How can I change my career towards game development, where there are few jobs and most need previous experience?

Question

I would like to change my career towards game development, in which I have had interest since getting my bachelor's degree. I am looking forward to start a Master's degree in this field, but otherwise I have no previous experience in or academic experience.

When I search for jobs, there are almost no positions, and most are either senior positions, or ask for extensive (2+ years) experience.

Even after completing my Master's degree, I don't know if I could get even an entry-level job.

How could I shift my career towards game development in the most easy manner?

What field are you intending to move into? This will have a bearing on the quality and appropriateness of answers we can provide. — , Nov 07 '17 at 11:01
What country are you in? Are there opportunities for graduate roles abroad? — , Nov 07 '17 at 11:04
Possible duplicate of How do I switch between technologies in IT industry — Bernhard Barker, Nov 07 '17 at 11:10
Anyone with the necessary skills (which can be learnt through free online courses and tutorials) can write, release and profit from their own game, which should give you more than enough experience to get any game dev job. — Bernhard Barker, Nov 07 '17 at 11:13
What's your age? In what part of your career are you? Where are you coming from? Are you still in university or already have other work? — Pieter B, Nov 07 '17 at 11:33
I graduated recently, two years ago, I've been working full-time since then in different companies. — Nejosan, Nov 07 '17 at 11:56
@Nejosan If they ask for 2+ years experience then you've potentially got it already. Find a suitable opening and apply. Ignore the ones that aren't suitable (senior game developer?). — Brandin, Nov 07 '17 at 13:16
@Brandin I have 2+ years experience in my field, not in game programming. — Nejosan, Nov 07 '17 at 13:17
@Nejosan Then see How can I overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying to positions? and apply it to your situation. If you apply the worst that will happen is that you won't get an offer. — Brandin, Nov 07 '17 at 13:23
@Brandin I don't see how that question is applicable to mine, since the answer details WHY experience is important, not how I can reorient my career path towards a field where almost no entry-level jobs are available. — Nejosan, Nov 07 '17 at 13:28

score 8 · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-07T13:08:08.727

8

Get that qualification if your current degree isn't closely applicable to advanced software development. A dedicated game development degree may be seen as being too "niche" for re-use somewhere else.

Game development is an extremely difficult field to get into for the major studios. For coding, you need to be extremely good, and be able to demonstrate that skill. Basically, it's one of the toughest coding jobs you can get into.

Get involved in online discussion forums relating game development (there's a great game development stack dedicated to this here ) with a view to increasing your understanding and communicating your learned knowledge.

Start developing ideas and code using appropriate development tools. Create your own mobile apps and see if you can get them approved and deployed to app stores. Having a good portfolio is a great step up and improves your learning and understanding of the field.

There's many books on this subject as well.

Game development is not fun. It's extremely hard work, very stressful, and doesn't come with huge pay packets, but does come with the chance of getting laid off quickly if the project doesn't succeed or runs over budget.

A lot of this work is offshored to the Asia or Eastern Europe where the labour is cheaper. You really don't get to sit in an air conditioned office in San Francisco. Play-testing is a myth, it's mostly automated.

I have a friend who's a QA director for one of the major publishers. I'm not making this stuff up to scare you, it really is that scary.

edited Nov 07 '17 at 13:08

answered Nov 07 '17 at 10:59

1

My cousin is in the industry too. The conditions are like this because of supply and demand (games are cool, so loads of coders want to be in the industry, leading to employers being able to be picky) – Nov 07 '17 at 11:19
1

I don't think many employers care about a game-dev-specific qualification, they care much more about real-world experience (plenty of employers expect candidates to have worked on multiple released products). – Bernhard Barker Nov 07 '17 at 11:26
1

@Dukeling You'd still need a relevant qualification, unless you have a significant amount of portfolio to flash. Not having a qualification probably won't get you past HR. – Nov 07 '17 at 11:32
@Snow OP already has a bachelor's degree, which may be enough, but, if it isn't, it shouldn't be too hard to figure that out by looking at job specifications. Having worked on released products should count for more. – Bernhard Barker Nov 07 '17 at 11:39
I think this is a fairly extensive answer as to how I can best prepare outside of academic qualifications. I will wait a bit if someone else wants to answer before accepting. – Nejosan Nov 07 '17 at 12:46
@Dukeling Fair point. I have tinkered with that section of my answer. – Nov 07 '17 at 13:10
I agree with this, there are lots of games studios near where I live which are always looking for workers. Unfortunately this is because they have a high turnover, as soon as a project is completed they just 'let them go' until they start the next game where the hiring process begins again. – Ginger Squirrel Nov 07 '17 at 13:13

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 07 '17 at 11:04

Obviously without knowing the specific field you are trying to get into I'm going to have to keep this answer pretty generic. But some good starting points would be:

Informational interviews - if you can get some with people who already work in the field it can not only get you valuable information but also possibly help you establish contacts on the "inside"
Internships - depending on whether they are a "thing" where you live this can be a great way of getting on the ground experience in a field/industry and is another way to get contacts.
Volunteering - some fields have ways you can get involved on a volunteer or social basis, what this entails varies from field to field obviously. Software development has things like Hack-a-thons, open-source projects etc
Conferences/Events - there may be events which are open to the public that you can attend and learn about the field and, again, possibly use to make contacts or "network"

You can also start with creating mods to games that offer such possibilty and thus build your starting portfolio. — Zefiryn, Nov 07 '17 at 11:27

How can I change my career towards game development, where there are few jobs and most need previous experience?

2 Answers2