Hello, im still in highschool and one day (not soon i know it will take a lot to break in the industry). I would be training and studying to become a animator or 3D modeler for video games. specifically my question is when wanting to join the industry it is complete nonsense that you would be hired by like EA, Activision or Blizzard Entertainment right out of University and going into a smaller developer is better to start out in the industry to get experience and contacts. But when you join a smaller industry it is most likely you don't really play their games because you never heard of them before until you look for them on the internet for future reference. So im wondering what would you do if you are going to start out in the industry but do not specifically like the games they developer likes but there is no other option in developers around because I live in Vancouver BC and there are a lot of big/someehat big developers here like Relic Entertainment, EA, Rockstar Vancouver, Propaganda Games and they make games I like but it is somewhat near 0 that i would get hired right away from university by one of them. Is it okay or is it bad to join a small development company to just get experience in the field? because I don't want to make games I would not like and who wants to do that or do i just have to suck it up and do it even tho i would not like the games that developer makes? Sorry if this hybrid-question is kinda stpuid i just need to know. Thank you for your comment.

-Zaff

The Portal team was hired by Valve straight out of college after seeing them demo their college project, so it's not nonsense if you can demonstrate to them that you have the chops to get the job done. If you just do the bare minimum of effort, get a degree and expect to get hired by a big name studio, it's not likely to happen. However, if you come out of college with a killer art portfolio and some experience with a mod team, things like that, your chances go up considerably. Remember, you must be excellent (in the sense of excelling) to get these jobs. If you can show that you are better than all of the other candidates out there, you get the job. This means working outside of classes, going above and beyond what everybody else is learning so that you are the BEST. Not just passable, but really freaking great.

Although working at the smaller studios has perks too. If you'll only be happy working on games that catch your interest, you may find yourself unhappy choosing this as a career path. Most people I work with (I'm a game developer) genuinely like to make games just for the sake of making games. Making games and playing games are wildly different, even if you love to play games, making them every day for a minimum of 8 hours is really hard work. But it's totally worth it if you enjoy it, even if the final end product isn't exactly the sort of game you'd play in your free time.

As a side note, you need to make sure that your language skills are really up to snuff too. If your post is any indication of the way you write in general, it's going to be much harder to get a job in a field this competitive. It may sound petty but a lot of companies, upon seeing you not putting the effort into writing clearly and properly, will likely assume that to be a part of your overall personality. I.e., if you don't show pride and care in your normal writing, they may assume that your work will suffer equally. Impressions are important, and one of the very first will be written correspondence with a company. I'm not saying you aren't careful, maybe English isn't your first language. But it's important either way to hone your writing skills too.