Opportunities with my Degree?

I am wondering what Game-Industry related jobs would be available with my degree ... in Probability and Statistics and a minor in Computer Science.

These jobs are available to you:
Producer
Designer
Quality Assurance
Business
Programming
Customer Support

These jobs are probably not available to you with that background:
Artist/Animator
Marketing
Legal

What game development skills do you have?

What game development skills do you have?

Little.

I have created a small little arcade game to practice java while I was in Computer Science 1.

and

I created a pirate board game a few years ago thats alot of fun.

Your ability to prove you can do the job via completed personal projects is worth more than papers that prove you took a course at a university, generally speaking.
You seem to be lacking that.

I think Tom Sloper’s list goes under the assumption that you actually have one of those skills, and also the ability to prove it.
A minor in computer science, a board game, and a single school project aren’t even enough to prove you even have passion for game development.
I wouldn’t even hire you as a tester. Customer support, maybe, assuming you know how to say “a lot”.

I am not trying to be insulting/harsh, but these are the facts. Game companies are going to hire people who show a real drive for doing the positions into which they want to get hired, and trust me when I say they have their pick of the crop.

The positions available to you may vary depending on who you ask, but if you asked me, I would say, “none”.
You should probably stick to being an Actuary.


L. Spiro

Your ability to prove you can do the job via completed personal projects is worth more than papers that prove you took a course at a university, generally speaking.
You seem to be lacking that.

I'm not convinced this is true for a graduate position - in my experience, companies are very interested in your academic record (which shows a lot about you - it's not simply "papers").

And he has created games - no, nothing major, but having personal projects, especially completed ones, at that age will put you above many other graduates. This is surely better than a load of ambitious sounding projects that all end up being half-finished; and I'm not sure that many fresh graduates there are out there that have significant completed games done entirely in their spare time.

A minor in computer science, a board game, and a single school project aren’t even enough to prove you even have passion for game development.[/quote]And a major in a numerate subject, which is still relevant. I was offered a job without taking computer science at all (I did entirely maths).

Passion is seen as important, but I don't see anything suggesting he doesn't have that. In my experience, this is gauged as how much you like playing computer games (but again, if you have the good academic background, that's the harder part done).

I wouldn’t even hire you as a tester. Customer support, maybe, assuming you know how to say “a lot”.

I am not trying to be insulting/harsh, but these are the facts.[/quote]These are not facts, they are anecdotal observations. Evidently not every hirer has the same view. (Also I presume you don't interview by Forum Posts - saying one has "Little" game development skills to a job interview question may not be the best response, but here he may just be understating himself. You need game development skills to complete two games, even casual ones.)

Consider, the general consensus (including on these boards) is that a degree in a general academic subject is better than one geared towards game development, even though the latter will teach you "skills". You seem to be suggesting the contrary to this viewpoint, dismissing his degree as "paper", suggesting all that matters is having extensive game development skills right now. What would you require as proof of having these skills?

And sorry, saying you won't hire him as even a tester based on these posts is just making up a cheap insult - he's said nothing to tell us whether he would or wouldn't be suited for a testing job, which he wasn't talking about anyway. He hasn't given you an indication of his "passion", because he's not here to get a job from you. He's asking a specific question about relevance of degree skills, which doesn't require one to elaborate about what computer game passion they have.

I disagree that he has much advantage over most fresh graduates.
By his age I already had about 40 projects I would never even mention to anyone and 5—2 of which were fairly large-scale (a 3D game from scratch and a disassembler/hex editor/debugger)—to show to companies. Plus a degree specifically in computer programming.
That is passion, and game companies get entrant-level applications like this fairly frequently, depending on the company.

Don’t mistake asking his chances of getting into the industry for passion. I could post a few drawings and ask my chances at getting into the world of art as nothing more than a passing curiosity.

Yes, he asked what is open for him given his degree alone.
He also stated that he plans to use that knowledge to weigh his future plans against changing from being an Actuary.

Do you honestly believe you are doing him a service by only stating exactly what that degree could be used to get, and not considering which of them are practical for him to get?

I know people with similar entrant-level resumes to my own who have given up getting into games simply because they could not get a job. One of them is now a pro gamer.
I don’t see how we can help the original poster except to say that the game industry is fiercely competitive and he needs to be aware at how high the risk is that he will not be able to find anything. If he had nothing else on which to fall back I would perhaps be more encouraging, but frankly he has something on which to fall back that is actually a good chance for him.

If he decides to become an actuary, I have confidence in his success.
If he decides to get into games, I have doubts.


L. Spiro