My resume-reading:

After glancing through it, some of your ordering seems strange. It is hard to figure out exactly what you are looking for.

I see a "skills" section followed by an "education" section with an anticipated graduation date in two years. That tells me you are a beginner still in school and unlikely to be hired full time.

Then I see a list of work experience at two places, one for 17 months, another for six months overlapping right in the middle, and both overlapping the middle of your schooling. Since schooling is typically the highest priority, my interpretation is that you've got some side projects under the "Y Games" label and you are trying to make yourself look better, and "X Game Studio" is probably a previous summer internship, but those are guesses.

Then I see your list of self published games, and I'm wondering why you are doing this at all if you've already got a million downloads across four games ... but those were mostly 2013. What happened there, why did you start to succeed and then give up?

Then I look at your awards section, and figure I'm confused at your goals and figure I'd rather pick someone who can communicate more clearly, and advance in the stack of job applications.

Cut the skills section. Self-assessed skill levels are useless, and keywords are better when attached to where you actually used them. If you feel you must keep them, put them in the bottom and label them "skills keywords" or something. I've been told by people who advocate for them that the skills keywords section helps with automated resumes scanners. Personally I don't care for them.

Your self published games section should be FIRST. That is your strongest evidence that you've got that you can make games.

Some of the elements in there seem a bit odd. If you were the sole developer for a game with a half million downloads, why is it "added localization"? Your development points should be basically the same bullet points you used on your product advertisements. Clean those bullet points up, and use the words that you had listed in the skills section.

Since you are still in school, education should be SECOND. Your anticipated graduation date of 2017 is going to be your weakest point, and the strongest reason a studio won't hire you. ... at least, not until spring of 2017. As long as you are going to school full time, I do not expect that you can work full time.

I'd add details to the schooling, indicating the same type of bullet list for topics and projects you have done or found notable.

Your work experience should probably be cleaned up and made honest. I'm guessing your "Y Games" is your own self-publishing stuff. If you have been running it as a business you probably should not list yourself as "game developer" but instead list it as your own company started for the self-published games you've built. Don't start a company and then pretend you were a work-for-hire wage slave at the company. The other looks like a real job, and it seems to fit what a real job does.

The certifications and awards I would cut. It doesn't really help. The data analytics and AMCAT stuff might help if you are applying for a job at a big bank doing financial analytics, but in the game world they mean practically nothing. The "certificate of recognition" is easy enough to come by that it isn't really a thing to boast about.

I would consider adding an objective line, particularly if you are looking to work in a specific topic of games. It helps HR sort your resume into the right stack, like a gameplay programmer with an emphasis on networked gameplay, or whatever it is you happen to prefer doing most of all.

Hi, It might help to get some experience with Xbox, Playstation or Wii on your resume somehow. That was the first thing I noticed about your resume.

Good Luck!

Thanks for all your responses. They'll really help me improve my chances.

Though your resume has outlined some very good documented facts about your skillset, your educational background and your game development/coding experience. IMO i think you also need to devote another paragraph that would indicate your passion and zeal for the position and career you seek.

Provided these do not violate the rules of what a resume should look like in the USA, then...

...in one or two short paragraphs, talk about your challenges while developing, talk about bottlenecks and how you solved it, talk about the late nights. Talk about a few "eureka" moments you had and how elated you felt when you had your current break throughs and the challenges you are still working on. Talk about what you expect for the future and your vision as a programmer if you were given the chance to join that great company. Talk about your ability to work well in a team (try to keep it short though so your resume would still be of reasonable size)

This would make it look less likely that a robot was behind your resume and more likely that a real person, smart, intelligent and passionate about game development, who pushes himself, and able to rise up to meet new challenges is behind the resume

Its not only about your education and what games you have completed, its also about how you can face tough challenges and your passion for the position

I do that in my Cover Letters. I write job specific company tailored Cover Letters for every job I apply. Although I won't be able to write much due to space limitations. Also I try to keep them concise and on point.

This forum is loaded with online mentors. Please do post your questions as you have done,
and you'll usually get loads of great advice. Basically, this forum IS your mentor. Or
the members of it.

I was hoping someone might be willing to take me as their disciple. Maybe I was being over ambitious. I just joined this forum after years of lurking and will put it to good use.

My resume-reading:

After glancing through it, some of your ordering seems strange. It is hard to figure out exactly what you are looking for.

I see a "skills" section followed by an "education" section with an anticipated graduation date in two years. That tells me you are a beginner still in school and unlikely to be hired full time.

