Do someone a FAVOR today - if you know a student, someone who is looking for a job, or a developer struggling to get an interview, send them a link to this video! If this video helped YOU out, let me know in the comments.👍
Instantly shared this in a discord community I'm in. We do get asked about this a lot, your video is another awesome resource. Hope you make another one that's game dev specific, I am finding it hard to put what as when I ask other software engineers that are non game dev I am not quite sure if it is applicable for me. Cheers.
To be more specific, I am not quite sure what to put like what tech stack or core skills to put as a unity developer other than unity engine, git, and c# as programming language for example. I may have been using some tech stack but is unaware that it is a stack. It just feels my resume is lightweight. I think the upside to being a game dev is that we can put the games we have worked on and have their own bullet points (this is what i did, i feel each project has something new that i was able to put value on and taught me new experiences)
@@johncarlogamboa7331 Thanks for sharing the video, I hope it helps a lot of people! I think the real big differences between general software engineering and game dev come out more during the interviews, as often the gatekeeper is not a developer. But I think I will talk about this topic more in the future, in particular what you've mentioned there.
Currently a mature game development university student in the UK, just sent my course lead this video and will be discussing it with my fellow students when we come back for our second year in September. Great video as always, very much appreciated.
Dang, you gave a little spark of inspiration here. When I started watching this channel, I felt myself as noob, but now I have strong grasp of design patterns and powerful code architecture, and now when you said "as I watch this channel, hence I'm good", that gave me a positive feeling and hope. I also want to work with people like you. On August, I will apply for jobs, and will follow these suggestions.
Woah, this is by far the best advice I've ever seen for surching for a job. Thankyou so much for this. Im going to rewatch and follow this everytime I apply for a job. ^-^
The hiring situation in companies in general never ceases to amaze me. I work in games, and the only thing that really matters to me is seeing the projects that the candidate has created. Bonus points if they did it themselves. If I come across a candidate who lists a page full of skills and another who simply says: 'I made this game and that game', the latter is already light years ahead of the competition
I agree, showing relevant related work if possible is a big deal. Not everyone can do that for various reasons, but I think it would benefit most people.
The last bit was so relieving to hear honestly. As I come to the close of my scholastic work, thinking about internships and work has been gnawing at the back of my mind.
This video is great for that first step, there are so much more steps for today's "getting a job" path. Personally, I think the system is currently broken. Companies are relying on generic technical interview or tests, that most of them have nothing to do with the role responsibility, or how the company works in their day to day. They are unnecessarily hard, and frustrating tests, that leaves you questioning yourself if you are actually good at this career path. We need companies that search for passion and commitment, not companies that evaluate a person who just learn by memory some tests just to get pass through the interview, and then don't have the passion or professionalism that a company expects. That aside, is a great video to cover some first mistakes, but be aware everyone, is just a first step to MANY steps until you land a job that you need to take care of. I was expecting this last video to be more technical, but this also adds up to the community. Keep up the good work.
Also, it would be good to cover up a video on how to show your portfolio, there are few videos out there showing a proper way on displaying your git projects, or showing examples of a good display for programmers trying to showcase their work. Talking from experience, is hard to showcase worked projects for big companies code wize because of NDA signed by employees.
This is a very insightful comment, and I agree with you on all the points. For sure, this is just the first obstacle of many to overcome. I think the challenges that come after you get the callback can be especially painful in some of the very large corporations, and it often parallels the short average lifetime of the employees there which seems to be less than 2 years. My recommendation to beginners is to try to get into a company with less than 1000 employees, because in my experience the mentorship will be better and the interviews will be less robotic as well. The portfolios idea is a good one. I'm in the same boat, I can never talk about what I do or share anything I've built at work.
@@git-amend best thing I'm currently doing is polishing my pet projects to showcase them, and trying to make a web page showing all my portfolio, cv and maybe a blog (when I start one 😂).
You are such a positive person, i didnt want to click on this video at first but got curious in the end... I think its the first time i hear about this kind of subject and feel good vibes at the same time 😂
I've seen these X% improvement blurbs in other resumes but I'm not sure how I'd write it for game projects. Most beginner projects are going to be just implementation stuff. Like: "Implemented a FSM/BT Framework and create Multiple Enemy/Boss BT/FSM". Or, "implemented A* pathfinding". You could frame optimizations as X% speedup but you'd probably have to mention technical details which might lead to long bullet points. I appreciate what you're doing. It'd help a lot if you could share an example ideal gamedev fresher resume/
Ultra useful. I fought with that one problem 3 times, every time with different approach, experimenting. Finally got my job, but dear god, I should stop learning things the hard way (Recently was struggling with compute shader Unity coding in similar manner)
I wish you existed when I was looking. It's very hard to get in, that's for sure. My secret sauce was to call the company after a month. When I got the interview, I brought my laptop with all my relevant projects. I was interviewed for product assurance, software programming, and technical artist. They saw that I liked programming and 3D stuff, so I was hired as a TA. I ❤ me some hand written shaders! Been doing TA stuff for many, many years. Having LinkedIn and also a place to demo related personal work and projects definitely helps. Sharing school projects or any other type of collaborative project doesn't help much, however, because it's never clear who worked on what. My personal pet peeve is with candidates who box themselves in by saying they only want to do a specific job and no other...but this is during the interview itself.
