Hi Game professionals, I've built my resume and would very much appreciate some feedback. Please do not try to spare my feelings, be brutally honest to your heart's content. In short, I have 2 years of game development experience (one released title) plus B.S. in Computer Science and am now looking for a new job (yes, in this economy), preferably as a Game Programmer. I have been applying for jobs for about 2 months now and so far have only had one phone interview and a couple of follow-up requests for more information (such as filling out questionnaires). In other words, a very lukewarm response from game companies. I am blaming it on the poor economy (we all have our excuses) and perhaps my resume and cover letters. The biggest question/concern I have is about the length of my resume. It's currently 3 pages long, even after cutting out 2 of my previous jobs (which were both computers/programming related, albeit student jobs). The length is mainly due to the fact that I have a lot of work experience, directly related to my desired position of Game Programmer. So anyway, please look at my resume here and give me some advice on what I can do to improve it. Much appreciated. PS: At the top of the resume there is a link to my portfolio where I have some code samples and links to games I've worked on.

From a fellow game developer -

I think you should highlight more of what you accomplished which helped in finishing the game. I think you should also mention about published games( it helps ). You mention you have one published title to your name but it doesn't stand out in your resume. I don't see much issues with your resume as such personally.

Regarding your portfolio - your resume needs to be shouting it out saying here is my portfolio. The first time I looked at your resume I just glanced for a minute and missed it completely by a long shot.

Couple of reasons why you might not be getting calls :-

1. Many companies are on a hiring freeze.
2. Some managers believe that working in too many companies in little time means that you are not committed enough. From your resume it looks like you have worked in too many places. But in the game industry where you see companies going up today and down the next I wonder how this is even possible unless you work in some of the big names. In this case you just keep trying until you land a new job which you want.
3. They may just think you don't have enough experience.
4. You may just be competing with people who have a lot more experience.
5. Most people will miss your portfolio completely. It needs to be more visible and saying clearly - look here to see my portfolio. How you do that is upto you.

Harsh review from somebody who has hired people:

Two years of experience and one shipped game does NOT justify 3 pages. Even tenured software engineers with decades of experience should be limited to two pages. That is enough to get it thrown out with just a quick glance.

Add an objective line. What do you want from this? Are you looking for a job as a game programmer? PC or console? Flash? Tools programmer?


Cut the executive summary. You can incorporate the details later. Most of what you have looks like filler, and probably is.

Cut the technical proficiencies. If you are applying for a game programmer job, they will look for those details. A gameplay programmer does not need to list five database systems. The whole section needs to go.

Work experience section.

As a game programmer, list your titles first, in a format like this:
* Foobar Deluxe, PC and Samsung Ultra Mobile, published Marcember 2008
* Ultra Foobar II, Samsung Ultra mobile, project canceled
Follow this by a short paragraph of prose describing your main responsibilities. Most of the bulleted list should be cut.

There are many other details to cut.
- Saying "Developed videogames" immediately below "Game Programmer" is redundant.
- Calling out "the C++ Standard Template Library (STL)" is not appropriate. First, it is the C++ standard library, the "standard template library" was something else entirely, and was mostly incorporated to the language in 1999. Second, the standard library is something any good C++ programmer will know.
- Did you personally develop much code using OGRE? Enough that an expert could quiz you and determine that you are skilled with it? If not, cut it. The same with Flash, if you don't know it worth two years of experience, cut it.
- Creating flowcharts, UML, and ERD designs is not really noteworthy. Cut.
- Adding and modifying tables and stored procedures is normal development, and also don't mention the version 5.0 of the database -- the version number just limits you.
- "Worked on Lua scripts to blah blah blah...." That is covered by mentioning Lua up front. Cut.
- Subversion (or any version control) and Acunote (or any other tracking software) is not worth mentioning.
- Game testing? Were you a game tester or a programmer? Are you looking for a tester job? Cut.
- Technology developed in the game should be a simple list. For instance: Code ownership over database interactions, local cache, task tracking, weather system for rain, GUI using CEGui and Flash, report generator, and interactive map.
- "Collaborated with team members on a number of tasks" Cut.
- "Provided technical support to players" Are you applying for a tech support job? Cut.
- "to ensure correct function and observance of functional specifications." CUT!

