I was reading a career guide for video game careers I found at game crazy a while ago. One suggestion for gaining real world experience is offering to work for free. It sounds like a good idea to me. If there are unpaid positions available for programmers or even QA testers, that would be nice. In fact, any position would be great. I've been told time after time that experience is one of your most highly valued assets. I'm assuming that when applying for an unpaid position that it's just like applying for a paid one. These were the steps I planned to take to find such a job. 1. Get my portfolio works, demos w/ source code, etc. ready, organized and presentable. Assuming they want to see some of my previous works and experiences. 2. Update and polish up my resume and cover letter so hopefully they will see how serious I am about this. 3. Call the company I'm applying for on the phone (or should I go up there in person?) and ask about working in an unpaid position. That's the basics of the plan there. Do you think that would work? Or should I try some different approaches? I'm really serious about getting my career together so that I can get into the biz for myself with confidence. Any advice? Thanks.

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Original post by blueshogun96 1. Get my portfolio works, demos w/ source code, etc. ready, organized and presentable. Assuming they want to see some of my previous works and experiences.

Assume that any company would. They may not be paying you in this case, but they're still showing you their own code.

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2. Update and polish up my resume and cover letter so hopefully they will see how serious I am about this.

That is a given for any sort of job.

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3. Call the company I'm applying for on the phone (or should I go up there in person?) and ask about working in an unpaid position.

Do not just stop by. Seriously, we had somebody do that last week and it was kind of like, WTF? Everyone has jobs to do and the last thing someone is going to want to do is stop what they're doing to deal with some random person who walks in. It makes tons more sense to just send an e-mail.

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That's the basics of the plan there. Do you think that would work? Or should I try some different approaches? I'm really serious about getting my career together so that I can get into the biz for myself with confidence. Any advice? Thanks.

Why the whole working for free thing? Do you have a college degree? Have you worked on projects with friends/classmates and taken the time to polish them? If you can answer yes to the last two questions, I'm not sure why you'd even want to go the work for free route. If you can't answer yes to both then rectify the situation as any even remotely seriously company is going to require a college degree and some relevant experience. You can sometimes forgo the degree if you've got a hot portfolio and some proven experience working in a team, but don't count on it.

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Quote: 3. Call the company I'm applying for on the phone (or should I go up there in person?) and ask about working in an unpaid position. Do not just stop by. Seriously, we had somebody do that last week and it was kind of like, WTF? Everyone has jobs to do and the last thing someone is going to want to do is stop what they're doing to deal with some random person who walks in. It makes tons more sense to just send an e-mail.

I didn't consider the email option because emails can be easily ignored and/or deleted.

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Quote: That's the basics of the plan there. Do you think that would work? Or should I try some different approaches? I'm really serious about getting my career together so that I can get into the biz for myself with confidence. Any advice? Thanks. Why the whole working for free thing? Do you have a college degree? Have you worked on projects with friends/classmates and taken the time to polish them? If you can answer yes to the last two questions, I'm not sure why you'd even want to go the work for free route. If you can't answer yes to both then rectify the situation as any even remotely seriously company is going to require a college degree and some relevant experience. You can sometimes forgo the degree if you've got a hot portfolio and some proven experience working in a team, but don't count on it.

I don't have a college degree because I could never afford to finish college. I don't have friends that are willing or even remotely capable of making games because the general interest in gamedev in this reigon of the world is very low. And those that do, only a fraction know what to do or even attempt to apply themselves to do anything useful. So with that kind of background, quite frankly I don't see them wanting to pay me for anything. So I guess I'm screwed, huh?

Someone blu in from Indiana and wrote:

>I didn't consider the email option because emails can be easily ignored and/or deleted.

Well, consider it. I'm changing the advice I've given to call and go, due to the reality - most employers in the game biz prefer the email method for receiving applications these days.

>I don't have a college degree because I could never afford to finish college.

Let's back up, then. How old are you, and what kind of jobs are on your resume? What kind of stuff do you have in your portfolio? Don't give us links, just tell us.

>quite frankly I don't see [game companies] wanting to pay me for anything. So I guess I'm screwed, huh?

