Hi, Brian Nathanson.

Since you put up your article lamenting your failure to break into the video game industry, you’ve probably gotten a good deal of feedback. Probably a lot of that feedback is unkind.

I don’t mean to make you feel bad. But I want to be clear that the reason you didn’t get any calls back in response to your resume and portfolio is not some kind of unfairness in the industry. It’s because you presented yourself poorly.

Something that was impressed on me early in journalism was that a single mistake on my resume, a single period out of place, would mark me as a person who didn’t care enough to proofread my work. Anyone who lacked that base would not be getting a response, much less an interview.

The game industry isn’t journalism, but let’s take a look at one of the pieces you’ve been sending to potential employers.

This menu is a very simple model. To include it in your portfolio, you’ll have to impress with your design sense.

Unfortunately, the layout is pretty bad. Pictures from Google Image Search are hastily photoshopped in. It looks like something you threw together for a class assignment you didn’t want to do. If your website is any indication, it makes you look much worse than you really are at design.

Plus, here’s your “missing period”: You list the model as one polygon. As a rectangle, it’s two polygons. This makes you look like you lack even the “base” skills that you say should earn you an interview.

Whether or not this is an accurate representation of your skills, I don’t know. But let’s be clear: It isn’t the industry’s fault. You’ve been competing against people who are so passionate about art and video games that they’ve gone beyond the classroom to improve their skills. If you can’t produce evidence of your passion on first glance, why should someone follow up with you?

This will happen to you in any creative field you go into.

You’re still young. Think long and hard about what it is you really want. Then, instead of waiting for someone to give it to you, go out and take it.

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Categories: Video games //