also, then it won't be so bad, but imagine if everyone else gets to the office at least an hour early: they are going to think that you are a major slacker! It doesn't even matter if you get your work done on time and do a good job, because it's more a matter of respect and that you don't take your job seriously while they are having to show up at the same time every day.

If, though, you end up running late--as I have on a few occasions--the time you get to work is all about perception, the time that you are at your desk is the time that you got in, according to your colleagues and lead. It doesn't matter if you got to the office 30 minutes early and then took a bathroom stop and then went to the kitchen to make breakfast and schmooze with some coworkers. If you got to your desk 10 minutes late, nobody will have guessed that you were actually at the office the whole time. It doesn't matter to them. You are late in their opinion.

So, here is the trick: make sure to show up to your desk first. Even if you have to go to the bathroom really bad, stop by your desk and log into your computer. Your coworkers will notice your presence. Get your morning sync or whatever quick tools opened that you usually do. This way, you can have an automated process running in the background while you are multitasking/going to the bathroom. Now, you can lock your computer and run to the sanitation facilities and allow nature to take its course. This also works with making breakfast or running a quick errand away from your desk, and especially is important if you are indeed running a few minutes late. Five or more minutes late is not considered bad, but each minute after that makes it exponentially a more serious case, especially if it's after 15 minutes.

I used to have an art director that would have morning meetings at exactly 10AM in the morning and note the people that were late and have a conversation at their desk to find out why they were late. Basically, he was peer-pressuring people to show up on time. If you are late enough to something like that more than a few times then you will never want to be late again. Another office manager at the first studio I worked for, Vigil Games, used to walk around and make sure that people were at their desks on time. This was especially true for contractors. I'm sure he had some excel document that he used to complain to the person's lead when they showed up late. So, if you don't think people are not noticing your lateness, you are dead wrong.

There is enough politics and stress and deadlines at work, so make sure to have one less thing to worry about by showing up to work on time. That especially means looking like you at work on time, also.

-Ken

Awesome Job Listings Email Notification Setup

I am not sure if I have covered this before, but if you head over to CreativeJobsCentral.com you will find a wealth of free job listings at your disposal. The website itself is a bit intimidating, as it has a bunch of paid plans that it wants you to sign up for and also, once you do click on a job listing, it asks you to switch to a paid subscription in order to get the job details and apply. To make it easier for you, I've included the email alert sign up link here: http://www.creativejobscentral.com/seeker/job-alerts/create_unpaid.php?e=

Here is the strategy I use:

1. Setup an email alert subscription for your desired state (or, you can leave this flexible and have it display all jobs, if you prefer).
2. You will get emails daily. If you find a job you like, click on the link to see if you're a good match. 
3. Now, instead of having to pay to apply for the job: Go to the actual game studio's official website and navigate to their jobs page. This website is always the source of new jobs and should always have any listings that are found on external job gathering sites such as CreativeJobsCentral. You will also probably find that the application process is handled by email the HR manager. I find this more personal, as you can add a description about yourself and show your enthusiasm for working for the studio in your brief introduction email, instead of having a stale resume entry form with no customization allowed.

I would also recommend setting up an account with glassdoor.com. Once done, you can add job alerts by going to:

• My Accounts>Job Alerts>Create Job Alert. 
• Enter your job title in the search bar and click "search" (leave the location blank so you can get the full gambit of job results). 
• Use the filters column on the left to narrow the results (I would just leave it as broad as possible, so "freshness" is set to all and "All job types" enabled.
• Click on "Create Job Alert." It will notify you that your alert has been created.
• Go back to My Accounts>Job Alerts. Now, you can click "edit" to fine tune your result (somehow mine picked my geographical city location even though I left the city blank. It looks like you can only add one city at a time, and I'm guessing it will find surrounding cities of that city also. For the best results, I would repeat the process to setup multiple template alerts and then set major game development city HUBs that are spread far away throughout the country. Ex: Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin, Boston).

Happy hunting!
-Ken

Dealing with People Well is One of the Most Important Characteristics You Can Have

Read this book, and if you practice its principles it will change your life: How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. It is the same course that Warren Buffet took when he was twenty years old and he still has the certificate of passing the course on his office wall.

The reason that this book is so powerful is because it teaches you profound ways of dealing with people that you won't learn in school because it's generally something personal and each person goes about it their own way. Having the talent to know how to be somebody that everyone works well with and that is known for having other people want to do good work when you request something from them is something that cannot be measured in value but will prove results and look favorably on your record. I know, the game industry is labeled as one where people are anti-social and don't need to have good interpersonal skills, but it actually matters a lot--especially now that studios are growing in overall size and the diversity of backgrounds and personalities is more varied than it has ever been.

Take this, for an example: a powerful designer at my current studio, whom I work closely with, has a knack for being sarcastic and not treating coworkers with the most respect when requesting a new task or disciplining someone who has broken a design feature with their art. I have a pretty thick spine but sometimes the way this particular designer handles things instantly makes me want to respond in turn with more negativity and sarcasm and standing firm for my own position in the argument. A few times I have typed up email responses to him, because most of his crude remarks are sent through mass emails, only to not send them and feel better afterward. This is a good learning lesson for all: never make a quick decision in the heat of the moment and speak your mind. It may feel like justice at the time, but really it will make things more difficult with you and that person and possibly get you on a "bad employee" list with your boss or other influential people at the studio.

