Hi I have posted 2 or 3 questions here before but I think that this is the most important one. My name is Vladimir, I’m 22 and I’m from El Salvador…even though I’m getting a CS degree, the education It’s mostly oriented towards “business apps”. The “plan” is to go (to an undecided country…maybe the US) and study game programming after my graduation (I will be 25 +- by then). I have many options regarding schools and academic plans but let’s pretend that I will be 29-30 at the time of my second graduation. I have 2 questions then… -I know that breaking into the industry is really hard…and that for a foreign person would be even harder because of the VISA related paperwork. With that in mind…Do I have a real chance of breaking into the industry (I’m asking that because I think that it would be very sad to work really hard to get my education only for ending in my country programming database frontals)? It’s there any advice that you can give me, maybe some things that I can do starting now to increase my chances? -It’s the age of the applicant an important factor when hiring someone for a game-programming position? (I have this doubt because in my country I’ts really important…they even have age limitations for certain jobs…and I wont be so much of a baby when by the time I start the job hunt…)

Konnichiwa Vladimir-san,

Nobody cares how old you are.
Nobody cares what your nationality is.
They only care that you can do the job, that you will do the job, that you will fit into the team.

You wrote:
>Do I have a real chance of breaking into the industry

In other words, "Is it possible?"
Answer: Anything is it possible.

Do you want to rephrase the question in terms of probability or likelihood?

>It’s there any advice that you can give me, maybe some things that I can do starting now to increase my chances?

Read my FAQ 12: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson12.htm

Sayonara and adios, tovarisch!
Tom

Hey Tom, thanks for your quick response. I check this sub forum a lot and I always see that you are always helping and giving wise advices.

>Do you want to rephrase the question in terms of probability or likelihood?
Yes…I know for a company it’s more expensive hiring a foreign person than hiring someone local. But If I am already studying game programming in that country/state…will that change something??

If it doesn’t that just means than in order to get a job I have to be way above the average of local programmers. And even supposing that I’ll be…will I have a decent probability?

Do you know what “special requirements/paperwork” foreign people must do in order to apply for an industry job?

Saludos

Quote:Original post by vladimirsan
Yes…I know for a company it’s more expensive hiring a foreign person than hiring someone local. But If I am already studying game programming in that country/state…will that change something??

If it doesn’t that just means than in order to get a job I have to be way above the average of local programmers. And even supposing that I’ll be…will I have a decent probability?

Do you know what “special requirements/paperwork” foreign people must do in order to apply for an industry job?

The probability is low. It is not "impossible."

But there's a lot of paperwork involved in helping a new employee get permanent legal work status in the US. You can increase your chances of getting a job in the US if you get your own legal work status first, before you apply for the job. I'm not saying that's easy. But it's easier than trying to get a company to hire you as a foreigner without legal work status.
¡buena suerte!