That secret sauce is something I wish I had mentioned in the video! Following up is very useful, though one of my tactics in the past has been to do that after the first interview to thank them for their time and typically I'll ask a question during the interview that I can thank them for their answer in the message (i.e. what's a good book to learn more about that subject?). Cheers!
I'm a total false negative. I'm terrible at networking, and making social connections. I don't work well on personal projects because I have no significant direction. I am interested in solving complex problems, learning new techniques, and making something useful or fun. I am unemployed, despite my BA in CS, Math minor, and Game Dev Cert. I don't think my situation is too uncommon. Someone let us in!
Well, don't beat yourself up. I'll tell you one more secret - there was a time when I was terrible at networking too, but I forced myself to add 10 connections on LinkedIn everyday until 500 people accepted. That took a long time, and it was the first thing I did every morning. After that, I didn't have a problem anymore, in fact I had to turn connection requests off because I got so many. Sometimes you have to force yourself to do the things you don't want to, and then everything changes.
Opportunities are scarce where I live and competition is high. Ive done many of the things you mentioned but still havent gotten much in terms of replies..anyhow, thanks for the great advice and best wishes to everyone else that is also looking for work!
💯 As a hiring Engineering Manager I approve this message. 🚀 A published application is imo one of the best ways to show that you're serious. Getting something from idea to production is hard. Even if you only have one active user. Could be a game, a web app, a resume site or at least a professional looking gitprofile complete with readmes for your repos. That is the kind of care for the codebase at least I am looking for. 💡 Again, Great points @git-amend
What i have in my resume is "Highlights" and whatever i apply to i BOLD the ones that are of importance to the application I am applying for Lead role - highlight all the places in my resume that are relevant to that I am applying for dev role - highlight all the languages and skills that make sense I have one CV and based on that add things that are relevant. I did Machine learning? Well, not that important for Product Owner, but for the AI JOB - Hell yes
Firstly, thank you for this. The number of people in the industry with experience who share this type of stuff is few and far between. That said, how would you amend this advice for people who might ... - Be self taught (i.e. from YT rather than University or certifications) - Only have some of the areas but not others (e.g. they can do C# but not JS or vice versa, or they can do most of the things but not one or two of them) - Have been out of work for some time (i.e. gaps in your resume) - Haven't been in a relevant position before or in some time
Well, I hope that you aren't affected by all four of those at the same time - it will certainly be difficult. Self taught isn't a such a big issue. My suggestion is that if you don't have any official education, simply omit that from the resume, and if they ask about it, you can tell them you are self taught. I will say though, that you need to make sure you have some projects highlighted in your resume which are relevant to the job that will impress anyone looking at them. Next, be honest about your abilities. There's no point lying about them because you'll end up burning a bridge when they find out. Don't say you know JS if you do not, it's a waste of everyone's time, including yours. If you've been out of work for some time, that's fine. Nobody cares about that. If you haven't had a relevant job before, that's harder, but it really depends on the position you are trying to get. For most internships and co-op positions, that's expected because they are typically students. Even for Junior devs that's usually the case. If you have had a relevant job before but it was a long time ago, you can still put it on your resume, but they are going to want to know why you stopped. Maybe that was to focus on personal projects or do some consulting - hopefully something related. If you have these kinds of issues, it just means you have to make sure to network better than anyone else, and you also need to have some good projects you can highlight in your resume.
Are you looking for more courses about things like Adobe products (if so that creator has a lot of good courses) or something more about graphic design in general? I put a link to that course in the video description by the way.
I've been trying to land a full time gig for over 2 years now. I can't seem to even get an interview. Hoping some of the tips in your video will help me.
Hello, Adam, great video as always! Off topic, but what’s that game you’re playing at the end of the video where you’re flying some sort of a spaceship? It looks so good
Actually that is from the URP sample (the new one). I didn't have time to whip up something custom this week - so check it out! unity.com/demos/urp-3d-sample
May I ask you where do you work? You may be a game developer and this industry is quite small, it could be really fantastic to end up working in the same company
I'm reminded of the resume I saw with 140 wpm typing speed as a core skill. Anyone typing that quickly is doing it as a hobby and a flex. It's irrelevant to the job. Above 70? Sure. But that should be implied if you're applying for a job that requires programming. Also, avoid copy paste GPT. Had someone apply recently that very obviously put the entire job posting into an AI prompt and got back the "ideal" resume. It was incredibly obvious. You can't just "solve" a resume. If something looks WAY to exact. My advice, if you're gonna AI anyway, at least go back and smear things around a little. Maybe it worse like a human did it.
