Game Jobs: How long to wait before looking again?

vamorian

im new to the industry, having landed my first full time gig in january of this year and wanted to know how long should i to wait to 'tastefully' try for a better placement elsewhere. i found i am quick to want more as a game artist, but i dont want to get ahead of myself and throw out a volley of resumes if it will only make me look bad in the eyes of potential employers for being too hasty. i know on one hand a few months or so if industry exp doesnt qualify me for much more than entry level, but i feel getting through the proverbial doors was the hardest part and i am working on a AAA game now. So before i go ahead and do anything rash i wanted others' opinions from inside the game industry first. thanks!

Joshua Stubbles

Honestly, the best thing to do is to see each project to completion. So if you start 1/2 way through dev on a project and you have like a year left, it'd be kosher to leave. Staying only a few months at each place would be super bad juju. I'd say at LEAST a year per place. That goes by a lot faster than you expect, and it gives you enough time to befriend the people you're working with and learn some new things.

Pseudo

There is really no secret formula to game industry jobs, they work just like every other job in the world. If you are happy with your job, stay there. If you aren't happy with your job, look elsewhere.

Mark Dygert

I think a good rule of thumb would be "1 product cycle" or "1 shipped title". Of course some places languish on a single title for years and people come and go. But I think you need to look at the reason(s) why you want to leave and do other places actually offer what you're looking for or are you chasing the fame train?

Personally it takes very little to make me happy, I know I come off as a sour puss on these boards but I'm happy with where I'm at and what I'm doing. I'm not sure I would want to work for a big studio after cutting my teeth at a small one. I have an amazing amount of creative freedom, opportunity and I work with some great people. If I didn't have that I guess I would start looking for another job that did.

I guess what I'm getting at is, make sure the current job is exhausted or the new one offers a great opportunity you can't pass up. If its not broken, why fix it? Moving just for the sake of change is silly. If you're feeling restless there are other ways to bring about change in your life without having to sacrifice your job.

Ruz

yup I confess that I often get a bit restless when working at places. its not because I am chasing fame. I was actually a lot happier working in smaller studios.

I stayed 5 months at my first place then got made redundant, 2 years at my second place, 1 month at my third(don't ask) and 8 months at my 4th.

To be fair to myself a lot of this was down to personal issues.

It doesn't look good to keep chopping and changing though.

thomasp

seems you have no industry experience - you have to know yourself if you are just looking for the greener gras elsewhere or if there's something really unacceptable to you about working at the place you are right now.
in the latter case - move on if/when the opportunity arises. no point in living unhappily just to make your resume look better.

Ryno

I've actually told my boss not to hire aquaintances of mine who jump jobs a lot. These are actually people whom I like as people. But I know they're not the type to stick around if they get a task that they don't like. And there are very few jobs that are super cool most of the time. Doing UVs, terrain textures, collision, prop placement, and various other less than exciting things are just part of the job. If someone is going to get burned out after doing a lot of one of these types of task and is going to quit, then I don't want them here.

I personally have a fairly thick skin for doing menial jobs. I'll do them even if I don't love it. But if someone else on the team refuses to do them, it more than likely means I get stuck with even more menial shit to do. This isn't too cool.

greenj2

I was in a similar situation in my first job in the industry. After much thinking and talking to a few workmates who'd been in the biz' much longer than me, I decided a year was a good looking stretch of time on a resume for a first placement. As Vassago said, it's also a good idea to have a completed project under your belt too.

Stating the obvious, but it's also a good idea to try to resolve your current situation if you're genuinely unhappy about something where you work. So long as you're professional and realistic in bringing up your gripes, I'd expect any decent studio will do all they can to keep you around. I'd only consider leaving a place after exhausting all my attempts to make things better in my current position.

Vig makes some good points about switching up jobs too. It's important to make sure that if you do make the change you'll be moving up and not just side-stepping to a similar position. Good luck!

JO420

I agree with Vig,i say stick with it until you get that first title under your belt. For starters it will give you more work to show,it will give you more leverage in finding your new job and it will show you can stick with a project until your finished. I was in your position at my last/first industry job and i stuck with it until i had at least 1 creditted title under my belt and its helped alot in finding a job that i actually like.

Also another reason to stick around with a place for a good while is it shows your willing to stay in one place at a time,which also helps alot in an interview,when i was interviewed for my current job i was asked what my long term plans were which i replied "Well if im happy at a job i could see myself in a studio for several years" in the end i found out that was my clincher,my resume has a few jobs but at the least each job i stayed at least a year. Im about to hit my 1st year at this job and in Denmark,ssince im happy im looking foward to the next few years.

Mark Dygert

One other thing I feel I need to mention. If you're tired of doing grunt work and this is the reason for the change. Keep in mind that just about everyone has to do a good chunk of grunt work every day, its the nature of the beast we work for. The only way to really minimize it, is to move up.

I expect that switching jobs at this point would reset your grunt clock back to zero and you would actually be stuck doing grunt work longer. Which you may have to do if the current place offers almost no way out of the trenches.