Job-Hunting:
Where to Look, What to Expect
This page links to several of my favorite game dev job boards, as well social media you probably want to have a presence on, outlines of what you probably want before you start applying to places, and the typical phases of an application process. All of these link to more in-depth pages or external sites where applicable. Since this is mainly a resource for juniors, and junior-specific roles are very rare, I'll be touching on that more after the nitty-gritty of job boards, social media, interviews and negotiations.
And finally, as the usual caveat - this is based largely on my experience as an American applying to and working at American studios. Even within studios the details and order of these vary a lot, let alone globally, but hopefully these still provide at least a useful reference.
Most of these websites automatically scape job listings from studios, job boards, etc., so they not only have a very accurate listing of what's out there, but have way more entry- and mid-level listings compared to websites that charge for job listings such as ArtStation, Game Developer, or LinkedIn. Many of those listed here also have active Twitter presences where they’ll retweet even job opportunities that haven’t paid to be featured, so it’s worth giving them a follow as well!
If there are particular studios you're really excited about, it's still worth keeping an eye on their websites/Twitter/etc. as well just to make sure you don't miss anything, but in my opinion these are some of the best websites to be looking at when you’re actively hunting.
Job Boards and Listings
Recommended Job Boards
If you’re only going to follow a small number of job boards (I don’t blame you, information overload is an extremely real thing), these are the ones I’d recommend - they have good features, searchability, and breadth of job types and ways to find them. If you want to be really thorough, or are looking for a slightly different featureset or more specific set of job listings, there are more job boards below!
GameJobs.co
Huge number of job listings, automatically updated
Filters including by experience level, studio, time posted, employment type (full-time, contract, internship, etc.) and custom inputs
HitMarker
Super-specific filters including by experience level, studio, time posted, employment type (full-time, contract, internship, etc.), and custom inputs
Includes a lot of game-adjacent jobs such as eSports and content creation listings.
GameSmith Game Dev Map
Sort of a reverse job board - GameDevMap shows you all the studios in an area so you can find studios near you that you may not have heard of or in areas you’d like to move to!
Additional Job Boards
These either have considerable overlap in functionality with the recommended boards, or they’re just more specialized. Either way, if you want to make sure you’re being as thorough as possible, definitely check these out as well!
Grackle HQ: Similar to GameJobs.co
Work With Indies: Lists positions at independent studios only.
Remote Game Jobs: Lists remote positions only. Twitter account frequently retweets remote job listings whether they're on the paid site or not.
GameDevMap: Similar to the GameSmith Game Dev Map, but offers filtering based on county or studio type (developer, publisher, mobile-focused, etc.).
By the time you’ve already put all that work into making your portfolio and base resume/cover letter, you’re basically ready to go application-wise. The rest just makes your life easier and your application process smoother and less stressful.
Remember, if something comes up that you're incredibly excited for but you're not quite sure if you’re ready or you’re a portfolio piece short or whatever... just apply anyways. If you don’t land it, by the time another role like it rolls around you’ll probably have new pieces and skill growth to show off and now they have a clear view of how much you’ve improved in that time! (This was a huge part of how I got my job at Blizzard.)
Application Readiness Checklist
Must-Haves
Without these your application is likely to feel incomplete / like you don’t actually know what you want or are applying for.
If you’re going to get feedback on any of these pieces, make sure you get and implement it before you apply! While you may have a little bit of wiggle room to sneak in portfolio updates if it’s a website, once your resume and cover letter are sent they’re sent!
Resume and Cover Letter
Your resume and cover letter are the second must-have half of your application - they’re the “tell” for all the nuances of your skills and experience that your portfolio might not show.
Your resume will often change very little - if at all - between applications unless you’re applying to several distinct types of roles. At most you’re probably remixing your stuff to optimize for their job requirements.
Your cover letter, however, should be tailored at least somewhat to each role you apply for - it’s one of the easiest opportunities to show that you’re interested in their job instead of just a job. (It’s totally okay if you want a job, you need to eat and gain experience. Game dev is just too competitive to not hedge your bets wherever you can, and there are so many completely untailored cover letters getting thrown around that any amount of tailoring will be a little extra boost in your favor.)
Portfolio / Sizzle Reel
This is the collection of work / projects that show off your technical skills - for instance your artwork, code samples, or game designs.
