The Games Game October10
Quick Links:
Each month, industry veteran Tom Sloper provides career guidance to game biz wannabes, newbies, and junior professionals with the goal of helping them break into the industry, and stay in. Submit a question to Tom for developer-oriented advice in this column (IGDA members only).
Hi James,
I think it's nuts to quit a paying job without another gig already lined up. Consider: most game internships are open to upperclassmen (seniors, grad students -- juniors at least). So your chances of getting the internship are pretty low.
But you can apply for an internship. No harm in trying. You do not have to quit your job to do that. If you succeed in snagging an internship, and if you see that as having more value than the paying job, then you can quit and go for it.
On the other hand, there's the matter of holding down a full-time job and going to college at the same time. I think that's biting off an awful lot, but some people can handle it, and you sound like you're one of those. So my hat's off to you. I don't think I could have handled it when I was your age.
Anytime you have a difficult decision to make (and adult life is going to hand you a number of those), one thing that works for me is to categorize and organize the various decision factors. Then examine each one, and add them all up using a decision grid to see which decision makes sense. Sometimes you won't know how to weigh a particular factor, so you can even make a sub-grid (a separate decision grid for one factor in your ultimate decision grid).
Consider the workload at your job versus the workload at school and the workload at the internship (once one is offered to you). Consider the money from the job versus the benefit of working in your chosen field for a while. Consider the commute, and consider whether you can get school credit for working at either job (an internship qualifies as a job). Even consider the working environment: is one company a nice place to work, is one a frantic hub of chaos? The stress might have to factor in.
You can even consider the prestige of working for that Fortune 500 company. Don't look down your nose at the warehouse work -- at Activision, I worked with a producer who'd started out driving a forklift in the warehouse. He went on to become the president of Sony Online. So, from small beginnings... and all like that there.
Good luck with that decision. I'll be interested in hearing what you do and how it works out.
Tom |
Please note that there is no guarantee that Tom will be able to respond to all the questions he receives. It is up to his discretion which questions he uses for this column. For further advice and resources, check out the IGDA's discussion forums, the Breaking In web site and the Students & Newbies Outreach section.
Tom's Bio
Tom Sloper's game biz career began over twenty years ago at Western Technologies, where he designed LCD games and the Vectrex games "Spike" and "Bedlam". There followed stints at Sega Enterprises, Rudell Design, Atari Corporation, and Activision. In 12 years at Activision, Tom produced 36 unique game titles (plus innumerable ports and localizations), designed four games, and won five awards. Tom worked for several months in Activision's Japan operation, in Tokyo. He is perhaps best known for designing, managing and producing Activision's "Shanghai" line. He is currently consulting, writing, speaking, teaching, and developing original games. Find out more at Sloperama.
© 2010 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.
Post to Twitter