Then I see a list of work experience at two places, one for 17 months, another for six months overlapping right in the middle, and both overlapping the middle of your schooling. Since schooling is typically the highest priority, my interpretation is that you've got some side projects under the "Y Games" label and you are trying to make yourself look better, and "X Game Studio" is probably a previous summer internship, but those are guesses.

I am still in school and have been applying to internships at gaming companies as soon as they were being posted. Yes, Y Games is my own Game Company where I self-publish games. And X Games is an indie startup where I did my summer internship.

Then I see your list of self published games, and I'm wondering why you are doing this at all if you've already got a million downloads across four games ... but those were mostly 2013. What happened there, why did you start to succeed and then give up?

I made some good money making small casual games for mobile (still making). It was very profitable. All of this while doing my undergraduation. But I didn't want to keep doing it. I wanted to get a job at a AAA studio, switch to PC,Consoles and get some professional experience. My only option was to move out of my country due to lack of studios here. Despite getting backlash from my parents, I did that, took a huge educational loan, moved to US, started my 2 year Masters school in Game Programming. It was a huge risk I agree. But I thought with my experience and skills I would easily get a job here, I was wrong. I still have a lot to improve and before I graduate find a job at a company which is willing to sponsor my Visa.

Then I look at your awards section, and figure I'm confused at your goals and figure I'd rather pick someone who can communicate more clearly, and advance in the stack of job applications.


Cut the skills section. Self-assessed skill levels are useless, and keywords are better when attached to where you actually used them. If you feel you must keep them, put them in the bottom and label them "skills keywords" or something. I've been told by people who advocate for them that the skills keywords section helps with automated resumes scanners. Personally I don't care for them.

I talked to some HR people from P_l_a_y_S_t_a_t_i_o_n at GDC. They did tell me they use automated resume scanners.

Your self published games section should be FIRST. That is your strongest evidence that you've got that you can make games.

Some of the elements in there seem a bit odd. If you were the sole developer for a game with a half million downloads, why is it "added localization"? Your development points should be basically the same bullet points you used on your product advertisements. Clean those bullet points up, and use the words that you had listed in the skills section.

Since you are still in school, education should be SECOND. Your anticipated graduation date of 2017 is going to be your weakest point, and the strongest reason a studio won't hire you. ... at least, not until spring of 2017. As long as you are going to school full time, I do not expect that you can work full time.

I only applied to internships. I will be applying to full-time entry level positions next year.

I'd add details to the schooling, indicating the same type of bullet list for topics and projects you have done or found notable.

Your work experience should probably be cleaned up and made honest. I'm guessing your "Y Games" is your own self-publishing stuff. If you have been running it as a business you probably should not list yourself as "game developer" but instead list it as your own company started for the self-published games you've built. Don't start a company and then pretend you were a work-for-hire wage slave at the company. The other looks like a real job, and it seems to fit what a real job does.

I was suggested by some people that listing it as "I own a company" will hurt my chances, because at AAA studios people are looking for employees who are willing to work for them, and they might feel I will leave the company to start my own indie studio after few months, which they don't like.

The certifications and awards I would cut. It doesn't really help. The data analytics and AMCAT stuff might help if you are applying for a job at a big bank doing financial analytics, but in the game world they mean practically nothing. The "certificate of recognition" is easy enough to come by that it isn't really a thing to boast about.

I would consider adding an objective line, particularly if you are looking to work in a specific topic of games. It helps HR sort your resume into the right stack, like a gameplay programmer with an emphasis on networked gameplay, or whatever it is you happen to prefer doing most of all.

Thanks for the detailed response. I will make the mentioned changes.

Hi, It might help to get some experience with Xbox, Playstation or Wii on your resume somehow. That was the first thing I noticed about your resume.
Good Luck!

It's impossible for me to get a hold of PlayStation/XBox Dev Kits and publish games on my own. If I had got an internship at a company i would have gotten a chance to work on Console projects and understand their architectures.

I talked to some HR people from PlayStation at GDC. They did tell me they use automated resume scanners.

The use of resume scanners does not mean the a big ugly block of keywords is the right solution. Use the names if you, want but put them with the projects.

