Hi szecs.

You are absolutely right.

> You can apply for more places in parallel
This is exactly what I am doing. But I wanted to give it a little bit of time to maybe receive some response due to my prior application. So I can turn the wheel if I missed or made something wrong. You know.

And I dont apply at companies that might receive 15000 applications over whatever time period. This is for sure.

But do I have my answers yet?

Tom Sloper san gave some information by his website. This was good information. Thanks for this.

szecs also gave good impressions of his situation but does direct comparison of our situations which might not apply. But I got his point. I see it mainly from my perspective and do not consider the company's side.

Well. To summerize. I either don't got the chance or I have to wait even 8 months to maybe(very unlikely) get some useful information about my application.

The most likely situation is that you will not ever know why they didn't pick your application. That's the reality. It's perhaps not beneficial to you, but employers only care about making the company more money. Letting you down gracefully doesn't directly help their bottom line, so paying people to spend time doing it just isn't going to happen. Again, that's reality, not "how it should be in a perfect world".

The other reality you're bumping against at the moment is the shitty economy. EA just did about 2,000 layoffs over the past couple years, Ubisoft had a big layoff, lucas arts had a layoff, Activisision had big layoffs, a bunch of small studios have been closed. Basically almost every major studio has had major layoffs in the recent past. This means that you are applying for positions in competition with people who have 3+ years of game industry experience. Anyone who is hiring right now is able to hire people with a ton of experience for junior positions because there are currently less positions open then there are qualified and experience people who want them. That makes it an especially difficult time to be entering the market. You are basically in direct competition with people who have already shipped games and at least 9 times out of 10 you're not going to win.

So basically, you need to apply everywhere in the world that has a position open. You should apply for unpaid internships as well to get your foot in the door. You should be continually working on your portfolio. You should be working on building friendships with people in the industry who can pass your resume on. You should expect that this will be a long process.

Sorry to be doom and gloomy, but that's the reality and it just means you have to keep busting your ass and remain positive. Take szecs's suggestion and post your resume/portfolio here and we can critique it for you.

-me

Hi and thank you for your comments.

Ok, my initial intention was not to make the impression of "I dont want to do anything else than beeing in the game industry". I just wanted to say that I made a lot during my spare time (worked on my portfolio as you called it), more than most of my fellow students and I just wanted to know why, in your opinion, my efforts are not noted by those companies. You know, its not like that I come straight from high-school and think I want to become a game-programmer-designer-producer whatever. I did a decent course of study and the efforts I did in my spare time and during my study really accounts for this.

But as Palidine said, if it is the case that such companies (game industry companies(in general?)) even take +3year experienced developers for junior positions, when this is the reality, then I live with this fact and dont bother to apply for any vacany anymore.

@Palidine
> You should apply for unpaid internships as well

If this is the general opinion here, I woudn't pollute this forum with my concerns any longer. I would not think of this situation, because I haven't studied to get an unpaid internship, ... You know, Im speechless! You knocked me down with this. This is heavy. Then my efforts are not worth more that that of some high-school heavy world of warcraft experienced playing teen.

Quote: Original post by notnoted
then I live with this fact and dont bother to apply for any vacany anymore.

Well, that's not the right response at all. I'm just giving you reasons for not getting the job. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try for what you want. I would really hope you wouldn't give up that easily.

Quote: Original post by notnoted
@Palidine
> You should apply for unpaid internships as well

If this is the general opinion here, I woudn't pollute this forum with my concerns any longer. I would not think of this situation, because I haven't studied to get an unpaid internship, ... You know, Im speechless! You knocked me down with this. This is heavy. Then my efforts are not worth more that that of some high-school heavy world of warcraft experienced playing teen.

Your education hasn't entitled you to anything. It's just a low-bar of qualification. If getting an unpaid internship for a summer would give you a really good shot at a job how is that a waste of time?

This isn't a career that people do for money, it's a career that people do because they love games. Why would I take a minimum 30% pay cut to be in this industry where I typically have to work 2x the hours. I'd get much more money for much less hours worked in any non-game field doing an equivalent job. If money is your concern, you're better off looking in other fields. What you should care about if you want to be in games is about working in the industry.

Obviously, you need to get paid longterm, but you're asking how to break into the industry. An internship is a *really* good way to break in if you can land one.

-me

I nevery talked about the salary. I would say, I don't really care about it as long as the people are kind where I work, because I consider this as the most important fact. However.

Initially, I just wanted your opinion about some of the skills I posted on top. For example, if those are common for entry level ones like me and if it is my skills that dont convince the guy at the company. I did massive information collection about resumes and cvs and cls so you can guess that it looks structured and the right text is in there that is absolutely in conjunction of what is requested in the vacancy.

Your skills sound good and are exactly what I would look for in a junior position.

Have you sent your CV in to recruitment agencies specialising in games in the locations you want to work in? If you stand out from the crowd to the recruiter then they are going to push you forward above the other candidates on their list. At the very least it can't hurt your chances.

I think the other thing you have to face is that games developers have suffered along with most other industries during the downturn. Many companies have closed their doors and there are a lot of experienced people looking for work.

Dear Noggs, dear yaustar.

Quote:
For the positions you applied for, are they Junior positions? Do you have one you can you show (from the company's website)?

Are you applying directly to companies or through an agency job listing?

Are you attaching read receipts to the email?

To your first question, yes I only apply for junior positions and I only put requested stuff into my applications. Unfortunately, I would not post any link, because I don't want to have that company in any bad light, because of my naivety.
To your second question, no, I don't use agencies. This is like house/flat dealers/agents, they get money for what I do, i.e. searching a flat, in my case, searching a job, thus I go straight to the companies website.
Concerning your third question, I don't put receipts to emails in general. This has a bad taste in my opinion. But I can tell you this. That one company, where I think I fit perfectly for that junior vacany, they looked onto my portfolio website the day after I send my application in. Is this a good sign or rather a bad one? This was two weeks ago.

Noggs.

Quote: Your skills sound good and are exactly what I would look for in a junior position.

Thanks. Still one person considering my for some junior position.

P.S.
Here is the job proposal, at least an excerpt of it, where I think I fit perfectly.

Quote:
We can teach you everything, as long as you can do one thing in your sleep: C++. If programming in C++ is as natural to you as your native language, then we can offer you a good opportunity.

Your profile

* Good C++ skills and a lot of practical experience with the language
* Disciplined programming style which also works with the limitations of console hardware
* A completed course of study or corresponding experience

This excerpt is the important part, I just cut out text unrelated to this discussion.

[Edited by - notnoted on November 9, 2010 4:01:03 PM]