Definitely a four year degree is going to massively help your case, especially as a "game programmer" (especially if you plan on being an engine programmer). But on top of that, look at most game position ads. They're usually looking for at least 1 shipped title. Trust me, spend some time actually making a gameplay example. It shows initiative as well as gives physical evidence of your abilities and why you would be a good hire DESPITE not having a shipped title.
Oh, and don't think that you'll be driving a Ferrari either.
Honestly, please guide me to a publisher that would only take a dollar on each sale. I would say this article is misleading at best. Publishers MAY only make a dollar but that's if they are picking up 100% of the marketing, advertising, localization, QA, etc costs. This is not always the case (I wouldn't even say that this is frequently the case). Trust me, there wouldn't be a ton of publishers out there if they are only making a dollar a pop per game with the costs of overhead to also keep in mind.
Most of the comments I've been reading are focused on forum talk. While I don't think that spelling and grammar are overly significant in forums, a lot of times that poor grasp on the language trickles over into work related writing. Whether it is e-mail, reports, letters, or resumes.
The biggest trouble in hiring programmers and other tech savvy positions is finding someone who can effectively communicate using the English language. By not learning effective use of communication (which goes beyond spelling and grammar but starts there) we have made our own careers more difficult. I can't count how many times a fellow programmer had to tweak or completely recode something because of poor communication skills. Once I became a hiring manager, written communication has become a top priority because there is no end to the good programmers out there, but there's a very small number of programmers who everyone else can understand.
They may not claim it but industry wide the trend is that print readership is down and with lower circulation comes less advertising revenue. My guess is that the New York Times is not entirely exempt from this trend.
Also, my guess from the article is that the New York Times will soon be adopting a pay-version of their site. New York Times and other national dailies may be able to make this work but most papers would not.
The problem that online publications run into is that they are often trying to work under print models. Print models don't necessarily work for a multimedia environment. "Circulation" numbers are not going to help bolster revenue but better use of creative, non-intrusive advertising can. Impress upon advertisers to make their advertising something more than they would put into the paper and, for heaven's sake, don't base it on click throughs! Use impressions or some other method which more accurately shows the presence they have had. Besides, their Web site probably sucks anyway.;-)
About half a year ago I was through many of the job sites out there. While there were a few good ones out there, it has seriously become an effort just to sort out the crap from the legitimate posts. While this is true and there are a lot of people abusing the system for "work at home" and recruitment, I did manage to recieve 3 good interviews from that experience and was hired from one of those 3. The worst part about posting resumes though is that you will receive a lot of calls from recruiters. My favorite was a "technical recruiter" who after looking over my resume asked me what the following things were: PHP, APACHE, and Open Source. To his credit, I mentioned Linux and he exclaimed, "That! I know what a Linux is. Can to learn.NET really fast?"
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Definitely a four year degree is going to massively help your case, especially as a "game programmer" (especially if you plan on being an engine programmer). But on top of that, look at most game position ads. They're usually looking for at least 1 shipped title. Trust me, spend some time actually making a gameplay example. It shows initiative as well as gives physical evidence of your abilities and why you would be a good hire DESPITE not having a shipped title. Oh, and don't think that you'll be driving a Ferrari either.
Honestly, please guide me to a publisher that would only take a dollar on each sale. I would say this article is misleading at best. Publishers MAY only make a dollar but that's if they are picking up 100% of the marketing, advertising, localization, QA, etc costs. This is not always the case (I wouldn't even say that this is frequently the case). Trust me, there wouldn't be a ton of publishers out there if they are only making a dollar a pop per game with the costs of overhead to also keep in mind.
"Astronauts traveling to Mars would be exposed to so much cosmic radiation that 10% would die of cancer." And a 90% chance of super powers.
Most of the comments I've been reading are focused on forum talk. While I don't think that spelling and grammar are overly significant in forums, a lot of times that poor grasp on the language trickles over into work related writing. Whether it is e-mail, reports, letters, or resumes. The biggest trouble in hiring programmers and other tech savvy positions is finding someone who can effectively communicate using the English language. By not learning effective use of communication (which goes beyond spelling and grammar but starts there) we have made our own careers more difficult. I can't count how many times a fellow programmer had to tweak or completely recode something because of poor communication skills. Once I became a hiring manager, written communication has become a top priority because there is no end to the good programmers out there, but there's a very small number of programmers who everyone else can understand.
They may not claim it but industry wide the trend is that print readership is down and with lower circulation comes less advertising revenue. My guess is that the New York Times is not entirely exempt from this trend.
;-)
Also, my guess from the article is that the New York Times will soon be adopting a pay-version of their site. New York Times and other national dailies may be able to make this work but most papers would not.
The problem that online publications run into is that they are often trying to work under print models. Print models don't necessarily work for a multimedia environment. "Circulation" numbers are not going to help bolster revenue but better use of creative, non-intrusive advertising can. Impress upon advertisers to make their advertising something more than they would put into the paper and, for heaven's sake, don't base it on click throughs! Use impressions or some other method which more accurately shows the presence they have had. Besides, their Web site probably sucks anyway.
About half a year ago I was through many of the job sites out there. While there were a few good ones out there, it has seriously become an effort just to sort out the crap from the legitimate posts. While this is true and there are a lot of people abusing the system for "work at home" and recruitment, I did manage to recieve 3 good interviews from that experience and was hired from one of those 3. The worst part about posting resumes though is that you will receive a lot of calls from recruiters. My favorite was a "technical recruiter" who after looking over my resume asked me what the following things were: PHP, APACHE, and Open Source. To his credit, I mentioned Linux and he exclaimed, "That! I know what a Linux is. Can to learn .NET really fast?"