How to get a job at a gaming company — tips from Wargaming Mobile

The material is written on the basis of an open lecture by Vladimir, which he gave as part of the HSE HSE course on the program “Management of Game Projects“.

Vladimir PranovMaking a resume

The employer needs a resume in order to get an approximate idea of your soft and hard skills (that is, personal and professional qualities). For an employee, a resume is an opportunity to position himself correctly, to tell about himself.

What do they look at first?

The employer in the resume first of all looks at whether there was work experience in the industry, on which projects the applicant worked. These are the determining factors. The recruiter starts from them when he decides whether to invite a person for an interview.

It is important to understand that the initial assessment of a resume from an HR specialist takes no more than 15 seconds. Therefore, it is important to give all the information as specifically as possible.

For example, if you are a developer, check the programming languages that you own; the artist can specify the graphic editor that he uses.

Important things

If the recruiter is interested in the resume, he will get acquainted with it more carefully. And here the most important, key thing is that the document describes in detail the applicant’s experience.

Depending on the experience and field of work, projects and tasks that the employee closed, methods, technologies, software that he used to solve issues should be written in the resume.

The point that is very important in modern realities is achievements. The achievement can be the closed project itself, and any innovation that directly affected the functioning of the company, reduced the time of project creation, improved communication, increased profits.

If an employee often changed jobs, moved to a lower position or had a long break from work, it would be great if he somehow commented on it in the resume. On the one hand, this will close some of the related issues with the employer. On the other hand, it will help a potential employee to prepare for questions about similar situations at an interview.

An important point in the preparation of a resume is literacy, regardless of the language in which it is written. Unfortunately, 9 out of 10 resumes arrive with errors, and very rude ones. A grammatical error does not mean that an employee with other good qualities will not be taken. However, an illiterate resume can cause a negative reaction from the employer.

The content of the resume should be structured and neatly designed. A resume is partly a reflection of the applicant himself, and many employers believe that if it is carefully compiled, then the future employee will perform tasks just as carefully.

It is not necessary to make a summary in the form of poems, poems, stories.

If the applicant worked in another field, achievements can be any improvements that affected the work processes at the previous place of work. You can also specify advanced training courses, various certificates, for example, in a foreign language. A good plus for those who have no experience in the gaming industry will be the HSE courses in the program “Management of gaming projects“.

Taken together, all this makes it clear that the future employee is ready to work for the result, and the market today is primarily looking for such people.

What should I write to an applicant if I have no work experience and achievements? Write about the courses you took, achievements during your studies.

What else do you need to remember?

A very banal item is contact details. It would seem that it is possible to send a resume without contact details. However, this is a really common problem.

Inattentive applicants leave irrelevant email addresses, phone numbers, and then wonder why they are not contacted. By the way, it is also desirable to indicate readiness for relocation and business trips. This will help to avoid unnecessary calls.

It is desirable, but not necessary, to have a photo in your resume. Its absence or presence is not a determining factor, but it helps to personalize the document itself, to remember it.

If the applicant decided to add a photo, do I need to mention that it should be adequate? You should not add a photo taken during a vacation or in an informal setting with friends. It is not necessary to be specially photographed, as for a wedding, in a suit or dress. An ordinary photo is enough, in which the face is clearly visible.

Cover letter

A cover letter for a resume should be written without fail. Without it, as a rule, the resume will not be considered at all. The absence of a letter is often perceived as disrespectful to the employer.

The letter itself helps recruiters to make a first impression of both a person and a possible future employee even before viewing a resume.

The purpose of the cover letter for the applicant is to show his motivation to work both in a specific position and in a specific gaming company, and in the gaming industry as a whole, especially if he was not previously employed in it. As part of the letter, you should tell about the reasons for the change in the field of activity.

It is important to show a sincere interest in working for results and a desire for learning and development. It is worth sharing your theoretical knowledge. If the applicant plays the employer’s games, then it is necessary to clarify this (but after that, you should prepare for the fact that they will “drive” these games at the interview).

The cover letter should not be too long. As in the case of a resume, recruiters in a cover letter primarily look at education and work experience.

Also, do not write a template cover letter! For example, accents on those aspects of the company that interested the applicant when responding to a vacancy will help to dilute the template.

The “A little about myself” block

On almost any job service, after filling out a resume, there is usually a block in which the applicant is offered to tell about himself. For some of the employers, this information shows something, for some it does not. Globally, it will not affect anything, but since we are talking about employment in the gaming industry, it is definitely worth specifying “games” as a hobby.

In the gaming industry, unlike any other, the advantage is both the applicant’s experience in a variety of games, and his thorough knowledge of any one project, for example, World of Warcraft. When there is no work experience in a gaming company, the experience of playing computer and board games can become one of the determining factors in employment. It depends on the specific requirements of the employer.

If there are works published somewhere, for example, drawings, articles and reviews of games or game projects, then you should definitely leave links to them. This can also be considered by the employer as “work experience”. You can also talk about any achievements indirectly related to games or related fields, such as cinema.

How and where to send your resume

The main formats are PDF and DOC. Both have their pros and cons. The main thing is that the document should be well read and well written, as mentioned earlier.

Methods of sending resumes by degree of effectiveness (from greater to lesser):

• directly to the recruiter (social networks, mail);
• to thematic groups in social networks and messengers;
• through friends;
• leave a resume on the company’s corporate website;
• leave a resume on recruitment portals;
• publish it in the public domain on recruiting portals, where employers themselves are looking for employees.

Pay attention to the last items in this list. As you can see, this is not the most effective way to find a job. Points involving recruiting portals should be considered primarily by those specialists whom companies are really ready to look for. Unfortunately, this does not always apply to young and green people.

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The original video from the HSE open lecture can be viewed here. Also note that you can always leave your resume on the website TalentsInGames.com .