I'm still looking for work as a junior programmer for going on about 6 months. I've been trying to work on my demo reel, trying to show off what my engine can handle, and what I can do with it by my self. I'm trying to figure out what makes a good programming demo reel, and I was wondering if you guys could take a look and give me a few pointers: http://www.jmvsoftware.com/

The only thing in my game that I didn't do was the textures and the sounds. On the networking end I have a authentication system that uses SRP6-A, and than I also have packet encryption that uses RC4 cryptography. I get alot of phone interviews and I answer all there questions I don't stutter or stammer on anything. I've gotten a few face to face interviews, I got one at Square Enix but I didn't get the job.

I don't think its the way I handle myself, I always bring a binary build with full source code with me, I'm trying to figure out what more I can do, so I can stand out higher than everyone else.

That's a nice looking demo, BUT, there are so many more factors involved in getting a job, particularly a Junior games developer.

When I've hired for such a position, an absolute perfect grasp of the development language or particular areas of technical expertise are NOT first and second on my list of must-haves; you're going for a Junior position, not that of a Lead, so I know that there will be gaps.

Because of that I'm always far more interested in a candidate with a willingness to observe, listen and learn from their seniors, to work hard and well as part of a team, to be happy to get stuck-into problems, and generally fit in well with the company and its culture. And of course a passion for the work that you're wanting to do is essential, in this case I presume games, though you didn't specify. If it is games you want to work on, what do you enjoy? How much do you play? Do you have a passion for them like the people you're wanting to spend 40/50 hours a week working with?

On the subject of your demo, you say it was all written by you, but straight away I'm thinking, okay, so just how much DID he write himself? My mind will be eased if I can see three or four demos alongside each other, and probably the code that you could comfortably explain and talk through yourself.

In addition, I'd also be asking why you did everything yourself, why did you not borrow the help of friends? A fellow developer, musician or artist? That would show team skills and a maturity that would put you way above many other junior developers I've seen. It would also let me know that straight away you know at least some of what it is like to work closely with other people of differing skills and abilities, and that other people are also happy working with you.

My final piece of advice, if you are comfortable with all of those elements, would be to sit down with a close friend or family member, someone you can trust and use as a mentor, and go through a mock interview with them. Get them to be honest about how you come across. Are you clean, well presented, professional? Eager to learn? Eager to fit in and do a good job? Or are you walking through the door with scruffy hair, holding a mind-blowing demo that you think should get you a free lunch? From this end of the 'net, it's obviously a hard thing for us to figure on, but people that care about you, are close to you and will give you an honest opinion will be worth their weight in gold. Listen to them and let them help you.

I hope that's been of some help.

Quote: Original post by MrFox
That's a nice looking demo, BUT, there are so many more factors involved in getting a job, particularly a Junior games developer.

When I've hired for such a position, an absolute perfect grasp of the development language or particular areas of technical expertise are NOT first and second on my list of must-haves; you're going for a Junior position, not that of a Lead, so I know that there will be gaps.

Because of that I'm always far more interested in a candidate with a willingness to observe, listen and learn from their seniors, to work hard and well as part of a team, to be happy to get stuck-into problems, and generally fit in well with the company and its culture. And of course a passion for the work that you're wanting to do is essential, in this case I presume games, though you didn't specify. If it is games you want to work on, what do you enjoy? How much do you play? Do you have a passion for them like the people you're wanting to spend 40/50 hours a week working with?

On the subject of your demo, you say it was all written by you, but straight away I'm thinking, okay, so just how much DID he write himself? My mind will be eased if I can see three or four demos alongside each other, and probably the code that you could comfortably explain and talk through yourself.

In addition, I'd also be asking why you did everything yourself, why did you not borrow the help of friends? A fellow developer, musician or artist? That would show team skills and a maturity that would put you way above many other junior developers I've seen. It would also let me know that straight away you know at least some of what it is like to work closely with other people of differing skills and abilities, and that other people are also happy working with you.

My final piece of advice, if you are comfortable with all of those elements, would be to sit down with a close friend or family member, someone you can trust and use as a mentor, and go through a mock interview with them. Get them to be honest about how you come across. Are you clean, well presented, professional? Eager to learn? Eager to fit in and do a good job? Or are you walking through the door with scruffy hair, holding a mind-blowing demo that you think should get you a free lunch? From this end of the 'net, it's obviously a hard thing for us to figure on, but people that care about you, are close to you and will give you an honest opinion will be worth their weight in gold. Listen to them and let them help you.

I hope that's been of some help.

Wow, this is not my thread but thank you for writing this. i myself am also trying to get into the industry and what you said really gives me a direction.

Quote: Original post by MrFox
On the subject of your demo, you say it was all written by you, but straight away I'm thinking, okay, so just how much DID he write himself? My mind will be eased if I can see three or four demos alongside each other, and probably the code that you could comfortably explain and talk through yourself.

I always bring full binary build with source code( and PowerPoint excerpts ) with me to every face to face interview I go on. When it comes down to it I don't know anyone else personally thats capable of doing art, so I've just learned to do it my self. Which is actually a good thing because I learned how to develop my own pipeline tools(such as a Maya Skeletal exporter).

But thats really good advice. Should I create a fully functional maybe 8 level game or 3 or 4 smaller demos?

Nobody is going to play through 8 levels. If you want to make full games for your own reasons then that's great and they will form a valuable part of your portfolio, but remember that you are very unlikely to be hired to write a full game. In practice you're likely to be given a pre-existing code base and asked to make incremental changes to it, and as a junior programmer you won't get much say in which parts of the code you get to make changes to, although it's unlikely to be the mission-critical stuff. In particular you probably won't immediately get to be doing work that is much like the majority of what you did in your engine.

For this reason, it's arguably better for you to have some smaller demos which instantly highlight your abilities with different areas of code. Consider aspects such as input handling, networking, artificial intelligence, data packaging and loading, sound and music, scripting, database access, etc. I'm not saying you should try to cover all of these, but at the end of the day if all you have to show is a 3D engine - even quite an impressive-looking one as you have there - it's not going to land you a job if the company is using an off-the-shelf renderer and are looking for a more versatile coder.

Of course, if rendering is your sole passion... stick with what you've got, and be patient! (Although, is that a DX10 engine? That is a very niche technology that most people can't use, and thus is not necessarily a technical skill in great demand yet since the market is relatively small compared to DX9.)