IT analyst section:
- Cut the Full-time statement. I would completely cut the part-time statement, as it implies you weren't really devoted to your main job for a year and a half.
- "design"? Did you really honstly design it, or did somebody else do the brunt of the work? Cut the version numbers of databases. And probably cut the Visual Statement line unless you are planning on developing games in VB.
- "created design documents for 3-tiered system blah blah". CUT!
- "Object Oriented Programming principles" CUT!
- ER diagrams, design documents and so on are just a part of the job. Cut.
- "Extensive use of SQL, DDL scripts..." Are you planning on developing SQL scripts at your new company? If not, cut.
- Take the remains, and reduce them to a short two paragraph summary of your job.

Other jobs:
- Reduce the bullet points to a short paragraph of prose that describes what you did at each job. You were not there long enough to justify that much space.

The "Projects" section is good, but very much in the wrong place. Up until this point in the document I had no idea you even actually made a game. The games you developed at k20 belong immediately below the employment details for the company, as mentioned earlier.

If you didn't do those projects as part of a job, list them in the employment history under "personal projects".

Education -- please include the year that you graduated. If you had any special emphasis like networking, include that as a detail.



Get the thing down to one page, then post it again for more review.

This is coming from a fellow and competitive job seeker but I do have some advice from my own experience and some I've learned after talking with others.

The first thing I noticed in your resume is that you have a table in the word document resume you posted here. Get rid of that, it takes up a lot of space that you probably don't realize it does. Also if there is a blank line anywhere take it out you don't need it (Use different size fonts to put emphasis on things). Then feel free to make the margins smaller so you can fit more on the page.

One thing I've been told that's a huge no-no and something that I see on your resume is that in your Technical Proficiency part you list a lot of languages and tool used. While that's great you know all those tools and languages it leads the reader of your resume to believe that you are a jack of all trades but master of none. I suggest taking out some of the languages you've only touched on briefly and keep the one's your more of a master of. I know this is sounds weird but I have been repeatedly told this by many professionals in the industry, so I urge you to take that advice.

One thing you can do to shorten your resume is to shorten some of the descriptions that you have for your jobs. It will also help with the readability of your resume, I personally found it very wordy and thus most HR people won't take a second look at it if they felt the same way. Here is an example of how your first job could be shorten.

Quote: Game Programmer
6/2007 – present K20 Center, Norman, OK
 Developed games for PC and the Samsung Ultra Mobile Personal Computer platform.
 Worked in a team of 9 programmers, 3 artists, and 1 designer.
 Created design documents, program flowcharts, UML designs, and ERD database designs for game according to user specifications.
 Collaborated with designer to translate game content from storyboards into missions and gameplay scenarios.
 Used UnitTest++ to implement unit tests for various parts of the code.
 Performed game testing and used Acunote and Trac for keeping track of bugs found.
 Designed and implemented process for caching images on the local machine’s hard drive to reduce network traffic.
 Created task tracking system and weather system for controlling in-game rain.
 Designed and developed GUI (in CEGUI and Flash/Actionscript) and backend for several in-game modules such as Report Generator, Email, and Interactive Map.
 Used Scrum project management method for agile software development
 Used Visual Patch, True Update, and Setup Factory to create new builds and provided technical support to players.

Just what I took out got rid of 8 lines of text and shortened all but 2 descriptions to less than one line. The majority of the things I cut out just was a lot of explaining of the jobs and that's what the interview is for so I've been told. This is where you can cut a lot of fat out and leave the good meat of your resume and maybe have enough room to add those two jobs you took out.

This is my advice to you to help fix your resume. Take it or leave it if you wish.

Quote: Original post by frob
Harsh review from somebody who has hired people:

Two years of experience and one shipped game does NOT justify 3 pages. Even tenured software engineers with decades of experience should be limited to two pages. That is enough to get it thrown out with just a quick glance.

I wish you could come down here and explain the number of pages thing to my HR. I get 15 pages resumes referred to me by HR..... But its obvious though that when I go to project 1 on page 1 of their resume they have no clue what they did... and they don't get hired.

wow, those are some very good advices. Looks like I have a lot of work to do. Thank you all. I will rewrite my resume and when I am done I'll post it here again.

fck! I wish I had 2 years of professional game development experience...

Quote: Original post by CRACK123
2. Some managers believe that working in too many companies in little time means that you are not committed enough. From your resume it looks like you have worked in too many places. But in the game industry where you see companies going up today and down the next I wonder how this is even possible unless you work in some of the big names. In this case you just keep trying until you land a new job which you want.

And some others think the inverse. It is common to switch job every 2 years in the game industry.

