Jim Rivers, the Hiring Manager for Obsidian Entertainment (KoToR 2, NWN 2, Alpha Protocol) gave a great talk at the Austin GDC Game Career Seminar about resumes, cover letters, and websites. It was specifically geared towards newly graduated students — some of his advice doesn’t apply to seasoned vets. I just found out that his presentation is available for download (direct link to a ZIP file containing a PPT).
Here are some of the most important points of the presentation:
- If you lack industry experience but have worked on lots of game stuff as an intern or for school or in your spare time, you should use a functional resume (a resume that is organized by the skills you have rather than your employment history). If you have industry experience, you should have chronological resume (this is a “normal” resume where you list out your job experience over time).
- His preferred cover letter is broken into three sections: an intro where you create interest in yourself, the body where you talk about why you want to work for this company in particular, and a closing where you state that you’d like to be interviewed for the job. Pretty simple.
- If you’re an artist, organize your work on your online portfolio by genre or type (fantasy/scifi/contemporary, or perhaps rigging/modeling/2D). This helps potential employers quickly find the type of stuff that they are interested in.
There’s a whole lot more very specific advice in the presentation, I highly recommend that anyone who’s in school and wants to get a job in the game industry read it and take its advice to heart.
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Oh Jim Rivers, what a crazy, crazy man… But, from what I saw of him one post-AGDC night, I think I’d trust his judgment and these sound like good points for people getting into the industry. ;-)
Really, this is solid advice for anyone making a resume, regardless of what field they are going into.
I sent resume to Obsidian, unsolicited. Rivers responded back saying he liked it but that they weren’t hiring at the position for which I was looking. Most companies don’t even respond, but he responded back to me fairly quickly, was friendly, and even, it seemed, a little encouraging. Thanks for the link. :)
Terrific advice! I appreciated the entire powerpoint – although, it is not super-impressive to encounter spelling / grammatical issues within a presentation about the importance of perfect spelling / grammar :P
Great post! I will surely keep this in mind! Yes, I agree that how the resume “looks” definitely reflects what your character could be. Thanks for this advice.
This is so great! Now, my revised resume looks much better.
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