I just got hired by Steel Monkeys!

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Glo-Boy

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Well I just recieved a welcome to join the Steel Monkeys team. It's based in Belarus, and I live in Georgia in the USA where I attend school (my major revolves around video game design.

I'm faced with a huge decision now. Do I quit college and step into the industry? Or do I finish and get my degree?

This is so tempting. Most game companies do not care about formal education as long as your portfolio is impressive. I intend to keep mine sparkling. What should I do?

BTW, for those who do not know, Steel Monkeys is a game company that is making a next gen title at the moment entitled 2 Days to Vegas. www.steelmonkeys.com
 
GO for it man! Many people leave their education if an oppotunity comes knocking like this. Remember its not what you know, but who you know half the time- to work at a company builds up contacts and real experience that is worth a million times more than any education could provide.
 
Should make up your mind.
How did they find out about you anyways?
Shouldn't they interview you first?
etc.
Kinda've awkward, they just send you a welcome out of nowhere.
 
Well think of it this way.
Taking this job would be experince right?

Anyway I would say take it(considerly it was not awkwardly offered). I mean why not? You can gain some experince on what really happens and how everything works inside a game making company, get paid, help make a game, and it will make your portfolio all nice and shiny :).
 
Don't quit college, you will be ****ed for the rest of your life.
 
I say take the job if the window of opportunity will close if you stay in school. I say good job experience is better than just a degree. You can always go back and finish school, but you might not be able to get your foot in the door again for a job.

You gotta think that maybe after your Steel Monkeys work you might be looking for another job or go back to school. Having a degree and the experience would be best, but the experience alone will put you a step ahead of everyone with just the degree.
 
I agree with Foxtrot, stay in school. Why in the world Belarus, it's right next to the Ukraine and Russia....?
 
you got to think about all the things that go along with relocation, visas, extra expenses, the trial period, what if after the trial period they dont want you? not only will you be out of a job, but you'll be in unknown territory, off base.

think it over really LONG and HARD. you'r risking a LOT for something which may not follow through. on the other hand, life is full of risks, so think about it and good luck.
 
Finish what you do, you will risk a LOT as said before, if you do quit College, maybe email them, and make arrangements to be hired after you are done college, thus, not screwing up your life, or atleast not risking it
 
Foxtrot said:
Don't quit college, you will be ****ed for the rest of your life.
Click to expand...
Not true, you could always go back to college at a later stage if the game career doesnt pan out too well.

How far are you into college?
 
Thats a hard thing to pass up.. but i'd think about it alot first. Usually previous jobs are more important credentials than degrees.. but still i'd honestly examine the consequences first.
 
Id request time to finish college. If the company isnt willing to wait for you to better yourself, then I wouldnt want to work for such a place anyway. Alot of companies provide time off and pay for their employees to go to college.
 
If Steel Monkeys first game bombs and the company goes bust you'll be out of a job & have no qualifications.

Shouldn't you have thought about all this stuff before you applied for the job anyway? It doesn't really matter though. It's up to you really, it's risky but could pay off.
 
Yes, go for it.

You will have a thing thats more valuable than any college degree EXPERIENCE in the industry.

You can take a year or so out of college and resume it later if it fails, but usually as soon as you get a job and have worked on 1 commercial game it's MUCH easier to get another job in the industry.

Also you will be so much more valuable to the industry if you've worked on next generation games.

What position do they want you for?
 
now this is an interesting thread., what does your gf/family etc think?
 
Belarus is in Eastern Europe and is still quite underdevolped after the cold war ,stay in America
 
Okay to answer a few questions.
1.) I applied, they didn't just notice me.
2.) I'm a sophomore
3.) A texture artist/modeler
4.) The family etc. doesn't know quite yet, they are urging me to finish and get my degree.


As of this point I'm thinking about declining "temporarily" and if no other offers come my way, I will go after college.
 
Can't you take a year out of college? And then if it falls through go back with the added experience under your belt.

This is a golden opertunity.
 
What have they told you about Visas? are they going to help you to get one? are they going to help with relocation expenses? are you going to get a competetive salary, enough to make you want to move?

A year ago i was invited to go work on NFS:U2, it was in vancouver, i neglected because they where refusing to pay for any relocation expense, and the salary wasnt enough to compensate for it. Gotta think about these things man.
 
I'm with ^Ben on this one. Definetely talk to College and tell them you want to take a year off. You can go back.

These guys are on the frontier of Next-Gen, you get to expierience all of the new consoles early, and experiment with new hardware. Think of all the memory that will be in next-gen, all those beautiful textures :D They need you :)

I definetely say postpone school for a while, get this job, get experience, so then after school you have experience under your belt. Experience is what matters in the industry. They won't care if you are fresh out of school, they will take industy experience over school any day TBH...

Talk to your college Counselor, ask him what your options are with schooling.
 
I'd say go for it.. I dropped the idea of 6th form, college etc. to go work at a games company at 16, never really looked back. A lot of those who stayed in education at the time that I was at school with (many years ago) and only JUST getting out there into the real world, along with having huge debts and not being able to get decent work because they've no real experience, just read from a book stuff, which the competition can do anyway, along with having real world experience going back years.. So its not done them any good really staying in education.

Take a chance and go for it, whats the worse that can happen if it fails? get back on the horse and keep trying. You can't hide in education forever anyway, and who really wants all those debts at the end of it anyways.
 
