Self Promotion 02

Ok, so I thought it was about time I do another University related post, and talk about what I am doing to promote myself.

So first of all, about two weeks ago I finalised my CV and my Covering letter, so now I have something suitable to start sending out to different companies. Admittedly I am still slightly hesitant to start sending them out until I have my portfolio up and running, but I guess getting my name out there wont do any harm.

So following up from the finalisation of my CV and Covering letter, I decided to get in contact with the guys from Splash Damage that I met at Eurogamer Expo. Given that I had met them in person, and talked to them throughout the day, I decided to send a more informal, friendly email expressing my interest in any positions they might have available. Although the email I sent was slightly more informal, I also attached my CV and Covering letter so that they could either read it themselves, or perhaps pass it on to someone that would read it. I expressed my interest in programming and level design, but also said that I'd be happy to do anything if the opportunity arose, even if it was just work shadowing or testing. Alas, that was a couple of weeks back, and I haven't heard anything yet, but I imagine they are extremely busy, so I wont let that get me down, I'll just re-apply to them again in the new year.

In the mean time, the most recent thing I have been doing is setting up my profile on Linkedin. Linkedin is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. So I thought this would be a perfect way to try and get some additional contacts. I found it a bit annoying to try and upload my CV to given that it wont just let me upload a document for people to view/download; instead, the site tries to extract the information and put it into its respective fields, which somewhat messes up my layout, but after a little bit of messing around, I managed to get my profile sorted. So I have added a few contacts from my Gmail account, and have sent out a few other invitations to various other industry people, so hopefully, I can build up my social-network.

Other than that, the only other thing I have been doing lately is something I have been doing for a long time, which is regularly checking job listings on websites such as GamesIndustry.biz, Gamasutra and Develop, to see if there is anything remotely applicable to my current position. Right now I am just making a note of some of the potential job listings from different companies, given that a lot of them have very strict requirements as to what they are looking for, and applying to those without a portfolio wouldn't get me far. So the next step is to build my online portfolio; and given that I have now finished making the website for the Oxford University Christ Church Ball, I can now focus my web-design elsewhere.

That's it from me for now, but I think my next 'Self Promotion' post will probably detail the production of my website/online-portfolio, so stay tuned.

Eurogamer Expo

Right, I have put this off long enough, so here we go, my post detailing what I got up to at Eurogamer Expo.

Eurogamer Expo, for those of you that don't know, is the UK's biggest dedicated video games event. It is a means for the public to play some of the most anticipated games, hear from some of the world's most talented developers and get involved with the industry via the GamesIndustry.biz Career Fair. So I went along on Friday 1st October as a member of the public, but returned on the 3rd October as a volunteer, and it is that which I am going to be talking about.

See shortly after volunteering to help out at the expo, I received an email from the organiser asking whether anyone was interested in working alongside Bethesda and the Splash Damage guys to help them demonstrate their game 'Brink', and seeing as this is a game that I have been looking forward to ever since seeing the live stage demo at least years Eurogamer Expo, I jumped at the opportunity. So there we have it, not only was I going to be spending Sunday helping demonstrate a game I actually like, but I'd also be doing so alongside the developers of the game, meaning this was the perfect opportunity to start networking!

My job throughout the day was simple, I was tasked with helping people out if they looked confused or stuck while playing the game, telling people what they should be doing in order to complete the specified objectives, resetting the game back to the character customisation menu after a person had finished playing the demo and finally monitoring the queue to ensure no sneaky pirates try and jump the line. Each demo run lasted about 20-30 minutes, meaning once people had been shown to their seats, and they knew what they were doing, I had plenty of time to talk to the Splash Damage guys (the developers of the game).

Throughout the course of the day, my friend (who is also on my course, and thus in the same boat as me) and I spoke to most of the staff, and asked them various different questions ranging from employment possibilities, life in the industry and what they'd be looking for from potential employees, and they were more than happy to answer our questions; they were a great bunch of people actually, really friendly and 'down to earth'. So at the end of the day, I gave out my business cards to a few of the guys, and got theirs in return, so this way, I have a means of getting in contact with them regarding potential employment. In fact, my friend and I are currently in the process of updating our CVs, sorting out our covering letters and whatnot so that we can both apply to them quite soon.

So, that is the end of my report on Eurogamer Expo, meaning I am done for this week; next weeks post will probably relate to my sending off of my application, and perhaps other companies that I have looked at. I shall see what the week holds.

Just before I go, I thought I'd share Brink's cinematic trailer from GDC 2010 because it's just awesome! (Despite the fact that my tutors are probably the only people reading this, so I'm not exactly sharing the video with the world, but I'll do it anyway!)

If you don't know about the game already, then check out the official site for more information!