Getting Into The Industry with Ken Levine

How did you get into the the industry? We’ve recently teamed up with Quixel to hold a contest about the secret here, but we still don’t know the perfect recipe. Let’s remember an article by Ken Levine on the challenges of landing a gamedev job. 

So, what are the secrets here? Here are some tips from Ken:

1) Never ask me: Do you have any jobs open? You are telling them, “I don’t care enough about working at your company to go to your web page.” In fact, never ask somebody you are trying to get a job from ANYTHING that a google search would reveal.

2) Presentation counts. Cover letters should be spell checked. It shows you care and you have a work ethic.

3) You generally don’t need to show up at an interview in a suit or fancy dress. Game companies are universally slob-tastic. Just endeavor to be slightly better dressed than the slobs who work there. We hire on talent, not sartorial skills. However, bad hygiene is probably a deal breaker.

4) Be prepared to THINK in the interview. You will be asked questions that seem to come out of left field, questions you could never prepare for. We want to see how you think on your feet. It’s okay to be wrong. It’s not okay to not have a nimble mind.

5) If you’ve never done creative work on your own time, nobody is going to hire you to do creative work for them. Get writing, drawing, coding NOW. I don’t care if you don’t have time. I wrote and put on plays when I had crappy day jobs. If you want to find your way out of that crappy day job, invest in yourself.

6) For God’s sake, don’t call me Kevin.

Ken Levine 

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