I am a student at Full Sail University in the Game Design Bachelors of Science online course. I am looking for any professional in the industry that would be able to step in as a mentor for me to give me pointers to be successful in the industry. As well as being a mentor, since I am taking classes currently, I may also have some assignments that require me to interview a professional in my industry where I would have to ask some questions based on your successes or your path to success. I do have the Epic Games Launcher and Unreal Engine installed on my laptop so I can try to learn the industry software, both on my own time and for when I need to have it for my actual classes.

My advice is to try and gain information from a wide selection of sources, rather than to have a mentor. The problem with mentors is that you get a very specific and limited set of advice based on their personal experience, and that may not apply to you. Also they may have biases or preferences that work for them but may be a problem for you.

Also, professionals are, by their very nature, quite busy! It's simply not possible for every student to be able to have good access to a mentor in industry. Thankfully, it really isn't necessary.

Please do feel free to ask questions here, whether that's about how to get into the industry or more technical and specific questions. But use the search function here and search engines, because almost every question has been asked before, and you can benefit from the accumulated wisdom of all the previous comments.

@Kylotan

I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to respond to me on this topic. And you did teach me something that I wasn't expecting to find out about the industry. I did expect the industry to be a time consuming career based on the research that I have been having to complete for my classes, but I wasn't expecting to be that busy. Overall, I am not looking to take much time from anyone, like I said, I really just want to pick a couple brains for any useful tips and tricks, and to be able to start my networking path so I can find my place in the industry when I graduate.

crazyc5127 said:
I really just want to pick a couple brains for any useful tips and tricks

As kylotan said, you can do that on this forum.

crazyc5127 said:
to start my networking path

Forum participation is networking.

not that it is needed but i am just seconding advice to try and learn from collective rather than a single individual.

I get it, there seems like more certainty if you have one person who is “in” telling you what you ought to do. But if you can look at much larger data set (and of course it includes some chaff), you'll be able to make much better decisions. Take the best stuff that applies to you and use it, discard the rest.

That's leveraging power of the internet to it's best ability.

@aljav

As I used to play around with Root access on Android phones a few years ago I very much agree with looking to multiple sources before doing anything. Especially since one of the first times I tried to root a phone on my own I ended up bricking it for a week until I found a, working, method to un-brick it. The worst part was that I knew that by rooting it would essentially reset the phone, so I did it to a phone I had just bought and had my service transferred to. Instead of reading further down the forum and seeing that the method was updated due to some bugs and issues, I ran with the original post and expected it to work.

I want to say a huge Thank You to all who have replied to my post! I'm not sure if I will ever run into any of you during my career, but just the fact that all of you are saying the same thing and that I even got any responses tells me that I found a good platform for my networking path.

THANK YOU ALL!!!

I'd advise looking and networking on linkedin

Everyone has their own path into and around the industry.

Most people worry about intro questions as to how to get in and fail to ask about the day to day.

I'd recommend looking up the job you want and finding people further along

If you want I can ask my former art director who is no longer with my company, he may not be :pro" as pro usually mean full time role in the industry, but he also graduated from online full sail a few years ago, and served as art director, rising from a front line artist for about a year. I can see if he would want to share his experience.

Also, even though it's more work, I'd recommend drafting up a set of standard interview questions, so if you end up finding a few people to talk to, you can have a method to compare and contrast answers. The best way to do this, is to pivot it into an actual assignment for school, which is what I did for the producer role project I did while I was at UC Irvine.

Also, my former art director said Full Sail has a discord, so maybe look there.

The main issue with finding a mentor in this industry is that most people who make it in, have no time or energy to regularly set aside to help on a regular basis. Compiled by the fact that every company is different, with non standard job titles.

If your looking for someone to help you map out a path from where you are to your dream job in the industry, It's hard and I' recommend against it. For this, your own research is better.

But, if your just looking to network and see where it goes, that is more likely to bear fruit.

Once a person gets into some recognizable position in the industry we get contacted by a crazy number of people wanting our time and money.

Also, it's a small industry. What they say is true. So conduct yourself accordingly.