Again, it’s been awhile since my last post. I’ve done a little bit of traveling, a whole lot of work, a few interviews, and had an accident (but it’s not too serious). Here’s a little recap:
Took a vacation to Amsterdam
Almost finished my Audio Programming synesthesia project
Put some work in on my networking project
Interviewed twice with Vicarious Visions in Albany, NY
Interviewed once with PerBlue Studios in Madison, WI
Accidentally cut my right index finger while doing dishes, please excuse any typos as I’m typing one-handed.
So it’s been a busy few weeks in just about every area of life.
I’m sure you’ll want to hear about the Amsterdam trip, since my content here is mainly travel stuff, but I’m also going to throw out some advice on nailing that first interview, securing the second, and preparing for a scary technical test, since I’m right in the middle of that process (for students).
First: travel! I went to Amsterdam for 4 days with my girlfriend, and I have to say it is my new favorite city. Just about everywhere we went was absolutely gorgeous and picture-perfect. There were outdoor public markets, coffeeshops (if you know, you know), restaurants of all types, and countless little storefronts spread all over City Center, which is where we spent all of our time. We also had the opportunity to visit the Van Gogh museum, which happens to be on my girlfriend’s bucket list of places to go. That was such a cool experience, and it was directly across from the Rijksmuseum, which houses many works by old Dutch masters, and even had a Rembrandt/Dali exhibit on. And that was across from another museum hosting a Banksy exhibit! If you can’t tell, Amsterdam is an artist’s paradise, no matter your discipline. I can’t wait to go back. I have to keep this post a bit shorter because typing is difficult with just one hand.
Now, interview and application advice for software developers (specifically people going into the game industry). For an application, almost every single game industry position will have a spot for a cover letter, whether it be required or not. Always do the cover letter, and always write it to target that specific studio and position. Don’t just reuse the same letter over and over again and just change the company/position names. They do keep these on file, and they will notice. Your cover letter shows an initial burst of effort, and it almost as important as a strong, well-formatted resume. Your resume needs to be polished for any job you apply for, and for software developers, be sure to include a “Software Projects” section at the bottom. It’s alright if you don’t have any, but if you do, just list it as long as you’re proud of the work that you did. Oftentimes, an interviewer will reference these projects and ask questions about them, but the most important thing to emphasize is how proud you are of the effort you put into the project. Once you land a first interview, be sure to present yourself well. Look nice, find a list of common interview questions and prepare answers. Even better—find a source with common interview questions for your company. It also helps if you already know the person who will be interviewing you, as I did with my initial Vicarious Visions interview, but that’s a rare case. During the interview, just stay calm and in control. Treat your interviewer as a friend, but still keep your language professional. It’s difficult your first few times because it’s a lot of pressure, so it helps to treat each interview as practice for the next. If you know of some interview practice service (I know Champlain College doe a good job of this), definitely use it.
The second interview, once you make it, is harder to practice for and is often scarier because… you’re interviewing with actual engineers, often lead engineers! Here, you’ll have to deal with technical questions, in-depth questions related to your previous or ongoing projects, questions about what you’d like to get out of your position, and if its an internship, questions about your interests in programming fields. These are the people you’ll truly want to impress, so brush up on what you can, and make sure you’ve got you computer science knowledge on-hand. It’s okat if you don’t know all of the questions, that’s expected. You’re not yet a professional. However, try not to stall out on a question to dig for some random, incorrect answer in an attempt to sound smart—they already know you’re wrong. Try just admitting you don’t know, mention that you look forward to learning more about it, and move on, then use a follow-up email to possibly answer anything you may have answered incorrectly.
If all goes well, you’ve got a very good chance at getting an offer! If any step goes sour… don’t worry about it! Now you have an idea of what to change, what to practice, and how to present yourself in a positive, professional manner even if you can’t answer that technical question about atomic data types (true story, had that happen once, and I failed to present myself well).
So there you have it, another post in the books. Hopefully this gets out to some aspiring game developer or software developer, but if not, at least I’ll have some sort of reference when I forget how to interview successfully.
Thanks for reading,
–CS
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