Hi, I'm looking for a new job, so I've put together a resume for myself. I looked over the previous, quite current thread (Junior Game Programmer Resume Critique) and took into account all that has been said/linked, but I'm sure I've missed a few things :-) One thing I am worried about is the Education section. I'm a senior in high school, so I have no degrees or other qualification besides experience, so that section is quite bare. Besides stating that I'm a senior in high school, should I provide any other information? Scholarships, GPA, ect..? Without further ado.... :-) Resume v1 Resume v2 Thanks! [Edited by - bronxbomber92 on September 16, 2009 4:55:57 PM]

The email address bronxbomber92 is bad. Pick something at least somewhat professional.

You get one page for every 10 or so years of experience. Cut.

Your entire skills section is useless. You give me no context for how much C++, Objective-C, C, and C# you know. Nobody cares if you know how to use MacOS or Windows. Nobody cares that you have used version control. Without seeing the projects you used the skills in, we cannot know or evaluate your skills.


Experience/qualifications should be in order of newest first.
Widget Monkey Games needs a start date, not just a year. Include details of what you actually did and how you did it.

One month at a "non-disclosable third party" is bad. Professional game companies are not non-disclosable. Even companies and government operations with security clearance allow you to state the location and certain basics of what you did. One month is generally not enough for any significant work. Give details or cut it.

DS Media Labs has a good start, expand the other two sections with what you actually did.

"other interests" section is pointless. Cut.



While it is possible to get a game programming job right now (never say never) it is highly unlikely with your current background.

Even in a good market it is hard to get a game programming job without a degree. Remember that you are competing against everybody else, and they have college degrees. You must have some other strong evidence that you can do the job if you don't have a college degree, and I don't see it on the paper.

The market is down, there are a lot of unemployed game programmers who have work experience and have completed college. Compared to either an experienced laid-off developer or an inexpereinced junior developer with college experience, your background is very weak.


I suggest you spend a few years in college. If you have the background you might talk to the CS department head about testing out of some basic classes.

Quote: Original post by bronxbomber92
One thing I am worried about is the Education section.

I wouldn't worry about that too much, because well, you have none, and that's quite normal at your age. So you want to focus on your experience. Unfortunately, that part is very vague. It seems that you've been contracted to work on game a few times, but what did you actually do?

I'm not too familiar with the US job market, but finding a position as game developer might proof to be difficult, but I guess there's no harm in trying. What exactly are you looking for? Have you made a selection of potential employers that might be prepared to give you a chance?

Thanks for the input frob and Wan! Version 2 of my resume is linked to in the first post now. For the skills section, is it ok to provide the context for my skills under the Qualifications like I've now done? If not, how to provide it adequately? I know what not to say -- proficient, excellent, ect.. since those are all adjectives of opinion and/or bias -- but I know what I should say.

Thanks again!

P.S. I will be making a new email (something along the lines of jhaberstro@yahoo.com), I just haven't gotten to it yet.

Quote: Original post by bronxbomber92
For the skills section, is it ok to provide the context for my skills under the Qualifications like I've now done? If not, how to provide it adequately? I know what not to say -- proficient, excellent, ect.. since those are all adjectives of opinion and/or bias -- but I know what I should say.

Self-assessments of skill are not appropriate.

If you need ratings you must have direct verifiable comparisons or measurable items: X.XX GPA, earned corporate recognition for foo, manager reported in annual written performance review that I was the best in 25 employees at whatever. These are external measures that can provide a comparison against your peers.


You should completely cut the skills section. It may feel hard now, but it has no place in a programmer's resume. All of those skills belong as text in the description of what you did for each job.

Use the space to expand on the details of what you did. Since you are entry level, write up relevant personal projects.


You really don't appear to have much applicable experience. If you figure you get to grow a page for every 10 years or so of experience, you should have about 1/2 page of actual content, the rest is (sadly) going to be filler.

Get some experience. Post-secondary education provides direct experience, and if you take advantage of the opportunity, side-projects that provide relevant indirect experience.

Change your email address. Just set up jedd.haberstro@gmail.com and have it forward to bronxbomber.

Your Qualifications section is reasonably good, actually.

I'm on the fence about the Skills section. I might recommend you drop that whole section, and instead just bold the appropriate words in your actual employment history. That way it'll be easy for someone glancing at your resume to see the term "C#" in the context of where you used it, rather than in a list with a bunch of other meaningless keywords.

To get an idea as to what a job might want in a programmer, try out looking at the opening for NCSoft and Blizzard, read there requirements and build your resume explaining everything they are wanting. If there is something on there you are that familiar with, figure out what you need to do next. That is my little suggestion to you.

Here is the link to jobs for both those companies:

NCSoft has a few openings in select locations, but just an idea for you.
NCSoft

Blizzard has many job openings you can browse through to get an idea of what they are looking for.
Blizzard