22 hours ago, rcrawford115 said:

Despite having a Batchelor's Degree in Computer Science, I still have no job experience

This is how it works for everyone.  You're not expected to have job experience immediately out of school.  Lots of good advice here already - work on the portfolio, etc.

Another point that I don't think has been mentioned yet -> Apply for stuff even if you don't check every box in the "requirements".  Lots of those requirements tend to be nice-to-haves rather than real requirements.  It's not uncommon for places to exaggerate what they want in a candidate, or to be willing to accept someone below the original requirements, or to be in need of more junior people despite not having an explicit ad out for one.  Even if there's no job ad, throw yourself at companies you'd want to work for anyway, since lots of employment needs aren't advertised.  Ad says you need x years experience?  Doesn't matter, apply anyway.  Says you need x level of education but you don't quite have that?  Apply anyway.  Would require you to travel?  Maybe apply anyway.

My point being, if you want to work somewhere and have even the slightest feeling that you're mostly/almost/kinda qualified for it, then apply anyway.  If it turns out that you're not the right person for the job, then you'll either get filtered out or just not hired, but nothing is lost in trying - otherwise you might stumble into exactly the kind of place that needs what you've got.

Well, I want to thank everyone for the advice. I think I have something in mind that would make for a nice portfolio piece, that I'm going to work on before I start considering extra schooling more seriously. I most certainly am not looking forward to tacking an extra $20,000 onto my existing student loan debt, so I better get on that portfolio.

Also, for those picking up on the fact that I'm keeping my options open in any computer-related industry, I did make this thread with the intention of more specifically focussing on the Games Industry - I know there's got to be plenty of differences.

I figured, with all chances equal right now, that being somewhere between incredibly slim and none, I might as well go for the job I'd rather be doing over the others.

17 minutes ago, rcrawford115 said:

I figured, with all chances equal right now, that being somewhere between incredibly slim and none, I might as well go for the job I'd rather be doing over the others.

As much as I commend your attitude, the data I see doesn't back up your impression that the chances are equal.

The last data from the ESA indicates around 220,000 total jobs in video games (and that's all roles, not just software developers). The US department of labour figures there are over 1.2 million software developer jobs alone in the broader industry.

That gives at minimum 4x higher opportunities outside of the games industry (likely much higher, since game of those game jobs are non-engineering).

Also worth noting that if you don't want to relocate to a coastal metropolis, the situation is even more slanted. Majority of game developers are in coastal cities, where as general software jobs are slightly better distributed.

I think experience trumps the degree especially if the projects that you release are a bit successful. That's my opinion tho.

I'd focus on the portfolio.

Your portfolio kinda says what your willing and somewhat able to do VS. A degree that just gets you through the door in some situations.

The question everyone in the job market is asking is "what are you doing with your time", Here in the bay, it's almost a requirement to have a side hustle. People want to know what your passionate about. What kind of work keeps you up at night. What kind of work you would be doing if you could do anything you wanted to. What kind of work that you'd sacrifice for.

Your likely a better judge of your situation than anyone else, but how sure are you that it's your degree?

Usually employers have a list of the top schools, not the bottom.  Do any of your former classmates have the same issue? Does your school have a known bad reputation? or is the school not accredited?

A degree gets you on the radar, experience shows how much your willing to do to get close to the job. 

The job market is tough, always is, and likely always will be.

A portfolio is the way to get experience on your own, you don't need to wait for someone to give you a shot, you just go out and do something. It can be big or small, usually the bigger the better obviously.

Also, I'd echo the fact that games is much more competitive than the general tech field.

23 hours ago, GeneralJist said:

Your likely a better judge of your situation than anyone else, but how sure are you that it's your degree?

Usually employers have a list of the top schools, not the bottom.  Do any of your former classmates have the same issue? Does your school have a known bad reputation? or is the school not accredited?

A bad reputation, I cannot confirm or deny. I do, however, know a handful of students (making my class dip far below their advertised average) that are also having trouble because they also could not land an internship before graduation. The school is also not accredited by any measure that I could find. When I was a dumb teenager looking for a school, I had no idea that schools actually needed to get accredited for this kind of thing - it was actually a more recent revelation to me when I started my job search that accreditation was actually a thing that people look for.

23 hours ago, GeneralJist said:

A degree gets you on the radar, experience shows how much your willing to do to get close to the job. 

The job market is tough, always is, and likely always will be.

A portfolio is the way to get experience on your own, you don't need to wait for someone to give you a shot, you just go out and do something. It can be big or small, usually the bigger the better obviously.

Also, I'd echo the fact that games is much more competitive than the general tech field.

All duly noted. I never expected a handout, but I figured it wouldn't be as tough as it turned out to be. I'd heard that employers were a bit of a tough crowd to please, but just how tough is pretty surprising.

15 minutes ago, rcrawford115 said:

I had no idea that schools actually needed to get accredited for this kind of thing

My (private, 4-year) university didn't have an accredited CS program, and no company I've ever interviewed at has blinked at that (or even asked). I somewhat doubt that is a factor.

14 hours ago, rcrawford115 said:

A bad reputation, I cannot confirm or deny. I do, however, know a handful of students (making my class dip far below their advertised average) that are also having trouble because they also could not land an internship before graduation. The school is also not accredited by any measure that I could find.

If you name the school, we can respond better to this assertion or theory that the degree from that school is the explanation for your difficulty getting hired.

On 2/20/2018 at 7:57 AM, rcrawford115 said:

But, on the other hand, a portfolio isn't a guarantee either. While I can work on it for free after coming home from yet another dead-end job, I'm not sure how much of a bearing it will actually have on my career, and I don't know what kind of things bode well for a portfolio at all.

It's literally the most important factor.  I dropped out of high school, got no high school diploma or GED, no degree, and first applied to a company overseas with no prior work experience, but everything was in control because I had a portfolio.

I don't want to say that a portfolio is a guarantee of a job, because being a programmer is a guarantee of a job.  Programmers don't starve to death in ditches—that is not a thing.  But it's far more helpful than a degree in the field of video games, where decisions are made based on merits, not papers.

Your degree can't be worse than nothing at all because you can simply deny having it, which makes it at-worst exactly equal to nothing.  Which puts you in the same boat as myself.  Which means you have a portfolio or nothing.  In this case I am not sure what the dilemma is.  Why would "nothing" be more helpful than "a portfolio"?

Pretty obvious what to do next, so get crackin'.


L. Spiro