Hi everyone, recently, I posted a question asking if I should continue my art major or change into some other major with better job prospects, which you can read here:

http://www.gamedev.net/topic/637165-college-major-dilemma-should-i-continue-to-major-in-art-or-something-else-that-have-better-job-prospects/

After some consulting with my college's career center, I decided to minor or double major in something vocational. I am not giving up my art major because I love creating art and I have a desire to be a better artist than I am now. While I have dreams of working for the games industry one day, I simply would like to get an edge in this job market and supplementing my art major to me seems like a good choice.

The first thing that comes to mind is marketing since they go hand to hand in many ways. I read somewhere in Tom's site that if someone was a marketer and wants to get into the games industry for a career change, it would not be much of a problem. However, I am not sure if its one of those "practical majors". I would appreciate it if any of you can shed some light into this. If marketing is not likely to get me a job as buisiness or computer science, what 2nd major do you suggest?

Please note that this isn't just for applying to the video game industry, but getting a job in general. Thanks in advance.

The world needs marketers. It is a viable career for many people.

Is it something you want to do?

" actually wanting to do the job is worth far more than just the prospects of landing the job."

I don't know -- I've spent my professional life wanting to be a good software engineer. In general, that's only ever led to tears because although they always say they want good software engineers, almost all employers actually want;

• software engineers willing to do a bodge job in half the sensible time
• engineers willing to avoid the actual useful tools or the right way of doing things for what amount to religious reasons. (Eg; here's a copy of Excel. Please implement a database system in it... because we don't want to buy a database system because it'll be too complicated)
• engineers who are willing to put up with using substandard components "because they're already written" which is kind of like asking people to design aircraft around engines which are known not to work but have already been assembled or purchased...
• engineers who are willing to "program down" to the level of the least skilled person the company hypothesises they might hire.[1]
• engineers who are willing to actually lie to clients about the safety, security or correctness of software
• Some or all of the above in combination.

It's dull constantly being asked to under-perform, especially when you're actually good. To be honest there are days (often many of them) when I wish I'd become a lawyer or an accountant. I'd never be brilliant at a career like that, but at least I'd only be as mediocre as people expected me to behave rather than constantly having to tone down something I enjoy being good at to a 4 or a 5 on the dial.

[1] You would be AMAZED at the kind of companies that do that.

• engineers who are willing to "program down" to the level of the least skilled person the company hypothesises they might hire.[1]
• 
  

[1] You would be AMAZED at the kind of companies that do that.

To be fair, I've worked with code at the other end of the scale, and I can see why they do it. My last company had an ex-programmer who wrote some of the most complex template meta-programming I'd ever seen in production code, stuff to make Alexandrescu proud. Eventually he left to work elsewhere and nobody could understand the many levels of abstraction he'd been allowed to code in, so the code was essentially unmaintainable. I wouldn't have wanted him to program to the level of the least skilled person, but he should have had to 'program down' a bit. Part of being good is creating stuff that others can work with.

The world needs marketers. It is a viable career for many people.

Is it something you want to do?

Honestly, I am interested in more about the art side of things. I would like to have a side major in something practical to make myself very marketable in this job market ( not jus tthe games industry but in any industry in general). I am doing some research if it alings with my passions however and of course, I am starting with GameDev .net.

In my personal opinion, it's a terrible policy to pick a career path based solely on whether or not you can get a job in that field.

Yes, employability is a factor, but it's hardly everything. As frob hinted at, actually wanting to do the job is worth far more than just the prospects of landing the job.


You can get a job as a marketer. You can even get a job in the games industry as a marketer. So what? You can get a job as a janitor for a game studio, too.


What do you want to do in the games industry? If you want to make games, marketing is an utter waste of your time and educational investment. If you just want to be physically proximal to people who make games, consider that being a janitor in the building is just as effective and requires a lot less money to earn a degree. If, as a third possibility, you want to market games, then this should be a no-brainer.

I would like to make art for the games industry. Of course, it is the reason why I have a pending degree in studio art. But I think art and marketing would go hand in hand. After all, don't we want our game characters, environments, weapons, features, etc to be appealing to customers?

More research is in order here for me...

If you want to make games, marketing is an utter waste of your time and educational investment.

Not necessarily. Marketing could be an entry path into the game industry, from which one could become a producer or executive (decision-maker, one who can decide which games should be made).

This is actually one of the reasons why I am thinking of having a marketing major on the side.

You said you want to make art for games: cool! Be more specific. Is drawing box art and advertisements the kind of thing you're interested in, or are you talking about a more classical "game art" position? They will be very different jobs, likely for very different leadership and possibly even different companies (and certainly different departments).

I am more leaning towards concept art as i have been doing fanart with Sonic characters for awhile. I am also thinking of 3d modeling as an alternative.

However, I am also making advertisements, brochures, and newsletters (for made up clients and events) to get a graphic design internship, and to show off my photoshop and illustrator skills. Many employers I see have "must have experience in photoshop, illustrator, and indesign" . The above gig is to simply build a portfolio however. If I could , I would also submit my Sonic fanart as portfolio pieces but I don't think that would work. Correct me if i am wrong but I doubt they would accept fanart of existing charactersa, especially for legal reasons.