Hiring is an *elimination* process. The name of the game is to stay in the 'maybe' pile all the way to the interview.

-- Getting through the first pass --
Think about the poor lad who needs to go through a big pile of resumes and cannot devote more than a minute to decide to put you in the maybe pile. Make it easy and put on a cover letter that includes a table that compares what they need (or you perceive as needed) and what you can do.

-- Getting through the second pass --
An HR coordinator or a development manager will go through the maybe pile and get 10 good resumes. They will be attentive to the first 1/2 page, and then their attention / motivation will decline after that. Make sure your punch is on this first 1/2 page, thus encouraging them to go further!! Think they will run the demo at this point? Hell no; there are better use of their precious time for this!

-- Interview --
That's a known drill. You will answer a lot of their questions and hopefully you will give them exactly what they want.

Want to know a killer trick to leave a good impression? How about borrowing a laptop for the interview day and *show* them what you have done? How about a powerpoint presentation about your demo that goes through the design and implementation details (5 slides MAX!)? Says a lot about your creativity and your organization and communication skills...

Wow, thanks for the awesome advice guys :) I wasn't expecting to get so much useful information out of this post. I see what you mean about the demo being pointless if the resume itself isn't good, so I'll work some more on making it shine.

Thanks again,
roos

great idea about the laptop and presentation anon poster, this would impress most ppl i think.

Just noticed that you are from IL Roos, did you know that there is a game dev company hiring in your own backyard?

Check out www.volition-inc.com

Thanks bit64 :) Yeah, actually I went to school at U of Illinois, so Volition is actually in the same town. It's one of those companies I was holding off on applying to until I have a better demo, I guess I'll just go ahead and apply now!

I'll add my two cents here.

A demo is a helpful thing, but we look for experienced people, even at the junior level. If you've done internships, make sure your resume reflects what kind of work you did during those internships, what your responsibilities were and what kind of team you worked with. We look for people who are good at communication, so a well written cover letter with a little write up about why you want to work for our company really helps. Make sure your resume is written to target the specific job you are applying from.

Additionally, we have a programmer test that every applicant must complete, from junior to senior. If the company has a take away test, make sure you spend enough time on it that your code is clear and concise. Don't rush it! But don't take too long either.

Best of luck!

What kind of 'demo' is this that it needs 2 more months when it's nearly complete? Sounds more like a whole game - could we see it maybe?

If you're that keen to finish the demo before applying for positions, maybe consider getting any job for a few months. Like barman, McDonalds, tech support. Something to give an income but with no pressure and not taking up too much time so you can work a lot on your demo - it'll probably presure you to work faster and get out of such a crappy job as well!

Quote: Original post by d000hg
What kind of 'demo' is this that it needs 2 more months when it's nearly complete? Sounds more like a whole game - could we see it maybe?

Oh whoops, that's not what I meant :) Here's what I said:

Quote: I mean, I have a game demo I can send to them, it shows some competence but it's not that great so I'd rather wait til my kickass demo is complete.

I'm not saying that the demo I'm currently working is almost complete, and that I'm going to continue working on it for 2 additional months.

What I'm saying is, I have a game I can send to companies as a demo right now, but it's not that impressive (2D). So, I am making *another* which is 3D, and it will take a couple of months to write from start to finish.

Sorry about that, didn't realize it could be taken that way.

roos

Hmm, well in that case I think I'd send what you have and apply now. Gave companies aren't going to wowed by the fact you can do 3D as much as that you made a game. Anyone can do 3D these days. It's useful to be able to answer questions on simple 3D maths, but they're not going to hire a noob as a 3D coder. You'll be working on lots of little bits and pieces most likely - fixing bugs, making minor changes, doing menus etc. They'll have dedicated 3D guys doing all that stuff. So if the game is fun and pretty complete use that.

Again: can we see it please?

Yeah that's a good point, that it's not like they're gonna let a noob loose in the deep nether regions of their graphics engine... I'd still like to have something a bit more impressive because as you'll see my old demo looks pretty gay, lol...

My 2d demo

It's based on an old NES game called "Adventures of Lolo"... It's kind of kiddy, and the rules of the game are a bit confusing though I have a tutorial mode so hopefully that makes it easier. It's nothing impressive which is why I want to make a better demo, though I have to admit I'm actually a bit proud of this because it's more addictive than you'd expect by looking at it.