Does age matter working at game company?

jsjsbb

Hi
I've been working as an game environment artist for 9years in South Korea
I want to participate to developing my favorite games like Call of duty, Doom, Halo, Gears of war
It has been My dream of my whole life so finally I'm going to immigrate to USA next year by alone but I feel anxiety because I'm already 33 years old and I feel getting older fast (T-T) I'm still single and I'd like to get married after get a job in North America I have to work until 45 years old or 50 as an game environment artist

I really wonder when is the average retirement age as an game environment artist(not as a manager, or art director) can I work until 45years old or 50 as an senior environment artist?
I beg your advice please help me
Thank you for your reading.

Kitty|Owl

As long as you have the skills and drive then age shouldn't matter.
Although saying that 4/5 years ago I was at the opposite end of the spectrum to you and even though I already had 2+ years of experience working at a AAA company, I found that potential employers focused on my being young as a negative (to the extent that I will never want to work for those companies now because of their attitude towards my age at that time).
When it comes to retiring, I've only known one person who has retired and they ended up continuing doing freelance work because they got bored of it. Personally I would only 'retire' when I was confident I had enough money saved up so i could work on my own projects comfortably (which isn't really retirement), however I doubt that come that day I would actually do it as there are always interesting projects and people to work with.  As far as I know there is no upper limit to working age in the industry, as long as you have the ability to do it then you can work for as long as you want.
Many companies offer pension schemes, so I guess the option of retirement comes when the conditions for the payout of those is met, however more than likely you will change company before then and some companies do not allow you to transfer company pension plans, so you are better off having your own private pension plan.

like with most creative industries the idea of retirement is pretty unclear and seems entirely dependent on the employee (with the company chipping in some money in its own pension plans, that normally ends up as a tax write-off due to employee turnover).

That said this isn't really something I have looked into, so I would be interested in hearing from people who have gone through the process or know more.

thomasp

i have worked with people outside management who were in their 40's, 50's and 60's. some in their first job in games, even. one coder was past official retirement age already i think. attitude and skillsets made the difference, not age.
there are plenty of older folks now working in this field if you end up in companies that have been around for a while. didn't e.g. naughty dog recently turn 30? indies, startups may be a different story though. but they probably are not big into sponsoring visa's anyway.

in order to retire you will have to end up working a LOT longer than just till 50 though, unless you hit a jackpot somehow. make sure you know in advance what's involved with being allowed to stay in the states beyond the timeframe set by the initial working visa if you plan to move there for good.

EarthQuake

I think the key, no matter your age, is to stay current with workflows and techniques and always be eager to learn. Once you get complacent and stop worrying about improvement, you open the door for others to make you redundant.

There are not a lot of 40-50-60 year old production artists in the industry right now, but this has a lot to do with the fact that the industry itself is still quite young, and of course, the relatively high burnout rate.

Panupat

Most people I know when they reach 35+ years of age they slowly drift away from the industry. The competition is insane, and studio prefer to hire as few veterans as possible in favor for cheaper new graduates. After 40 there's only 3 or 4 ppl I know that stick to this.

Even if you lower your pay to the level of freshman, people still won't hire you because you're going to be better than the supervisor. I know it sounds unreal but this mentality still exists.

spitty

Yeah as I look around there aren't many people in their late 40's or 50's, hopefully this is changing.  I've seen a number of people get "soft" in a comfy job, and then the company shuts down and their skills are no longer marketable.  we definitely need to keep up to date with our skills as we get older.

slightly off topic, what do people plan to do after they "retire" from games at 30, 40, 50?  you probably won't have enough money to really retire.

JacqueChoi

Couple of Gamasutra articles:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DavidMullich/20140822/223945/No_Consoles_For_Old_Men_Ageism_In_The_Game_Industry.php

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/238236/Im_still_creative__Game_industry_vets_rally_against_ageism.php

Couple of other more mainstream reports:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-03-12-is-ageism-the-only-prejudice-the-industry-isnt-discussing

http://kotaku.com/when-the-game-industry-thinks-youre-too-old-1705240167

Here' an old polycount thread:
http://polycount.com/discussion/77670/age-discrimination

RyanB

Panupat said:

Most people I know when they reach 35+ years of age they slowly drift away from the industry. The competition is insane, and studio prefer to hire as few veterans as possible in favor for cheaper new graduates. After 40 there's only 3 or 4 ppl I know that stick to this.

Even if you lower your pay to the level of freshman, people still won't hire you because you're going to be better than the supervisor. I know it sounds unreal but this mentality still exists.

I am over 40.  I know dozens of 40+ year olds working in the games industry.   I also know dozens who left for other opportunities. 

If you are 40 plus, then yes, you will be judged differently than a 20 year old.  People expect you to have some serious skills if you've lived twice as long as the next guy.  You will definitely be expected to help less experienced co-workers and share your knowledge.

I personally left the games industry at age 36 for five and a half years to become an electrician.  I turned down interviews at lots of studios, AAA and startup, during that time to complete my apprenticeship.  Once I became journeyman, I came back to the games industry at a startup and it's worked out great.  I do what I want.  Whateva.

Since coming back six months ago, I've turned down interviews at a huge AAA California studio, a big local AAA studio and a recruiter for Europe.  Anybody who looks at my Linkedin profile can tell I'm not 21 just based on the loooooooong list of things I've done.

I'm not writing this to make it sound like I'm hot shit or better than anyone else.  It's just that I have a lot of experience and I've developed skills as a technical/vfx artist that most other people don't care about.  I was 27 when I started in the games industry as a tech artist but I could already program in C, C++, Maxscript and assembly language on 8 and 16 bit microprocessors.  95% of the artists who want to work in games want to paint or model characters even though they would have a better chance of playing in the NBA. 

Monetary compensation goes up and down.  Just be reasonable in your expectations.  Plus, if you have any skills at all, you can make $30+ an hour just selling assets online.  Work full-time and sell a bit online and you'll make a great living. 

In summary:
Be realistic and bring rare, valuable skills to the job and you will be in demand regardless of your age.  Your age should be a massive ADVANTAGE.

Mask_Salesman

It only matters if you're breaking child labour laws.

Ruz

I am 47 and although I don't work full time the in the industry right now, i think its still possible. i had an interview
a month or two back, but decided against it for various reasons.
But I am loving the art side of it more than ever now

Prime8

I asked the same question over here http://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2368165/#Comment_2368165 you can find a few answers there too.
It's good to see some more answers here too. Quite interesting to be considered kind of "old" after around 35.

ben_chang

I know a good number of devs and artists who are over 40.  Some who are veterans, others who've made a radical change and got their first games job after a completely different career.  My suggestion would be to search broadly for companies, not just the ones who make the those particular games.  Like other posters pointed out, studio culture varies enormously between different companies.  Some places may value age and experience more than others.