You're preparing for a gaming platform interview. How can you showcase your experience effectively?

Hm, I think this is more nuanced than described here. Yes, you absolutely should familiarize yourself with a company’s games. You might even wanna grab one of them and play it if you have the means! However: 1. Frankly, I find it’s assumed you play games in general if you get to the interview stage. But be prepared to talk about your favorite games! 2. This might be controversial, but you don’t need to be a diehard fan of the studio’s portfolio either (at least, not at most studios). A fresh perspective can also make you more objective when approaching problems in your role, and a good company knows this. Fun fact: I’ve done a lot of work in strategy games in my career, but I didn’t really play them until I started working on them.

I have always considered myself a variety gamer, and because of that, in a professional setting, it allows me to be analytical about the current industry trends, popularity, shortcomings, and communities. Generally speaking, pursue your passions! I know I have the professional skills to work on ANY game as a lot of them follow standard pipelines and processes. That said, the quality of work, and general day to day interest in what you do will inherently make you better with your interviews and, by extension, work should you work on a game you play! Being up to date in the industry is just good practice. Knowing whats blowing up, new development techniques, tech demo's, or narrative practices is often intriguing and genuinely useful.

Before I started working in games, I worked in aerospace and software in general. So how do you translate rocket science and medical/transportation/education tools to games? Honestly the hardest part is learning how the work you have done is useful in the game industry as practical skill is relevant, but context is significant. During the interview of my first game job, I was talking about some of the work I had done and learned from my interviewer that I already had some game experience because the tools I worked on were called serious games, tools that were built in game engines and the like. Learn how your work connects to the industry and the role, showcase the parallels, and emphasize your ability to transfer hard skills.

It's important to understand the tech not just for engineers, but for artists, designers, UI/UX, Animators, and technical roles (if you are a producer like me). Familiarity with the tools allows you to not only converse with interviewers on a technical level, but it also allows you to more effectively work with your team. You understand the pipelines, dependencies, and workloads. The people you might work with want to know that if you are writing up a story/task in JIRA, you understand that can be literal hours or days of someones life that you have tasked them. Knowing the weight of the work and tools allows you to better allocate, organize, and most importantly understand your team. Technical prowess translates meaningfully.

Interviews often feel one sided, especially since we all live in the mentality of "I NEED A JOB" which often means ANY. But sometimes you need to also realize a job is going to impact you every single day. Ask the real questions. During one of my interviews with a company, I asked what the day to day looked like. What were the pain points they had a hard time articulating? What, if any, are the skill gaps or functions they would want from a new producer? Not only did it give them insight as to what my concerns with, but we related to similar experiences, and segued into plenty of casual and meaningful conversation. While I didn't get the role, I got great feedback and connections for the future. Not fitting isn't a death sentence.