Getting in the industry from abroad

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    • Getting in the industry from abroad

      Hi everyone,

      Like many of you, I have always dreamt of working in the game industry for a very long time now (in my case, as a game programmer).

      On the education side, I have recently completed my bachelor's degree in CS, and I am currently working on achieving a master's degree in "Game and Media Technology". In my spare time, I have been working on C++ programming a lot. (By the way, if you want to learn about the details of C++ and could use a nice reference guide, get Stroustrup's book on the matter.)

      Education aside, there is a reasonably large hurdle in the way of getting in the industry: I live in The Netherlands. It's a very small country, and there are only a few game companies around. This brings us to my question: How hard is it to get into the industry (in the USA) when living abroad? (I understand this entails relocating from here to the USA, of course.) Is this done often, and do game companies even consider applicants that don't already live in the USA?

      - Raz

    • RE: Getting in the industry from abroad

      Hey Raz,

      Find a good American woman and sweep her offer her feet! Seriously, getting into the US from abroad takes a lot of effort. The costs for bringing highly qualified, very experienced people that have rare skills are around $15,000 - for immigration laywers and other expenses. And that is with a highly skilled individual !

      Take a look at the US Immigration Website for some of your options - one of which is a "Diversity Lottery".

      uscis.gov/graphics/services/residency/index.htm.

      The games industry brings lots of experienced people to the US from overseas - so it does happen, but it is something of a long road. I'm assuming that when you get here you'll probably want to move to someplace like Los Angeles - a very expensive place to live - but it has more game development opportunities than elsewhere in the US.

      I think your best bet is to network like crazy right at home, get yourself a game job (or any technology job), and get some real experience. If you really want to move to the US, that is probably your best bet.
      Mr.Mike
      Author, Programmer, Brewer, Patriot

    • RE: Getting in the industry from abroad

      First of all, thanks for the reply. When I finally get there, I'll come visit and buy you the obligatory beer ;)

      I kind of expected it to be reasonably hard - basically I'd have to convince any employers that I'm more qualified than any Americans that have applied for the same job. Which could get pretty tough.

      What I plan on doing first is to complete my Master's degree, and look for employment on this side of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, I'll continue to stick a lot of effort in game programming in my spare time. I'll see where I end up after that :)

      That Diversity Lottery sounds like a good idea as well by the way (albeit somewhat of a long shot).

      The post was edited 2 times, last by Raz ().

    • RE: Getting in the industry from abroad

      Sounds like a good plan to me - and by the way having a masters degree will actually make it a little easier to get into the US.

      Don't forget about finding a good American girl. That is a sure thing! Of course, if you already have someone that makes things more, uh, complicated!
      Mr.Mike
      Author, Programmer, Brewer, Patriot

    • Game development is huge over in the UK too, so you may want to consider that as an option... as long as you don't have some particular US company in mind.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Gerry ().

    • That's a pretty good suggestion. Actually, I have been considering my options here in Europe, since it's pretty easy to move to and work in a different country within the EU.

      There's no particular US-based company I have in mind, but I do want to migrate to the US eventually. Have been playing with the idea of returning to the US ever since I lived there for two years (which was about 15 years ago) ;)

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Raz ().

    • France seems to WANT to become a serious game development country. I wouldn't be surprised if in the coming years you see France launch several big companies to try to hold off EA. Could be opportunity for you there (though you'd have to go to France...yuck!). France is the home of Ubisoft, btw, who would be awesome to work for.

      Otherwise, I'm not in a position to give real advice.
      -Larrik Jaerico

      www.LarrikJ.com

    • Originally posted by Larrik
      France seems to WANT to become a serious game development country. I wouldn't be surprised if in the coming years you see France launch several big companies to try to hold off EA. Could be opportunity for you there (though you'd have to go to France...yuck!).


      LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLLOLOLLLLLOLOLOLLOLOL

      Back on topic: The UK is probably where I'm headed as soon as I'm prepared.

    • My apologies for the large kick, but I just wanted to check in again to let you guys know how things are going with my "grand master plan" to get into the industry ;)

      In a month or two I'll receive my master's degree in computer science (the Game and Media Technology program of Utrecht University, NL). Additionally (and maybe even more importantly), I was one of the two programmers during a complete game development project called `The Blob'. Perhaps some of you have heard of this game, since it is one of the Student Showcase winners of this year's IGF! 8o

      For more details on the Blob, see this page. (It's a free download; you'll want to use the faster binnenstad.hku.nl mirrors listed on that page by the way.)

      Anyway, I'm pretty confident now that it will not be very difficult to land a nice programming job in the game industry. We have all learned more than we could have imagined during the Blob-project. Especially experiencing the entire process of translating an idea into a complete game has been an eye-opener. And, of course, I've used several ideas from Game Coding Complete during the project. Thanks Mr. Mike! :)

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Raz ().

    • That's good to hear. I recall seeing The Blob at GDC, probably at the IGF, I guess.

      Anyways, it looks like a good game, and I'm anxious to try it out!

      ~~~

      Actually, I remember now... I went to GDC with a couple professors from my university, and one of them talked to someone who worked on this game.

      How crazy would it be if it was you! He said that the guy was very pleased that he was able to speak to him in his native tongue...

      Hm, does the name "Ferris State University" ring a bell?

    • Hmm... quite a while since the last post in this topic but very interesting :)

      I'm student myself from Germany and I'm very interested in doing an internship in USA for 6 months.. Is there something that allows you to work that time frame in the USA?
      Has anybody informations about that?

      greetings
      Frank