Good information in general! The only issue I have with this video is that this is in the perfect world, where the developer has most if not all of the "requirements" proposed by the job posting. It fits more for intermediary and senior level developers, whom, if they tried to become efficient in their career, shouldn't have much issue finding a job in a less saturated market. For junior developers, it is a lot harder to provide recruiters with actual tangible feats and accomplishments. It comes down to borderline lying and falsely embellishing ones portfolio to hopefully get pushed through the system by an HR who knows nothing about the actual job.
I've had around 1000 applications sent, over the past 10 months. Not a single callback or email or interview, I have 2 years of gamedev experience and 3 released titles. Am I supposed to tailor my cover letter for every position? I gave up on hoping for any one particular position. Half of the video (I've watched half so far) is about customising your resume and cover letter to the job posting. How long should I spend per position, and avoid burning myself out from this endless monotony? At this point I'm thinking about automating it, despite hating this practice.
I'm sure it does seem monotonous, but your chances will be zero if you don't tailor your resume and cover letter to the job. Most of the time, those changes will be small because you'll be targeting the same sector of the industry. Make sure you start building connections with these people you want to work with too on social media, it makes a huge difference.
Where is a good place to have experienced people review your resume and give specific feedback for your situation? Ive been applying to game development studios for the past 2 years, have been self studying for 4 years at this point and have not had a single interview. Its incredibly frustrating to have no idea where your shortcomings are as a developer. I'm just continuing to study programming, improve my development skill stack... but at this point I'm at a loss for where I dont look attractive for employers. It feels like the only thing I'm missing is the college degree check box on the resume. I probably don't look as good as their other candidates plane and simple but how am I supposed to know where I need to put my time into improving. Incredibly frustrating.
That's a tough one. In cases like yours you mostly have to fall back on completed projects. Experience is the best thing, but if you don't have any then the fallbacks are education and personal work. Try to get your portfolio of work to the point that you simply cannot be ignored. I'll say this too, though many don't care for this advice, but it is much easier to get your foot into the door in enterprise programming than it is to get into game dev - but it has several advantages: better mentorship and better hours and pay. After 3 years of working at a mid size enterprise software company it will be much easier to switch to game development, so try to consider all options for getting in. Once you are into the industry one way or another, making lateral moves becomes much easier.
@@git-amend thanks for taking the time to write out this reply, I really appreciate it 🙏. I have not finished a personal game development project but I have created multiple smaller scale proof of concept prototypes with varying technical challenges to show. That is definitely an option to go directly into software development but that poses really similar challenges. I don't really have contacts that work in these industries so I have no idea where I stand. I don't know if my code knowledge is good enough or not and if I just keep getting rejected I don't know what needs improving. I've been studying design patterns and programming archetecture and its felt really helpful (that's actually how I found your channel haha great stuff by the way!) . I know there are definitely areas to improve. For software my knowledge of algorithms and datastructures are limited. For game development I've learned to code (at least enough to block out functional builds of whatever mechanics ive wantsd to explore), 3d model, texture, and animate and have been studying game design. There are always areas to improve I'm just never sure what deserves the most focus haha. I think I need to make more contacts and friends in this field too but I'm not really sure where to look
Thank you, I am about to switch, the video came out just at the right time. I have a question, I have been professionally working as a unity dev for 2 years now, as I said looking for a switch, I know I will be able to answer unity questions so currently am grinding Leetcode instead of making projects ( have 5 mobile games as personal projects). Am I doing things wrong, should I focus on projects more? , to be completely honest I sometimes struggle with Leetcode Medium questions, only did 1 hard by myself, so not very confident in passing a technical interview.
Glad this has helped out out. It sounds like you have a solid amount of work to back up your resume, so that's great. As for the questions, I would only focus on the hard level if you are trying to get into Google. Otherwise, medium is great - remember they aren't trying to stonewall you, they just want to know how you think. Join the Discord, we do a real interview question every Tuesday as a Code Kata! I'll probably do a video about interviews later this year.
" I can tell you, the bar has never been lower" I think I observe the same across the industry. Why do you think it is hard to find people that improve over years? I have been encountering a lot of developers that do not want to learn new skills because of their ego. Is that something you encounter as well with developer in general ?
It is very common these days to find people who do well long enough to get past their probationary period, but then once they have their good salary, benefits and annual bonus locked-in, they feel that they've made it and so they stop learning and get lazy - and they milk it for as long as possible. I don't know a single Senior Software Engineer that was surprised that Elon let 80% of his staff go. You could do that almost anywhere these days, and those are the people we try hard to avoid hiring because it's so frustrating. However, I can see how in smaller companies, ego could also play a big role - reminds me of the villain from Grandma's Boy who dressed like he's in the matrix lol. In a larger engineering firm, there will almost always be someone smarter than you, so most egos get checked at the door.