While the really huge companies like Sony do use resume scanners, they also employ real live humans to look at job applications. And if you are smart and work your social network, you'll be getting your resume transferred by friends and friends-of-friends and friends-of-friends-of-friends, who will give the resume directly to the team lead because the team lead hates the automated system as much as you do. (Working your social network is about 10 times more effective than applying to big corporate recruiting systems. That is, one hour finding friends-of-friends is worth about 10 hours of applying to the company's career site. You'll want to do both, but if you can do both for one hour, one is far better than the other.)

Even when companies do use resume scanners rather than actual humans for the first pass, for the second pass real humans are involved. Real humans see the line "C and C++ (Proficient)" and realize it is trash. Proficient in what way? Compared to whom? Proficient compared to other students who can barely program? Proficient compared to industry veterans who were working with C++ since the '80s and have followed every major revision of the language? You need to give context to say where you actually used it.

As it is, you've got big ugly blocks with no context. They only satisfy buzzwords, they do not communicate your level of competence nor experience: "Rapid prototyping, Agile development, Debugging, Porting & Integration, C and C++ (Proficient), C# (Proficient), Java, Python (Prior Experience), Visual Studio, Eclipse, Subversion, Git, HTML5, Javascript, ..."

You can include those same keywords in your descriptions. "Developed a rapid prototype in Unity and C# for initial pitch over two weeks which was successfully approved. Followed agile processes for the remaining 8 months, using Unreal Engine 4 and C++ for most development. ..."

That satisfies both the robot overlord scanners and the real humans who will eventually look at them.

That satisfies both the robot overlord scanners and the real humans who will eventually look at them.

I agree. I will change and rephrase my resume.

work experience should come first - newest to oldest - not oldest to newest.
give the name of the company and title(s) you worked on.

list of titles should come second - might include all titles both self published and those from work in order from newest to oldest.

you mention downloads but not sales. so either your games didn't sell well - which makes you not a good prospect - or they did, and you may leave tomorrow to start your own indie studio - which again makes you a risk. you may want to claim the experience, but not the entrepreneurship. IE drop the sales info entirely.

I only made Free to Play games for mobile with Advertisements. So no sales info.

skills should come third.
for each platform, OS, language, and tool, list the number of years of programming experience.

education should come fourth - newest to oldest. you should list the basic game related subjects studied, such as languages, data structures & algos, graphics classes, AI, math and physics background etc.

i'd drop awards altogether - nothing there really worth bragging about when it comes to game development - MS thanked you for writing a win8.1 game - that's nice. it might even be a minus given the win8 record of success - it may even indicate lack of sense where the market is going that you spent time on a win8.1 game.

sometimes its as important what you don't say as what you do. an awful lot can be read between the lines. and its whats between the lines that really forms the final judgement.

team lead (waving resume): "reading between the lines, here we have a guy that can do X, Y, Z, and W, but has potential issues A, B, and C.. do we want him - yes or no?"

more detail:
-------------------------------------------------------------------

skills section:
none of the stuff under skills/knowledge is special - lose it all - all gamedevs do that. that's probably not what one expects to see under skills. skills are years of experience with platforms, OS's, languages, tools, and particular types of coding such as 2D graphics, 3D graphics, AI , network, or audio.
OS's: how many years coding on each?
languages: how many years of coding in each?

hint: if you don't have a solid year in something, you really shouldn't list it at all.

if you can't say something impressive, do not say anything.


tools:
every game programmer uses a compiler. don't list visual studio. it a rather "no duh! don't we all?" situation.
same idea for eclipse. its just a java IDE. i would think the ability to use ANY IDE would be assumed on the part of any game shop.
same for subversion eclipse version control. the ability to use version control software would be assumed.
same for GIT.
in general it would be assumed you could use the basic tools of the game coding trade: iDE, compiler, linker, debugger, profiler, version control, etc.

HTML5 is a programming language - not a tool. HTML5 = hyper text markup language version 5.0.

likewise, javascript is a language - not a tool.
the andriod SDK is an API. its should be listed under skills with years of android development. i mean - you can't develop for andriod wthout the SDK can you? so adding the sdk as a tool is just "stuffing" your resume to make it look fuller by technically listing things twice. folks look at that and say "either he's trying to fool somebody or he didn't even proof his resume enough to notice he listed the same basic thing twice in two different places - either way - he doesn't make the cut."
XCODE looks to be yet another IDE. IDEs don't count for squat.
UE4 - ok, now THERES a tool finally - how many years? what did you make? is it online? can i see it? whats the link?
Unity3D - another true tool. again - how many years? what did you make? is it online? can i see it? whats the link?
XMI is probably better classified as a language or API/library, not a tool.
Json is another library/API, not a tool.
JSP is another language extension / library / API - not a tool. library or language? your call.
tools are things like UE5, 3DSMAX, SoundForge, etc. IE they're basically apps. game engines are really just highly configurable apps.