Because portfolios are most relevant to more visual roles, how important the portfolio vs. resume and cover letter may be will vary a lot based on your specialty.
!! FAQ Tip !! If there’s an opening you’re really really excited for and you’re close to finishing a new portfolio piece, you can use job boards like GameJobs and Grackle to determine how long the position has been open. If it’s been open just a few days or weeks, you’re probably safe to take a few days to wrap up that last piece.
If it’s been open longer, you’re not sure, or the job is for an extremely competitive role, apply right away with a tailored resume and cover letter and update your portfolio as soon as you can.
Better To Have Ready in Advance
These can take some time to prepare in a way that’s guaranteed to benefit you, and if you’re asked for them you’ll probably need to provide them fairly quickly. So having them ready to go can make the “maybe” of when and whether you’ll be asked a lot less stressful!
Desired Salary Range
Many job applications will ask for your desired salary or your previous salary. They’re both bs that’s designed to get you to undercut yourself and that’re shown to perpetuate wage gaps (especially previous salaries). If you want to give a number, make sure you highball yourself for the region you’re applying in (even if you’ll be remote and have a much lower cost-of-living).
If you aren’t confident in what you’ll need or what a fair salary is, don’t feel like you have to make up a number on the spot. Leave it blank or put something as simple as “Negotiable,” and do further research if you’re invited to a screening call (hiring managers will often ask about your desired salary as well, but at this point you can at least ask them for the company’s range for this position).
You can read a lot more about researching and determining salaries in our Negotiation article!
References
These are standard personal or professional references: typically 2-3 people - ideally coworkers or former coworkers, but may also be teachers, classmates, project buddies, etc. - who know you and your skillset well enough to provide a useful assessment if called and whom you trust to give you an honest and good recommendation
You’ll rarely be asked for references these days, as your portfolio and resume will often be the determining factors, but it’s good to have them ready just in case.
None of these are strictly necessary to complete an application or land you a job, they’re just nice-to-haves and you deserve nice things.
Optional
LinkedIn Profile
A LinkedIn profile is not strictly necessary, but it adds a weird slight extra layer of validity to your professional existence (that’s the most logical explanation I can give you, I’m sorry, companies and psychology are weird). All you need here is keep your profile accurate and existing - there’s absolute no need to be active or engaged with the community.
While it is genuinely optional, especially in the very stupid world of trying to stand out in a massive crowd, every little bit helps! (And as a bonus, more and more job applications will autofill from LinkedIn which can save you a lot of time.)
Confidence
Your brain is mean. Apply anyways.
…Okay a few more details here:
Depending on the company/team, it can be totally okay to acknowledge a little bit of nervousness in your cover letter or interviews. Don’t make a huge deal of it, but it’s a small genuine bit of vulnerability that conveys excitement for the role, which people often appreciate.
Practice what you’re nervous about once you’ve submitted your application!
Worried about interviewing? Practice!
That one piece of software they want that you’re not super comfy in? Practice!
The full application or interview cycle can take weeks, if not months, you’ve got time while you wait!
Typical Application Process / Flow
Extremely generally speaking, these tend to be the stages an application and interview process goes through, along with a few broad details of each.
The arrows are where most of the waiting and anxiety happens - I've left them unlabeled just because it was getting cluttered.
Submit Application
If you're hoping to have someone refer you, make sure you ask about the process before you apply. Different companies require the referral to happen at different points in the process - even before you submit your application!
2. Screening Call
The first contact you'll typically have in an application is a short screening call with a recruiter. This is generally used to clarify some very basic questions, such as confirming various basic facts from your application, or if you're international, determining the viability of getting a work visa.
For some roles or studios you may be asked to do a technical test/proof-of-skill at this point.
3. Initial Interview
May involve one or both of:
A basic screening call with HR
A short-to-medium-length interview with key team members (i.e. a lead/manager)
Used to determine sending you an art test / longer interviews
4. Art/Design / Tech Test
Tests are commonly used to decide whether or not to go to longform interview, but may happen before any interviews or after the longform interview, depending on the studio and situation.
Length and complexity of tests vary wildly
Not all companies or positions do tests
5. Final Interviews
Longer interview, typically a series of one-hour interviews with small groups of team members and people you'll work with a lot
Several hours to a day is typical; may be spread out over multiple days
Typically, these are the final step to get a sense of who you are as a person; your application and test have probably given them a good sense of your skill level
6. Offer / Negotiation
You did it! They like you! \o/
Determine compensation, start date, etc.
