I've been working as a software developer with my present employer for nearly six years. I started as a junior programmer. Now I'm the senior developer. And I'm bored. I've always been interested in games development; it's what got me interested in computers to begin with. I've just gotten a divorce and found that I have an extraordinary amount of free time. Not only this, but I'm not tied down to any specific region of the country. I'm free to go wherever I want. I was hoping some people who have made it "in" would be able to share the story about how they got hired to their first game developer job. Since I'm a programmer I'm really only interested in how you got a programming job, but I'm sure others wouldn't mind hearing about how you got your non-programming job to, as long as it pertains to game developlment. Did you create a "portfolio" of demos? Did you work on an open source project? Did you just send your resume with no prior gamedev experience? Sleeping with the bosses daughter/son? Sleeping with the boss? Anything.

worked on an engine demo for about a year at night while i worked at my dotcom job.
quit my dotcom job
moved to LA
spent 6months (and all my savings) working on the demo fulltime
for that whole 6mo, applied and re-applied to every developer in LA (and got friends to pass resumes to other friends who were in the industry)
got job 2 weeks before money ran out o.O

funtimes

-me

Got degrees in English and computer science (focusing on graphics). Built a portfolio of graphics demos. Did a presentation at SIGGRAPH. Got the first game programming job I applied for (see sig).

For my old job, first. Friend of a friend mentioned "Hey, I know someone who knows someone who's looking to publish indie games." After a short discussion over the web, I was provided with a library, a team (pixel artist, sound and music composer), development tools and forums to work on my own game. Nine months later, our team delivered the package, and the publisher tested, sent out for reviewing, copy-protected and set up the downloading area and advertising (in less than a week). And sent sales money our way.

My current job involved passing an examination with thousands of candidates, with only a few dozen were selected (only 8 in computer science). But my job is being a student, and I'm being paid by the french state for studying.

My previous manager moved to a new company and asked me if I wanted to come.

I had a C++ non-game programming job writing software for chemical engineers. I was looking for another job and there was a small game contracting company (a game programming guru/owner and a few employees) in the same building. I sent him a resume, called him a few days later to follow up, we had lunch, nothing happened then, I kept mentioning that I was still interested when I ran into him, and a few months later he interviewed me again and offered me a job.

A few additional points from my experience:

Games were also the 1st kind of programming I was interested in as an amateur.

This game job was about the only job I've ever got by sending a resume cold when the employer wasn't advertising a job.

This game job was one of the most *un-creative* and unpleasant jobs I've ever had. Even though I was an experienced programmer, I was a beginner *game* programmer and an outsider to this well-gelled game team, and treated as such. IMO, the appreciation you get from the people you work with is worth lots more than the coolness of the product you're working on. Game dev culture is different that other software dev cultures, so try to understand what you're getting into and whether it's what you really want.

I'm working on a large team in a big gaming company that's desperate for developers. They want experienced gamed developers but they'll take good, smart, experienced general programmers.

When I started, I also got the boring work because I was "inexperienced". At the same time, half the time I can't even compile or run the game. And testing....what's that??? So it's sometimes very frustrating.

It really is a totally different culture from a normal development environment. It's continually stressed chaos. Processes (or lack of them) that simply wouldn't work in any other environment work just because people put ALL their time and energy into building THE GAME.

The place I work is extremely cool, the game is cutting edge, and the people are super-smart and extremely-passionate. But in the end, for me, I don't know whether it's all worth it. I'm still deciding.

If it's a childhood dream and you're tough and can take a beating, then I say give it a go. But expect it to be tough and expect to have to push hard for any ounce of respect.