Creating a Resume & Professional Identity

Game Design Studio II Professor Jim Whitehead January 11, 2011

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

Goal/Reading of a Resume • Goal of resume ►

Get you an interview

• How a recruiter looks at your resume ►

Very fast read, usually a minute or less • Has specific information they are seeking: major, skills, desired position

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Keyword driven Looking for a good “match” for existing position May perform a deeper read after initial triage Recruiters typically have large numbers of resumes they need to get through quickly, to find those worth further time/effort

Creating a technical resume: information • The most important pieces of information to convey are (in this order): ►

Contact information • Mail address, email, phone number, website • May want to create professional sounding email name – [email protected] vs. [email protected] • Gmail preferred to Yahoo, Hotmail

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College degree • Major, graduation date, GPA (in/out of major) • Avoid: high school degree. Just isn’t relevant.

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Directly relevant work experience • Must involve game design, programming, web design, use of computers, etc. • Relevant internships are a big plus here • Quick test: in a 30 minute interview, would you want to spend any time discussing a specific job? – If it was delivering pizza over the summer, the answer is probably no!

Creating a technical resume: information • Projects ► ►

Provide a 3-5 sentence description of every demoable game project you have worked on. Provide name of game, genre • Color screenshot would be a plus

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Describe: • 1-2 sentence overview of the game. • Give platform, computer language, 2d or 3d. • List major technologies used (game engine, 2D or 3D art creation tools) • Describe technically challenging aspects. Did you use Quadtrees for collision? Write some custom shaders? Create a level design tool? Network multiplayer interaction? Advanced AI, especially using something more than A*. • Describe your role on the project. • If possible, give a URL to project website • Win any awards? Post to known online sites? • How many people worked on the project? Teamwork skills are highly prized by employers.

Creating a technical resume: information • Technical skills ►

Programming languages. If you know them, list in this order: C++, C, C#, Lua, (engine-specific scripting), Python, PERL, PHP, Java • Unless you are applying for a social networking game company, in which case Java should be 2nd or 3rd • Many in the games industry do not like Java

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Tools: Visual Studio, Eclipse, Subversion, Softimage, 3DS Max, Emacs, Photoshop, Illustrator, Blender, Game Maker, shader authoring tools, 3D game engines, etc. • List applications like Office, Powerpoint, etc. last, as you are expected to know these (would be embarrassing if you didn’t)

Creating a technical resume: information • If, and only if, you have space: ►

Classes • List only directly relevant classes • Also include significant technical writing classes (good writing is also highly prized by employers)

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Outside activities • These will usually be conversation starters – Clubs, volunteer experience, church activities • Make sure to create space to list really major accomplishments – Examples: Eagle Scout, major student government position, very competitive scholarship (e.g., Regents scholarship)

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If you have any publications, list those in a Publications section • A couple of blog posts don’t count…

Formatting • Serif vs sans-serif ► ►

Use sans-serif font for name, headings Use serif font (times) for main body text

• Graphic design ►

Make sure columns line up Mary T. Slug 505 West Cliff Drive Santa Cruz, CA 95060 [email protected]

Education BS Computer Science: Computer Game Design, expected June 2009. Experience

Projects

Technical Skills

Formatting • One side of one sheet of paper ► ►

No exceptions Extremely arrogant for entry level to go over one side

• Font size ► ►

Nothing smaller than 10point Main body text 11 or 12point

• Spelling and grammar ► ► ►

Must be perfect. You can lose an interview with a single misspelled word Have several other people review

User testing • Give your resume to a friend ►

Give them exactly one minute to read

• Afterwards, ask them for the top 2-3 things they remember ►

If these are not the key points you want to convey, make edits!

Crafting a professional identity • Creating a resume involves creating an identity for yourself as a working professional ► ►

This is one of the reasons creating a resume is hard You may not think of yourself this way (yet)

• Join professionally-oriented social networking sites ► ►

Linked-In Many UCSC professors already on LinkedIn, have extensive networks

• Create business cards ►

Many sites allow you to create professional looking business cards with low print runs

Crafting a professional identity • Create a web site that holds your portfolio ► ► ►

A personal URL, website, email is relatively inexpensive GoDaddy.com, etc. for hosting, ~$75/year Put up information about your games, resume, photos of you at work

Interview • What will you wear? ►

Should make sure you have clothes that allow you to be “professional casual” • Key challenge: being professional casual, but with a sense of personal style

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Suit & tie no longer necessary, especially in creative fields such as games

• How will you talk about your games? ►

Book with screen shots of your games • Print screenshots via photo printing service • Good failsafe if your technology isn’t working

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Movie of a game play session • Play back on cell phone, PSP, other portable movie player