This post is chock full of resume tips that will help gamedev professionals get the attention of recruiters and land the job interview.

For employers, the primary channels to search for candidates remain job sites and some specialized social networks. To have a chance, you’ll need to utilize them wisely: create an informative resume, fill out a detailed profile, and so on.

In particular, let’s hone in on resumes. These are like “trailers” for your career, rather than feature-length films. This means we shouldn’t try describing absolutely everything we’ve done — instead, focus on the most interesting and relevant information. Recruiters usually view 100+ resumes on a daily basis, with each usually allotted around 5–10 seconds of attention on average. If your resume doesn’t have that critical information they’re seeking, then, unfortunately, it’s likely to be quickly closed so they can move to the next one.

In this article, Dmitry Ivanov and Ekaterina Zaikina from MY.GAMES’ recruitment team will share their tips on crafting a resume that will turn heads and land that job interview!

How to start?

Let’s begin with the very basics:

• You need to include your first and last name.
• You also need to indicate a preferred method of contact: email, Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram good candidates here.
• When choosing to add or exclude a photo of yourself, remember that different countries have different cultural standards for this. It’s best to research the norms in the geographical area you’re targeting. If it’s an accepted practice, even though it’s not required, a photo can make you stand out. It’s best to use a formal photo, this doesn’t necessarily mean something like an ID-type of photo, but it is better to keep beach holiday photos for your personal archive. If using a photo is not the standard, it’s better to exclude it.

When creating a resume on a job site, it’s important to indicate the desired position and the preferred work format. Your profile within a professional community or social network should reflect your current situation, so your profile header should indicate your current position and the company you’re currently working for (or the most recent), as well as responsibilities in this role.

If you don’t keep this data up to date, there’s a good chance recruiters won’t notice you or will offer irrelevant positions.

The right way to talk about work experience

Let’s go deeper here. Your professional experience comprises the main part of a resume, and in many ways, this section will determine your success — it section will characterize and distinguish you amongst many other candidates, and explain why a recruiter should invite you for an interview (or not).

General rules

For each workplace, you need to indicate your title, the main tasks and projects you worked on, and the tools, software or approaches you used. It’s important to briefly describe your duties in the responsibilities section.

There’s an unspoken rule — you should first describe the most important and relevant experience, followed by the rest. Try to avoid using “general” words and phrases; instead, it’s always better to give specific examples. This way you will certainly highlight your real experience in a clear and distinguished way.

Dealing with growth or multiple roles within one company

Describe your career path within one company in one section; it’s better not to separate growth within the same company into separate jobs. We also don’t recommend writing about position changes if your duties stayed the same, or you have been transferred to another legal entity. All this is considered as experience within one company and shouldn’t be subdivided.

Concerns about job change frequency

Recruiters pay attention to how often a candidate changes jobs. If it happens too frequently, recruiters might have additional questions or doubts. So, if you worked for less than a year in one of your companies, make sure you explain the reason for that.

Your current employer and your profile

Nowadays all platforms offer visibility settings for your resume. This way you can hide your profile from your current employer. Do not hide your position title and the company name. This will definitely alert a recruiter, because, as a rule, candidates proudly talk about their work in good companies and try to present it as an advantage. With this information missing, it’s hard to understand the value of the candidate’s experience and objectively evaluate them.

Experience and irrelevant information

When you have over 10 years of work experience, you don’t need to indicate experience irrelevant to your current position. For example, a recruiter doesn’t need to know that you worked as a bartender during your university years.

Talk about specific accomplishments

It’s always great when candidates list their accomplishments, so we encourage you to share the progress you’ve made for each role, for example “I calculated the balance for a new game mode, which allowed us to increase the average game time and the number of sessions”.

“I don’t know where to start!”

If you don’t know how to begin, try to find some of the most interesting vacancies and start out with their content as a baseline. Compare what you already know with the requirements and tasks of the desired role. As soon as you find a good match, adapt it into your experience. But, crucially, don’t exaggerate — the gaming industry is tight, many people know each other, and a lie will definitely be exposed. Why ruin your reputation?

Let’s talk about some more specialized advice for some specific fields.

What about art specialists?

First of all, art specialists should include a project name; if iit hasn’t been announced yet, a brief description will suffice. For example, “a stylized mobile top-down shooter on Unity”. Those involved in monetization activities should also indicate the monetization model of the project.

About portfolios

If you work with content, include a link to your portfolio; for instance, an artist or designer can upload their work on ArtStation. It’s better not to use archives or many links to single pieces, and we don’t recommend using services that can only be accessed via VPN.

Your portfolio should contain relevant artwork that demonstrates your current skill level. It’s not advisable to upload absolutely all the content you’ve ever created. Your portfolio is your business card, so only the best should be added to it. That said, ideally, you should have more than ten pieces in your portfolio.

Above all else, your portfolio should be convenient not for you, but for those who will look at it!

Advice for animations

Animators can upload their demo reel to YouTube or Vimeo. Like with artists, it’s better not to use archives or links to video clips. Try to put some of your best videos together!

What about IT specialists?

First of all, indicate the stack you’ve worked with, the technologies you know, or those you’ve studied. We also advise you to describe the main problems you’ve solved and the area(s) you’d like to further develop.

If you want to break into the gaming industry, even with no experience, you should write about it. It’s also great when candidates attach their pet projects to their resumes — recruiters always pay attention to this.

Viktor Shchepkin, is a Product Director at MY.GAMES. He’s often involved when hiring employees for his team, and he says he pays special attention to a candidate’s portfolio — this is the easiest way to assess their hard skills. So, let’s highlight the importance of a portfolio for software developers — even if they have one GitHub project listed in the resume, their chances will definitely go up.

Skills

Your skills consist of your abilities, knowledge, and the competencies that allow you to work more efficiently and achieve success faster.

How to know which skills you possess? Ask your colleagues to give feedback regarding your strengths! This will allow you to save time and to (hopefully) evaluate yourself more objectively. In the skill section, you also need to indicate the main software you work with.

Take a look at the illustration above, all of these are keywords a recruiter might use to look for candidates.

The “About me” section

The “About me” section of your resume can include information about your interests in the professional field.

If you play games, write about that, because this might serve as a significant advantage! For example, when we’re looking for a game designer, it’s important for us to understand the candidate’s gaming experience. If a candidate plays a lot of console games, and is currently working on a mobile project, then chances are high that we will be able to invite them for a vacancy in a PC/Console project. Our recommendation is to indicate the games that you play the most.

So, now you know how to make a great resume that will get you a job interview. Let’s summarize the key points:

• The title of your current position must be up-to-date
• Avoid using general words in favor of detailed descriptions
• In the experience section of your resume, indicate the name of the company, position, project, as well as the accomplished tasks and software used
• Share successful cases from each job
• Don’t divide promotions within one company into separate jobs
• Indicate reasons for leaving a company, if you worked there a short period
• Don’t include outdated or irrelevant experience
• Add a link to your portfolio
• Indicate your strengths and software experience in skills section
• In the “About me” section, write about the games you play and indicate the projects you would like to work on.

And that’s it! We’re looking forward to seeing your resume pop up on our desk — good luck!

We are already preparing the next article, where we will talk about creating a portfolio. See you!