@@git-amend Thanks for the insight ! Yeah the milking is something I have seen a lot in bigger companies as well. I think its great that your make video to help people get to the next level, and hopefully it motivate people to expand their skillset !
I feel like I'm in a weird bind then. My bachelor of games didn't cover web and cloud dev skills that I see required in programming jobs. I'm also seeing a shift to Unreal C++ and Godot for aussie game companies aiming for online console / mobile platforms. So to get job skills I need to do personal projects that document and demonstrate my growth. Much like what this channel is doing. But to do that I need an income stream(s) to support myself. So am trying to learn what I need to learn but game dev is so big no one person can know everything. They specialised and create a personal brand around that. So I'm trying to plan my post graduate path; industry people said expect a 6 month gap till your first job (hiring cycles). I think the hardest thing is committing to a plan when there are so many uncertainties. Will this project be the best way to learn or earn this outcome.
It’s challenging to navigate such a broad field, especially with the pressure to specialize and build a personal brand. Focusing on a specific area that aligns with industry needs while simultaneously working on personal projects to demonstrate your skills could help you stand out, even if the path forward feels uncertain. The reality is, most people will have many misfires and it's almost never the case that it will be a straight linear path to success. Try to choose projects wisely but keep in mind that even if it's not perfectly aligned with the opportunities that come your way, you will still learn a lot along the way and still be moving forward.
You mention that you should only include recent work experience that is relevant to the position. If you've never had a job in the field you're applying for what is the best way to list your previous work experience? Is it better to just leave that blank, or should you try and highlight skills you've attained from previous jobs that could be useful in the position you're applying for, even if they come from something like a barista position? Same question for education; if you have a degree but it's in an unrelated field, is it better to just list that you have a BS/BA and not specify the field? Or might it be better to try and highlight how the skills you've attained from that degree will make you a better overall employee? Curious to hear people thoughts, thanks!
In my opinion it's better to have something on there than nothing at all, especially if you aren't a teenager. As you pointed out, you might be able to use that to pivot into relevant and applicable skills. More importantly, if this is the case, highlight your personal portfolio of work. If you are going for a game dev position, make your personal creations more of the focus point - having published a game or tool, no matter its success, will go a long way whether its on Steam, Itch or just GitHub. If it's another kind of software engineering, maybe you've made some contributions to an open source project or built something that was useful or interesting.
It will not be the only challenge you face, but the reality is that most resumes are not worth consideration and that’s the end of the road for most applicants.
I did not graduate as a computer engineer. My department is mathematics. I almost never received a good job offer, my 2.5 years of Unity experience turned out to be a waste. I changed careers. If you are not a graduate of a really relevant field, unfortunately, there will be a bad result. Please keep this in mind.
It's not really a template, it's just an aggregation of several resumes that I've seen recently. You should make your own, and preferably using a professional tool like InDesign.
Do someone a FAVOR today - if you know a student, someone who is looking for a job, or a developer struggling to get an interview, send them a link to this video!
If this video helped YOU out, let me know in the comments.👍
Instantly shared this in a discord community I'm in. We do get asked about this a lot, your video is another awesome resource. Hope you make another one that's game dev specific, I am finding it hard to put what as when I ask other software engineers that are non game dev I am not quite sure if it is applicable for me.
Cheers.
To be more specific, I am not quite sure what to put like what tech stack or core skills to put as a unity developer other than unity engine, git, and c# as programming language for example.
I may have been using some tech stack but is unaware that it is a stack. It just feels my resume is lightweight. I think the upside to being a game dev is that we can put the games we have worked on and have their own bullet points (this is what i did, i feel each project has something new that i was able to put value on and taught me new experiences)
@@johncarlogamboa7331 Thanks for sharing the video, I hope it helps a lot of people! I think the real big differences between general software engineering and game dev come out more during the interviews, as often the gatekeeper is not a developer. But I think I will talk about this topic more in the future, in particular what you've mentioned there.
Currently a mature game development university student in the UK, just sent my course lead this video and will be discussing it with my fellow students when we come back for our second year in September. Great video as always, very much appreciated.
Really excellent video! I've never sent out a resume so I loved hearing how a hiring manager looks at one, great tips!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! I hope you always keep making games and content, and never enter the rat race!
"Become a known person"
This is huge IMO, as this has also gotten me job offers when I wasn't anticipating them
Yes, I agree - it is critical and surprising effective.
Dang, you gave a little spark of inspiration here. When I started watching this channel, I felt myself as noob, but now I have strong grasp of design patterns and powerful code architecture, and now when you said "as I watch this channel, hence I'm good", that gave me a positive feeling and hope. I also want to work with people like you. On August, I will apply for jobs, and will follow these suggestions.
