Resume,Cover letter and portfolio suggestions

yagharek

Hi,

I am currently looking for a job as Unity developer in France and now internationally. I could use some advices on how to improve my resume and my cover letter.
To summarize quickly, I used to be a web developer (PHP, JS) and switched to game developer.I started Unity almost 2 years ago. I've created several prototypes and a published game (in early-access)

You can see my resume here, my portfolio here and a cover letter example here

I know that resume and cover letters are different in the US. What should I change or improve?

Thanks a lot for your help

Kwramm

I'm not hiring game programmers but tech artists. Here is what I'm looking for:

* If you got any sort of leadership, training or mentoring experience - even if you just bossed around a single guy, add it.

* Pick one or two key pieces and show them off. You need something to quickly grab interest; think of it like an elevator pitch. Then, for 1 or 2 projects, add in-depth info so people get a better idea how you organize your work and how you approach technical issues.

Explain your games. Not just in terms of features, but also your dev process. Did you use scrum or agile methods? What sort of testing strategies did you use? How are you collecting feedback? Explain some of the mechanics and the reasoning behind it. Describe the software architecture a bit or highlight key algorithms and justify them. Where's your inspiration, what are your sources both for gameplay and software design? Keep it concise though. Don't have details all strewn over your blog. Approach it like you would design a 1 page product promo for a technical audience in the games industry.

For good software not just the end-result counts, but also the engineering behind it -> so show it!

* For a US resume remove the photo.

* Remove the colors - they're likely getting lost when someone prints your resume on a laser printer.

* cover letter: Remove words like could, would, etc. Do you think you COULD be a good candidate or ARE you a good candidate?

* cover letter: Personally I like it when people talk about how they work, what inspires them and where they want to go. i.e. the cliched "where are you in 5 years" question. But think of it - professionally, what are you looking for? Deepening your tech skills? What area are you most interested in? (gfx, AI, pipelines, mechanics?) Do you want to become a leader eventually? Are you into algorithms more or someone who wants to be more of a software architect?
For me as potential employer this is much more interesting than you telling me how much you admire my company (aren't you writing the same lines to EVERY other company anyway?). So cut standard cover letter blah and add some real value instead. I want to hear from you how you think you can fit into my company and help me doing what we do!

Imagine the cover letter as a mini interview - except where you have to provide both questions and answers -> so talk about something meaningful that makes me want to invite you for more.

Also avoid repeating the obvious - i.e. that your resume is attached (but what if HR removed it? ) and don't repeat stuff that's already in your resume, unless you think it's so important (I won an Oscar!) that it's worth repeating all over. Otherwise really think how you use the space you're given for the most impact. If you need to repeat stuff, a summary sentence at the end is the place to remind your audience of important things.

Same goes for the resume: you have limited space - make the best of it. For every sentence, every bullet-point, ask yourself if there isn't anything you could write instead that had more impact to increase your chance of being interesting enough to get invited to an interview.

Personally I would put the most work in the folio and the cover letter. Especially remove the flattery - you get invited because you come across as interesting and skilled person, not because you suck up to whoever reads that letter

Good Luck!

P.S. you might want to read the threads here regarding US immigration, if that's really your goal. It's not that easy, so don't just apply to US companies if you need a job fast.

slipsius

While I think your resume is very creative and different... It's also very messy looking to a non-programmer. Most people looking at your resume won't be programmers, or even understand code, really. Something to consider for your current format.

I`d also ditch the interests section. This isn't an online dating profile. And the last thing you want is for someone to look at it and think, oh, he likes to travel? so he`ll want to be out of the office as often as possible. Or have them worry about you getting hurt while playing sports.

One of the first questions usually asked in an interview is usually "tell me about yourself, besides whats on your resume". Save your interests for that.

Shrike

Its messy looking for everyone not only for non programmers : P

those brackets,


Professional Experience(){

text
text2
}

First off thats not a nice way of writing this, and that function/script would contain something and not initiate brackets that does not make sense, at least in the languages ive seen - if you do it this style, it has to be correct at least.

Professional Experience
{
---text1
---text2
}

Is also a way nicer way of writing this


You seem to also use 3 different fonts, of which none are particulary nice, and the color choices are bad, the green actually is nearly unreadable


well here is some mockup i made, really gotta go now tho

Picture link https://hostr.co/file/LcqAvhWWADA9/pic.png

PyrZern

Shrike wrote: »

https://hostr.co/file/LcqAvhWWADA9/pic.png

Bangkok, Poland !??

yagharek

Thanks for your feedbacks, that's really helpful.

P.S. you might want to read the threads here regarding US immigration, if that's really your goal. It's not that easy, so don't just apply to US companies if you need a job fast.

Im going to check that too, but in case of emergency, my partner is American so

I'll post the improved documents in a few