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Top 5 Mistakes Made by Job Seekers

Over the years, the team here at DAM has encountered job seekers of all flavors -- from the "timid, one-word answer" guy to the "you're lucky I've even agreed to talk to you" guy.

With such a plentiful and varied group of personalities, we thought it would be helpful to the industry to share some of the interviewing follies that have occurred during the better part of this decade in the hopes of putting both job seekers and employers in a better position to secure either the job or the employee for which they are looking.

This month we'll focus on the job seeker; next month, the employer.

Behold, the top 5 mistakes made by job seekers during and leading up to the interview process …

1. Haphazard And Irrelevant Resume Submissions. A job seeker's first chance to make an impression to a prospective employer exists during the initial submission of the resume, cover letter, and demo reel/code samples. Invariably, many candidates shoot themselves in the foot before they've even spoken with anyone for any number of reasons.

For instance, an artist with only 3DS Max experience submits for a "Maya generalist" opening or a junior candidate submits for a senior level spot. In both of these instances, the candidate is unqualified and knows it, but submits anyway only to become irritated that no employer responds. We've even seen candidates submit cover letters that contain greetings addressed to another studio's HR department. If you haven't taken the time to read the job description or company bio, why do you expect the employer to have the courtesy to reply?

Here are a few rules of thumb that will help increase the percentages in your favor …