Awesome, glad to hear that! Let me know how it goes!
Ofcourse Sir
Woah, this is by far the best advice I've ever seen for surching for a job. Thankyou so much for this.
Im going to rewatch and follow this everytime I apply for a job. ^-^
Awesome, so glad you found it useful! Best of luck in your next job search!
The hiring situation in companies in general never ceases to amaze me. I work in games, and the only thing that really matters to me is seeing the projects that the candidate has created. Bonus points if they did it themselves. If I come across a candidate who lists a page full of skills and another who simply says: 'I made this game and that game', the latter is already light years ahead of the competition
I agree, showing relevant related work if possible is a big deal. Not everyone can do that for various reasons, but I think it would benefit most people.
The last bit was so relieving to hear honestly. As I come to the close of my scholastic work, thinking about internships and work has been gnawing at the back of my mind.
Glad to hear it.
As someone about to jump into a new job search this video is soooo helpful!
I am really greatful for your work. I gathered so much knowledge from you. I'm preparing to apply for junior Unity Dev position, wish me luck
You’re welcome! Best of luck!
This video is great for that first step, there are so much more steps for today's "getting a job" path. Personally, I think the system is currently broken. Companies are relying on generic technical interview or tests, that most of them have nothing to do with the role responsibility, or how the company works in their day to day. They are unnecessarily hard, and frustrating tests, that leaves you questioning yourself if you are actually good at this career path. We need companies that search for passion and commitment, not companies that evaluate a person who just learn by memory some tests just to get pass through the interview, and then don't have the passion or professionalism that a company expects.
That aside, is a great video to cover some first mistakes, but be aware everyone, is just a first step to MANY steps until you land a job that you need to take care of.
I was expecting this last video to be more technical, but this also adds up to the community. Keep up the good work.
Also, it would be good to cover up a video on how to show your portfolio, there are few videos out there showing a proper way on displaying your git projects, or showing examples of a good display for programmers trying to showcase their work. Talking from experience, is hard to showcase worked projects for big companies code wize because of NDA signed by employees.
This is a very insightful comment, and I agree with you on all the points. For sure, this is just the first obstacle of many to overcome. I think the challenges that come after you get the callback can be especially painful in some of the very large corporations, and it often parallels the short average lifetime of the employees there which seems to be less than 2 years. My recommendation to beginners is to try to get into a company with less than 1000 employees, because in my experience the mentorship will be better and the interviews will be less robotic as well.
The portfolios idea is a good one. I'm in the same boat, I can never talk about what I do or share anything I've built at work.
@@git-amend best thing I'm currently doing is polishing my pet projects to showcase them, and trying to make a web page showing all my portfolio, cv and maybe a blog (when I start one 😂).
@@IsmaelSerrada Oh that's a good idea, I hadn't thought of a blog. Good one!
You are such a positive person, i didnt want to click on this video at first but got curious in the end...
I think its the first time i hear about this kind of subject and feel good vibes at the same time 😂
Great, thanks for the comment!
I've seen these X% improvement blurbs in other resumes but I'm not sure how I'd write it for game projects. Most beginner projects are going to be just implementation stuff. Like: "Implemented a FSM/BT Framework and create Multiple Enemy/Boss BT/FSM". Or, "implemented A* pathfinding". You could frame optimizations as X% speedup but you'd probably have to mention technical details which might lead to long bullet points.
I appreciate what you're doing. It'd help a lot if you could share an example ideal gamedev fresher resume/
There will likely be some follow up videos to this one, I’ll keep that suggestion in mind!
Finally new Sunday video ❤️💯
Yes! It was a long week wasn't it!
Ultra useful. I fought with that one problem 3 times, every time with different approach, experimenting. Finally got my job, but dear god, I should stop learning things the hard way (Recently was struggling with compute shader Unity coding in similar manner)
Nice work! Great to hear!
This was exactly what I needed since I'm currently on the lookout for a job 💯💯
Right on! Best of luck!
I wish you existed when I was looking. It's very hard to get in, that's for sure. My secret sauce was to call the company after a month. When I got the interview, I brought my laptop with all my relevant projects. I was interviewed for product assurance, software programming, and technical artist. They saw that I liked programming and 3D stuff, so I was hired as a TA. I ❤ me some hand written shaders! Been doing TA stuff for many, many years.
Having LinkedIn and also a place to demo related personal work and projects definitely helps. Sharing school projects or any other type of collaborative project doesn't help much, however, because it's never clear who worked on what. My personal pet peeve is with candidates who box themselves in by saying they only want to do a specific job and no other...but this is during the interview itself.
That secret sauce is something I wish I had mentioned in the video! Following up is very useful, though one of my tactics in the past has been to do that after the first interview to thank them for their time and typically I'll ask a question during the interview that I can thank them for their answer in the message (i.e. what's a good book to learn more about that subject?). Cheers!