Applications are pretty much always a numbers game unless you're exceptionally skilled/senior, lucky, and in a high-demand role, but as mentioned in the intro, jobs that are explicitly junior/associate/entry-level are also extremely rare and highly contested (even mid-level roles run into this; companies are overwhelming looking for seniors that... may or may not actually exist). Unfortunately you need to be ready for a lot of rejections. Like dozens or hundreds of rejections.
I think it's important to go in knowing this, because there's a difficult mental balance you're going to have to maintain: knowing that much of this is outside your control and not at all a reflection on you, while also being willing to take a very honest look at your portfolio, resume/cv, and interviews and put in the work to constantly be improving and improving your chances. Getting into games is hard, and unless you're extremely lucky (and luck is key here - much of your hard work will just be to put you in a position where you're more likely to get lucky), it's likely to be a part- to full-time job just to get the damn job. It sucks, a lot, especially since you'll usually hear the most about the wunderkind who landed at their dream company right out of school or what-have- you. Statistically,
So, that's all great and super depressing. What can you do to try and mitigate it?
Handling Rejection and The Rarity of Junior Positions
Apply to Positions That Aren't Explicitly Junior
As you surf those job boards, you'll probably see a lot of job that don't actually state a level - they're simply "VFX Artist," "Game Designer," etc., with no designation as junior/mid/senior, etc.
In a lot of cases, these are simply mid/staff-level positions, but in others, the studios are leaving it intentionally ambiguous in the hopes of casting a wide net, and these jobs are in fact open to all levels of applications, including juniors. Sometimes the job descriptions will explicitly state that they're open to all levels, but many are simply vague or written towards roughly-mid-level expectations. Applying to senior or leadership positions without extensive experience is likely to look weird, so I wouldn't do that, but for jobs without an explicitly-stated title or that're asking for 2+ years' experience or less, it's best to take the shot and let the company decide if they want you instead of never giving yourself the chance.
Approaching job applications this way does mean you're setting yourself up for a lot more rejections - some just because of the math of applying to more jobs, some because you'll inevitably apply to some jobs that were truly mid-level and you don't have the experience they need. But because junior positions are so rare, it's important to take even those longer shots and just let the numbers game play its course.
Finally, to the women reading this in particular - generally speaking, women (and I suspect many from other marginalized groups as well) tend to apply to a job only when they meet 90% or more of the requirements/expectations listed for the job; men will often apply when they meet about 60%. Many of the juniors I know landed their first job by applying to non-junior positions; I've never actually held a junior title, despite having worked in three different career tracks, not because I'm oh-so-great but because many studios are just weird or vague about titling. Set yourself up as best you can, but even when in doubt, just apply.
Don't Hold Out For The Dream Job
Game dev careers very rarely start glamorously or skyrocket loudly and publicly to "made it" positions. It took me six years to find VFX, and eight to make it to a studio anyone had heard of; many of the devs I consider some of the best in their fields worked quietly for years (we're talking close to a decade in many cases) at relatively unknown studios, or in relatively unknown positions, before they joined their dream companies like Riot, Blizzard, etc. It's not "settling" or "giving up," and it doesn't constitute some great failing or commentary on your dedication or skill to take a job that gets you closer to your goals and lets you build experience and y'know, pay rent and stuff.
I think this is especially important because your dream job might not actually exist the way it does in your head, or might be something totally different from what you expect, in terms of studio, culture, or role. Every job I've ever worked, from a generalist at an outsource studio mostly making outfits for Farmville to leading a VFX team at Blizzard, has had difficulties I never would have expected, ways for me to find happiness and skill improvement in my work that I never would have guessed, and people I could make friends with and look forward to working with every day.
So none of this is meant to be discouraging - hopefully, it's encouraging to know that you'll probably be able to find a lot of joy, learning, and comradery wherever you work, and probably a better sense of what really matters to you in a job.
Finally, as gross as it sounds and feels, game studios are companies, which means their loyalty to you is finite (some are much, much more caring and supportive than others, but this will always have a limit), and so you shouldn't feel tied or honor-bound to a studio or team either (and similar to above, how much you're comfortable with this is gonna vary a lot depending on your personality, and that's okay! You gotta do what feels healthy and right to you.). If an opportunity you're truly excited about presents itself after you've taken a job, you can still always pursue it! Most studios have a lot of good things to offer even if they aren't what you expect or went in looking for, but you also aren't bound to any studio forever.