you may want to add a separate section for APIs and libraries you know, such as android SDK, Json, winAPI, or something like bullet or havok, or dx12, etc. its a little clearer than having to infer it from other sections (IE 2 years android development under the OS's section implies 2 years android SDK experience).

your number of years of experience in languages, specialized types of coding (3D, AI, physics, etc), tools, and APIs will be the quick measure of your worth.


so what would that look like?
-----------------------------------------------------------

WORK EXPERIENCE:
Y games (name of company, titles worked on, position title, start and end date) y comes first, as its your most recent job.
what you did: (reading between the lines)
you published 5 mobile games - what kind? can i see them? whats the link? your game on the bosses computer is the best darn resume you could ever fricking have. i'll bet every team lead wishes they could just get a link, download and run the game and go "Wow! hire this guy! NOW!'.
the remaining activities listed under Y games (optimization, marketing, and metrics) can all more or less be assumed on the course of self publishing 5 mobile games.
reading between the lines - you had a lot of downloads, but don't mention sales, so perhaps there's something wrong with the games. you also provide no links. where are these games? where's your proof? are you going to make me google everything? (APIs and IDEs and other stuff you mention that the reader may not be familiar with if all they use is frostbite for example)http://www.frostbite.com/

I hyperlinked the URLs in the text. Also all of them are on my portfolio website.

X games (name of company, titles worked on, position title, start and end date)
what you did: (reading between the lines)
* you wrote a screen scaler. ok, a little 2d graphics experience there - we all learn the basic algo to scale a bitmap at some point. also some cross platform development experience - always a good thing - it demonstrates flexibility and adaptability.
* you did some web development - it was for a game, but it wasn't technically game development - it was just web development.
* AI programming - ok, now we're getting somewhere. FYI, in american english its a "decision tree" not a "decider tree". remember what i said about reading between the lines? correct and precise terminology is an absolute must! - or you'll look like you don't exactly know what you're talking about. but AI programming is definitely good.
* prototyping - what? what did you implement? if its prototyping, it should be cutting edge, this is the true measure of what you've done and can do.

TITLES WORKED ON (newest to oldest)
game name, game type, what you did on the project. if the game sold well, you can mention it. otherwise don't. downloads don't mean sh*t. its all about your download to sales conversion rate, with 1% considered good. if the game was free with adware, say so. if it made money, say so. otherwise don't say anything. again, downloads don't mean sh*t - dollars are what matters. provide a link to a playable version if possible.

Since I only made Free to play games I thought it's better to mention the number of downloads. And I felt mentioning money earned from them will hurt my chances, because I don't want them to prove I can run a successful indie company, I only want to prove my skills and my games are successful.

as mentioned in other posts to this thread, when you're the sole developer, you want to list what was cool and unique and ground breaking and cutting edge about your games - IE the cool features. this is the time to brag about your work. <g>. "its does this and that and the other thing and no other game ever did it before and now they all do!" - that kind of stuff. for games where you weren't the sole coder, list the features you did. without links,

i have no idea what kind of games these are. but i can tell you that mobile limits what you can do - IE you can't clone skyrim onto a mobile, due to hardware limitations as to just how much game you can make. you may need more than a mobile game to impress a company that makes the likes of skyrim. or maybe not - back ops 3 worked just fine on a nintendo ds. are you building that caliber of game - or something somewhat less than that? what is impressive all depends on one's point of view, and what one has already accomplished themselves. and you're trying to impress some rather accomplished people. game development can be one of the most complex software engineering exercises on the planet - right up there with implementing entire OS's and WAN systems from scratch. so it tends to have many of the best and brightest, who sacrifice a bit of job security for the chance to do cool stuff. needles to say, they will be a little harder to impress than your typical HR bureaucrat. studios want extraordinary people with extraordinary skills and talents.

Nothing cool(technical wise) on my resume, except that they were successful and have an average rating of 4/5.

SKILLS:
Os's: windows, linux, mac, andriod. how many years of coding for each? less than one good year doesn't count at all.
langauges: how many years of each? HTML5 and such go here too!
tools: UE4 and unity, how many years of each? might want to get UE5 on there to keep current.
APIs: winSDK? andriod SDK. any directX? OGL? how many years with each one?
libraries: Json, XMI, etc. how many years with each one?

