Game Jobs in California, Chicagao, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, San Francisco

To work in the USA, most foreign nationals need a H1B visa but annual cap is only at 65000.

admin — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:05:11 +0000

It takes 6-10 years to wait for an American “Green Card”. In the meantime, sponsoring games and other companies can apply for a H1B visa in behalf of foreign nationals wanting to make games in the USA. However, insurmountable problems now exist as only 65000 visas are issued each year compared to a US labour force of 154 million. You can catch up on the problems facing the Obama administration in this interview with Stuart Anderson on H1B Visas on C-Span Washington Journal. The career advice from Interactive Selection is to look at other locations like Canada as you simply will not get a US games company to put in for a H1B visa in the current climate. Talk to your Interactive Selection consultant to get all the advice.

Chris Donahue, Director of Publisher Relations for OnLive, talks to Game Careers at GDC Europe

admin — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:53:35 +0000

Chris Donahue, Director of Publisher Relations for OnLive Inc. talks to David Smith of Interactive Selection and Game Careers at gamescom in Cologne. Prior to OnLive, Chris held executive positions at inXile entertainment, Live Gamer, Microsoft, Nvidia, ATI, The ImagiNation Network (Worldplay) and Sierra Online. As a director, President/CEO, VP of Sales & Marketing, and Senior Director of Product Management, he has led start-ups and grown small to mid-size technology companies as well as worked at several Fortune 500′s. His advice to those who want to work at Onlive: “Specifically for OnLive, we have a website that has a list of openings we are looking for. But in general, customise your resume, make sure you point out the things you think would map directly to the job role. Do some research, find out about the product and the company so when you do have a conversation with someone being up to speed and intelligent about what their product is will really help open doors wider for you. For OnLive specifically, we are a start up company, we are growing and there are lots of openings. If you are entry level then internships are a great way to get in the door. The main thing is you have a short period of time to interest somebody so… be your best, be interesting, be passionate.” See the full clip here:

Linda Carlson, Director of Global Community Relations for Sony Online Entertainment, talks to Game Careers

admin — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:32:25 +0000

Linda Carlson, Director of Global Community Relations for Sony Online Entertainment, talks to David Smith of Interactive Selection and Game Careers at GDC Europe in Cologne. Linda has been involved in gaming since her very first, photocopied D&D manual arrived in the mail several decades ago. Over the years, she made the transition from tabletop to online to media to industry… and now serves as the Director of Global Community Relations at Sony Online Entertainment. SOE maintains over a dozen online titles, including EverQuest, EverQuest II, Star Wars Galaxies, Free Realms, Clone Wars Adventures and DC Universe Online. Whether delivering lectures at conventions, hosting SOE Webcasts as “Brasse,” (her garrulous Dwarven alter ego) or working on SOE Community Team projects, Linda is constantly inspired by the passion of the people who create and play games. “In no other field of endeavor do we see such rapid evolution of society, technology and communication,” she explains, “The gaming world is one incredible, organic social experiment, and I can hardly wait to see what’s next!” Her advice to those thinking of applying for a job with Sony Online:

“I warmly encourage anyone who is interested to contact me directly. In a nutshell, what we are looking for is passion because we are a company of gamers who make games. So passion for the product is very important, keeping in mind you may switch from product to product every year, but the joy of making things whether you are coming to the company as an accountant, or a public relations representative, or joining the community team, or if you come to us directly as a programmer or a developer of any type, we are looking for passion, so that’s the most important thing.

When you write a covering letter when you apply for a job make sure its not a farm letter, we have to know who your are. You have one chance to convey yourself, and if you blow that you are going to be lost in the sea of resumes we get. Make sure the resume is up to date and detailed. If you are coming from an artistic background or sound engineering or anything like that, make a portfolio and post it online, or if you are a programmer include examples of your code, post it online and give us the links so that we can review the cases easy for the people who are looking through 150 resumes to make yours stand out.

Understand as well that if you really want to get your foot in the door, one of the best passes to Sony Online Entertainment is to join our Quality Assurance or Customer Service teams. You start out at a fairly low wage, but it gives you direct access to everyone in the company and if you prove yourself there I can guarantee you your manager in CS or QA will recommend you for position when they come up.” See the full clip here:

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:24:35 +0000

Todd Northcutt GM & VP at Gamespy Technology with IGN Entertainment advises Game Careers.

admin — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 11:25:10 +0000

Todd Northcutt, GM at Gamespy Technology at IGN Entertainment met with David Smith of Game Careers and Interactive Selection at the Montreal Interernational Games Summit ( MIGS) in Montreal in November 2010. His advice for job seekers looking to apply for a job with his studio is: Most of the people that work in our company are engineers or fairly technical, but the number one thing we really look for in a candidate is not necessarily what specific technologies you have, your experience or where you went to school. What we are looking for when looking for new employees is number 1 be really passionate about games, they need to play a wide variety of games. We have tried hiring people from outside the game space but that is only when people are really interested in games and making games better. I think that is one of the number one things is to have a passion for games in general. The number 2 thing is to be inquisitive and always looking for the next challenge ro try to figure out how to solve the next big problem. We really look at the strengths of the individual and their capacity to grow over time as opposed to someone who is an expert in one thing and only one thing and doesn’t care about things that are outside that specialization.” See the full interview that follows:

H1B Visa in 2007 and 2008 hard to get one – and 2009 and 2010!

admin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 21:15:50 +0000

If you are an American reading this, you have no need to worry. If you are from outside of the USA and would like to work in the USA you have a problem. The H1B visa (Green Card) is impossible to get and has been in possible to get for several years if you work in games development. “Don’t bother trying” is the advice of Interactive Selection. The best lawyers working for the best game publishers and developers cannot get them so you can really write off a job in the USA for now until President Obama sorts out the current immigration policy. There is always Canada and some other great alternatives. Speak to your Interactive Selection consultant.

