Quote: Original post by paulecoyote
A masters is just a year after all, and pretty academic. No one is going to be employed straight "at the top" of their profession without having some kind of commerical experience first. A masters will, no doubt, help you get your foot in the door and that's the most important thing. Getting a job, ANY job straight after finishing your course is crucial, because that academic qualification is only worth something a limited time after graduating before employees start noticing the lack of work in the area (or perhaps unemployment fullstop) over academic excellence.

I'm about to enter college, but I believe a masters is two years at most schools in America, unless there is an accelerated masters program such as at UIUC.

Quote: Original post by Obscure

Quote: Original post by EvilDecl81
FYI: Microsoft is very good at this, and will pay for the entire relocation. They like college grads very much.

I don't think a simple full stop (period) divides those two sentences sufficiently. I rather think they need to be much farther apart because some people might think they mean that Microsoft will pay to relocate grads with no industry experience. To get a work visa to the US you need to show you have skills that a local doesn't and for that you need to have a good deal of industry experience under your belt. Companies do pay to relocate staff and help with visa applications but only if you can satisfy US immigration that your skills can't be found locally.

AFAIK, for all new hires (for dev positions) at MS provides all relocation expenses, regardless of expeierence. More expereince gets you stock grants and sign on bonuses. The #1 school MS hires from is Waterloo (in Canada) (at least it used to be). Addmitantly, its a bit easier going to grad school in the US or Canada to get them to pay attnetion. But once you go through the interview, and they say 'hire', everything else is irrelevant - it will be taken care of. College graduates are WAY cheaper to relocate then industry veterens (becuase they usually don't have families, cars, and households to relocate)

I beleive the industry average for hiring a new employee is somewhere around 30-40k. That is, the total cost to get one employee hired The average starting salery in the US for a college graduate majored in CS is $50k. For someone who actually is good, its more like $75k. The game industry can be more abusive (among entry level), because people are willing to work for lower wages.

Quote: Original post by hplus0603

Quote: Will my degree be recognised in the US or will I have to take some tests or something for it to hold..?

If you're going into academia, or certain governmentally based organizations, then the actual transferrability or not of specific titles and credits may matter. If you want to work for a private sector company in the US, then any degree from any university is likely to "qualify" in the sense that your resume won't be discarded. Whether you actually learned anything, and whether you can actually work in a team and deliver the goods, is what determines whether you get hired, and whether you get retained.

Remember: many states in the US use at-will employment, which is not typically the case in Europe. This means that the employer can legally terminate your employment effective immediately for reasons such as not showing up, not delivering to plan, or not being a good team player. Whether a company WILL terminate your employment mostly has to do with your relation to your employer. Thus, paying careful attention to the specifics of your school may serve as a filter before the interview process, but the proof is, as they say, in the pudding.

However, I recommend that you don't embellish or lie on your resume. You should be prepared to back up anything and everything you put on there. Lieing on your resume is usually grounds for termination, and certainly grounds for not hiring you if it comes out before the contract is signed.

The biggest problem for you is probably going to be the green card / work visa.

So this means that my qualifications should hold for the games industry but it would be advisible to get at least some experience before thinking of rellocating I take it?

And I don't think I have to worry about lying on my CV,
My skill range is quite adequate at the moment and surely once I do get some experience then it should be even more so..
Plus lying on your CV is a criminal offence in the UK as far as i'm aware..

So if MS is good for handling relocation etc etc, would it be a good idea to trry and get some experience under the same companmy here in the UK? working for someone like Rare for example?
I assume it would help my cause even more slightly to do so, Am I correct in assuming this?

Quote: Original post by max621
I'm about to enter college, but I believe a masters is two years at most schools in America, unless there is an accelerated masters program such as at UIUC.

Granted it very well maybe but a masters over here in the UK in most fields is only a single yr of study.. (A heck of alot of work tho, but worth it in my oppinion)..

Quote: Original post by EvilDecl81
AFAIK, for all new hires (for dev positions) at MS provides all relocation expenses, regardless of expeierence. More expereince gets you stock grants and sign on bonuses. The #1 school MS hires from is Waterloo (in Canada) (at least it used to be).

You are talking Canada-US while the OP is UK-US. Canadians can stroll across the border to work without even showing a passport. UK residents require a work visa and as such need to satisfy immigration criterior that are way different.

Quote: Original post by ArchangelMorph
So this means that my qualifications should hold for the games industry but it would be advisible to get at least some experience before thinking of rellocating I take it?

