Advice I had been given for years by recruiters while still in college was "work on your portfolio, publish games, get your own experience, get noticed."
That has worked to some extent. As a graduate, I've been getting "cold" opens from recruiters from all over. They send me a test without speaking to me at all, very opposite of regular job recruitment processes at the like of Microsoft/Facebook/Apple/ect, and they're massive. Like, 4-10 hours massive. One game shop sent me a 50 question short answer, essay, math, and programming test. So, without even getting to talk to someone about the position and the team, I'm getting subjected to lots of work for a position that I may not even like the sound of off the bat. Its a little weird. And the advice given is not conducive at all. I've made games in Unity, Unreal, Construct 2, XNA. I have published some and have prototyped many. But almost none of that has given me the experience and knowledge necessary to push through these screeners to even talk to someone it seems. The amount of vector math theory expected has been pretty mind boggling to me. These engines almost entirely hide those theories and automate it for you, so when these screeners ask to implement them, I tend to get stuck. I eventually come up with answers that I can test and they seem right and when I look them up to check they work out.
But obviously something is wrong because at least 10 screeners I've gone through now since I've graduated, the normal response is "Oh sorry, we've moved on with other candidates." No feedback, no obvious issue to me how I can improve other then general stuff. I've revisted tough questions that really eluded me such as some deep vector math questions which I admit I definitely need to improve on in general. But there are questions I've had where even presenting them to paid tutors (spent $150 total just to learn what this question was asking from 1 test), and still not get an explanation as to how to solve some of them optimally.
So I'm not sure what to do about the screeners and for the screeners that I do get by is another issue: I just find it weird how there are books dedicated to job interviews from Microsoft and such, but interviews in game programming require a seemingly random amount of knowledge for a graduate or junior programmer.
If I get past the screener, I then go into the phone interviews and there its "anyone's game" it feels like. I've been asked cache->ram cycles off the top of my head on one interview, another interview asked about a plane projection algorithm to be verbatim, a different interview wanted to know specific information about mutex locks and flags. I have experience or general knowledge I can talk about in all these areas, but I really struggle to regurgitate specifics on the spot. Some interviews, say for tools or generalist programmer positions, switch gears from C# to C++ to Python super fast and that throws me off too because its not like I don't know them, but to study 3 different languages in detail for an interview is seriously tough. I'm not exaggerating when I say these interview topics, regardless of the position, feel like total crapshoots as to what is fair game to ask. Its SO MUCH material at varying degrees of detail. I have an upcoming interview next week and I couldn't tell you the kind of questions I might get asked despite having already spoken to someone on the job. When I went to interview with Google in person, I knew the kinds of questions they would ask which doesn't necessarily make it easier but it makes it so much more approachable and I don't feel like a panicking mess when I get asked questions.
I'm going to keep trying no doubt. I definitely feel like I'm getting better at every screener I do and person I talk with. I'm super close. Heck, the interviews in progress right now I might have in the bag I hope, but the sheer variance/scope and time demand is throwing me for a loop. And at some point, I'm going to run out of studios to apply to believe it or not. I'm close to the point where if something doesn't open up soon, I'm not going to have any more applications in the wild.
Does anyone have suggestions or personal experience they can recommend?
Right now I'm:
- going back over screeners
- asking for second opinions
- I'm reading the heck out of several Vector Math textbooks and Engine programming books from Jason Gregory @ ND every day.
- I have most of Cracking the Coding Interview committed to memory, but those kinds of questions really never get asked to my dismay - only at MS/Facebook/Google as I've mentioned
- And I try to watch one or two programming talks when I can.
- Trying my best to keep both my C++ and C#... sharp. Sometimes if I spent too much time in one language, I get rusty in the other
And I've kind of stopped prototyping and indie game deving in my own time. again, I've found it to not be helpful in the slightest getting past these interviews and I no longer have the time commitment to spend if I'm studying like a madman X.x
EDIT: And yes, I've read the FAQs. I've been/read/participated in most of those talks/discussions years ago or watched plenty of GDC/Gamasutra talks