Here's what I would liken obtaining a job at a major studio to: becoming an airline pilot. Granted, your chances of being an airline pilot are probably significantly better. You essentially have to eat, sleep, and breathe this junk...and you have to do it well ....er, at least better than "that other guy". Even there, your zeal will only do you small favors in getting in the door. However, what you CAN use that zeal for is fuel to power you through some of the toughest problems the field of computer science has to offer. If this is you, welcome to game development
Now I got my start over 10 years ago at a delightful little studio here in the D-eff-dub. Having said that, things have changed quite a bit. Considering the super high cost of production, most companies can only stay afloat if they have something marketable and reusable. There's a massive waste of money involved in not being able to reuse technology. That said, the programs now tend to resemble the very structured, high level monoliths that grace computer science textbooks that you might encounter in say.....a college classroom. Now sure for every successful studio out there, there's umpteen dozens to hundreds that fall on their face in a few years. It's a tough life. It's hard to get in, and if you start your own, it's hard to compete. That is unless you have a brilliant idea.....if you don't then people are more than happy to buy the bloomed out destructible environment cow excrement that's been the norm for the past 8 years or so.
More and more developers are looking to pack games onto devices that hold "50 billion, trillion songs" (to quote Steve Jobs
), but nary' the on chip real estate of a small Indian slum-shack. This small aid helps fudge along the process and adds to the "bottom line", but either way, this doesn't detract from the fact that a programmer with excellent "code logistics" for these mexican drug lord packed 70's Ford Astrovans we call "gaming platforms" is a highly desirable commodity in the modern game programming arena. You'll do plenty of this in.....well, college.
Of course, nobody wants to work with a socially inept lump of flesh who uses "Axe Bodyspray" as a shower replacement and who coincidentally bears nicknames such as "Anal secretions" (from experience). Learning to be a well rounded person that people would like to have a beer with after work will go a long way should you get past the series of phone interviews that you're likely to lose out to some 16 year old punk who's just really "THAT" much smarter than you and probably has a name that you can't pronounce and contains a baker's dozen consonants in a row. Now you can't very well learn to be a sociable person sluffing around your college dorm room all day, now can you? I mean, how else can you get good at this junk if you're not busy working towards "Ballmer's Peak" (and consequently a rather nice beer-a-mid) cursing the idiots who made your compiler? Go out every once in a while! Hell, perhaps this is even more important than the programming which leads me to my 2nd (maybe?) point. Who you know can go a *LONG*....and by long I mean ....well I won't go there, but we'll just say a long way. Develop yourself a cute little network of developers who are working towards the same goal that you are, and maybe are going somewhere a little faster than you and you can develop a delightful ass-kissing relationship with.
I'm going to tell a little story and attempt to wrap this up. You know, someone said in this thread that they knew someone who was working at a master's degree and is still being rejected by game companies. While this is illustrative of how picky they are it is not illustrative of WHO they're looking for. I was 17 and got hired as an intern programmer, after a year secured a regular full time position and published two titles. So, in all reality, I'm that 17 year old punk who just MAY be "THAT" much smarter than you, however, I have a name that is very pronounceable
However, you're that 17 year old punk, too. So is he, and that other guy. You're ALL that 17 year old punk kid who everyone's cursing futures of epic fail upon under their breath. It really just comes down to how realistic you are with yourself and where you spend your time. You'd better start getting realistic about your weaknesses. You'd better start getting serious about finishing some projects. You'd REALLY better get serious about considering dropping your SDL, Allegro, and SFML projects and start learning all of the things that you didn't WANT to learn about because they're "hard" and "WHO REINVENTS THE WHEEL ANYWAYS?!?!" *rolls eyes*. As you can tell, that was sarcasm, and don't ever listen to people like that, because you know what? Its the fact that you can challenge yourself and surprise even your interviewers (and yourself) that gives any game studio personnel a woodie. It's those hard things that nobody wants to tackle, those hard problems that nobody wants to solve that are going to pop up on phone and in-person interviews that will MAKE you that 17 year old punk that gets the job. Along with a proper shower and some good social skills and maybe a good friend or two "in the biz" will be a damn good start to a shoe in...... in THIS fickle little industry
Or you can go work for JPL....you just may even like it.
.....or you can start your own. It's wutev. Every once in a while David tackles him a Goliath. ( Depending on how high you can kick. )
I may be over thinking this but, this seems pretty serious issue. I can try interning at the said game studio when I am in college and try applying for a real job after, but I would still be at the bottom of the food chain.