Yes, I got the first part, but the industry is large, so what is it you specifically want to do? Programming? Design? Art? What sort of things do you want to work on, what sort of responsibilities do you want to have?

Programming probably would be considered my forte and what I enjoy the most, but I admit if I got offered a 3d art job (specifically character art) I wouldn't turn it down! Having said that, I am focusing on programming and trying to stay away from the 'jack of all trades master of none' issue. I just do some character design when I need a break! If i were to go more specific into the programming side of things, i'm interested in rendering programming and maybe even being a technical artist.

It depends entirely on the studio. The process I like to use for programmer candidates is:
Review their resume, and a portfolio if they have it (only if that portfolio involves actual code I can read).
Call them for an initial phone screen, which involves some simple technical questions.
Give them a programming test.
A video call for more in-depth discussion.
A final in-house interview.
Not always strictly in that order and sometimes the two in-depth interviews can be combined if the candidate is local.

This sort of information was exactly what I was looking for! thanks!

Both are valuable, I'd prefer actual work experience over the portfolio if all other things are equal.

I'm actually quite surprised... Just because work experience at a web development studio is not necessarily directly related to game development although it does show the ability to work on relatively large software projects as part of a team I suppose.

Neither. You need to have skill and the ability to demonstrate it succinctly in an interview. Of course, to get the said interview, portfolios really help, and a degree insures a minimum amount of knowledge has been reached, so preferably both and more.

I initially thought you meant you need neither, but I think i've come to the conclusion you meant neither is more important? I suppose it makes sense to be an accumulation of interview, portfolio, education etc. that secures the job in the end.

I heard this is common in the USA. A little less so over here, though I've personally worked 80-90ish hours a week for almost 9 months once, so it still exists.
That being said, I've spent an entire year never breaking 50h/w also...

This is good to hear, from what I had found researching on the internet it seemed inevitable that If I get a job in the industry that i'd be working those ridiculous hours. Good to hear that it isn't everywhere.

Locally, we've just hired about all that we could potentially hire. Anyone locally that had sufficient experience to work in a production environment has been employed (quite peculiar in fact). I'd say 2 weeks ago was the best time to get hired in the last 5 years (locally, mind you).

Definitely missed that then!!

Internships. I rarely see people hired from portfolio experience alone.
Interships give you real work environment experience and allow you to possibly network a bit along the way (and know important people).
That being said, once you're through, you'll wish you've messed around more with your portfolio as it gives you quick experience getting things done.

I seem to be getting this information quite a lot, i really thought the portfolio was more important! It's good that i've figured out where to focus my attention more then. However if i want a game dev internship they usually look at your portfolio, so i guess having a solid portfolio is going to help get the experience. I said in a post earlier about web development work over summer. Do you think web development experience over summer would be better than building up a solid portfolio? (I know i've already had an answer but another perspective would be great).

Thanks a lot for responding by the way! It really is helping me out :)

A degree makes sure HR doesn't chuck your application in the bin. A portfolio lets the team quickly judge your experience and decide if an interview is worthwhile.

Think i'm getting the idea that neither is really more important than the other and ultimately, having both a degree and a solid portfolio is going to increase your chances of a successful job application over someone who lacks in one of those areas. I have, however, heard of people getting jobs purely based on their portfolio but I guess that's probably very rare.

Be prepared to have some technical conversations about your portfolio, especially any bits of tech that you're proud of or interested in. Be able to humbly answer why certain technical choices were made. Be prepared to solve a simple algorithm in C code on a whiteboard (a quick way to see who coasted through their degree without actually learning to be a programmer). If asked about your favourite games, they might have technical questions for you - like what you'd improve if working on that game.

This was the sort of information i was looking for on this question, thanks!

Yep. I got the chance to start learning to program in high school, but always wanted to before that.
If you don't actively enjoy programming, then I wouldn't recommend it as a career.

I've had other (non-games) programming jobs for companies that I grew to hate, but I always love working on games.

Programming is my passion, so there is no issues there! I obviously lack professional experience but from what experience I have I can relate with the non-game related programming. I have done web development part time during the academic year and full time during summer for the last two years and I loved it to start with but it really is dead boring. I don't feel challenged at all, however when doing game development (admittedly only my own projects and not in an actual studio which may make this somewhat biased) I am challenged and never bored!

I've had one company ask everyone to temporarily work 50 hour weeks, which resulted in a large portion of the team resigning! This is in Australia though, where 38 hour weeks (averaged over a month) are protected by law.
I have a friend in the US who chooses to work 100+ hour weeks...

Might have to move to Australia then! :)

Things might be different in the US, but in my experience, internships are extremely rare... and probably used by companies who need staff but can't even afford a junior programmer's wage.
The experience gained may still be useful

I'm actually in the UK, I admit game dev interns over here are also rare. I know of people who have got internships in local companies that weren't advertising but the number of advertised internships are limited. Riot games offers a decent number of internships each year, as well as EA (although i'm sure i'd be taken advantage of there). I guess i'll just have to see what i can do!