So if MS is good for handling relocation etc etc, would it be a good idea to trry and get some experience under the same companmy here in the UK? working for someone like Rare for example?
I assume it would help my cause even more slightly to do so, Am I correct in assuming this?

Yes, that would certainly be a good way to go about it.

Quote: [
You are talking Canada-US while the OP is UK-US. Canadians can stroll across the border to work without even showing a passport. UK residents require a work visa and as such need to satisfy immigration criterior that are way different.

What on earth are you talking about? IS that what your impression is? AMERICANS need passports to reenter the US these days from a Canadian border (If you don't want to get a lengthy interrogation and background check). Canadians must have a work Visa just like anyone else. It is an enourmous paperwork task for a Canadian to work in the US. If they suspect you are entering to obtain work illegaly, you won't be let in the country. I actually know a person who have had an H1 visa who;s description didn't quite match what they were doing, and the border guards didn't let him in. E.G. the customs agent asked him what he did, and since what he said didn't quite match the description of the H1 visa, he was stuck in Canada for a few days while the lawyers dealt with it.

The paperwork to hire a Canadian in the US is signifigant, similar to any other country. A US company must do a number of things, For instance, it must demonstrate that it has attempted to fill the position with a US citizen, failed, and cannot otherwise fill the position with a qualified individual. Big companies have entire legal staffs dedicated to the paperwork crud.

Quote: Original post by Obscure
You are talking Canada-US while the OP is UK-US. Canadians can stroll across the border to work without even showing a passport. UK residents require a work visa and as such need to satisfy immigration criterior that are way different.

A little off topic, but I just wanted to clarify your statement. As a Canadian professional working the United States, I know that a work visa IS REQUIRED. Canadian workers are subject to the same immigration laws as are workers from other countries. The only difference is that certain Canadian professionals have the option to work under a TN visa (product of the North American Free Trade Agreement). While a TN visa may be faster or easier to get than other visas (such as H1B), a TN visa expires in 1 year, and you are deemed a non-resident alien while in the USA.

On a side note, the only time a visa/passport is not required for Canadians to enter the USA is if you are entering as a tourist. As a tourist, there is time limit as to how long you can remain in the country. However, it has become more difficult to be granted entry without a passport since Sept. 11.

We employ a Canadian. While it's true he needs the work visa, it's much easier to get it for him than it is for a general H1-B.

Quote: My skill range is quite adequate at the moment

For some reason, this statement reminds me of this paper. Don't know why, so don't take it as an insult, because it's not meant as one.

I think getting a job in the UK (or anywhere in Europe) at a company that has operations in the US is a great way to go about it. I've heard that it's often easier for companies to transfer in employees from foreign branches, than to hire someone from scratch.

Quote: Original post by hplus0603

Quote: My skill range is quite adequate at the moment

For some reason, this statement reminds me of this paper. Don't know why, so don't take it as an insult, because it's not meant as one.

I apologise if my statement sounding a little arrogant as I do realise that many before me have laid claims of the same without the relevant skills to back it up, purely due to ignorance as to what is actually required of them to work within that particular field..

But in my defence,
I've been asking the same questions ("what do u need to learn to become a games programmer and how can I get into the industry") and I've read thoroughly article after article on this topic, as well as recieved emails from many professionals in the industry as to how to develop myself to an "employable level"..

I'm not so arrogant to say "i'm the best programmer in the world and i'm sure to get hired when I graduate!".. But i'm pretty sure that i'm "adequately" meeting all the performance criteria required of someone with my goals and aspirations by the standards of those given to me by others already actively working in the field..

So unless i'm being globally lied to about what skills/programming experience I will need to be employable then I feel I was pretty much justified in making this statement..

Quote: I think getting a job in the UK (or anywhere in Europe) at a company that has operations in the US is a great way to go about it. I've heard that it's often easier for companies to transfer in employees from foreign branches, than to hire someone from scratch.

That's what I assumed pretty much.. Thanks for confirming it for me NEways! at least I kno i'm heading in the right direction..

Quote: Original post by hplus0603
We employ a Canadian. While it's true he needs the work visa, it's much easier to get it for him than it is for a general H1-B.

Quote: My skill range is quite adequate at the moment

For some reason, this statement reminds me of this paper. Don't know why, so don't take it as an insult, because it's not meant as one.

I think getting a job in the UK (or anywhere in Europe) at a company that has operations in the US is a great way to go about it. I've heard that it's often easier for companies to transfer in employees from foreign branches, than to hire someone from scratch.

According to the abstract, that paper applies to people in the bottom quartile, therefor probablly not applicable to almost anyone who visits these forums. And certainly not someone who has a college degree.