Discussions

Just to give you a fair warning: I'm a full-time undergraduate student, I have a number of money-making projects on the side, and that's where this is coming from. I'll send you an email right now with further details.

There is data to suggest that the truth might be more nuanced. I've used the same resume template for my whole career and never had much of an issue landing interviews and offers. Once the economy hit the crapper, things just dried up for me. At the beginning
of it, I could still get interviews. As things got worse, even those went away. Have you heard of some companies now filter out all applicants who aren't currently employed?

Fundamentally, however, I agree that one should always improve one's resume and inteviewing technique, and anything one has control over. Not a day goes by that I don't try improve my programming technique in some way. In terms of opportunity, however, nothing
seems to have paid off.

The most difficult thing is to watch your own frustration warp your view of reality. While you can, in intermittent moments of clarity, recognize that things are not be as bad as they seem, the emotional state is still generally affected.

It's a really nasty thing to deal with. I wouldn't wish it on anybody!

Hi Minh,

Good suggestion on the exercise. I do get a bit of exercise due to accidental circumstances, and now that I think about it, it does seem to do quite a bit of good. I'm going to do more of it and see how it goes!

I suppose I could post my resume for y'all to dissect, but are you sure that's ok with the rules here?

If you aren't getting interviews, you should have someone with HR experience look over your Resume. It probably sucks.

If you are getting interviews but no job offers, you really need to study better before interviews. Treat interviews like a test.

Bass,

There is data to suggest that the truth might be more nuanced. I've used the same resume template for my whole career and never had much of an issue landing interviews and offers. Once the economy hit the crapper, things just dried up for me. At the beginning
of it, I could still get interviews. As things got worse, even those went away. Have you heard of some companies now filter out all applicants who aren't currently employed?

Fundamentally, however, I agree that one should always improve one's resume and inteviewing technique, and anything one has control over. Not a day goes by that I don't try improve my programming technique in some way. In terms of opportunity, however, nothing
seems to have paid off.

The most difficult thing is to watch your own frustration warp your view of reality. While you can, in intermittent moments of clarity, recognize that things are not be as bad as they seem, the emotional state is still generally affected.

It's a really nasty thing to deal with. I wouldn't wish it on anybody!

Are you targeting only the game-writing jobs? If you are, then you're narrowing yourself to a very competitive niche! I think it you were positioning yourself as a 'general' programmer you might have more luck.

Herbie

Hi Herbie!

Definitely not. I have been applying to every programming job I could conceivably be qualified for.

Sadly, non-game people are reluctant to consider candidates with my specialization. They think I'll get bored or something. I try to explain that games are what got me into programming, but programming is what my true passion is. I have reworked my resume
to be general, but my game experience can't really be hidden.

I was on the market for 8 months. While nice jobs are not easy to find, by posting my resume on Monster.com and LinkedIn I was getting amost a call per day from a bunch of recruitment agencies in the area.

Have you tried to verify that your resume is "appetizing" to a potential employer? What are your core competencies?

Hey PaoloM!

I'm going to try posting my resume up there. Thank you kindly for the idea!

Degree is A.S. in Computer Programming (couldn't afford a B.S.). Core competencies are embedded C++ and C#. Core experience is game engine, tool, and game play development. Taught myself C++ and have been programming hard core with it for greater than a
decade, albeit only 3 professionally.

I was thinking about going to college to get a B.S. in Math, but it's just financially infeasible.

I'm a software engineer with a degree, a few years of experience, and relatively high competence. I've also been out of work for almost two years. When I send in resumes, I get no response whatsoever. I have been working the past year with a start up making
games for the iPhone, and saw no revenue at all. I apply to companies where I've painstakingly networked internally and receive no response. I try to find contract work just to stay afloat, and it falls through every time. I have literally traveled across
the country to places that I had no connections just to be close enough to be considered for candidacy.

I might as well have been invisible.

Nothing seems to work in the Sisyphus economy. Present your candidacy however you like. Be bold, or be cool, be smart, or be boring. Be funny, somber, excited, or collected. Be right, be wrong, be obstinant, be a sycophant, be yourself, or be someone else.
It doesn't matter what you do; unless you're a senior engineer with 10 million years of experience, no one even notices you.

I can't imagine what it's like for college graduates. Actually I can, it's about the same.

It didn't used to be this way. I used to have no trouble landing interviews and the position of my choice. Things have definitely changed.

Worse, pretty much all signs point to a second leg of the recession dropping. I expect this recession to continue for at least another two years, perhaps four. If they keep stimulating us, it could go on for another 10 or 20. It just depends on how stupid
we are as a nation.

It's not looking good...

I'm wondering if anyone here is having the same experience. If so, what do you do to cope with the daily hopelessness?