[Help Needed] Breaking into the field, a starting point.

[Jpeppa]

Hey everybody!

So I'm new to the site (First post, actually) and trying to break into the IT field. Figured this would be a good start for some advise.

Currently, I have a B.A. in Game Design, but wanted to move fields due to the industry being quite volatile in terms of job security. I'm quite computer savvy without any official training or work experience. I'm taking classes and prepping for my A+ certification. So far, I feel like I know most of the information already. That being said, I had a few questions that I hope can be answered here:

As someone who has no prior experience in the IT field, what are some example jobs/companies that promote and actively hire A+ certified candidates?
(With the exception of inbound/call center positions, I've done that before and it just does not work for me.)

How would I tailor a resume for this field without prior experience?
I have hit a road block recently trying to give my resume a face-lift and realized that I may not have anything solid that I can put down with the exception of eventually obtaining the A+ cert.

Any advise or information would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advanced,

- James

 

[blakwidowrsa]

As someone who has no prior experience in the IT field, what are some example jobs/companies that promote and actively hire A+ certified candidates?
(With the exception of inbound/call center positions, I've done that before and it just does not work for me.)

Hi,
Well, I'm just commenting on my countries' IT job hunting experience. But it is hard to get a good IT support position here on start, especially when you have limited "On-paper" qualifications. And then when you have the courage to apply for the job, you almost always need minimum experience of 1-2 years.
But to your Q, there are some companies offering internship.

How would I tailor a resume for this field without prior experience?
I have hit a road block recently trying to give my resume a face-lift and realized that I may not have anything solid that I can put down with the exception of eventually obtaining the A+ cert.

This is a tough one, but what really helps alot is to create and add a skills matrix to the first page. In the list after every skill add a star rating from "I know about it" to "Mastered" eg *, **, ***, **** and ***** . I list any "skill" there even if you don't have a qualification on it specifically, but I KNOW I'm good at it. I list things like OS installations(MS, Linux, iOS etc), hardware knowledge, Exchange server 2010, troubleshooting printers, C++ etc. Put a broad range of things you understand/excel at. It makes it easy for the recruiter to quickly see what you are capable of, and lists things you don't get credit for.

Hope this helps a bit, and I'm just curious, but why do you want to stop game development and what language/s and API did you swot at college ? I did game development myself and don't know alot of people with this kind of qualifiications ... ♥

 

[Jpeppa]

Hi Blackwidowrsa,

Thanks for the advise, I have never seen or heard of the skills matrix that you suggested and I think that is a great idea that I will implement. I've heard a lot about internships or "odd job" type deals that I could do.

As for my reasons for getting out of the games industry? It's a very volatile industry for anything but a programmer, and while I was good with code, I primarily focused on art such as 3d modeling and texturing. Artists and any other position aside from programmers are pretty much expendable and will rarely have anything but a contract position.

The pipeline for game development now a days is Art first, and first to go which is usually completed within the first year of development. Once they start moving into the world building/fine tuning mechanics and code phase, they begin releasing artists or contracting them for new project. I didn't want to find myself constantly worrying about looking for a new job or whether or not I was going to be contracted again at the end of a project.

I mostly used a mix of C++, Javascript, and a little C#. I primarily used Unity 3D when it first went open to Windows, before that I tooled around with Torque, briefly and Unreal Engine (UDK).

 

[blakwidowrsa]

Awesome,

I also did games in C++, strategy mostly. I kinda know what you say with volatile, but also disagree. The gaming industry has really boomed and titles are coming out faster than we can play them all. So to that I think recurring contracts should be plentiful.

But hey, if you are really good at what you do, you will get noticed. Have you thought of starting your own game company even if just for fun / in spare time ?

The mobile market is a good target marker you know...

 

[Jpeppa]

Yea, true enough but I also don't like the creative restrictions set out by most of these larger companies that have standards set in place.

And yes I plan on starting my own projects once I find a better position. I have a small group of friends who are still willing and down for it. As for an actually small company we are not sure about that just yet... but definitely a much more appealing avenue for us.

How about yourself? Any published titles under your belt? Or has it been mostly for fun/side projects?

 

[blakwidowrsa]

fun mostly, but I am giving it strong consideration... I do however make custom arcade sc2 maps.