   Anyone give interview process advice?
  This may have been covered in a topic its nice to hear it from people in the roles. If you do hiring for a game studio:1. What kind of things do you look for on the resume?2. What kind of stuff do you look for in the portfolio for a designer or programmer?3. What would an ideal (realistic) candidates resume/portfolio look like?Although I am far away from any type of interview/job I was just curious on what employers are looking for? If anyone is in the hiring role please give your expertise to us new guys :). Its never too early to start preparing.   
  Which discipline are you hoping to enter? :)   ;  In the end I want design, but I'll be starting off programming. I should have reworded my title too, Its not really interview information so much as what to put in a portfolio.   ;  If you want to build a programming portfolio for the games industry then collate any past projects you have worked on, both at college/uni and in your personal time, provide a screenshot if applicable, but keep any explanation neat and concise. Potential employers don't want to wade through tonnes of waffle.Note, however, in the end it is technical ability that gets you the job and it is likely that at some stage during the application process it is likely you will be tested for it. I was tested twice at Eidos, with timed tests. Also note that i got my job without needing demos, so its not always the case that you NEED them.   ;Quote:Original post by Chrono1081This may have been covered in a topic its nice to hear it from people in the roles. If you do hiring for a game studio: I don't so this is just random guy on the street advice.Quote:1. What kind of things do you look for on the resume?2. What kind of stuff do you look for in the portfolio for a designer or programmer?3. What would an ideal (realistic) candidates resume/portfolio look like?Although I am far away from any type of interview/job I was just curious on what employers are looking for? If anyone is in the hiring role please give your expertise to us new guys :). Its never too early to start preparing.1. They look for someone who could possibly know the field they are hiring for.  They are looking for the absence of BS that will show you are not intelligent.  For a programmer that would be programming languages you know, any relevant work(including mod) experience, Degree, awards and honors, be professional as humanly possible.  Do not put High school, or favorite activities,  if you have relevant work experience don't put irrelevant work experience, the absolute and total lack of misspelled words, don't list VS as a skill or programming language.2. Completeness and focus.  For a programmer completeness is a game that has menus and credits, and clean code(remember the person looking at this is going to be a programmer, if they don't like your code no job for you) that means both following a sane coding standard and good clean design. Focus is going to be something you try to wow them with weather that is graphics or AI or physics. A demo that runs at the beginning that points out the focus of the piece is a step towards both completeness and focus.For the designer it is going to be a mod level with good flow and playability.  For best results it will be a mod level for a game the company you are applying to made. Either way they will need to be able to see your work even if they don't have a copy of the game you made your mod for so an open source game engine.  Again the key words are completeness and focus.3 see above.  you should submit an application, resume, and demo. all with your name on it.  Your demo would be one or two items that are your best work, length isn't as important as quality.  As you get more relevant work experience Demos become less important.   ;  Thank you for the advice guys. I know I am "planning early" but theres never any harm in that. I have the interview process nailed as I used to be the interviewer at many many jobs but I wasn't sure what the game companies want out of a portfolio. As far as resumes I always pay to have those done professionally.   ;  Note that if your ultimate goal is design, it isn't always necessary to get into the industry as a programmer and hope to work towards becoming a designer. A programmer who just wants to be a designer simply isn't going to be all that great at programming (in most cases). There are indeed lower level design jobs, just not generally at large companies.First and foremost, if you want to work as a programmer or designer, you need to make games. A small polished game is much more impressive than a large incomplete game. Building a portfolio of polished games will help considerably in obtaining a job as a programmer or a designer.It also helps to have a familiarity with the platforms that a company work with when you apply there. I was fairly recently in an interview with a guy who was applying to work at my company (which focuses on Nintendo Wii and DS development) and the guy didn't own either platform and was applying as a 3d level designer with entirely PC development experience. As of today, we have released one Wii title, which had no 3d level work involved with it. If he had done 2d level work and could actually list off some favorite Nintendo Wii and DS titles and why, he could have had a shot.The Nintendo DS has a fairly large indie development community. Having developed a game or two for the DS (even if it is an indie project) would help you tremendously in getting a job as a programmer at a company that does Nintendo DS development. The same goes for other platforms.   ;  Altoona asked:>1. What kind of things do you look for on the resume?It depends.>2. What kind of stuff do you look for in the portfolio...Excellence, skill, understanding, mastery.>3. What would an ideal (realistic) candidates resume/portfolio look like?It depends.>If anyone is in the hiring role please give your expertise to us new guys :). Someone is. My advice is: ask better questions.>Its never too early to start preparing.I disagree. You asked these questions too early (before your questions were ready).> what to put in a portfolio.Only the best stuff. Read http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson12.htm;  Your questions aren't really about interviews, so i'll chip in my 2p's worth on that first. In an interview, there are 2 things we normally look for:1. Are we confident this candidate is able to do the job?2. Would we like to go to the pub after work with them?for 1, we tend to like to see some sample code you've written - we don't really care what it is, but...* is it understandable? (good use of naming conventions, namespaces, indented well etc)* it it well documented / commented?* Do you write re-usable libraries?* Are the directories well organised?* Is there evidence of source control, unit tests etc...* Good use of loggers, assertions, etc After that, we'll normally ask you a few maths questions, and general questions relating to the industry and more specifically the job you've applied for to see if you have a decent understanding. Bullsh###ing will not get you very far, since it makes you look *very* bad - normally an instant "no". If you don't know an answer, it's better to answer in a kind of "I don't know, but I'd probably start by looking at X, reading up on Y, then i'd tackle it like that..." way.for 2, try to be chatty and friendly, and try to not be an arsehole if possible. It doesn't normally go down too well... Quote:Original post by Chrono10811. What kind of things do you look for on the resume?Relevent experiance if we are looking for someone experianced. If we know we are looking for a graduate position, then we'll typically look to the CV for info about the courses you've done (it's worth adding a few lines about the projects you did / area's you specialised in etc when you were doing your degree - rather than just the grade!). Normally though, we already know the kind of person we are looking for, and 99 times out of a 100 we reject applications because they are not exactly suited to the job we have in mind. So, don't be upset if you get quite a few rejection letters - it's worth working on your own projects and re-submitting CV's every couple of months.Quote:Original post by Chrono10812. What kind of stuff do you look for in the portfolio for a designer or programmer?There's no specific "X will definately get you a job" demo you can do. It's nice to see you have some skills in a number of areas, but it's also good to have something that is very polished to demo (not always a game, it could be a tool, a library, etc). We don't look at the portfolio until the interview. Everything prior to that is based on your CV and covering letter. At the interview we normally ask for you to demo some of the projects you have worked on. Make sure you test the demo's before you come so you know they work! A webpage with some brief executables with brief explanation is always nice to see on a CV mind you. I probably wouldn't put a demo CD into my machine whilst i'm at work, I might however spend 5 mins skimming over a personal webpage. We'll ask you to explain what it's doing, and will probably ask a few questions about it whilst you are demoing it. It is worth being brutally honest about your code when demoing stuff (rather than pretendeing it's the best thing ever!). It's nice to see candidates that go "that part does X, and it's ok, but I'd really like to take some time to improve Y and Z about it...." or "If i was to write it again, i'd do X, because Y....". Quite often it'll get the interviewers talking with you about code which will:a) make them think your communication skills are good and you're willing to learn and take advice. b) will get their thoughts on the subject, which may help you remember something you've forgotten to say, or may remind you about something you've done that demo's exactly the point the interviewer was talking about.... c) If you don't get the job, you can find out a few bits of advice to improve your next demoreel. Quote:Original post by Chrono10813. What would an ideal (realistic) candidates resume/portfolio look like?There is no such thing. An ideal candidate will fullfill the 2 points i made at the top - the portfolio will just be an aid for us to judge whether you'll be able to cope with the job spec.   