  • Write a custom cover letter for each studio to which you’re submitting and tailor it to a specific job description to emphasize the experience you have as it relates to key qualifications listed.
  • You might want to truthfully modify your resume to better highlight the contributions you’ve made previously that are relevant to the job for which you’re applying.
  • If you’re a terrible speller, let someone who isn’t proofread your resume for grammatical errors and typos. We’ve seen candidates misspell the names of the companies for which they are employed, titles on which they’ve worked on, and schools they’ve attended. Nothing screams “lacks attention to detail” louder than misspelling your own alma mater.
  • If you’re submitting a demo reel or code samples, make sure what you’re sending is relevant. When you’re applying for Crytek’s senior 3D artist opening on “Crysis 2” and and the first three minutes of your reel contains artwork from “Barbie And The Magic Of Pegasus” for the GBA, you’re fighting the toughest uphill battle in the history of uphill battles. If you don’t have any photorealistic art development experience, create some on your own time based on the studio’s style if that’s the direction you’re headed.
  • If you’re the kind of person who blankets every company with the same resume, same demo reel, and same cover letter without taking the time to truly understand what employers are looking for and whether you and they are a good match, you should expect nothing more from them than the effort you’ve put in, perhaps an automatic e-mail response thanking you for submitting. Build an undeniable case for yourself regardless of how many years of experience you have. Show the studio and its managers that you’ve specifically sought them out and believe you can make a positive impact there because … [insert your unique skills as they relate to the job and the company here].
2. Punctuality And Appearance. Yes, the people in the games industry are highly creative, highly individualistic, and, in many cases, eccentric non-conformists. So we’re not advising you to conceal the true you. But the one constant every studio seeks is a person who is reliable, takes direction well, and will be a positive influence within the company as opposed to a distraction. Respectfulness and professionalism are not mutually exclusive character attributes to individualism. Here are some perceived distractions and inferences employers are going to make:
  • If the applicant can’t make it to the first interview on time, how is the applicant going to meet the first deadline on time? And so, be five minutes early to every interview. Bad traffic is never a valid excuse, even if you’re living in Los Angeles.
  • Never arrive to an interview too early. The receptionist will announce your early arrival to the hiring manager who will then secretly resent you either for making them stop what they were doing because they weren’t expecting you for another 25 minutes or they’ll feel forced to rush through what they were doing to prevent you from having to wait too long. Either way, you lose.
  • If a hiring manager has trouble sitting in the same room with you due to your personal hygiene (or lack of it), do you really think they are going to want to bring you back in and suffer a second time? If you’re a 2-shower-a-week person, schedule the interview on one of those two days. Don’t forget your fingernails and your breath. It won’t hurt you to clean yourself up, if only for one day.
  • Walking into the conference room yawning and rubbing your bloodshot eyes is no way to make a first impression. Get some sleep, eat a good breakfast, and slam a Red Bull.
  • The games industry has very lax standards when it comes to appropriate attire. If you walk in wearing a suit, they’ll think you’re an exec from the publisher coming to cancel their project. But if you come in with flip flops and a swim suit, they’ll think you’re auditioning for the next season of Baywatch. My philosophy on this matter is that you’re better off leaning towards being too dressy -- with a decent pair of jeans or pants, collared shirt that has been ironed, and a nice pair of shoes -- than too casual -- with shorts, beat-up sneakers, and a muscle shirt that accentuates the buffed arms you’ve built from writing 10 million lines of C++ code. Don’t push the envelope until you’ve gotten the job and the employee handbook.
3. Having A Clue. Being properly prepared for an interview means a lot more than simply knowing the day and time, printing out MapQuest directions, and washing behind your ears. While your skills and experience are certainly on trial, so is your enthusiasm for working for that specific company. Here are some things you can do to ensure that the employer has no doubt about your interest:
  • Know all the games that the company has released.
  • Know who published their games. Or, if interviewing with a publisher, you should be aware of who their primary first-party developers are.
  • Do your best to get some background information on the people with whom you’re scheduled to meet. Use the Internet, company Web site, social networking sites, and so on.
  • Know the ins and outs of the job description and feel free to inquire with the hiring manager which items in the description are the most important. You can emphasize your professional stories and experiences that are most relevant to what the employer would be looking for.
  • I would strongly recommend playing one or more of the company’s recently published titles. Or, if it’s a new company with no released titles yet, play one or more games that are of the same ilk.
4. Relevant Professional Stories And Life Experiences. Aside from being a good rapport builder, sharing your professional war stories and life experiences provides the hiring manager a better glimpse into what you’re all about, the challenges you’ve overcome, and the goals you’ve achieved. One important caution for those with a penchant for the melodramatic -- this is not an opportunity for you to air out your grievances or bash your current or former employer. Anyone who’s been in the industry for a few years has had a bad boss, suffered from a layoff, or worked for a company that didn’t know what they were doing (in your opinion). The hiring manager isn’t interested in being your psychiatrist. The primary purpose of telling your war stories is for you to effectively communicate the professional and personal challenges you’ve faced, how you overcame them, and how everyone (including that crummy boss and your inept co-workers) prevailed. Focus on and end with the positives and tie those experiences to the specific challenges that currently face the studio with whom you’re interviewing to fortify the case that you’re the right person for the job.
  • Develop a 5-7-minute elevator pitch that chronicles your professional achievements.
  • Have 3-4 stories at the ready. Perhaps about that unattainable deadline that you hit, an idea you proffered that enhanced the game or workflow, the special assignment your boss gave you because they needed it done right the first time, situations in which you’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty for the betterment of the company or the project, the co-worker that you mentored and the impact that it had, the things you’ve done on your personal time to make you a better game developer, and so on. Remember … all your stories should have resulted in positive outcomes or good learning experiences.
5. Know The Next Step. Now that you’ve gone through a phone screen, an in-house interview, and possibly even a test of some kind, you’re entitled to know where you stand and what the next step in the interview process is going to be. As the interview appears to be wrapping up, try the following:
  • Directly express your interest in taking the next step and why you’re interested in taking it.
  • Clarify the steps in the company’s decision-making process. Do you need to come in for a second or third round of interviews? Do they decide on whether or not to make an offer at this point?
  • If the hiring manager says that they need time to discuss your interview with all of the parties that were involved in it, you should ask when is an appropriate time to follow up.
  • If another round of interviews is required, you should attempt to schedule it right there and then.
  • Feel free to ask how you stack up with the other candidates who they are interviewing for this position.
  • Feel free to ask if there is anything you can do or provide that will help expedite the hiring manager’s decision-making process or bolster your candidacy.
There are no absolutes in the job-search process. Can someone show up to an interview 30 minutes late in a leather jumpsuit still buzzing from the previous night’s debauchery and get an offer? Of course they can. But the purpose of this article is to help you improve the percentages in getting an offer from the company for which you really want to work.

There are two types of applicants out there – job seekers and career builders. Job seekers do the bare minimum to get an interview, cross their fingers, and take the first thing that comes their way. Inevitably, they hop from job to job every 1.5-2 years. On the other hand, career builders are more tactical, think about the bigger picture, and apply only for the jobs that they truly want, not simply because they’re posted somewhere online.

Think about it … if you were in the hiring manager’s position, which type of candidate would you be more inclined to hire? The job seeker? Or the career builder?

Next month we’ll discuss the top 5 mistakes made by hiring managers.
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