The way I have chosen to deal with him, in person, is by being extremely courteous and understanding. I may not agree with the way he communicates but he's usually right in his requests because it's a well known fact that the design is the most important factor to get right in a game and if I don't want to serve as a road block to having the designer make the design better. What the book How to Influence Friends and Influence People constantly states is to see the situation from the other person's point of view and have compassion for their decision or argument. Especially in a situation like mine, where I am an artist and newer to the studio, it pays for me to get along with everyone and to not burn any bridges.

Your reputation really does precede you, and wherever you go in your career will be determined by how good your reputation is. Your reputation, in turn, is formed by your ability to constantly handle tasks and how you work in a team. Every studio wants you to be a team player, no matter how good you are. So, swallow your pride and even if someone may not be treating you with the respect you feel you deserve, the only way to get them to treat you better is by being friendly and welcoming to them. You get what you give, and if you are mean back to them then they will only be fueled to be even meaner and then you will regret going to work each day just because you don't like that person so much. I've seen people on teams who literally can't get along with anyone, and those are always the people who have the hardest time getting a new job and also have to settle for the least desired jobs.

So, if you want to instantly improve your career and the success you will have in the future, you will need to improve your personality and the interactions you have with everyone in life. If you get the audio book version of Dale Carnegie's book, it is super-motivating and great to listen to while you are working on that portfolio to have an even better chance of a promotion or new job! Too many people focus on their talent for producing work only, and overlook the importance of improving their personality as well. Especially in the interview, having a pleasing personality is going to separate you from the competition. So, I am telling you to not overlook what everyone else is and hopefully you will find that opportunities come easier than they used to for you!

-Ken

Want to Get the Work You Like? Better Start Updating Your Portfolio.

A common issue that I have found in being a game developer is that when you are brought on to a new project you expect to be working on all sorts of new types of work that you are not used to but you would like to have a chance at creating. This is a problematic mindset, since most of the time when you are brought onto a project the game is pretty far along and the types of work is segmented and more specialized. This is why if you "typecast" yourself (a term used in the film industry for actors that cannot break out of the same style of character in every movie they appear in), make sure it is something that you enjoy.

For instance, when an artist with a lot of experience from San Diego moved here to WB Games in Kirkland, he already had a ton of work creating terrain and natural geographical elements. I remember talking to him when he was first hired and he commented: "this project is so big that I am excited to be able to work on a lot of different aspects of the game, not just terrain." At the time he was working on terrain and he figured he'd be able to transition into something more varied once that line of work was completed. Well, it has been more than a half of year now and guess what? He's still doing terrain! I hate to say that I saw that one coming the moment I was talking to him, but didn't want to kill the mood. He is just so proficient and knowledgeable in creating convincing and high quality looking terrains that it was obvious that the Lead Artist hired him to be able to make the terrain in the game to a better quality level.

A few years ago I was looking at the portfolio of some artists in the credit of the Alone in the Dark game (which was about the fourth or fifth in the series but used the same name as the original. Tomb Raider, anyone? Seriously, why do companies do this to confuse people?). I had noticed one portfolio in particular which was a character or technical artist who showcased some bruising and tearing skin models to show that they were well equipped with creating zombie-like creatures that had a bunch of torn flesh. Well, as you can imagine by now that it was a big factor in the game to have the monsters have real-time wounds based on the area of your attack. It was like they must have hired the guy just because he had something that they wanted and that they did not want to take the time to learn, so it was cheaper to pay for his salary than training someone or building new technology for it. This is the same as Hollywood: they would rather pay an actual ballerina and have them in dancing shots instead of taking the time to train the actress into how to dance Ballet. This is not the case in Black Swan, as Natalie Portmen actual did train herself. Most projects don't go through this much effort so they would rather pay a stunt driver that specializes in doing barrel rolls for a scene that would call for a barrel roll, instead of paying a professional skydiver who just happens to do some stunt driving on the side.

The lesson here is that once you are in a project and time is of the essence, you are not going to have a lot of time to learn new tricks and skills, so you will almost undoubtedly work on the same type of work that you have in your portfolio. Do you create a lot of sci fi spaceships? You will be most desirable to a sci fi space-themed project. Are you designs for fantasy MMORPG's? You probably won't have much luck applying to a studio that does first person shooters, even if you have a couple of designs for first person levels but it is not your focus or you are not the strongest in it.

So if you are tired of always working on the same thing on different projects then make sure to go back to the "lab" and create some impressive showpieces in your portfolio that are the type of work that you would like to transition to. You can even put them as the priority, at the top of your site, and eventually phase out your old work if you do enough new stuff.

