[gameprogrammer] Re: PC game Outsourcing (now finding a job)
- From: "Kevin Jenkins" <gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 14:35:50 -0700
Here's my method of contacting developers to find a job, which may help
potential job seekers on this list.
First, find a list of all developers. It takes about 20 minutes to find a
good list. MobyGames is an excellent resource for this. You want a list
that includes the small developers, not just the big ones, because in my
experience small developers are more likely to hire quickly and there are a
lot more small developers you never heard of than you might think.
I then go down the list and open each link to the developer's webpage in a
new page. I do about 10 pages at a time so I can apply while the slow
loading pages still load.
For each page that shows up, I go to the job section and see if they are
hiring. If they are, and I'm qualified, I create a new email in outlook
express, cut and paste the address to the email, paste my introduction
letter and link to my resume (plus a text copy of it), and usually customize
the introduction letter. Usually my customization is to put the company
name, position name, and if there are specific requirements to list those as
well. One big plus that most people don't do is to directly list the
qualifications the company puts and then under each qualification list why I
am qualified.
For example, if they list
1. C++
2. DirectX
3. Team player
I would cut and paste that with something like
1. C++
I have 5 years of experience with C++ and have done game X,Y,Z in C++
2. DirectX
I did game X,Y in DirectX using these specific features of DirectX.
3. Team Player
I worked at company Z working with 3 other programmers in my department and
12 other programmers in the company. We got along very well and are still
friends, etc.
That adds on another few minutes to send each email but I is worth doing for
jobs you really want or are likely to get.
Also, put the company name and position in your email is it looks less like
a mass mailling and when you go back over the list to see who you previously
sent emails to you can find it.
You should put all your sends in one folder so you can quickly reference it.
Sometimes someone will respond with "That job position you applied to" and
you have to scan through your previous list and find what job it was you
applied to.
It takes about 8 hours to go down the entire list. It's sort of fun though.
As the 8 hours pass and I read over my resume I change it. So you should
have someone else go over your resume before you send it out a hundred times
and be sure it's as correct as you can get it.
After I go through the developer list, I then apply to the companies I would
like to work for that weren't on the developer list. I usually head to
ebgames, find my favorite games, and find the developers from there. That
is pretty slow however and might take several minutes for one resume as
opposed to one minute. Another benefit of this technique is you can find
developers that have recently finished a game, which means they are probably
hiring for a new game. A lot of small developers won't be listed on your
developer list, and you can always find them this way. However, with
outsourcing most small developers these days are outside the US so this
technique is less effective than it used to be.
There are two sites that I use to find jobs as well.
Gamasutra is pretty good for listings because employers have to pay to get
listed, meaning if they do list it is because they actually are hiring.
However, from what I've been told employers get a ton of junk responses from
gamasutra so unless you are exceptional you probably won't get a reply.
gamejobs.com is good because smaller developers on the cheap sometimes list.
What is bad about it is it not many jobs are posted there and a lot of junk
jobs are there (i.e. unpaid). There is no way to not show unpaid jobs.
However, it's easy to browse and in my opinion it has more interesting
postings.
Lastly, and this is how I got my present job, if a company is hiring for a
different position (such as artist) you might still want to check their job
board. The fact that they are hiring at all means they might be ramping up.
The results are as follows. The first time I did this was fresh out of
college. Being less experienced, I didn't list the qualifications but I did
after a while put the job title and description.
The response rate was roughly 10%,10%,30% as follows:
10% of the companies I emailed would respond in some way (including
rejection or not hiring responses)
10% of those companies would grant at least one interview, though that might
be as little as a test.
30% of those interviews would result in a job offer.
I sent about 130 emails, although in hindsight I wasn't qualified for about
half those jobs.
I did this again twice more, the most recent of which was 6 months ago,
where in my most recent mailing I included listing the qualifications for
jobs I really wanted. The response rate was 20%, 50%, 100% for the same
factors. I was qualified for more jobs, but due to lesser job availability
(see the outsourcing thread) and due to me being slightly more picky I only
sent about 50 emails. Most of my responses came between two and four weeks
after sending the emails. That 100% here means I was offered all the jobs I
interviews with - however I turned down 3 later interviews after accepting
an earlier offer so its possible those interviews wouldn't have resulted in
offers and the percentage would be lower.
Lastly, posting your resume online at Gamasutra will occasionally get you a
response but of all the responses I've gotten only one was a job offer - the
rest was from recruiters. So the benefit is dubious. No other online site
that I put my resume on amounted to anything.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adrian Brown" <enliten@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <gameprogrammer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 1:27 PM
Subject: [gameprogrammer] Re: PC game Outsourcing
> Yer, trust me, its not good when your C.V. turns up in your bosses in-tray
> for someone looking for work!
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