Is it easy to find an entry/junior level game programming job?(without a degree). All the listings I see require CS degree or equivalent(I know that is just a wishlist).What are the odds of a company willing to let you work there with no prior experience or college education. I know a portfolio helps a lot.
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Entry level job
Degrees are as (some say less) important as experience. Try to impress with something you've programmed that "jumps of the page"/ stands out.
Just give it a try and see how it goes (nothing too lose).
Just give it a try and see how it goes (nothing too lose).
It depends on the company.
Some companies interview and select in a personal manner, where a human views each application form and resume at each stage.
These places are likely to give you a chance and invite you for interview based upon experience alone (if that experience is impressive enough).
Other places have automatic systems which will automatically reject your application if you answer "no" to a degree. This is much more likely to be the case if you have no experience and the job is entry level and there are many applicants.
In either case expect to receive no feedback on why you were unsuccessful in the event you don't make it through to interview or even if you aren't selected afterwards.
Good luck!
Some companies interview and select in a personal manner, where a human views each application form and resume at each stage.
These places are likely to give you a chance and invite you for interview based upon experience alone (if that experience is impressive enough).
Other places have automatic systems which will automatically reject your application if you answer "no" to a degree. This is much more likely to be the case if you have no experience and the job is entry level and there are many applicants.
In either case expect to receive no feedback on why you were unsuccessful in the event you don't make it through to interview or even if you aren't selected afterwards.
Good luck!
Is it easy to find an entry/junior level game programming job?(without a degree).
No. What country do you live in? New Zealand?
All the listings I see require CS degree or equivalent(I know that is just a wishlist).
Yes, and they get applicants, a lot of them, who have the degree. The un-degreed stands no chance when stacked up against degreed applicants for the same job.
What are the odds of a company willing to let you work there with no prior experience or college education.
399 to 1
I know a portfolio helps a lot.
It's about as easy as becoming an accountant without a degree. Or a professional football player who has loads of experience playing in vacant lot with his mates and has mastered FIFA 16 in career mode already.
For my take, you don't compete in a vacuum. You compete against the other people who apply for the job.
If you live in a part of the world where bachelors or masters degrees in CS are commonplace, and the company gets a stack of resumes from people who have university degrees as well as stellar portfolios, your application will stand out in a negative way against the competition, and will quickly be dumped in the bin. The company will not be calling you for interviews.
If you live in a part of the world where college and university degrees are scarce and programmers rarely have them, and the company gets a stack of resumes that includes yours, it may or may not stand out depending on what you have in it. In that case, you need to compare well relative to the others you are competing with for the position.
Either way, it isn't just you. Depending on company and location you may be competing against five applicants, twenty, or two hundred, and if you want an interview you need to be one of the best of them.
No.
Nothing worth having is ever easy.
Definitely not a junior position.
If you applied to my volunteer project with no experience in the language we're using (or any programming language), and no degree, I'd be very skeptical you can do the job either.
How do I know:
a. you won't flake?
b. that we won't need to slow down to teach you the basics?
c. you have time management skills?
d. that you have follow through?
c. that you can work independently and in a team?
d. that you can handle responsibility of any kind?
e. that you know how to learn?, and learn quickly?
f. that you know how to handle feedback, criticism (constructive or otherwise)
g. that you know what your doing?
h. that we don't have to waste time and manpower to check your work?
i.That you didn't just decide to join on a whim?
J. That you have mature and reasonable communication skills?
K. that your a good investment of our time and energy?
l. etc. etc. etc.
In your situation, a portfolio is meant to show you has what it takes, despite your lack of professional degree/ experience.
Degrees base line people in modern society, like it or not. When jobs say they want X degree or "equivalent" they are saying equivalent in work/ volunteer experience.
Meaning you learned it by doing it on your own (by your own initiative), weather there was money or no money involved.
Entry level in games is not the same as entry level in general tech, or other industries. (I'd say, it's like 2-3 levels above.
An entry level position would be more likely to be general QA.
When your applying to full time positions, your likely competing with those who have bachelors and portfolios.
So what are you to do?
Well, make a stellar portfolio,and show them how despite your situation in life, you can still do great work.
How long will it take?
A lifetime.
Don't have that kind of will, strength and courage?
Then you don't belong in this industry.
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