@git-amend Oooooh I like that. Showing interest in learning as you go, that is a paramount skill in this industry! Cheers!
I'm a total false negative. I'm terrible at networking, and making social connections. I don't work well on personal projects because I have no significant direction.
I am interested in solving complex problems, learning new techniques, and making something useful or fun.
I am unemployed, despite my BA in CS, Math minor, and Game Dev Cert.
I don't think my situation is too uncommon. Someone let us in!
Well, don't beat yourself up. I'll tell you one more secret - there was a time when I was terrible at networking too, but I forced myself to add 10 connections on LinkedIn everyday until 500 people accepted. That took a long time, and it was the first thing I did every morning. After that, I didn't have a problem anymore, in fact I had to turn connection requests off because I got so many. Sometimes you have to force yourself to do the things you don't want to, and then everything changes.
Opportunities are scarce where I live and competition is high. Ive done many of the things you mentioned but still havent gotten much in terms of replies..anyhow, thanks for the great advice and best wishes to everyone else that is also looking for work!
Hopefully as companies more more towards Remote work, opportunities will increase! Best of luck!
💯 As a hiring Engineering Manager I approve this message.
🚀 A published application is imo one of the best ways to show that you're serious. Getting something from idea to production is hard. Even if you only have one active user. Could be a game, a web app, a resume site or at least a professional looking gitprofile complete with readmes for your repos. That is the kind of care for the codebase at least I am looking for.
💡 Again, Great points @git-amend
Awesome, really glad to hear that. Thank you!
What i have in my resume is "Highlights" and whatever i apply to i BOLD the ones that are of importance to the application
I am applying for Lead role - highlight all the places in my resume that are relevant to that
I am applying for dev role - highlight all the languages and skills that make sense
I have one CV and based on that add things that are relevant. I did Machine learning? Well, not that important for Product Owner, but for the AI JOB - Hell yes
Seems like a good strategy!
Firstly, thank you for this. The number of people in the industry with experience who share this type of stuff is few and far between. That said, how would you amend this advice for people who might ...
- Be self taught (i.e. from YT rather than University or certifications)
- Only have some of the areas but not others (e.g. they can do C# but not JS or vice versa, or they can do most of the things but not one or two of them)
- Have been out of work for some time (i.e. gaps in your resume)
- Haven't been in a relevant position before or in some time
Well, I hope that you aren't affected by all four of those at the same time - it will certainly be difficult. Self taught isn't a such a big issue. My suggestion is that if you don't have any official education, simply omit that from the resume, and if they ask about it, you can tell them you are self taught. I will say though, that you need to make sure you have some projects highlighted in your resume which are relevant to the job that will impress anyone looking at them.
Next, be honest about your abilities. There's no point lying about them because you'll end up burning a bridge when they find out. Don't say you know JS if you do not, it's a waste of everyone's time, including yours.
If you've been out of work for some time, that's fine. Nobody cares about that. If you haven't had a relevant job before, that's harder, but it really depends on the position you are trying to get. For most internships and co-op positions, that's expected because they are typically students. Even for Junior devs that's usually the case. If you have had a relevant job before but it was a long time ago, you can still put it on your resume, but they are going to want to know why you stopped. Maybe that was to focus on personal projects or do some consulting - hopefully something related.
If you have these kinds of issues, it just means you have to make sure to network better than anyone else, and you also need to have some good projects you can highlight in your resume.
@@git-amend This is a great answer. TL;dr: Make good things, show them off, network.
I will pass this on to my nephew. I would like to see him get a related job to his schooling and interest.
Fantastic! It can be tough to break into the industry, so I hope this helps him!
He's still in school, but want him to start looking for the job he wants.
Something else for a change, but very appreciated topic!
Awesome, thanks!
Can you make a video recommending some more courses like the InDesign one mentioned at the end? Great video!
Are you looking for more courses about things like Adobe products (if so that creator has a lot of good courses) or something more about graphic design in general? I put a link to that course in the video description by the way.
@@git-amend Any great Udemy or similar courses that you think people would benefit from, doesn't have to be graphic design or Adobe specific.
Great advices. Personally I prefer solo gamedev.
On headphones there are some stereo/reverb glitches. Or maybe that's my old bluetooth headphones.
Yeah, I think we all do to a certain extent. Not sure about the audio, but I'll keep an eye on that.
Thanks for another amazing video!
My pleasure!
I've been trying to land a full time gig for over 2 years now. I can't seem to even get an interview. Hoping some of the tips in your video will help me.
It can be tough. Best of luck!
Hello, Adam, great video as always!
Off topic, but what’s that game you’re playing at the end of the video where you’re flying some sort of a spaceship? It looks so good
Actually that is from the URP sample (the new one). I didn't have time to whip up something custom this week - so check it out! unity.com/demos/urp-3d-sample
Thank you for this!
My pleasure!
