   Career Choices (long read)
  Hello Forum Readers,For quite sometime now I have poked my head in here sporadically. Now it has come time for me to pose a question.I graduated from Rutgers college last may.  I got a double degree in Physics and Computer Science.  Unfortunately while I was rocketng through both my degrees to finish in 4 years, I didn't spend alot of time doing work outside of classes.  This is something I truly regret, and given the chance again, I would have taken an extra year to do more solo programming.Originally I had decided to go for Physics, but while doing my senior research project had second thoughts.  It was while taking the computer graphics class at my school that I decided to pursue game programming.  Having graduated with a CS degree I have a good handle on most CS topics, unfortunately when it comes to having appled skills, i.e. GUI creation, I am lacking. I decided that going to Rutgers for grad school in CS was probably a good idea. However after completeing the first semester, I didn't really feel that I gained any more knowledge about games.  My classes were still all theory, and not enough application.  That is why I decided to take this semester off, and consider other alternatives.Prior to applying to grad school, I had looked at full sail, but was originally turned off by the high price.  After spending 4 years pursuing my undergrad degrees, I did not want to go to a school like Digipen.  I also looked into the Masters Program at CMU, which is even more expensive then full sail.  Weighing the options I thought I would give grad school a try, since it was only 5k a semester.  However I am not going back, so I am now back to where I started a year ago. So the question is, given my extensive background, is it better to just take a year off and try and program on my own, or would it be better to go to Full sail?The reason I am considering full sail over the other schools is because of its intense program.  Given my background I will place out of most of the intro CS courses, and definetly the math and physics ones. I feel this will give me the applied aspects of CS that I have been missing.the other question I would like to ask is:  Does anyone know of some fullsail game development and desgin graduates that are currently in the industry?    having look at the literature fullsail has sent my way, they seem to flaunt their sound design program far more than the GDD one.  After asking them on the phone why this is so, I kind of got the run-around.  I don't expect everyone that comes out of school to get a job, but I would like to at least see a few that have made it.  Maybe I just don't feel like my ugrad education has prepared me for a job in the industry yet.  I know I need to get a demo together. So far all I have is  this blackjack game  which isn't a bad start, but is definetly far from the level of thing I should be showing prospective employers. I mean it only took me like 2 days to complete.Thanks.Nick Smolney[edited by - nsmolney on February 5, 2004 5:40:58 PM][edited by - nsmolney on February 5, 2004 5:42:59 PM]
  The biggest thing that employers in the industry look for is experince.  You obviously don't have professional experience so you'd need at least a demo of significant complexity.  perhaps your own game engine?  It also helps a ton to work on a team aimed at actually producing and publishing an independant game (or at least one that can be spun as such).Mostly the concerns with interview candidates are that they haven't had any experience on large, complex projects, have never used source control, haven't ever worked with a team on a project.you can also try applying for internship positions which will give you a really good chance to later work at that company (provided, of course, that you are good).  This also gives you the often crucial leg up of having a person on the inside to pass your resume around.  Employers will almost universally give an internal reccomendation vastly more attention than any resume just passed into HR from the outside.  So network your butt off.that said, i really don't know anything about Full Sail or how reputable it is in the industry...-me   [edited by - Palidine on February 4, 2004 7:35:30 PM];  Just do a search in the forums on Full Sail...There are some posts I have seen before on here about Full Sail, pros and cons, etc.  In my opinion, if you can figure out how to make games on your own, then just start making some. ;  Try to find a company that will take you as an unpaid intern. ;  thanks guys,after a little poking around on the web, I found out that digipen is now offering a MS degree. I requested some more information on it.yspotua, how excatly would I find information about which companies would have internships?   Nick Smolneynsmolney@eden.rutgers.edu   [edited by - nsmolney on February 5, 2004 5:37:39 PM];  When I was in college, I contacted the companies personnel department and asked.  After the call I followed up with a letter stating my intentions to be an UNPAID intern.  I also sent my resume, unofficial transcript, and recommendation letters.I had good grades in all my ''applied knowledge'' classes and almost always got internship the first time around.