For a games programming job no less!
So help me! I’m scared!
What to wear? What to bring? what to say? what to do? AaaaarrrrghhH!!!
Congrats 
I don’t have experience with job interviews with for a games programming job, but nevertheless I hope this is helpful:
“What to wear?”
It won’t hurt to dress sharp. Some companies might have a problem with people coming to an interview underdressed, but I never heard of companies having a problem with people coming overdressed.
“What to bring?”
Bring your resume with everything you’ve done. Even the things that are not games related. And be sure you bring everything you might have sent them, in case they’re referring to it. Maybe bring some notes with questions you might want to ask them.
“What to say? What to do?”
Always be positive in everything you say. For example don’t talk about how much one company you worked for sucked, but rather tell them what challenged you to go work somewhere else.
Try to take a lead in the conversation sometimes. Don’t just wait for questions to answer, ask questions yourself too. Companies love to talk about their company. You’ll score when they talk about their company and you find an aspect where your expertise will be particulary helpful. It should be a 2 way conversation. They examine if they could use you, you examine if you want to work for them.
Don’t start talking about money demands until they do a job proposal.
“AaaaarrrrghhH!!!”
Try to remember they are looking for someone that might be you. You have something to offer them as much as they have something to offer you.
Good advice.
Here’s some more taken from the Sloperama Game Biz Advice pages (Lesson #9: “Applying for a job in game design”):
The rest of the article, and the whole site for that matter, might also be a useful read.
shmoove
Everyone (well, alot of people) say in the games industry you don’t need to dress up for an interview. I think that’s totally crap. At the minumum for any job you should be wearing a jacket and tie (IMHO).
Goodluck and keep us posted!
[quote]Everyone (well, alot of people) say in the games industry you don’t need to dress up for an interview. I think that’s totally crap. At the minumum for any job you should be wearing a jacket and tie (IMHO).
[/quote]
Strange - I interview for job positions (we’re just now interviewing for five more senior/junior software engineering positions), and I immediately become suspect of anyone who arrives in a tie and suit. That doesn’t mean I want to see you coming in looking sloppy. It just means that I don’t want to be distracted by your clothing, so I can pay attention to you.
God bless,
-Toby Reyelts
Odd that you’d find a shirt and tie distracting, if you’re really not interested in their clothing why would you be suspicious of a suit and tie?
Kev “Suit and Tie Wearing Interviewie” Glass
Personally I find it easier to work in “work clothes” (i.e. something I’m not going to wear at home, i.e. suit + tie) because then it’s much easier to maintain a home / work separation both consciously and sub-consciously.
When there’s no difference between being at home and being at work, your ability to differentiate implicitly blurs (who can blame your mind for this? There’s hardly any more tangible difference than changing jobs and working in different offices!), and for many people everything suffers - home-life, stress levels, ability to balanc home/work, etc. Even though you can’t generally see yourself in the clothes you are wearing, they have a huge psychological effect on you (find a brunette who’s tried being blonde for a few weeks and ask them what difference that makes :P).
So, I prefer work for employers with a dress code, preferably suit and tie.
OTOH, when wearing a suit and tie is just ‘not done’ in a company, you might separate yourself from your collegues if you still wear them. In that case you could replace your suit and tie for some funky sunglasses (or whatever ‘suits’ the company) and still have the psychological home/work separation
[quote]Odd that you’d find a shirt and tie distracting, if you’re really not interested in their clothing why would you be suspicious of a suit and tie?
[/quote]
I find it distracting, because I’ve never worked in a professional environment where the technically competent denizens bear suits and ties. Sure, recently-graduated-from-college clueless consultants who are employed by the likes of Accenture - they wear suits and ties. Sure, project managers who don’t have an inkling of comprehension related to the technical aspects of their project - they wear suits and ties. Those statements are based on a stereotype, but that stereotype has been validated throughout my entire career. It doesn’t mean that I’ll pre-emptively dismiss someone wearing a suit and tie, but it does means that I will initially be distracted.
I guess I should mention that if you plan on working for a PSO, then it might be different for the interview. I’m coming from the POV of an engineering team. OTOH, I’ve done plenty of PS engagements, and I’ve never worn a suit and tie when working with the client.
God bless,
-Toby Reyelts
I guess its just down to experience, I’ve met plenty of developers now and I’ve never really seen a distict pattern relating ability to dress code. I met plenty of folks like you describe, but I’ve also met plenty of “layed back” folks whole think that talking geek is what makes a good engineer…
There are plenty of ways to judge people, I guess clothes is just another one…
Kev
[quote]There are plenty of ways to judge people, I guess clothes is just another one…
[/quote]
Everyone does this - if you see someone in tattered clothing, you’re going to assume they a) are poor, b) don’t care about their appearance, or c) are trying to be nonconformist. The actual case may be none of the above, but the point is, you’re going to form opinions on people based on the information you have on them. Appearance is the first information you get on a person. Until that person can give you more information, that’s what you’ve got to go on. As you get more information, you re-evaluate what you know… Of course, since I look like a badass (Chrono), I must be one. 
God bless,
-Toby Reyelts
Fear the badass!
Na, all I’m saying is that going to an interview not wearing a suit because you think it implies that you’re technical superior to your suited collegues is misguided. About as much as wearing a suit makes you more business like than an underdressed fellow.
In most cases a suit at an interview is still viewed as normal.
Kev
I’m very junior at my company, 4 years come November. I’ve been able to be on the interview team a few times. We do a group interview, to dispense with the same questions being asked by each individual, then we have one on ones.
I’d echo that its much harder to overdress than it is to underdress. You can fix an overdresser much easier than then other way around once you higher them.