EDUCATION:
University X game programming degree (not completed) include the GTA and GDC stuff, its good. the reputation of the shcool will matter. list what you have learned and will learn: graphics, AI, etc.
University Y CS degree (non-engineering).
you may want to go into your education as far as math and physics goes. do you know analytic geometry? trig? linear? numerical methods? discrete mathematics? how many years of physics have you taken?

ok, now for devils advocate
---------------------------------------------

i'm a team lead, on a big project (total budget in the millions). somehow i get a hold of this resume.

i see c++, c#, XML, cross-platform, basic 2 graphics, a little AI, good enough to be a teacher's aid in algos and data structures - that's got to count for something. practically no experience in the AAA industry though it seems. looks like the job at company Y is self employed - which really doesn't count unless you'e written a hit (or two or more). unfortunately these days, writing 5 mobile apps with unity is nothing really special. writing a hit is something different. without game titles and links i can't judge the work. (but the portfolio link should handle that - haven't taken a look yet). i see little in the way of lower level API experience. no directX, no Ogl, not even bullet physics, much less havoc. unless your games are something like black ops 3 for mobile, i'd have to say its "just another guy writing simple mobile apps with unity". given how flooded that market is, odds are it'll be hard to do an outstanding game that would impress the likes of an EA or Bethesda.or Rockstar.

i'll take a look at the portfolio.- ah, no can do. its not a real link. i'll just assume its your typical unity mobile app fair. frankly that wouldn't even impress me. and i'm just an indie.

Yes, they are typical 2D mobile games. But hey they were kinda successful? Doesn't matter? Okay :|

bottom line: if you want to impress somebody, you have to do something impressive. have you done that yet? without seeing your games, so far it does't look like you have (from a team lead frostbite user's point of view).

Agree.

most of the things are simply related to writing good resumes. you can find lots of info online about that.

but it also looks like you're only about half way though collecting a list of accomplishments that would impress a AAA studio. its really hard to say without seeming the games, but i suspect you need to take your game development to the next level - IE build something more impressive than you have to date.

I still have 1 more year! So yeah I will work hard to show what I am capable.

After so many iterations and feedback I thought I had an amazing resume. Well I was so wrong. You guys just ripped it apart lol. I wish someone had critiqued it like this before. I loved all your feedback and will try my best to make it better. Give me a few weeks and I will come back to you with a much more acceptable version. This summer I am planning to work on some impressive projects to showcase.
Thanks.

we're still 10- 20 years away from the point where formal gamedev degrees will fully prepare you for a AAA job

I think the hype about AAA is somewhat funny, people act like it is a clique or tiny club of elite developers. AAA games have huge budgets, hundreds of people. While team leads are industry veterans, workers run from senior developers down to interns. All skill levels are involved.

Studios hire some people straight from college, they hire from other studios, they hire people who have worked in other industries, and more.

Well I was so wrong. You guys just ripped it apart lol. I wish someone had critiqued it like this before. I loved all your feedback and will try my best to make it better.

Looking over that resume above, it wasn't terrible, it just has a lot of room for improvement. The hobby games were an extremely good thing. It has problems, there were items I didn't like which I pointed out.

It is clearly an entry-level person who uses padding and fluff, but I know to expect that. I can put on my resume-reading glasses and figure that out quickly.

If you were applying for a full time job (meaning after graduation) at the same time we were hiring an SE1 (junior level) or SE2 (slightly experienced level) that earlier resume would be fairly strong, with the exception that it did not communicate your intent clearly. As it was it could probably get interviews despite what was mentioned.

You have some strong elements. The past completed hobby games are strong. You don't need to cover that up or pretend you were working for a big company, plainly stating that you made some successful hobby games is a good thing.

I pointed out what I felt are the weakest things on there. The skills block is something I see far too often in entry level applicants and it is near-useless to me. Even so, that is not a fatal weakness. The fluff of trying to pretend your hobby projects were a professional job is annoying and counts strongly against you in my eyes. It feels like you don't want to own up to your successes, or are afraid to take responsibility. Recognize that you are just starting your career, and that is okay. The training programs at the bottom don't really help. Several aspects of what you included show that you don't know what is important, which all hurt an applicant. But since it is also clear you are a beginner, those mistakes are easily forgiven ... they just don't put you at the top.

By far the biggest problem to me is the line May 2017 (Anticipated). It says "Discard this application until about March 2017."