Angie Edge Sales Manager at Plimus from the USA met Women in Games Jobs at Game Connection

admin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 13:03:49 +0000

Angie Edge, Sales Manager of Plimus met with David Smith of Interactive Selection and Women in Games Jobs at Game Connection in Lyon France in November 2010. Angie gives her advice to women on working in the games industry, “I wish I would have known more about the opportunities that there are to work in gaming, maybe even coming out of college. It really is not publicised enough the jobs that are out there. We have several women working at our company on the account management side that deal with all our gaming accounts, I am in sales, and our COO is a woman. There are a lot of opportunities for women, but you need to have the right connections. So I would say LinkedIn is really strong at building your network of people, try to find some sort of mentor that is in the industry. Come to the shows even as a cionsimer to see what companies are out there, going to their websites and seeing what positions they are hiring for. There is so much you can do now with the web and job postings. I think the sky’s the limit when it comes to being able to find what jobs are out there.”

Adam Levenson Snr Director Audio and Talent at Activision meets Interactive Selection

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:18:45 +0000

Adam Levenson met David Smith from Interactive Selection and Game Careers at the Develop conference in Brighton, UK. Adam serves as Director of the Central Audio and Talent groups at Activision where he oversees original music, sound effects, post-production, audio technology, voiceovers, celebrity talent, and scriptwriters across Activision portfolio of titles. In addition, he is spearheading the creation and implementation of shared audio standards and technologies across Activision’s global studios. He joined Activision in 2006 as the Director of Central Audio. He has more than 17 years experience in video game audio production having contributed to games as a composer, sound designer, supervisor and audio director. Prior to joining Activision, he founded Immersive Sound, a full-service game audio production company where he directed audio production for publishers such as Electronic Arts and Atari, both companies he later worked with as Audio Director. Before this, he worked on the award-winning audio team at Interplay Entertainment and began his career in audio production at Trilobyte. Prior to joining the video game industry, Mr. Levenson worked as a recording artist and performing musician for several years.

His advice to audio people looking to work on the music for an Activision game: “I think the most important thing is, do your homework. If you want to work for Activision, learn about the company, do some research, find out the recent titles, know what they are all about and figure out how you can contribute to those games. That is really critical. A cold call is great, but you need to do your homework in advance so that when you get on the phone with someone like myself you know what you are talking about. The other important thing is to have demo material ready. If you’re a creative person, make sure you have your reel prepared and make sure it shows the best of your work. People often think they are supposed to show X, Y and Z, NO. We want to know what you do best and what your unique contribution is going to be. Those are the two most important things.”

Louis Castle CEO of InstantAction and TorquePowered speaks to Interactive Selection

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:35:05 +0000

Are you passionate about the latest and greatest web-gaming technology? Lou’s company has over 100 staff in three arms: TorquePowered.com, which sells Torque game engines. InstantAction.com, which publishes 3D games in browsers and a game studio, which creates games for InstantAction and beyond.The company is constantly on the look-out for new talent in game development, engine marketing, and online project management. They hire both experts in the field and promising up-and-comers who are ready to create high quality games and engines. David Smith of Game Careers and Interactive Selection caught up with Lou at the Develop conference in Brighton, UK. Lou’s tip is “no matter what you do have some amount of editorializing that you have to do to your portfolio. I really encourage that less is more, pick your absolute best stuff, pick as few things as you possibly can that will really show your talent and abilities. When you go into an interview, go in open minded because every culture and company is different, having recruited both at Westwood and EA which have very different cultures. I see way too many times people are trying to include everything and are very methodical about approaching a job. The most important question I ask when people are coming in is what’s your future look like? Where do you want to be in a couple years and how does your personal aspiration fit in with the company and what kind of positions that company is looking to fill. Going back to why we are a great place to work, one thing we are committed deeply to is growing people and their careers and helping them move up to the next level. It has allowed me to work with some fantastic people and keep working with great talents that grow in the industry.”

Reality of H-1B visas for USA – 120000 applicants for quota of 65000 in 2 days.

admin — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 13:23:27 +0000

It has been impossible for US games companies to bring in overseas nationals for at least 6 years. There is a small quota of visas and these are massively oversubscribed on the day of release 1st April. Game developers need overseas talent to join in line with their project timetable and cannot wait until the next 1st April to partake in the lottery of current applications. It is a non starter even for those companies with the best immigration lawyers. The recent downturn has increased calls from protectionists in the USA that see US workers without a job. It is political hot potato to change the current system. If you are interested in working in games in the USA, our advice is to consider Canada or other attractive locations like Australia. Interactive Selection has hundreds of clients around the world so please contacts us to hear more. The Lou Dobbs report from March 10, 2008 on how there is no tech worker Shortage and how the H-1B guest worker Visa program has been proven to “labor arbitrage” US workers.