Elysian Shadows

I'm fairly certain that I will end up where Trufun is. I love making games, but I'm not sure that I would love making games for the man. I could get a higher paying government position and continue doing what I love in my spare time.

...and I'll have more money, a more stable job, and all of that.

Unless something happens and I find a dream job position in the industry.

I think I agree with Falco, it's nice to have a very reliable job position and still make games in your spare time, but working at Blizzard would be the shit. Sure they're still updating and patching WoW all the time.. but they also announced Diablo 3 which means you could potentially be working on a project somehow related to that. Being able to say you helped create Diablo 3.. there's nothing that would beat that for me.

CHASE YOUR DREAMS =p

My dream, while it is making video games, is making them for myself, not for the man.

GyroVorbis wrote:My dream, while it is making video games, is making them for myself, not for the man.

But what if you become the man, you'd end up contradicting yourself.

True. Managers have alot of work, I mean not so much code wise, but you have to manage people that do the codes... It'll blow.

I say Architect or which ever one lets you have the most adventures in coding.

I'm going into the Air Force as a Plane structural mechanic (my dad did that for the marines) and im going to get a job at Boeing when i get out (My dad is currently the Boeing regional manager/overseer for Washington and Oregon state. Hes worked at Boeing for 25 years and has seen everything that goes on in the Boeing company. He told me that they Literally hire guys/girls who worked on planes in the military because they know they have military training. A degree in that career, and the job experience.) but in my spare time i will do what i love and thats playing/designing/writing storylines for games.

I just recently got an internship at Raytheon (Integrated Defense Systems). I am very, very lucky, as I've gotten to shake hands with all kinds of senior engineers, as well as meet and take tours with the sector and division heads. I've attended a Raytheon class type deal where four senior engineers/mentors gave a full detailed explanation of who they are, what they do, how they got where they are, etc to a room full of Raytheon employees. This was a pretty great thing to do, as I think it'll help me when it comes time to making career decisions. Of the things they said, I think they stressed the most the chain of people you meet in your career; people know people who know people, so try to make some friends in the work force and it'll pay off. Each one had a different story (one was even a POW in the Desert War...) and were of different professions (Masters in Software Engineering, PHD in Physics, Masters in Electrical Engineering and Microcircuitry, etc.) From what they said in regard to promotions, don't ever be afraid to try new things, and don't be afraid to put yourself out and say "I want to try/do that." And, at the same time, don't give up what you like doing for the sake of a pay increase, and get out as soon as possible if you find you don't like your current position or are working too much (one said that they found it easy to fall into a cycle of 100 hour weeks...And that it was easier to leave (quite) than to say no to a position...) Also, finding or meeting mentors in your field can be one of the most beneficial things that can happen; never be afraid to take a job because you don't yet know how to do it.

As for me...Honestly, I never planned on going into the video game industry...And now that I'm actually experiencing the work force as a software/computer engineer, I think I like it more than enough to pursue as a career. Again, I was very lucky, as this internship has given me the freedom to say "I want to do this" and Raytheon went about setting me up with two contracts that I can help with, doing what I'd asked. At the moment, I'm working on a classified project (well how about that, lol) in a competitive phase (government gave Raytheon, and their competitor 15 million each to create a prototype, and will chose only one to continue funding.) My second day at Raytheon they had me my own cubicle just like everybody else, a company lap-top with a fingerprint scanner, an office phone with a personal extension, a badge with a built in microchip to open doors, an assortment of unnecessary office supplies (including a new devboard! haha), company email and lotus notes, an employee number, and even a list of a few meetings to go to. With this large 'sample' of the professional world, I'm starting to think that I'd be contempt to leave video gaming as a hobby (with the dream of starting my own small company always in sight) and work as a computer or software engineer in the defense industry. Why defense? Well, that's the only thing I've been exposed to atm, and I'm liking it! xD

And I must say...I hold the US's military in much higher regard now that I've been introduced to some of the different defensive systems we use...

Anyway, hope my book-long post has helped somebody.

Good luck to you, Trufun. Be sure to let us know what you finally decided to do.

Wow Arce that sounds sweet, good to know you've got a career!

Hahah, I don't. XD

What I'm doing is basically working for free. My school originally called it 'job shadowing,' but the guys at Raytheon call me the 'Bob Jones Intern.'
It's a mutual benefiting thing for myself and Raytheon--they get free labor, and I get my foot in the door in the professional world. Trust me, it'll look great on my resume when it says I was working for Raytheon on missile defense systems while I was a highschool Junior...Anyway, I'm pretty sure it was originally supposed to be 'job shadowing' (as in, follow around an engineer and watch him do his job) but after my first meeting with them on orientation day, they were impressed and convinced I could actually be helpful? Their contract has a strict time schedule.

And, to top it off, I get to skip two school classes to go. My programming teacher basically told me "you've got this, you'll be fine." So I simply drive to Raytheon in the morning, at any time (they're flexible) then go from there to school and catch the last few minutes of the 2nd class. In that time I'll take quizzes and write down the homework.

On Mondays and Fridays I decided not to goto Raytheon so that I don't have to do tests and stuff after school.

Anyway, it's pretty neat...Though I confess it's a bit scary to go from never having a job to having a cubicle and making/receiving phone calls...

I'm going to be getting my Dev environment setup on Tuesday since I mostly finish my training thing (to teach me what is and isn't illegal information to leak). It appears that most of what I'll be doing is JUnit testing in java (ateast, for now).

Anyone else used it before?

Pshhh, how pointless! Just kidding, but if you do good you should have a really good chance of getting a good job with them right?

You forgot your fourth and most viable option: Tranny Hooker. Personally I'd go for that one if I were you