The Games Game

Sympathy's Not Your Friend (June 2004)

Dear Tom,

I've become extremely discouraged about ever getting a job in the game industry. I have done everything right, but have been thwarted at every turn. I got a degree, I made a demo, I've been networking. I don't use email as my primary job search technique, and I target realistically.

I met a game producer at GDC. She gave me her card and said to call her the following week. I called, and she started screaming at me that I ought to be going through HR, that I shouldn't harass busy producers, and like that!

I answered an ad for another company. They wanted me to send in my resume and demo, then they called me for an interview. The interview went well, as far as I could tell. I waited a week and called, but never got a call back. For weeks I tried to call, and they wouldn't return my calls!

Then there was the other company that told me, after two rounds of interviews, that the company was going through a reorganization and I should stay in touch. I'd call them every couple weeks and they were still reorganizing every time I called!

[Further horror stories omitted for column brevity.]

Anon E. Muss

Dear Anon,

This is going to sound very cold, I'm afraid. Your horror stories were very sad, to be sure, but we've all had similar things happen in our careers. But to be honest with you, I think that the thing that's holding you back is you.

You spent a lot of energy and time telling me your sad tales of woe. And you never once asked me for advice or solutions!  Some people get some kind of fulfillment from telling others about their troubles, to get sympathy. You sound like you might be one of them.

You said that you want to get into the game industry. Something within you is now causing you to spend your energy wallowing in self-pity rather than to spend it actually trying to get a job. There may be other reasons for this that I don't know about from your letter.

I recommend you re-evaluate your situation from several angles. Re-write your resume from scratch. Supplement your degree with further classes in your chosen area (be it programming, level design, or whatever). You said you have "a demo." I recommend you take another look at it and analyze its strengths and weaknesses - and create another, and another... Keep on networking, but stop looking for sympathy. Sympathy never got anybody a job. You don't need sympathy. You need to cultivate a new self-image, that of a doer rather than an object of pity.

Just do it! (^_^)