Sorry I missed last week….work exploded in intensity for a
while and I ended up getting sick so I lost a day or so…to make up for it, I’m
going to try and put a coupla articles out this week…looking at the various methods
of actually getting into the industry…
A classic route into the industry is to start off in QA with
the intention of moving into other areas once you’re inside as it were…
This is a common method but has mixed results. You’d think
that getting industry experience, being able to demonstrate an understanding as
to how games are put together and what can go wrong would be enough to make you
an auto-choice when it comes to hiring for junior positions. Sadly, in my
experience at least, this happens rarely…
There is an inherent difficulty with internal hiring that causes
this…basically human beings like to label and order things/people/places/stuff
etc…this means that if you join as a QA tester then you’ll be labelled a ‘QA
tester’ and shifting that category is hard work. In order for this route to
succeed you need to demonstrate your aptitude for other areas within
development. See my previous posts about being able to talk about games and
building levels in a recognised editor…you need to do this to start making
people think of you as other than a ‘QA tester’.
The advantage to this approach is that you have plenty of
time to build the right relationships and work them over to you way of thinking…for
example, if you wanna get into design then get to know the senior and lead
designers. Build a relationship and over time you will have plenty of chances
to show what you can do...downside is it might take a coupla years and you’ll
need to be laser-focussed on timing your run in to coincide with the ramp down
of a recently shipped title with the ramp up of the next project…
Timing is hard to advise on, it is very situational…but I can
talk about building the relationship in the right way…a common mistake is to
hope that the sheer brilliance of your ideas will get you noticed and they’ll
take real notice…this is highly unlikely! Don’t even think that providing
excellent critique and suggestions as to improvement and tweaks to the game in
development will get you where you want to be…it’ll get you noticed but not the
kind of relationship you want to foster…one of ‘jeez, not that guy and his
ideas about how I can do my job better again’ is to be avoided…
Don’t forget, what we want is for people to believe in your
potential in the role you want…
So here’s the Mat Hart secret method, in my experience there’s
no better way to do this than to go to them for advice about a personal project
you’re working on….ask them to share their experience and knowledge and then
act on it….then, and this is the good bit, you have a reasonable reason to go
back to them and say ‘I tried that, can you take a look and let me know what
you think?’ and then get more feedback and, most importantly, you are then
acting the role of a designer in their team albeit on a personal project…this
way they will stop thinking about you as a ‘QA tester’ and start thinking about
you as an enthusiastic designer…
Also, speak with HR…make sure they know about what you want
to achieve
This works for all disciplines…everyone loves to be asked
advice….it makes them feel special and respected and who doesn’t respond well
to those feelings….here’s another tip for you, try it on your Dad if you’re a bloke
or your Mum if you’re a girl, its solid gold, trust me! Basically as you get
older and more independent then the less you need your Mum or your Dad on a day
to day basis, so flip this over, go and ask them for their help on something (it
doesn’t have to be a big deal) and watch as their hearts melt…trust me, I’m a
dad as well as a son…
So this is a great method overall if you a) are patient b)
able to time your approach c) can tailor your approach to the individuals and
most importantly, d) are willing to put the effort in to have a personal
project and work on it…but then this last part is easy ‘cos you love this shit
already right? Good luck… J