Trust me, at least being able to work on the type of work you interest you at home, even if you don't immediately get hired at a studio for that work, will make you a happier employee all around. If you indeed land a new job then that's icing on the cake. So, instead of complaining at your current job and hoping for something better, take some action at home and control your own destiny instead of letting someone else control it for you.

-Ken

Act Now, Apologize Later

Recently, we have been getting closer to finishing a project and I have been noticing more and more that the Rockstars on the team are those that do what they want regardless of what their peers aka coworkers think. For instance, if you are constantly given tasks that feel under-rated and lower-profile then there is a likeliness that you will continue to be given those types of tasks unless you take initiative.

The best method of doing this is finding an area of the game that you feel you can specifically, significantly improve that is a major aspect of the game and also requires the type of skill that a more senior developer would have. You know yourself that you can handle this type of work but maybe you do not have much of it in your portfolio. This would be Zbrush/sculpting work for artists and more high-level scripting for level designers. These are usually seen as the "cool," "portfolio," and more respected jobs.Point out this to your lead or senior developer that you work with, and tell them that you would like to take on that task. They may be a little hesitant at first, but from this point on you should constantly have confidence and reassure them that it's going to get done and be good work. Take your time and make sure you do actually do a good job, and expect some naysayers /hating from other developers if they haven't been issued those types of tasks themselves.

This can be a risky maneuver, because if you under-perform then you will build an instant reputation of not being the most skilled and wasting production time. This is especially true if it is later on in the project, which is when most new developers like yourself will be being brought onto a project. So, make sure that it is something you can handle, first. It is like in the movie Three Ninjas, where the sensei says: "Never fight unless you know you can win." If you find yourself in over your head, do not give up but go home and cram the necessary information to be able to get you by, by searching online forums and tutorials. But, if you are able to achieve success then your reputation will be boosted and there is likelihood that you will be trusted with more high profile tasks in the future. It is a snowball effect.

Many studios will be testing you the moment you join a team, progressively giving you more advanced tasks and "capping" you at a level that they find that you are comfortable with. But, to be honest many studios are bringing in a slew of devs at the end of the project to get all of the tedious work finished and save the more juicy stuff for the senior and more established developers at the studio. So, if you want to break out of the grind you're going to have to try and pull off a tactic like this.

This method is known as "Act now, apologize later." If you know what you're doing is right and can get something accomplished, others may not be able to see the end result and may not have faith in you, so they will give you resistance at first and may even be annoyed with your aggressive and quick-moving style. But, if you prove them wrong and get the job done and do it well, you can "apologize" and at that point they will not care that you stepped outside of your bounds because they love your result so much. If you mess up then you will still be apologizing, but the apology will probably not be accepted.

-Ken

Video Game Studio Career Day at Your School

If you happen to be in school right now and are majoring in a game development degree, then you will probably notice that you will have some events where some major industry studios will come to visit your school. Usually, the better location and prestige your school is in means the better and more frequent the visits from major developers. I would strongly suggest that you attend these career functions, whether they be a presentation, mock job interviews, or some sort of career fare.

When you are in the midst of the industry insiders, I recommend that you talk to each and every one of them--even if you are shy. You may never know what sort of opportunities a simple connection like that may foster in the future. If you are at a career fare, talk to the person as long as you possibly can to show that you are really interested in learning and also to get some quality feedback about your portfolio. Ask tons of questions about their studio, and not just the easy-to-answer and frequently asked ones.

I will admit, that usually at these functions only the human resources department will be present so you may not get any quality bonding with actual developers. HR is the gatekeeper that prevents pesky and needy students from talking the ears off of normal industry professionals. But, I have been at career fares before, back when I was in school, and was able to talk to an Art Director and some other developers of other studios. I followed up with the Art Director and he remembered me--it almost got me an internship at the time. So, make sure you are making the most of networking and showing your work and getting real feedback, as you may not get many chances to see what the actual industry thinks of your work.

Even if HR is the only one present at this career day and it seems more like a marketing effort and sales pitch about how awesome their studio is, try to get on the inside: ask your professors if you can meet the representatives outside of the normal presentation. After the presentation, go up and introduce yourself personally. This is all the more reason to have polished your portfolio beforehand and print out your own business cards. Even though you may think that HR is generally uninterested and can't really help answer many technical questions you have, the most important aspect of a conversation with them is to be polite and friendly. They are masters at analyzing people and this is mainly based on their behavior. You want to look the part and act the part. Make sure you seem like someone who would be employed at the studio and, by being polite, you are showing them that you will be able to handle the stress of every day life at the job and also will be able to get along peacefully with other developers. You'd be surprised how important this is. There is still a general misconception that all that matters is your work, when developing video games, and that you can be as shy and introverted as you want. That's what separates it from a typical jobs in sales or business, right? Well, there seem to still be a good portion of shy introverts in the industry but they seem to be a dying generation. If you are shy, that's okay--it is being unwelcoming or uninterested in the other person, or feeling entitled, that becomes the problem. So, make sure to "be yourself" on max-friendliness and max-extroversion. Give HR your business card and it may eventually get back to the developers and then you'll be getting contacted for an interview!

-Ken