Xavier Miller

Resumes are for your work history, stats, relevant job description keywords, and all that jazz. Interviews are when you tell your story. It's your chance to stand out in a sea of fellow applicants who have similar work histories and probably have given the same cookie-cutter answers to interview questions. Don't be like that. Engross your interviewers with a narrative that tells them what you bring to the table and why they should pick you over everyone else they're interviewing. It's like fishing. Putting bait on your hook will get a fish to take a bite, but you've got to put in the effort and reel it in. Reel your interviewers in with a compelling story.

You can go to college to learn how to design a game, but you can't go to college to learn how to be a decent human. College can teach you C++, but a college course isn't teaching you how to read a room. Constructive criticism is the basis on which everything improves, but many people aren't too receptive to criticism. Or at least, that's how it may appear on the surface. Once you get beneath the surface, you'll realize it's mostly a matter of how you deliver criticism if that criticism is balanced out by praise, and if that criticism comes with suggestions for improvement. Cultivating an open and supportive team environment will go a long way towards the team engaging in healthy discourse and improving team morale.

Too much of pretty much anything can be a bad thing. Even if you LOVE game design, it should not and can not be your life. We have all something we fight for and reasons we get up every morning. If you get up every morning just to work, then you're not really living. You're just existing. When people don't live their lives, and it finally hits them that they're not really living, it can hit them like a sack of bricks. And that feeling is going to affect you in every area of your life. Including your work in game design. Life is unfortunately short. Everyone should try to give their lives meaning. Find new hobbies. Reconnect with old friends. Get a pet. Time waits for no one. Don't wait forever to start living your life.

Most recommend resumes be short and sweet. Not every application process even has a Cover Letter option. If you make it to the interview, now is the time to sell yourself in ways you've yet to do. Illuminate what makes you a valuable team member. Tell your interviewers stories they didn't/couldn't read on your resume. Demonstrate your expertise firsthand, potentially offering up solutions to an issue they may be facing. If you've soft skills that are invaluable assets for a team member to have, show them. While you're busy explaining what you bring to the table, unveil that macaroni dish and let them know you're happy to pass the salt. Getting in a room with people is the hard part. Once you're in there, be personable and sell yourself.

Recon is everything. Are they using a proprietary engine? How is public sentiment regarding said proprietary engine? Are they planning on upgrading it and creating a new engine? What games are they currently working on (That they've announced to the public)? What game genres do they lean towards most in the games they make? How healthy is their long-standing franchise? Is it still going strong, or has it started to waver and become stagnant? Have they formed any subsidiary divisions? Acquired smaller studios? How many content creators cover their games and what's the community feel for the company? Work represents a significant portion of a person's life. Demonstrate you understand their world well if you want to become part of it.

Asking the right question can sometimes give a better impression than giving the right answer. All interviewees will memorize answers to the standard questions, and give standard answers. That's not going to impress anybody. Thinking outside the box does. Answering a question with a question can result in a more engaging and back-and-forth interview experience. It demonstrates your ability to engage your co-workers and dig beneath the surface of an issue. Few problems have easy fixes, so why should your answers give the illusion that they do? Show the interviewers that you can think outside the box, ask the right questions, and come up with solutions to tough problems, and you'll show them you're the kind of employee they can count on.