Quote: Original post by CRACK123
5. Most people will miss your portfolio completely. It needs to be more visible and saying clearly - look here to see my portfolio. How you do that is upto you.

To be clear, almost all companies I got hired or just passed an interview never looked at my portfolio, even it was clearly stated in my resume.

I think the biggest thing is length. 3 pages is far too long, even for long-standing industry vets, as Frob said.

I currently keep my resume to a single page. I've only once submitted a 2-pager because the recruiter specifically requested that I add all the extra, directly-related experience for the position that isn't normally featured on my resume. Frankly, neither you or I have earned a second page yet.

There's no need to list every technical thing you've ever done -- in fact, doing so does two things: First, it basically says "I can't be bothered to whittle it down to what's really important (or I don't actually know what is), so I'm just going to throw it all at the wall and see what sticks." The second thing, is that it can come across almost as insulting to the reviewers intelligence -- put the big, important things down and let them infer the rest, they're fully capable of extrapolating information. Same thing goes with common acronyms and abbreviations -- assume the person reading your resume knows the lingo.


Finally, excessive length can only work against you.

Firstly, those two pages of filler distract from the 1 page of important information.

Secondly, If a reviewer can choose to look at your resume, or three others in the same amount of time, guess which option is chosen -- its foolish to think that all resumes get reviewed fully, no one has infinite time.

Finally, a little mystery isn't a bad thing (so long as you've given enough highlights to make yourself look interesting), leave them wanting more. The purpose of a resume is not to get you a job, the purpose of a resume is to get you an interview, if you give your life story up front, they don't need to learn any more, and you won't get a chance to shine in person.

Going for a job is not unlike going for a girl -- Once you find one you're interested in, the initial contact is not to propose a marriage, its simply to say you're interested, make yourself known, and give her some idea why you might be qualified. If successful, you get a date, where you have the chance to shine in a more personal setting, away from the hustle and bustle of a busy bar where every other guy is hitting on her. If you give the girl too much information, there's a high probability that she'll loose interest, become annoyed, or simply think you're full of yourself. The ideal situation is that you share enough about yourself to make her interested, but hold enough back to make her think that there might be something deeper to explore.

There you have it... everything I know about dating and resumes, all in one post [grin]

Quote: Original post by Ravyne
I think the biggest thing is length. 3 pages is far too long, even for long-standing industry vets, as Frob said.

I currently keep my resume to a single page. I've only once submitted a 2-pager because the recruiter specifically requested that I add all the extra, directly-related experience for the position that isn't normally featured on my resume. Frankly, neither you or I have earned a second page yet.

There's no need to list every technical thing you've ever done -- in fact, doing so does two things: First, it basically says "I can't be bothered to whittle it down to what's really important (or I don't actually know what is), so I'm just going to throw it all at the wall and see what sticks." The second thing, is that it can come across almost as insulting to the reviewers intelligence -- put the big, important things down and let them infer the rest, they're fully capable of extrapolating information. Same thing goes with common acronyms and abbreviations -- assume the person reading your resume knows the lingo.


Finally, excessive length can only work against you.

Firstly, those two pages of filler distract from the 1 page of important information.

Secondly, If a reviewer can choose to look at your resume, or three others in the same amount of time, guess which option is chosen -- its foolish to think that all resumes get reviewed fully, no one has infinite time.

Finally, a little mystery isn't a bad thing (so long as you've given enough highlights to make yourself look interesting), leave them wanting more. The purpose of a resume is not to get you a job, the purpose of a resume is to get you an interview, if you give your life story up front, they don't need to learn any more, and you won't get a chance to shine in person.

Going for a job is not unlike going for a girl -- Once you find one you're interested in, the initial contact is not to propose a marriage, its simply to say you're interested, make yourself known, and give her some idea why you might be qualified. If successful, you get a date, where you have the chance to shine in a more personal setting, away from the hustle and bustle of a busy bar where every other guy is hitting on her. If you give the girl too much information, there's a high probability that she'll loose interest, become annoyed, or simply think you're full of yourself. The ideal situation is that you share enough about yourself to make her interested, but hold enough back to make her think that there might be something deeper to explore.

There you have it... everything I know about dating and resumes, all in one post [grin]

Ravyne, you are a genius! Now I know why I wasn't getting any dates...err job interviews. :-)

Seriously though, that was a great clarification of what to (not) include on game programmer resume, and more importantly, why.