Professionals?

Either that or social network like mad, take up golf and be a brown noser as they tend to get picked for things like promotion inspite of being shit at almost everything they do, have few if any real managerial and / or technical knowledge whilst leaning crutch like on their immediate staff in a manner that could easily be described as a 'supporting' role when in reality you are carrying their lardy asses. They also remain in these position for decades, clinging on despite everyone around feeling cheated! Nobody knows how, what secrets they hold on their bosses and / or whether in fact the top brass have any clue as to how bad things really are for the rest of the staff.

I speak from bitter experience ;-)

Get as good a qualification as you can possibly muster, get as much experience (whilst gaining the qualification) in a diverse field of interests (as most managers worth their salt will admit it is an influence). However, the value of a University education has decreased as the currency becomes thinner. It might not assist so readily in gaining employment, but once you have you'll discover that the pay scale is greater if you have the education backed by experience.

You can have all the experience in the world, but without the piece of paper you may be locked out!

I've worked beside some of the most incredibly intelligent & highly educated people, but in my experience a significant number of those people have little or no commonsense at all. Doesn't get taught, it is built-in from scratch!

 

On what grounds can you make such an assumption? Do you realize that many hobbists are working directly on PS2 hardware (as well as far more recent systems) writting demos and small games on their own after having collectively pieced together and reverse-engineered the architecture from scratch? Many of the guys at ps2dev.org have a vastly better understanding of the ps2 than most of those that I've worked with professionally.

They MIGHT be able to secure a good job. Likewise, someone self-taught MIGHT also be able to secure a good job. I got my first paying game industry job (programming on an fps game) at a successful studio after my first semester of college. Not because I was taught some magical thing that 1 semester but, because of all the things I had done myself leading up to that point over the past 8+ years or so and because I could present that knowledge to others in a way that was impressive.

Just because a hobbiest teaches himself doesn't mean they only teach themselves or don't work together on projects in groups or in person. Its about finding people that share your interests. A college may help facilitate that but, its certainly not the only public forum.

Lectures and coursework are certainly not the only way to obtain a clear understanding of a complex subject. In fact, for some it results in a pretty muddled view of it. Having a clear understanding of a complex subject has far more to do with long term experience. You need to know when the things people tell you as truth are wrong or flawed and you only get that by personal experience. Doing the work, and testing it for yourself. How you obtain that may be directed by a course, but then its easy to get sidetracked into a singular view of thought. Some ways simply work better for different people.

As stated past work is a far more accurate gurantee than paper.

The internet is a lot faster. (and more current)
Seriously, as a programmer most of your job IS reading and learning.

If you've been able to get so far as to say write a reasonable simple 3D game as part of your portfolio you have the necessary base knowledge to work in this industry. The rest you're expected to teach yourself as necessary. Your job as a programmer is in itself to learn (and as rapidly as possible).

All that said, I'd still say get the degree if you can, at least try it, as it can only help.

 

limey,

You hit the nail on the head when you said foundation. Education is the foundation to get you the interview first. These big corporation won't take anyone without at least a college degree as far I know. Compettition is too stiff ever one and there dog wants to become a game dev person. If one can apply what they know they should do well in the interview and get the job, if they don't blow the interview that is. As for the other matter regarding to HR department sometimes more than 1 person conducts the interview or theres more than 1 interview, sometimes as many as 3 interviews in some cases over time, during which time the project supervior may indeed want to meet the prospect, to see if this is the canidate they need is suitable. In other case there maybe a 3 man panel were all 3 will get to ask the prospect verious question, so as to test the competents of the prospect. EA & Dice and other big corporation won't be hiring hobbist and paying them big buckets, that I can gurantee you.

Oh one other thing,

The only reading that workers will really be reading is the material being provided by the corporation during there first training secesion for upgrading or new projects. They may also be provided with reference guides or books that they may need during a project other than that there won't be anything else. There is alot pressures to meet dead lines and if you can't meet the dead lines you could endup being put out the door if you can't keepup with the other workers. Theres just too much money involved to be tinking around, meaning you have to have a sound foundation in order to operate and get thing moving to speed .