May I ask you where do you work? You may be a game developer and this industry is quite small, it could be really fantastic to end up working in the same company
I can’t talk about where I work too much for contractual and security reasons, but it’s in enterprise programming. Making games is what I do for fun!
I'm reminded of the resume I saw with 140 wpm typing speed as a core skill.
Anyone typing that quickly is doing it as a hobby and a flex. It's irrelevant to the job. Above 70? Sure. But that should be implied if you're applying for a job that requires programming.
Also, avoid copy paste GPT. Had someone apply recently that very obviously put the entire job posting into an AI prompt and got back the "ideal" resume. It was incredibly obvious. You can't just "solve" a resume. If something looks WAY to exact. My advice, if you're gonna AI anyway, at least go back and smear things around a little. Maybe it worse like a human did it.
Haha nice. Good advice, thanks for sharing that!
Good information in general!
The only issue I have with this video is that this is in the perfect world, where the developer has most if not all of the "requirements" proposed by the job posting.
It fits more for intermediary and senior level developers, whom, if they tried to become efficient in their career, shouldn't have much issue finding a job in a less saturated market.
For junior developers, it is a lot harder to provide recruiters with actual tangible feats and accomplishments. It comes down to borderline lying and falsely embellishing ones portfolio to hopefully get pushed through the system by an HR who knows nothing about the actual job.
I've had around 1000 applications sent, over the past 10 months. Not a single callback or email or interview, I have 2 years of gamedev experience and 3 released titles. Am I supposed to tailor my cover letter for every position? I gave up on hoping for any one particular position.
Half of the video (I've watched half so far) is about customising your resume and cover letter to the job posting. How long should I spend per position, and avoid burning myself out from this endless monotony?
At this point I'm thinking about automating it, despite hating this practice.
I'm sure it does seem monotonous, but your chances will be zero if you don't tailor your resume and cover letter to the job. Most of the time, those changes will be small because you'll be targeting the same sector of the industry. Make sure you start building connections with these people you want to work with too on social media, it makes a huge difference.
Time to make videos about resumes was before 2022 😆
I gave up applying for jobs for now, maybe it'll get better next year.
I hope so, though hiring doesn't seem to have slowed down much from where I'm sitting. I guess it depends what you are looking for.
Where is a good place to have experienced people review your resume and give specific feedback for your situation? Ive been applying to game development studios for the past 2 years, have been self studying for 4 years at this point and have not had a single interview. Its incredibly frustrating to have no idea where your shortcomings are as a developer. I'm just continuing to study programming, improve my development skill stack... but at this point I'm at a loss for where I dont look attractive for employers. It feels like the only thing I'm missing is the college degree check box on the resume. I probably don't look as good as their other candidates plane and simple but how am I supposed to know where I need to put my time into improving. Incredibly frustrating.
That's a tough one. In cases like yours you mostly have to fall back on completed projects. Experience is the best thing, but if you don't have any then the fallbacks are education and personal work. Try to get your portfolio of work to the point that you simply cannot be ignored. I'll say this too, though many don't care for this advice, but it is much easier to get your foot into the door in enterprise programming than it is to get into game dev - but it has several advantages: better mentorship and better hours and pay. After 3 years of working at a mid size enterprise software company it will be much easier to switch to game development, so try to consider all options for getting in. Once you are into the industry one way or another, making lateral moves becomes much easier.
@@git-amend thanks for taking the time to write out this reply, I really appreciate it 🙏. I have not finished a personal game development project but I have created multiple smaller scale proof of concept prototypes with varying technical challenges to show.
That is definitely an option to go directly into software development but that poses really similar challenges. I don't really have contacts that work in these industries so I have no idea where I stand. I don't know if my code knowledge is good enough or not and if I just keep getting rejected I don't know what needs improving. I've been studying design patterns and programming archetecture and its felt really helpful (that's actually how I found your channel haha great stuff by the way!) . I know there are definitely areas to improve. For software my knowledge of algorithms and datastructures are limited. For game development I've learned to code (at least enough to block out functional builds of whatever mechanics ive wantsd to explore), 3d model, texture, and animate and have been studying game design. There are always areas to improve I'm just never sure what deserves the most focus haha.
I think I need to make more contacts and friends in this field too but I'm not really sure where to look
Thank you, I am about to switch, the video came out just at the right time. I have a question, I have been professionally working as a unity dev for 2 years now, as I said looking for a switch, I know I will be able to answer unity questions so currently am grinding Leetcode instead of making projects ( have 5 mobile games as personal projects). Am I doing things wrong, should I focus on projects more? , to be completely honest I sometimes struggle with Leetcode Medium questions, only did 1 hard by myself, so not very confident in passing a technical interview.
