It was a dream, but its becoming a reality for many gamers like you all over. You CAN test video games for a living and make a career out of it. The question is how, where, and what do I need to do? You can try searching for job openings on your own only to find out you're not qualified or you live too far away from the big companies. You can apply to a job posting only to not hear a thing back or you can let me help! I know its hard to get your first break into the game industry so I'm here to make that alot easier.
First my story of breaking it into games. Back in 1994 I was attending my local city college and working a night shift at a bank processing center. I think at the time I was planning on being an accountant like my parents would like me to be, but I really wasn't into my college courses and just going through the motions. The security guard at the bank I worked at told me about a video game focus group for a Sega CD game (I wonder if everybody reading this knows what that is?) and invited me to join. The focus group sent me a beta copy of their game and in a week we would go in and tell them what we thought about it and they would pay us $50.00. REALLY? They would pay us to tell them what we thought about this game? Yes, that's exactly what we did.
Fast forward a couple months I was looking in the newspaper job openings (yeah I'm old) and I spotted an opening for a game tester/customer service guy. I was like, I need this job! How can I get it? I started updating my resume. Up till then I only worked at a flower shop as a cashier and at the bank processing center which my best skill was being fast with a 10-key. I thought to myself, how in the hell will I get the tester job with this sad resume. Then it hit me, hey I did that focus group. I can add that to my resume. So I did and made a very big decision that eventually got me the job. I made that one day focus group session sound like real job experience on my resume as best I can because I really wanted this job.
This is lesson #1 to all who want to make the big break. You need to realize what your up against and do your best to stand out. Who would have known that the focus group I went to would be my key into my first game testing job? There are a ton of things you can do right now for free that would look great on your resume to video game companies. Start a video game review blog, make youtube videos, become an active member of a message board of your favorite game. Start a fan page for your favorite game or the company's game you want to work at. This alone will go a long way in educating you on the industry, show that you can complete a project, and get you more focused on your future career.
I want to keep these posts short and sweet so I don't overwhelm you so I'll end it here. I'll continue my story next post. Feel free to ask me any questions.
