The three parts of an application.

So when applying to jobs in any industry there are three peices of information you can generally submit.

Parts of an application

  1. Cover Letter. (Often Optional)

  2. Corriculum Vitae (Resume in American).

  3. Portfolio.

Each part determines whether the recruiter will look at the next.

Thinking like a recruiter.

In AAA games companies and competitive job positions a recruiter will not have a lot of time to spend on each application, and will be looking for any excuse to thin down the numbers.

If they have to dispose of one Cover letter or CV or Portfolio over another it’s proabably because they couldn’t find what they were looking for in one portfolio as easily as another. Even if the other portfolio had more information behind more clicks.

  1. Front load information. Make it impossible to avoid the relevant information. Hook in the onlooker.

Keep your portfolio accessible

Another aspect to consider is what the recruiter is looking for. The recruiter isn’t necessarily going to be a programmer in the company, they may not know anything about your field before handing off the information to the company for interview. A recruiter usually doesn’t know that Unreal 5 is nearly exactly the same as the last release of Unreal 4 for example. They might not understand that knowing C++ means that you can probably handle C# quite easily.

  1. Recruiters may not have any relevant industry knowledge to know how your skills are related.

Where possible demonstrate soft skills and Confidence

Recruiters are also looking for company fit. This is where soft skills come in handy. Have you ever Scrum Mastered? What team projects have you worked on? Do you sound confident in all your application materials?

  1. Do not discredit the value of working in a multidisciplinary team and how you’ve managed in a crisis as you’ve run into them during projects.

  2. Have absoloutely no negative langauge about your projects and own skills. You may talk about how you’ve grown between projects but you must appear sure in yourself. The best portfolios tell a story about how you’ve grown to become proud in your skills.

  3. Quality over quantity. Show off the things that you’re proud of. And write about them in a way that conveys your pride. Show Proof more than potential but both if you can.

Appear interested in whatever position you’re targeting

If the recruiter feels that you aren’t looking to work in the role they’ve been tasked to fill as specifically as another candicate, why would they select you over someone who’s tailored their application for that position specifically.

  1. Specifically targeting the Job position from the ground up will make you look like a better fit.

These are just example points to consider when creating application materials. There are many more factor to discover through thought experimentation.

Grads in games.

  • Make it easy to access

  • Have a simple intro profile

  • Content:

    • Quality over quantity is key

    • Add a brief description for each project

    • Testimonials!

    • Examples of complete, finished projects & prototypes

    • Make them available for download

    • Provide commentary for video content

    • You MUST provide a clear explanation of your personal work

  • Add extra personal content

  • Have a blog or devlog

  • Make it easy for people to contact you

Tasks

  1. Look up some key points that a recruiter might look for in your portfolio. How long will it take to find this information. If a recruiter has 50 Portfolios will they really scroll past a greeter that doesn’t tell them anything and wait for elements to load that still doesn’t show them what they’re looking for.

  2. Using the previous points and your own intuition either make those changes now or make a list of changes ready to apply when you have acces to your portfolio.