Hello,

I am building a resume to apply for QA game testing jobs. I have done research to see what would be good for a resume and I've read a lot of different things as to what should go into a resume--particularly one who does not have previous experience and that will be reflected in this resume.

I know two of my biggest problems are that my resume is currently 2 pages and that my work experience is pretty irrelevant to game testing but I feel everything I have written is necessary. This is why I need more opinions and eyes to help me decipher these things.

Thank you for the help and advice. I appreciate it.

[attachment=8491:game tester resume_sample.doc]

Bad filename. Imagine that a hirer has 100 resumes in his resume folder. He wants to find your resume. Design a better filename on that basis.

And no. Sticking loads of underscores in front of the file name will not help.

Its two pages. But the second page contains very little. Try and expand it out to fill the second page, or shorten it to fill only a single page. Its also a good idea to sanitize files before you post them to the internets. I've got enough information from that resume to figure out your birth date and various other bits sufficient to impersonate you or steal your identity

Thank you both for the tips. I also cleaned up the file so that my info isn't in there. Thanks for that reminder Washu.

I'll begin researching good file name concepts and condensing the information.

Thank you again.

I have worked out the two page issue and have changed the name of my file. Take out the underscore and the "sample" and that would be the name of my file.

How are the changes?

Again, thank you for the help.

[attachment=8492:ASheltonQAGameTester_sample.doc]

That's better, I would probably highlight your name somehow, make it larger, perhaps. Its kind of the title of your resume and should be easy to find.

Okay. I agree. I'll fix that. Thank you. Are there any other suggestions?

I read your resume but did not see a certain thing that I would love to see - A short example of game analysis, such as mentioning the positives of a flopped game or the negatives of a mega-success like Farmville or WoW. It's the easiest thing to "know" what made Farmville great, you just go to Gamedev.net or a similar site and copy what some pro article has already stated a million times.

But It's a lot harder to know what makes a top game bad. Especially if it's hyped up beyond measure and the only real critics are forum trolls (the rest being blissful fanboys with an almost religious attitude to the product).

The guys earlier in this thread gave you some great tips on how to get noticed from the exterior. Now you need to have something inside the resume (as Washu recommended) that doesn't feel like a dime a dozen. Don't get me wrong, you did catch my eye in terms of "assistance in training new employees" and spearheading that equipment group. But it's not necessarily too relevant to what is unique to game testing (which is testing games).

I may be wrong though, maybe these are things more suitable for the actual job interview afterwards. But it still assumes that you actually get the interview to begin with. So I think I'm onto something, at least.

I see what you're saying. Although I'm not entirely sure what to modify based on your critique because these are my honest skills and my experience so unless my wording isn't punchy enough, I'm not sure what else to change. Does that make sense?

Thanks for this different look. I do appreciate it.

Personally, when I see things like "Proficient in analyzing and thinking critically about what is need for gameplay", it cries out "in my opinion".

I think it would look better if you research what "analyzing and critical thinking" is in terms of game development life cycles.

e.g. In software development, analyzing would involve Problem Domain Analysis, Comparative Systems Analysis, Requirement Stripping, Requirements Elicitation, just to name a few. These are more recognisable names for analyzing techniques and they would help you stand out as someone who actually does understand what analyzing is.

Saying you are proficient at something and then not naming any technical names of actual techniques looks a bit dodgy to me. It sounds like you know how to read the back of a games box and write down what it does (I'm not implying you are that bad).

The rest I like. I can't see many more ways to improve it. Just use more technical language that says "I know what I'm talking about and I've done my research".