A plan of action

Now that you’ve completed your own evaluation, this will be very useful for you when it comes to reviewing potential jobs. But also, it’ll tell you one of the most important things we can share on this course. No one is perfect. I don’t think there’s any such thing as a perfect candidate. No. There are too many elements, I think, to capture the perfect. Yeah, exactly. It’s easy to get discouraged about the gaps in your experience, but don’t worry. That’s true for literally everyone. The people actually doing the hiring know that. Every expert we spoke to said that there’s no such thing as perfect. There’s a bigger point here about a career in the games industry.

In a games job, you never stopped learning. Games programmers have to learn new tool sets, techniques, or code libraries. Games artists also have to learn new techniques or styles for new characters, levels, and environments. Games designers have to develop new designs to keep games fresh and original. Games producers continually learn to solve new problems to deliver games on time. So it literally does not matter if you’re not perfect. What matters is how you adapt. All our developers said they had gaps before they applied. But they also all said they made a plan to plug those gaps. Let’s call it your “action plan.”

An action plan is your personal strategy that will help you fill some gaps you’ve identified in your skills and experience. Examples from an action plan might be extending your portfolio, developing games at the weekend, or doing work experience. Next, we’ll find out how to create an action plan.