I really want to work in video games, but i am not sure how to market my skillset...

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Turtledove wrote:

Regarding your sig, did Rachel_GGG say the first line in an edit? Perhaps the two lines are totally disconnected? That is a pretty strange sig. There must be some story behind it?

I used to update it regularly so the date would be within the past week or so, but I have been neglecting it for quite some time now.

Skillset? Nah, you just need to work on being as woke as you can possibly be.

Changed my sig, by the way.

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thatoldmfsorc1 wrote:

Skillset? Nah, you just need to work on being as woke as you can possibly be.

I don't think that works. I'm a supervisor at a pretty woke company, and I've canned an extremely woke employee. Not because of their* politics — they weren't even close to meeting their metrics, and they didn't seem to care. They tried to appeal it up; denied. Businesses still care about making money, you know.

* I don't mean to imply by my gender neutrality here that the person in question was gender non-binary. Or imply that they weren't. Point is, I'm not telling.

Not sure if the OP is still reading this thread or if the ongoing conversation might be helpful to others with similar aspirations.

Here's my take on such situations:

1. Put aside what you want and think about what the business you're applying to work for needs. Put yourself in the mindset of being that business owner. As a business owner, if you're going to spend $60K of your hard earned money on employing someone then you are going to expect a benefit to the organisation that exceeds that outlay. Can you (the job applicant) realistically provide that?

2. Applying for a job is competitive. If company X can hire someone with skill 1 and aspirations toward skill 2, or someone with both skill 1 and 2, who do you think they are going to hire? If you don't have skill 2, go and acquire it. If you aren't interested in skill 2, then you're applying for the wrong jobs.

3. When I'm interviewing applicants, the only reason they get to an interview is because on paper they have the skills for the role. I'm interviewing them to verify their competency and experience, but mostly to determine how they are going to fit into the team and whether they are aligned to our work culture. If you're not getting to interviews then your skills are not competitive. If you're not successful in interviews then you need to reassess how you're presenting yourself as a future contributor to the organisation. Don't overanalyse this though, if there's 4 people interviewed for 1 job, 3 people are going to be unsuccessful even though they can do the role.

Edited to add: The interview phase is a two way street. You're also interviewing the business to find out more detail about the role and the organisation to see if you actually want what is on offer.

Specifically for the OPs situation, you have a generic qualification that not many organisations need. You're probably best suited to government research organisations at this stage (I'm assuming because you haven't mentioned it that you are not qualified to conduct psychological assessments as you would require post grad or supervised placement for that). I'm always surprised at how many people study psychology with no plan or desire to actually work in that field. You're skill set is not well suited to marketing. A person with a marketing degree is well suited to marketing. You are overdeveloped in the human behaviour skill and underdeveloped in how you translate that into effective business outcomes.

Game companies don't need psychologists. They need data analysts, marketing staff, technical staff with coding skills, digital artists, sound artists, HR staff, ICT support staff and so on. If you really want to work in the gaming industry (and you should carefully consider your motivation for this. If it's merely because you really enjoy games then you're a consumer, not a creator) then you need to acquire skills and experience in those areas.

Have the skills but no experience? Then collaborate on a project with someone for free. Work your day job serving coffee at Starbucks then come home and spend 4 hours each night on a part time role for someone getting a foot hold in the gaming industry. You'll get experience and start to build some networks.

I understand there are about to be a lot of openings at ActiBlizz

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kolyaboo wrote:

I understand there are about to be a lot of openings at ActiBlizz

You're assuming there will still be an ActiBlizz

I'm a retired software engineer. With no experience working in game development but here's my impressions.

Here's my thoughts on working for a game company. The staff is made up of mostly graphic artists and programmers. Competition is very tough getting those jobs. Lots of applicants with few openings. It is expected that people will work super long hours and the pay is not that great when compared with other programming jobs.

P.S. Yes, I noticed you changed your sig. Thanks for mentioning it though.