Photo credit: crass

This article is cross-posted from The Game Prodigy, a site for students and parents interested in careers in games. Visit for resources and a free 29-page Complete Toolkit.

Applying for jobs involves a lot of waiting. A lot. Much more than most students are prepared for.

Typically a job application process goes something like this: You find a game studio that you'd like to work at, and they have a job posting online. You write up your resume and cover letter and send it off to the email address specified, "jobs@FunGameCorp.com". And...you wait....

A day goes by...nothing.

Another day goes by...nothing. A week goes by...nothing.

So you email them again asking to follow up, and to your excitement you receive a reply! They say, "Hi, we saw this and are interested in speaking to you. We'll be in touch soon for a phone interview." So you wait...and you wait another few days...and another week...

You see where this is going. Waiting is a part of the job application process. And this is for almost any industry, not just games, and it is especially slow for graduates are are looking for their first big job.

Why is this? There are many reasons. The one that most students think of is, "Well they probably don't really want me." But this is often not the case. More likely it's that they are busy, that they forgot about it, and that it may not be particularly urgent. Even if they are interested in hiring you, it's not uncommon to have long stretches of delays in between each stage of the job application process. Many professionals are forgetful and just happen to have more pressing matters, like their game release, a company event, or issues with one of their titles.

So what can you do about it? There are few techniques that are proven to help move you through, even when the company seems to be dragging it's feet.

Communicate Your Deadlines

Make sure that studios know about any deadlines you have in your job application process. For example, you might be applying to several game studios at once, your favorite-game-studio and your not-so-favorite-studio. Your favorite-studio may be delaying in getting back to you, while your not-so-favorite-studio is saying, "Here is a job offer, please let us know within two weeks." If your favorite-studio doesn't get their act together, then you'll have to accept your not-so-favorite-studio's offer to be sure you'll have a job.

Here, you should make sure you tell your favorite studio that you only have two weeks, and if they delay then you are going to have to turn down any offers from them. Rather than being pushy this is actually very helpful to recruiters and people at game studios. It helps them understand your situation and make sure they act accordingly.

Follow Up

You want to make sure that you follow up and make sure that your information or emails didn't get lost in their inbox. This happens all the time. Game companies generate a lot of email about design ideas, engineering issues, deadlines, announcements, tons of stuff. Your contact information may have just gotten lost. So be sure to follow up with them, don't just send one note. If you don't hear back from them within a reasonable amount of time, then contact them again and just say, "Hi, I wanted to email you again and make sure this didn't get lost in your inbox. I'm still interested in this position. Thank you!"

Don't Sit Idle

Applying for a job in games is a long process involving you and many different studios. While you are waiting for a studio to get back to you, you can be out applying to other positions. Having several opportunities moving towards fruition at the same time is the best way to look around and make sure you are finding something that is worth your while and you will really connect with. Additionally you'll learn more about how the industry works, seeing different application and interview processes at different kinds of studios. Whatever you do, just don't sit around and wait for one studio to get back to you, doing nothing. Keep searching!

Focus on these three techniques and you'll close many more job offers than your peers.

Best of luck!

This article is cross-posted from The Game Prodigy, a site for students and parents interested in careers in games. Visit for resources and a free 29-page Complete Toolkit.