Right now I have a 3.8 overall GPA and a 4.0 GPA for my major (Computer Science). However I don''t know if I can maintain these numbers for the rest of college. How well do I need to do in college to have a good shot at getting a decent job in the game industry?

For the game industry I don''t think it matters what your GPA is. You just have to show them that you can do what they need in a new hire. Although having a good gpa will probably help if you can provide a killer demo, it is still secondary to the demo.

You GPA doesnt matter to Game developers. Just make sure you keep track of how many beers you drink. That's what really matters! LOL.

Just joking. Keep your GPA as high as you possibly can. Although the GPA may be a very big deal to Game Developers, it is a big deal in the business programming sector. So keep it high because you never know where you may eventually get a job.



[edited by - yspotua on March 8, 2003 8:36:31 PM]

Entry-level game programming jobs seem a little hard-to-come-by. So long as you keep it above 3.0, I do not think it will impact business world decisions.

The only company I know of that asks for GPA is nVidia, nobody in the gaming companies ever asked me for GPA. Still, keep it up. You might decide later in your life to go for MS or PhD then good GPA will payoff.

There are some companies who have way too many people applying for a job, so they have to find an easy way to thin-down the list. GPA is often used, but if you can get a company to review your ACTUAL skills, you don''t have to worry about GPA at all.

True Crime Story:

A big game company (one of the leaders in the arcade business) came to my university''s engineering job fair last month. I showed up with a kick ass game demo (no need for modesty, it''s just really good) and a song and dance about how I was the best game programmer on campus. I was enthusiastic, outgoing, energetic, engaging, and I asked all the right questions and gave all the right answers.

The guy I spoke with turned out to be the senior software engineer for the company. He really liked my game, and he was clearly impressed by the overal organization of the code (my commenting is perfection). A lot of their employees were hired right out of my university, too. Things looked well.

Then... then they asked to see my college transcript. I sent it, and haven''t heard so much as a peep from them since.

To put it plainly; I''m not a good student. I spend way too much time working on my own little game projects when I should be studying for my chemistry exams. No matter how impressive my demo may be, I still have to explain why I got a D in chemistry.

Of course, experienced programmers working in the industry can look past little mistakes like this; hell, we were all young crazy college-age kids once, but you''ve got to realize that 9 times out of 10 your resume is being glanced over by some middle-aged HR robot who doesn''t even play games, let alone run your demo.

In short: good grades can only help. Bad grades can only hurt.

( Although, if I spent all my time studying for stupid chemistry exams, I wouldn''t have been able to write that kick ass demo in the first place... )

LOL ... they cared about Chemistry?

Anyway, that sucks that you got "weeded out" by grades. That''s one of the most insulting things to have happen, IMO, when you know you have the skills for the job.

You''re right though... if you get good grades you will look even tastier to an employer who bothers to look.

FYI -- If I were hiring and were forced to look at GPA, I''d consider anything 3.5 and up to be "excellent". That''s just my opinion.

I have a similar story to Samrson, the company Lockheed and Martin ,not a gaming company, had came to the univeristy I was attending recruiting. You had to have like a 3.0 to signup for an interview, in which I did not have. I had ran into some horrible teachers in the math dept previously. I think some foreign teachers need to take a English Proficiency Test. My Cal 1 teacher mostly talked about how Americans where lazy and greedy and would chastise you if you got an answer wrong. Then he would give lessons in half English and Russian!!
Well I was lucky enough to get a 'D' but unfortunately that class was worth 5.0 credit hours and that hurt my gpa. Too make things worse I had this same teacher for Probability and Statistics 1!!

Back to the company, since I could not sign up for an interview I went to the company recruiters when they were free handed my resume and sold myself. The were impressed so they granted me an interview right there. I even gave them a link to my website where I host games (programs) I made. They were very impress with my website and my interview and 3 days later they called me to schedule to fly out to Cali for a second interview. Then the next day some one else called me talking about I did not meet the GPA requirement and canceled the interview. My advice is to try to keep atleast a 3.0 GPA and never stop learning.


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"There are ones that say they can and there are those who actually do."

"...u can not learn programming in a class, you have to learn it on your own."



[edited by - cMADsc on March 9, 2003 1:02:28 PM]

Another point is that even if you do get a job with a low GPA, it will almost certainly affect your starting salary.