Effective talk: How to work in an entry level job.
Year of Talk: 2021
Video Link: Getting the Most Out of an Entry-Level Games Job
The first main goal is to get noticed. As people see how well you work, it helps you make better connections and can help you get future jobs. Even if one or two people do notice you then it can drastically increase your chances of getting another job in the future.
It is also important to listen to the different conversations that are occurring in the studio. Not only during meetings but also the before/after as well as how people interact with each other in small talk. This also gives you chances to interact with coworkers and a way to bond with them. You might also help you get noticed more likely.
Remember that if any time there aren't a lot of tasks being given out then it is a useful time to either learn new skills or go over previous work to see if you can learn anything from it. It can also be quite useful to just take a quick breather and recompile your energy while you look for other tasks to work on or volunteer. Things like playing the game or just going over documentation can help you have a better understanding on what the game currently looks like.
Some ways to get noticed more by other people in the studio can include volunteering at events, playtesting, or helping audit new hires. Doing so will allow more people a lot more opportunities to interact with you.
Taking notes:
An example of this is taking notes during meetings. During the meeting, it can be quite useful to take attendance. This not only helps you learn everyone's face and names but can also help for people to later reference who might or might not of heard everything talked about during the meeting. The way everything might not normally matter (This depends on each studio since some can ask for specific styles). Importantly it matters what you do with the notes after the meeting.
Once the meeting is done try to organize and rewrite many of the things that were talked about during the meetings. Aim for bullet points over long-form sentences so that it's easier to read. Adding headers to better spread out the information can help people find specific topics that were talked about in the meeting. It also helps you better understand what was talked about in the meeting.
If people want to get notes just as the meeting ends then send the “messy” notes and as you finish rewriting them you can send the updated versions.
This can help as people learn that you are extremely skilled in note-taking which means they might be more willing to invite you to meetings that you might normally not have access to or departments that aren't normally related to the job. Which can help you with getting more connections for future jobs and help.
Playtesting:
This forces you to experience the game as a player instead of just a dev. It also gives access to other areas of development. By being a tester it adds a wider variety of experiences in the game so that people can better determine what works and what doesn't.
It's important to try and make friends in the studio. You can then have someone that you go to for help if something comes up or if you need clarification on something social that's happening.
Work-Life balance
It's important to keep a work-life balance as overworking might not always mean that your going to keep your job. You can still be easily fired without realizing it. This means that you end up working too much and not spending a lot of time doing other things you enjoy.
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