Hi Everyone!
I'd like to know from you all what are you ages and your current positions on game industry today. I am asking these questions because I want to break into the industry but I don't have professional experience, and today I am 29 Years Old and I keep asking myself if its too late for me to start to search for an Internship in one of the big studios out there..

I am a 3D modeler with a wide view of the process of making games, also, I know many programing languages like C#, C++ Actionscript and JavaScript. I like the artistic and the technical side of making games but as I said: No experience. Today I work as user interface design/programmer in a interactive company in Brazil but I love making my own games and I am studing Unity3D..

Is that too late for me? To build an portfolio with my current games / studies and start knocking doors for a internship position?

What you guys think?

As long as you're willing and able to work 80 hours a week for minimum wage, or even better yet, as unpaid intern, there's no problem. After some 5 years, you can then start thinking about promotion.

Obviously, this is easier when you're 18, which is what the competition will be like.

As long as you're willing and able to work 80 hours a week for minimum wage, or even better yet, as unpaid intern, there's no problem. After some 5 years, you can then start thinking about promotion.

Obviously, this is easier when you're 18, which is what the competition will be like.

Yeah.. that's what I am affraid of..
Anyway, thanks for the answer

As long as you're willing and able to work 80 hours a week for minimum wage, or even better yet, as unpaid intern, there's no problem. After some 5 years, you can then start thinking about promotion.

I don't think it's quite that bad anymore.

[quote name='Antheus' timestamp='1326376371' post='4901992']
As long as you're willing and able to work 80 hours a week for minimum wage, or even better yet, as unpaid intern, there's no problem. After some 5 years, you can then start thinking about promotion.

I don't think it's quite that bad anymore.
[/quote]

You're right. Many places these days require you to pay for the privilege of being employed as an intern (no, really, officialy you pay for references and training).

Companies that have internship programs tend to be large. These days it means multi-nationals. Due to general dynamics of the market, let alone the recession, there are hundreds of viable candidates for each internship position. So the companies cherry pick top people from universities. The rest is bargain bin for them, name a price, you will find people to accept it.


For everything else, the term "internship" has no meaning. It's just a label. If you have skills, ability to sell them, fast and strong enough foot to jam it into the door, know a few people, show to be a good fit, then you might get hired as CTO. But when going at it like that, you don't aim for "intern in training" job position, especially since places that will give you a chance don't have strict labels and everyone wears many hats, something you must do as well.

For creative professions, this means portfolio and attitude. Show what you have, only deal with people who are interested and have ability to make something happen. Don't try to impress people who are not connected, there isn't enough time. After enough effort, assuming you have some even borderline useful skills (which may be surprising, such as mere ability to use Photoshop), someone will get you involved. But it may mean something completely different in completely unrelated field.

If however you choose to focus on getting a specific job in a specific field, then you've given up most of bargaining position. Because suddenly, the employers are giving you the ability to follow your desires, which puts them in charge. And many companies have learned to abuse this to no end. So buyer beware.

But internship (as job label) these days means mostly unpaid grunt labor with essentially next to no advancement possibilities. There's no need due to the way market works.

You're right. Many places these days require you to pay for the privilege of being employed as an intern (no, really, officialy you pay for references and training).

While I don't doubt the recession has impacted interns harshly, do you have a source for this? I can't help but think this would be absolutely retarded for any company that wanted any sort of intern retention post-graduation. I don't think I know anybody who's had an internship in the past 2 years that has made less than double minimum wage, and I made just about the same as a full time sallaried employee (without benefits) in mine.

I got a job offer 11 years ago without any previous experience (even "intern") - for "graduate" positions they don't expect you're going to have experience. I think one issue is that if they accepted you in such a position, you might not get any better pay than that level (although they might conceivably reward some job experience in other fields). I don't know what you do currently - is taking an entry level position here going to be a significant pay cut, or do you earn similar/less than that anyway?

[quote name='way2lazy2care' timestamp='1326377737' post='4902000']
[quote name='Antheus' timestamp='1326376371' post='4901992']
As long as you're willing and able to work 80 hours a week for minimum wage, or even better yet, as unpaid intern, there's no problem. After some 5 years, you can then start thinking about promotion.

I don't think it's quite that bad anymore.
[/quote]

You're right. Many places these days require you to pay for the privilege of being employed as an intern (no, really, officialy you pay for references and training).

Companies that have internship programs tend to be large. These days it means multi-nationals. Due to general dynamics of the market, let alone the recession, there are hundreds of viable candidates for each internship position. So the companies cherry pick top people from universities. The rest is bargain bin for them, name a price, you will find people to accept it.


For everything else, the term "internship" has no meaning. It's just a label. If you have skills, ability to sell them, fast and strong enough foot to jam it into the door, know a few people, show to be a good fit, then you might get hired as CTO. But when going at it like that, you don't aim for "intern in training" job position, especially since places that will give you a chance don't have strict labels and everyone wears many hats, something you must do as well.

For creative professions, this means portfolio and attitude. Show what you have, only deal with people who are interested and have ability to make something happen. Don't try to impress people who are not connected, there isn't enough time. After enough effort, assuming you have some even borderline useful skills (which may be surprising, such as mere ability to use Photoshop), someone will get you involved. But it may mean something completely different in completely unrelated field.

If however you choose to focus on getting a specific job in a specific field, then you've given up most of bargaining position. Because suddenly, the employers are giving you the ability to follow your desires, which puts them in charge. And many companies have learned to abuse this to no end. So buyer beware.

But internship (as job label) these days means mostly unpaid grunt labor with essentially next to no advancement possibilities. There's no need due to the way market works.
[/quote]

Thanks! Helped a lot.
I mean, the digital agencies often take young people in a intern program, and I can say that they work as hell for a minimum wage too. The "internship" position in the game industry is just a label i found possible since I dont have experience. But it's true that if I could get their attention with some good stuff, it is very possible to get a real job position, nothing is impossible if you have the will and the resources..

Another thing: I think we all love to make games, and I like every aspects of the building process, from concept sketches to the crazy math involved, and I can say that even making my own indie games and seeing people playing them, is very satisfying to me. If I could make a living working with that in a big company, would be great, if not, I will make them anyway.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

[sorry the bad English]

One thing I would say about your position. If you want to work at a larger developer, you want to be a specialist rather than a generalist. They will not hire you to do art and programming. Pick one you are good at and get really good at it rather than being ok at everything.

One thing I would say about your position. If you want to work at a larger developer, you want to be a specialist rather than a generalist. They will not hire you to do art and programming. Pick one you are good at and get really good at it rather than being ok at everything.

No doubt about that. In fact I want to be a level designer. I just like to program to be able to implement my own ideas, and in other hand, if you have basic programming skills and basic understand of cg concepts behind the curtains, I think it helps you to know how far you can push your creativity and interaction possibilities.

But yeah, no doubt you have to be really good in one subject and stick to that!

;)