I have a question about what most companies look for when they are hiring programmers.. Obviously, they are gonna want you to know C/C++, and know about games, etc.. But is it more important to have a bunch of sort of cheap, fully completed games under your belt, or to not really have many finished games, but to have a bunch of demos of technological things you know, without applying yourself directly to making complete games? I hope this is a clear question... Because I went on a little trip to a game company last summer, and the owner and programmers were telling me that they look more toward people having finished games, because that sort of shows the spirit, and any technological things can be learned in a relitively short time. But I just wanted to see if that is the way it is most places. What do you guys think? ------------------------------ Jonathan Little invader@hushmail.com http://www.crosswinds.net/~uselessknowledge

Well, I may not know this for a fact, but it seems to me like it''d definitely be more important to have completed games done. If you have technical demos it shows that u CAN do that stuff, but they need to know WILL you.

Demos only show that you can make the computer do a couple of tricks. It doesn''t show that you can fully architect and understand a 50,000 line project (I think that''s about the number of lines for somewhere between a simple and medium sized professional game). Completing a product that is useful demonstrates that you have the will and determination to finish a project. The bigger the project the better of course. Good luck!

Since I am in the process of interviewing for my next game project, I feel I have to interject here. The idea that you must complete a game is not as significant as one might think. When a producer/project manager is looking to hire a team, he is looking for just that a team. Do we ask our quarterbacks to be offensive linemen, do we ask our shortstops to also know how to play catcher? When building a team I tend to look for key team members with key skillsets. In ever team member I try to determine one or two secondary skillsets and also try to balance those across the team. Everyone on the team must have good communication skills. Because I have completed a game from start to finish and maintained it in production, I do not feel that every team member must also have this notch. I am depending on my leadership to guide the team through the completion process.

Anyway here is a quick breakdown of what I think about when considering hiring an employee.

Game Needs:
- Art
- Sound
- Server Side Game Logic
- Scripting Engine
- Networking system
- System Admin
- Client Side Programming (3D)
- Web Site Design
- Management Skills

When I interview a candidate, I compare their skillset and responses to questions to a list like this, in an attempt to identify where I think they will fit. If I can place them and they like where I place them, we go deeper into the interview process so I can learn even more about them. The only piece of completed work I am looking for is a subsystem per se. If you have designed a network layer for a game then show it to me and you could be applying those skills again soon. This is not the end all be all of how I hire. Many other factors go into it, but with respect to a skillset or completed game, I hire specific talents where they are shown to have potential to be easily integrated with the other members of the team.

Kressilac

From my experience in this area, Kressilac''s advice is spot-on. It''s going to vary quite a bit depending on the company though. The 3 companies I interviewed with a year ago were each looking for different things. If you haven''t yet, I''d suggest looking in the Industry section for some articles covering this.