Our division dress is fairly conservative. Polos are fine, with dress pants, belt, etc. When we meet with clients, my supervisor expects a tie on for the men and … well, I don’t know what she expects of the women, but its roughly equivalent. Dress up for clients, look nice normally.
The thing I have a personal gripe about is honesty. If you are asked something and you don’t know the answer. Just say so. If you’ve heard about it, say you’ve heard about it and maybe you’d like to learn more. A hint of untruthfullness doesn’t look good, IMHO.
No matter what. Just remember your interview is to gain a good understanding of your skills and how you operate, not to make you feel bad or stress you out. A friend once advised that if you have an interview then you have already passed the technical requirements, they just need to see how compatible you are with their work environment.
Best of luck!
Dr. A>
looking rock and roll is always good. not to bling mind
your not on the pull. most are just looking for neat (hats
are not to cool these days). shave and get yer hair cut
dont forget u will have to go behind the camera to sell
there game at some point- look pucker.
next stuff- bring stuff u no they havent seen. it dont
matter if its not yours most of the time . helps if it is
mind- u dont want to get rummbled later on down the
line. take a swimming certificate, always good for a
giggle.
bar trick: drag um all down the bar at the end of the
night. and u is in !! simple as that…
oh helps if u no what the job title is- but ‘hay’ come on,
may as well go in there with an eye on the big desk!
Yeah, for an interview a suit and tie is mandatory. It doesn’t matter after that - if the company dress code is casual then by all means turn up on your first day in ripped jeans and a t-shirt. But for the interview, get the suit out.
Congratulations!
[quote]Yeah, for an interview a suit and tie is mandatory.
[/quote]
Darn, I guess I’ll have to tell the people here they need to fire me cause I interviewed in slacks.
I wonder if some of this has to do with culture, i.e. how much it varies from country to country - or even state to state.
God bless,
-Toby Reyelts
Hey guys,
Thanks fo all the sound advice. I definitely am going to put on at least a shirt/tie and nice workpants. Perhaps it’s different in the US / Australia - down here, if you come in in anything less, you’ll probably be labelled with something unkind.
Actually, I’m not toooo worried about the interview itself. I’m really more worried about whether I’m actually suitable for the job or not.
I’ve got 0 professional experience, and 0 experience in C++, and only limited experience in C from my Uni days. And they say they only code in C/C++. They’ve asked me to bring along / submit some source code and the crappy thing is that all I have are Java skills, and I’ve only got my half-finished, not-too-flash game to show for it. While I’m quite proud of how much I learnt from creating that game (since I started with practically 0 knowledge in graphics / game programming), i know it’s not exactly cutting-edge or elegant. Still it represents that I can learn pretty quick and I’m driven enough to learn and apply new things and work on a project pretty much independently.
And i think I just want to take this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to everyone in this forum for helping me come this far!
Anyway, what I feel I do have is POTENTIAL POTENTIAL POTENTIAL. If some company is willing to invest in me, I know I’ll be an asset after some OJT and experience since I do learn things fast + I’m actually passionate about programming. That’s the problem though with small startups though, they usually prefer someone with experience and who can do their job straight away rather than someone with potential and needs to be groomed since it costs probably a significant amount of time and money before the person is able to contribute.
Btw, I plan to pick up C++ since it’s still extremely popular in the IT industry. To all who have programmed in C/C++: Is it easy to pick up? How long would it usually take to be proficient in it given that I already know basic game programming and Java?
And to those interested in learning J2EE, I’d like to share that there’s a free online course that you can sign up for here: www.javapassion.com/j2ee
Interview is tomorrow. Pray for me guys Will let you peeps know how it goes.
Personally I feel that the minimum you can dress for a job if you actually want to get it, is a dress shirt and tie, some decent slacks or other pants is recommended too. The article that says don’t overdress by wearing a 3 piece suit names about the only thing that could be considered overdressing for any non-executive/lawyer position, and anymore, a 3 piece suit seems like a bit much for even a lawyer to be wearing (unless the lawyer is at least 50 years old). You could get hired wearing anything, but if you dress like you are serious about getting a job it’ll help (probably a lot).
Most games companies probably won’t have really strict dress codes though I assume larger ones like EA probably maintain white collar dress codes (I am probably wrong about that, but it’s what I’m going to continue to assume until I find out otherwise hehe).
It doesn’t matter what kind of job you’re interviewing for really, the same rules pretty much apply to everyone, the size of a company (how well established they are) will probably have some impact, as the larger and more ‘prestigious’ the company the more likely they are to have higher expectations of dress codes at least during an interview. Dressing up for an interview is just one way of saying you are serious about the job, by not dressing up you are saying the opposite, typically interviewers are looking for reasons to say no because when they are dealing with a large number of people it’s easier to find the flaws and it’s extremely hard to weigh one person against another.
Anyway, if you have any doubts about how to interview, typically the local unemployeement office (in the states, not sure what the system is like anywhere else) will be able to give you a pamplet of pointers on how to interview.
Oh yeah, for job suitability, I wouldn’t worry about it to much, so long as you are generally competant, you can pick up on a new langauge fairly quickly, and my experience with games (and well, programming in general) is every now and then you have to do something new which can be frustraiting, challenging, and probably more entertaining than your typical work days, but 95% of the time you are just applying the same techniques over and over.
[quote]Most games companies probably won’t have really strict dress codes though I assume larger ones like EA probably maintain white collar dress codes (I am probably wrong about that, but it’s what I’m going to continue to assume until I find out otherwise hehe).
[/quote]
I was in EA’s Montreal office the other day, and I can assure you that there was no dress code. Some people were in shorts and/or sandals.
I have never had a job where I was required to wear a suit or tie. I imagine I would get used to it, but I think it would be weird and unsettling at first.