Keep Working On Your Portfolio
As you're applying to places, and especially if you find yourself getting rejected a lot, the best thing you can usually do is keep working on your portfolio. Make sure you're measuring your work against that of others in communities you've joined or the games you're applying to rather than against your own older work, actively put yourself out there and seek and implement feedback, and continue expanding the breadth and quality of your work and skillset.
Usually, once you've got five or so pieces that show off a reasonable amount of breadth, and a portfolio that's extremely user-friendly too navigate, the best thing you can do is really focus on drilling into your fundamentals, be they the clarity of your designs or the animation principles of your VFX. While there are more and more resources online discussing good fundamentals and best practices for many skillsets, building up an instinct for them tends to take a lot of time and practice and even then you'll still have blindspots, so it's really important to seek feedback from others in your field and (hopefully!) in the industry as well. Don't wait on it if people aren't replying, but as with job applications, make sure you're putting yourself out there regularly and continue working while you wait to hear back.
Polish Your Resume, Cover Letter, and Interview Skills
Resumes and cover letters are less likely to be what makes or breaks an application, but a strong resume in particular can really help make a good first impression and make hiring managers want to know more (and a bad cover letter can do the opposite). Have others look over your resume and cover letter as well; it's really easy to go blind to errors or to skip over details because you forget others don't know them or you have a hard time talking yourself up, and another set of eyes is very likely to help catch these.
Also, if possible, find opportunities to work on projects with other people! This may mean game jams, school projects if you're in school, a collaboration with someone with a complementary skillset (for example, if you're in VFX, creating a set of VFX for a designer's hypothetical hero kit, or working with an animator to sync up VFX and their animation), or anything else you can come up with. Regardless, experience working with other devs is incredibly valuable and will give all of you good fodder for your resumes and interviews, and hopefully more content for your portfolios as well.
Interviewing is a skill in and of itself, so practice will get you a long way. Most of the struggles I see younger devs and women in particular struggle with are being able to tell stories that highlight their own skills and the contributions they made (talking yourself up can be super hard, so this is one where practice can really really help), giving full answers (similar to the problem I see on resumes, don't just give the most straightforward details of an answer - elaborate on your process, mindset, or approach, specific, unexpected, or unique contributions you made, and the positive outcomes you helped create), and keeping a conversation going when it falters (ideally a senior interviewer would save you from this, but having questions ready about the company in general or the people interviewing you in particular can be a huge help here). Practice in the mirror, to a webcam, to a friend or relative, whatever's available to you.
Any time you're able to after a job rejection, ask for feedback on what you could do to make your next application stronger - I've yet to meet a dev who's annoyed by being asked for feedback and it typically reflects well on you; many will try to find time to give you at least some feedback (and if they can't, it's very very likely to be a time constraint, not because they were annoyed you asked!).
What about all that mentality stuff you mentioned?
It's much harder for me to give advice on how to take care of yourself mentally, in large part because it's so individual (and for many people you'll never be perfect at it, so even just improving is still great!). The most declarative I'd really want to be is letting you know it's likely to be a long road with a lot of hard work, and that it might not even be a clear or direct road. Mine certainly wasn't. Try your best to only compare yourself against others in actionable ways, such as to ensure that your portfolio is meeting or surpassing the quality bar, to identify places to focus on honing or broadening your skills, and to make sure you're asking for a fair salary for yourself. Comparing yourself in areas like how prolific you are or how quickly you land a "big deal" job has limits to its usefulness, not because there's
There's nothing practical about beating yourself up, even though for many people it takes a lot of practice to even start not to. But when you do it's easy to become paralyzed, overwhelmed, or depressed, and that rarely gives you the energy you need to keep improving or to enjoy the things you're working on.
Game dev is hard, and even harder to break into; over a decade in I still firmly believe that the hardest part of almost every career is simply getting your foot in the door. It can take a lot of time, and if you're going to be in it for what may be a long haul, it's important to both know that you're taking on what's likely to be a part- to full-time job of learning and getting a full-time job, and to take care of yourself so that you can be happy and healthy through that process and into your career.