Your Resume

Higuy

Hi Polycount,

Right now I'm in the midst of reworking my resume, and then eventually updating my portfolio.

I started with my resume first, and I have a question: As someone who hasn't quite yet landed that job yet in the industry, but has worked on plenty of independent gamedev projects, should I bother to include any "outside of the industry" work experience? For example, both jobs that I've worked to make money so far is completely unrelated to making games (fixing boats, working at a marina), so should I bother to include them on the resume itself? I am a bit conflicted, as in one case it shows you can work for other people under certain conditions; but in another its pretty irrelevant to the games industry... To clarify, these jobs were part time, and not something I did to make a living (I'm just now finishing up my time at community college).

What should I do?

aesir

I think it's good to show what your life has been like. It's better to say you were fixing boats then just have a couple year gap between graduating from college and the present.

tharle

my advice for someone getting their first job is always to write a skills-based or functional cv instead of a chronological one. there's loads of examples if you google it but basically you break your experience down into what skills you have - ie teamwork can come from working on boats or from being on a mod team.

it got me my first job and the guy hiring me specifically mentioned it as a good thing during the interview plus not many people do it so it makes you stand out and be memorable.

slipsius

Personally, getting my first 2 jobs in the industry, my resume had "Industry Experience" "Prior Work history" or something like that. Industry experience being first. So this is where you would put all your indie projects you worked on. Then in the prior work history, put your marina stuff. This shows that A) You have experience working in a team environemtn within the industry, and you can hold an actual job where you are responsible for getting there on time, hitting deadlines and that sort of stuff.

Moving forward, every new job you get in the industry, knock one of the outside industry jobs off your resume.

Least, that's what I did and it seemed to work well for me. But ya, definitely put the paying gigs on their.As said above, it's better than a gap in your resume.

Also, if you`re going for a modelling type job, you can definitely use the working on boats to your advantage. you got an upclose and personal look at how they are built. Seeing the different shapes and stuff like that. Reference!

Higuy

Thanks for the replies guys, and thanks for the good information. All of you were helpful. I'll keep the work experience on there for now then!

Thanks again!!