CaptainSpaulding71 wrote:
Good luck!
I don't know you but from reading the above it sounds like you are a programmer. can you reply here and describe in detail what the interviews are like? what kinds of questions did they ask? eg: did they ask the typical questions like how to insert things into a linked list, cite examples from Gamma's book (design patterns), etc?
i think this might be useful for others to help them prepare and give students and idea of what is ahead
hope you can contribute
thanks!
Not programmer, was game designer (Tom Clancy Hawx - the early years, Silent Hunter IV, Blazing Angels 2), then studio manager, then "lateral promotion" to business manager, now Senior Producer and "Head of Studio" for a different studio.
Interview for management position in games dev, here's how I passed -
- Printed off a 20 page book on Agile and Scrum development process, studied the hell out of it to where I could talk about it easily.
- Studied my ass off practicing with MS Project.
- Got out the US Army Leadership book from PLDC and studied again.
- Already knew local business legal stuff (basic labor law, basic tax law, etc)
- Studied night before a short book called "It's Negotiable", paying attention to the section on body language during the interview
For game designer though, pick up at least 3 different solid books on game design, memorize the hell out of them. You'll pass an interview easily. Tips:
- NEVER show a preferance for a genre or platform, they'll ask, but its a trick question to eliminate you.
- Always have a list in your head of games you've played and liked/disliked. Be prepared to rattle it off at a moment's notice. Make sure it has some variety in genre and platform (PC, Xbox, etc).
- NEVER be too critical about previous titles of the company you're applying too, you may be perfectly correct, but your interviewer's ego won't take it very well.
- If you want to kiss ass, get smart and figure out who will be interviewing you and then study their title history. Be prepared to talk about everything you like about his/her games.
- Ask intelligent questions about the game design of the interviewer's previous titles.
For programmers:
- C++, there is none other. Flash and Mac programming is for pussies. We laugh at them. Then we take their free coffee and kick them out.
- Networking programmers in games are hard to find and in extremely high demand. Almost every new game that will come out in the future will have a very closely linked multi-player component. 25-50% higher salary if you pick this specialty over the more popular ones like render, physics, or gameplay programming.
- KNOW development process methods, this is the difference between Junior and Intermediate salary. Agile, Scrum, waterfall, etc. Be prepared to talk about them and describe them.
- Programming demos: Use only your own work. Having to go through code line by line saying which is yours and which is your friends is annoying. Most programmers don't use demos, but they make you stand out if you can show even a crappy little game along with the source code that you programmed and designed yourself.