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 ► 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, , phone number, website May want to create professional sounding name vs. Gmail preferred to Yahoo, Hotmail ► College degree Major, graduation date, GPA (in/out of major) Avoid: high school degree. Just isn’t relevant. ► 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 ► 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 2 nd or 3rd Many in the games industry do not like Java ► 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) ► 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) ► 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 Education Experience Projects Technical Skills BS Computer Science: Computer Game Design, expected June West Cliff Drive Santa Cruz, CA

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