Thank you for taking time out of your day to respond to my questions, your answers have really helped me out

I initially thought you meant you need neither, but I think i've come to the conclusion you meant neither is more important? I suppose it makes sense to be an accumulation of interview, portfolio, education etc. that secures the job in the end.

What I meant is that by providing preset answers, you might miss on the true answer. You say "is it A or B"? and the answer is C...

Do you think web development experience over summer would be better than building up a solid portfolio? (I know i've already had an answer but another perspective would be great).

I'd do both actually.

What I meant is that by providing preset answers, you might miss on the true answer. You say "is it A or B"? and the answer is C...

That's a good point actually!

I'd do both actually.

Yeah, I suppose that does seem like the best option... I just want to steer clear of becoming a 'jack of all trades master of none'. Working for the web team means 8:30-5:30, 5 days a week. Of course that isn't my whole week but it's the majority of it and I fear once again that my portfolio will go on the back burner.

With portfolio vs degree, it's definitely recommended for a programmer to get a comp-sci or equivalent (mine personally was a slightly watered down alternative - IT software engineering) and to make a game (or more) outside of school.

My hope is to have both, I just wondered where my efforts should be concentrated the most or whether it is going to have to be a balance (as far as i can tell there has to be a balance). Luckily I love my course and I really feel I am learning relevant skills to become a software engineer in the game development industry so I don't necessarily feel like my degree is completely separate from my portfolio (as some people might). I love game development, or what experience I have of it, but I always put my university work before my personal projects which I hope doesn't hold me back from showing my passion and drive to pursue projects outside of university.

Whilst on this subject, i'm enrolled on a longer MENG (masters of engineering course) for computer science at the moment. I enjoy learning and being on this course I get an opportunity to do a team games project next year, where as the BENG (bachelors of engineering) students have to do an individual project. (all of this BENG and MENG stuff might sound foreign to you, and it probably is if you aren't from the UK!). But I wondered what you thought of a masters over a bachelors? I want to do the masters because of the extra knowledge I will gain, a love for the subject that I learn and the ability to do this games project but I wonder if this will actually make me any more employable at all?

I totally get the draw backs of hiring junior's... it's a harsh reality that we can pull a company back like that but I guess those experienced employees started somewhere as well.

I think the most important aspects are:

- Show that you're versatile, that you can work on many different kinds of tasks. A portfolio can help in showing that. Specialists can be useful, but personally I expect even specialists who are experts in one specific kind of problem to be adaptable enough to at least perform well if put into other kinds of tasks. A low level profiling/optimization guy will probably do that most of the time if he's hired for that, but when the projects requires it (game projects can be very dynamic, especially in smaller teams), I expect that guy to also fill in in AI programming tasks, gameplay programming tasks, graphics programming tasks, should the need arise. I don't want hyperspecialists who might have some downtimes because they only can do the one thing they're really good at and nothing else. Downtimes are a waste of project money because you are paying the people to just sit and wait.

- Show that you're passionate about the field. A way to show this is that you are also invested in the field outside of jobs - freetime projects, "passion projects" can all show this.

- Show that you're eager to learn more, never act like you already know everything. Be humble in that regard, but also not too humble, be confident about your abilities. Softskills really help in this matter, it's a balancing act between knowing what you're capable of, but not seeming like an arrogant person.

- A degree helps in two things: shows that you are capable of finishing a set goal, and also helps you not getting filtered out in the first HR pass. It's not a guarantee for a job though, and not necessarily a must either, but it definitely doesn't hurt having one.

Where I work, the process works like this:

1. We receive a resume

2. We send out a timed test. Everyone gets tested, regardless of their resume.

3. If the test is completed in a satisfactory amount of time, we review the test results and the resume. If we like it, we'll schedule a phone interview

4. After the phone interview, if we're still happy, we schedule an onsite interview.

This was the first job I'd ever gotten, and I had no formal portfolio whatsoever, just a bachelors degree in Computer Science. The sorts of interview questions I got were things like Box-Box collision tests and implementing malloc on a whiteboard -- pretty bog standard stuff. If you know how to program, it should be relatively straightforward. We don't have too much crunch where I work, but it could be better, and it's definitely not something you should simply accept.

Again, everyone is different, but that's just how things were for me. The way to stand out at my company would be to really know what you're doing, as resume/portfolio review isn't a strongly-emphasized portion of the hiring process (at least it doesn't seem to be; I don't think my resume was terribly good). Some people value portfolios very highly, others a solid resume. All three of those things emphasize different aspects of a candidate, so I can definitely see reasons for each. As for availability, it's a bit weird. There's a lot more open positions in the industry than you'd think, but a relatively high barrier to entry; I think a growing consensus in software is that an unfilled position is much better than a poorly-filled position. That may not necessarily be true in other fields. I do think work experience is vastly more important than a portfolio though. Some studios will reject you carte blanche for low-mid level positions if you haven't shipped a title (or shown something equivalent).