Glad this has helped out out. It sounds like you have a solid amount of work to back up your resume, so that's great. As for the questions, I would only focus on the hard level if you are trying to get into Google. Otherwise, medium is great - remember they aren't trying to stonewall you, they just want to know how you think. Join the Discord, we do a real interview question every Tuesday as a Code Kata! I'll probably do a video about interviews later this year.
@@git-amend Thank you just did, looking forward to it.
You can see all the archived ones here too, we've been doing this for a couple months now:
github.com/adammyhre/Code-Katas
@@git-amend Thank you that's very kind of you
" I can tell you, the bar has never been lower"
I think I observe the same across the industry. Why do you think it is hard to find people that improve over years?
I have been encountering a lot of developers that do not want to learn new skills because of their ego.
Is that something you encounter as well with developer in general ?
It is very common these days to find people who do well long enough to get past their probationary period, but then once they have their good salary, benefits and annual bonus locked-in, they feel that they've made it and so they stop learning and get lazy - and they milk it for as long as possible. I don't know a single Senior Software Engineer that was surprised that Elon let 80% of his staff go. You could do that almost anywhere these days, and those are the people we try hard to avoid hiring because it's so frustrating. However, I can see how in smaller companies, ego could also play a big role - reminds me of the villain from Grandma's Boy who dressed like he's in the matrix lol. In a larger engineering firm, there will almost always be someone smarter than you, so most egos get checked at the door.
@@git-amend Thanks for the insight ! Yeah the milking is something I have seen a lot in bigger companies as well. I think its great that your make video to help people get to the next level, and hopefully it motivate people to expand their skillset !
I feel like I'm in a weird bind then.
My bachelor of games didn't cover web and cloud dev skills that I see required in programming jobs.
I'm also seeing a shift to Unreal C++ and Godot for aussie game companies aiming for online console / mobile platforms.
So to get job skills I need to do personal projects that document and demonstrate my growth. Much like what this channel is doing.
But to do that I need an income stream(s) to support myself.
So am trying to learn what I need to learn but game dev is so big no one person can know everything. They specialised and create a personal brand around that.
So I'm trying to plan my post graduate path; industry people said expect a 6 month gap till your first job (hiring cycles).
I think the hardest thing is committing to a plan when there are so many uncertainties. Will this project be the best way to learn or earn this outcome.
It’s challenging to navigate such a broad field, especially with the pressure to specialize and build a personal brand. Focusing on a specific area that aligns with industry needs while simultaneously working on personal projects to demonstrate your skills could help you stand out, even if the path forward feels uncertain. The reality is, most people will have many misfires and it's almost never the case that it will be a straight linear path to success. Try to choose projects wisely but keep in mind that even if it's not perfectly aligned with the opportunities that come your way, you will still learn a lot along the way and still be moving forward.
You mention that you should only include recent work experience that is relevant to the position. If you've never had a job in the field you're applying for what is the best way to list your previous work experience? Is it better to just leave that blank, or should you try and highlight skills you've attained from previous jobs that could be useful in the position you're applying for, even if they come from something like a barista position?
Same question for education; if you have a degree but it's in an unrelated field, is it better to just list that you have a BS/BA and not specify the field? Or might it be better to try and highlight how the skills you've attained from that degree will make you a better overall employee?
Curious to hear people thoughts, thanks!
In my opinion it's better to have something on there than nothing at all, especially if you aren't a teenager. As you pointed out, you might be able to use that to pivot into relevant and applicable skills. More importantly, if this is the case, highlight your personal portfolio of work. If you are going for a game dev position, make your personal creations more of the focus point - having published a game or tool, no matter its success, will go a long way whether its on Steam, Itch or just GitHub. If it's another kind of software engineering, maybe you've made some contributions to an open source project or built something that was useful or interesting.
@@git-amend Thank you, I really appreciate it!
Thanks! 👏👏👏
You're welcome!
👀 These are great! I guess have some work to do. Haha
Nice! Best of luck if you’re job hunting!
I'm a mid to senior Unity dev w/o a job. The IT industry is struggling a bit so I don't think the main issue is the CV.
It will not be the only challenge you face, but the reality is that most resumes are not worth consideration and that’s the end of the road for most applicants.
What is a game/asset pack name in the start and end of the video?
That's the new URP sample. unity.com/demos/urp-3d-sample
@@git-amend thank you!
I did not graduate as a computer engineer. My department is mathematics. I almost never received a good job offer, my 2.5 years of Unity experience turned out to be a waste. I changed careers. If you are not a graduate of a really relevant field, unfortunately, there will be a bad result. Please keep this in mind.
Can i have that resume template?
It's not really a template, it's just an aggregation of several resumes that I've seen recently. You should make your own, and preferably using a professional tool like InDesign.
Dies someone know what the game in the beginning is? :D
It's a sample project - unity.com/demos/urp-3d-sample
Is your full time in the game industry?
My full time work is in enterprise software engineering.
awww thank you
You’re welcome!
Nice.
Thank you! Cheers!