Remember guys, if he were to take this job he would have to move to Belarus, so it's not just as easy as saying "Go For It!", he'll be moving to a whole new, none-english speaking country on his own. A daunting proposition for anyone when you could probably get the the same job in the U.S. if you hang on for a bit.

What games company do you work for The Dark Elf?
 
The Dark Elf said:
I'd say go for it.. I dropped the idea of 6th form, college etc. to go work at a games company at 16, never really looked back. A lot of those who stayed in education at the time that I was at school with (many years ago) and only JUST getting out there into the real world, along with having huge debts and not being able to get decent work because they've no real experience, just read from a book stuff, which the competition can do anyway, along with having real world experience going back years.. So its not done them any good really staying in education.

Take a chance and go for it, whats the worse that can happen if it fails? get back on the horse and keep trying. You can't hide in education forever anyway, and who really wants all those debts at the end of it anyways.
Click to expand...
Yea a mate of mine dropped out of Sixth Form when CryTek approached him about a job offer - he eventually turned it down due to having to move to Germany or something.. he's back @ College now - but he'll be back on the market soon :D
 
Your a coder TDE? You musta been hella good for a 16 year old :D

If a games company approached me I would pretty much postpone uni for however long it takes and get some experience.
 
You can get alot and I mean ALOT more experience and education in the bizz itself, you will learn alot more while working then in colege, and as you said, the majority of the game dev's dont care what kind of diploma or education you had, they want results, and if your portfolio is impressive then you don't have to worry about education at all.
 
^Ben said:
Your a coder TDE? You musta been hella good for a 16 year old :D

If a games company approached me I would pretty much postpone uni for however long it takes and get some experience.
Click to expand...

I thought he was an artist?
 
Foxtrot said:
Don't quit college, you will be ****ed for the rest of your life.
Click to expand...
I strongly disagree with that.

I never went to college and now I've got a career in IT that's going very well at the moment. Additionally, a lot of the guys at Valve quit college to start at Valve. If they now left Valve for any reason then going to college wouldn't matter because they'd still have all that work experience down on their CV/resume.
 
^Ben said:
Your a coder TDE? You musta been hella good for a 16 year old :D

If a games company approached me I would pretty much postpone uni for however long it takes and get some experience.
Click to expand...
Where did he say he was a coder?
 
Hrmm I'm sure I read somewhere where he said he was a coder.

Or maybe I miss intepreted what he said, or maybe it was another staff member who works in the industry.
 
The only other staff member in the industry is me.

I'm not a coder either :)
 
Chris_D said:
I strongly disagree with that.

I never went to college and now I've got a career in IT that's going very well at the moment. Additionally, a lot of the guys at Valve quit college to start at Valve. If they now left Valve for any reason then going to college wouldn't matter because they'd still have all that work experience down on their CV/resume.
Click to expand...
But then that means you are stuck in that field, and no offense IT isn't the most stable field right now (atleast in the US, pay is descreasing and so are jobs). And I am guessing most of the people at Valve are just coders, they don't get paid too much and they will be stuck with that for the rest of their lives.
 
Foxtrot said:
But then that means you are stuck in that field, and no offense IT isn't the most stable field right now (atleast in the US, pay is descreasing and so are jobs). And I am guessing most of the people at Valve are just coders, they don't get paid too much and they will be stuck with that for the rest of their lives.
Click to expand...

But if you like what you are doing then how is that being stuck?
 
Go for it! you can get your degree later...

This opportunity is one in a million! go for it!
 
MaxiKana said:
But if you like what you are doing then how is that being stuck?
Click to expand...
Because the field could die off, from what I have heard the gaming industry is pretty crappy. Overtime is expected, and you don't stay with a company too long.
 
There will always be a need for IT trained staff.

But that's besides the point, you could train for years in college and university to be an accountant, only to find that in 10 years time all accounting needs are dealt with by sophisticated computers, rarely requiring the need for human accountants and thus making the field die off.

The same could happen with telephony engineers because one day it call all be VoIP.

And then what happens then? You pay to go to college to get retrained. So no matter what way you do it, there's always that risk there. So I say that if Glo-Boy in his abilities, and Steel Monkeys obviously are, that he should go for the job, and if it doesn't work out, he'll always have that experience there to sell himself in other jobs, or always have the time to get re-trained in college.
 
Hmmm, thats kewl. Bu before you act. Please think about the fact its in Belarus. Do you actually know that its the place that got all the nuclear fall out? Infact... my parents do an exchange program with belarus kids who have cancer from the radiation etc... I would seriously! think about where the hell you are going. Not to mention its in russia.

They have shit choclete as well, the kids always get me some each year :D
 
Foxtrot said:
Because the field could die off, from what I have heard the gaming industry is pretty crappy. Overtime is expected, and you don't stay with a company too long.
Click to expand...
overtime? moving from studio to studio... your point?

overtime.. its even more money.. moving from studio to studio on shortterm contracts FORCES you to keep doing a good job, otherwise you don't get another job coming in right after your last one.. The crap are dropped and only the good remain. Yeah its a tough industry and only the best stand any real chance of staying. But I soo prefer that, traveling around the world, meeting new people, working on completely different projects, learning so many new things, playing with the best gear around, getting paid a hell of a lot of money.. over a boring 9 to 5 job in some office for some insurance firm paying back thousands in debt from college and university and being the typical person with little chance of ever getting out of that position, and always regretting it and wishing they'd tried to make their dream happen.
 
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