GI Career Fair: Careers & Education

This year at the GamesIndustry.biz Career Fair we hosted a number of sessions where industry professionals could speak directly to an audience of students and graduates, providing a unique opportunity to hear practical and honest advice about starting a career in video games.

Over the next two weeks we plan to show videos of all these sessions, which focused on specific skills such as programming, game design, art, QA and production. Today we kick off with a general overview of the UK games sector with advice from Sports Interactive studio boss Miles Jacobson, Jason Avent, previously at Black Rock Studios and now heading Boss Alien, and Karl Hilton, who counts Rare and Free Radical Design on his CV, as well as his current role as UK MD of Crytek. The three respected developers are also joined by educator Jon Weinbren, head of games at the National Film & Television School.

With questions from the audience, our panellists offer practical advice on choosing the right university to study at, why portfolios comes first, the reality that working in games is never a 9-5 job, the importance of traditional maths, science and engineering degrees, playing around with game engines, the value of post-graduate training and why passion and dedication are key to a successful path in the video game business.