Not necessarily. You can probably afford an online education. (If you can't, then you also can't afford to move and take an unpaid internship.) Recommended reading:
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson27.htm
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson24.htm
There are other ways in besides unpaid internships (which you may not be able to get anyway).
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson5.htm
You're never screwed as long as you have your health.

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Original post by blueshogun96 I didn't consider the email option because emails can be easily ignored and/or deleted.

Most companies have standard practices for hiring. Follow them.

At all the companies I've worked at, most would turn you away as a complete moron if you showed up at the door. One of them would have handed you a job application and then sent you away.

Don't expect for a company to pay to relocate you at your entry level status -- you'll need to move. A company *might* pay to fly you out for an interview, but those are rare and you'd really need to look good on paper for them to do that.

Once you have your degree, move somewhere with a sane cost of living and find an interim job that pays your rent while you continue to actively find the job you really want.

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I don't have a college degree because I could never afford to finish college.

A programmer cannot afford to NOT finish college.

Visit your local school's financial aid office and ask for help.

If you perform well at school, you should be able to earn a full or partial scholarship. (In other words, pretend like your 18 credit hour school is your 40 hour work + crunch times.) Both when I was a student and when I now pay attention to younger employees, I can see that those who actually apply themselves to studies ALWAYS end up on full or partial scholarships.

If that is not an option due to poor past performance, most people who "cannot afford to finish college" qualify for Pell grants and other free money. That should cover quite a bit of your local community college.

If you don't qualify (in which case you can afford it more than you thought), you should still be able to qualify for a Stafford loan or other subsidized funding. Most people, with the exception of the very rich, qualify for some subsidized loans.

If a subsidized loan still isn't enough, you should be able to qualify for obscene amounts of unsubsidized federal student loan programs unless your credit is completely awful.


Even if you rack up $50,000 or more in student loan debt, IF YOU ACTUALLY FINISH THE PROGRAM then your lifetime salary difference will more than pay for the cost of the loan.

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I don't have friends that are willing or even remotely capable of making games because the general interest in gamedev in this reigon of the world is very low. And those that do, only a fraction know what to do or even attempt to apply themselves to do anything useful. So with that kind of background, quite frankly I don't see them wanting to pay me for anything. So I guess I'm screwed, huh?

It sounds like you are just whining and being lazy.

If you can't do something in your current "reigon of the world", use the Internet or move. If your problem is that you only associate with people who don't apply themselves, then get new friends. If you feel like people don't want to pay you for anything, then get to work and make something of value.

As for the declaration of being "screwed", from reading your posts it sounds like it is your own fault. You can choose to do something about it.

I grew up dirt poor in Indiana myself as well. I still applied to Purdue, worked my butt off, got my current job as a game designer, and my company did help me with relocation. "Not being able to afford school" is no excuse. Schools have financial aid departments for a reason. Use them! If you want to be competitive and to get a job as a game programmer you need to go to school and get yourself a CS degree, period.

As was mentioned above, e-mailing pretty well is the standard for applying for jobs nowadays. This allows whoever is in charge of hiring to review you on their time, not yours.

"working for free" is a daft idea. If you're not worth paying then you're not worth having in the office and development companies can't afford to have space taken up by people who aren't worth having. You could get an internship (some are paid, some are unpaid) but that would be as part of a degree course.

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One suggestion for gaining real world experience is offering to work for free. It sounds like a good idea to me.

Actually it's not because as above, free doesn't count. When companies advertise for "experienced staff" they mean those with commercial experience - paid to work at a development company on a commercial project. If it isn't paid work then it is a hobby and it doesn't count.

You're making a common mistake by trying to get experience in order to get a job which requires experience. Those positions are not for entry level people. You need to get an entry level job, then gain experience which you use to apply to better jobs which require experience. The reason you don't see adverts for entry level jobs (which do not require experience) is because most companies don't advertise these positions. They don't need to because lots of people apply anyway.

In order to get an entry level job you need a well presented resume, show-reel and relevant qualifications. If you don't have a relevant qualification then it will be harder to get a job because some companies will just toss your application because it does not meet their requirements. That doesn't mean it is impossible, but a lot harder.

As others have said, if at all possible you should finish school. It will make getting work easier, you will earn more money throughout your life and it will make changing careers easier if you later decide that games aren't for you.