pouët.net

I attached an additonal portfolio containing snippets from various projects, from both demoscene, university and other crazy shit. I called it "talk is cheap" :D
I got the job.

Congrats, but next time, don't attach the portfolio, just add a link to it. People don't like huge attachments they didn't ask for..

I have a huge attachment which I also didn't ask for.

i added an appendix once, but the recipient found it macabre

NEVER write CVs. Sane people don't read them.

Answer me this: is your current boss sane?

links don't work either, after they import your carefully crafted .mht into Word...

i've got into my first gamedev job by sending the sourcecode to http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=1683 :) and we actually used the packer i wrote for that in some game later on :)

Yes. Mostly I am my boss and I don't ever request CVs. The other guy I work for a little bit doesn't either.

That guy also gives office keys to friends which is what "CV people" (curse word!) don't ever seem to do.

There is a sane alternative to a CV: It's copying a few references into a loose e-mail. The best alternative might be having someone test-work for a day without any pre-checking. Just let people show what they can do. THAT is fairness my friend.

Having said all that: Why is Google not a fair company?

Ok. Here to add my apparently "non-scene" input. Having just recently interviewed, reviewed, vetted and employed someone for a top level admin position at a local school; I thought I'd put in my 2c.

Firstly: as to the original question - of course you should include your demos - in either skills or hobbies. You should also include any other significant hobbies/extracurricular activities you pursue - unless it's being a "furry" and going to yiffing parties, I'd leave that for the staff Christmas Party personally.
You should include any volunteer work you do and any ongoing studies/vocational pursuits. When employers look at a CV, shit like that will make them take a bit of notice over everyone else who may have the same (or even better) tech skills and experience. Trust me on that one.

Secondly - if you're going to the trouble of using a laTex plugin to do a cv (and I'm guessing compile it to pdf or docx), then maybe you should advertise the fact that you've done so. It may only score you 'geek points' but in jobs where that matters - hey (la)Tex sells right?

Finally - don't link to your achievements or prods here. This is a specific niche site. And there's lots of stuff here that you probably don't want potential employers to see (and surprisingly a lot of it's NOT posted by me!). If you've got your own hosting, soundcloud, cghub or even just an ftp, link to that - no employer (other than maybe a fellow poueteer) will give a flying fuck about how many glöps or thumbs up you got for your prod.

I await the usual negative comments from the usual whining Nancys. For those of you who've actually read my post - we gave the job to the person that not only had the most well rounded CV but also who interviewed well. Maybe that should be the real focus here.

Demoscene activity in CVs ... I usually put a paragraph inside the addressing that points out the most obvious advantage of demoscene productions: team effort and more so international team effort, the creative challenge to deal with hardware limitations in particular.

Great idea about the showreel!

Scali et al.: About the interviewing / reviewing process, unfortunately many CVs are stuffed. This leaves no choice but to waste time with basic questions before going into the real stuff. This is boring for both sides.

This is only a problem if you don't provide a link to actual code and work examples though.


After a revealing experience we changed the recruiting process in the team to quickly send a programming test with code examples to the interesting candidates. This approach turned out to work better for us: It is faster for everyone, it gives the candidate a clue about the actual job, shows some of our coding practices, and allows brilliant candidates to rock the test even if they don't master the platform.

Yeah. Cause most employers really want to see how many glops you've got here or what you've favorited on deviantart rather than find out a little bit about you (prior to their own google research) via your word doc cv.
Good luck job hunting btw. ;[

Good point but I think it has some downsides too: if you propose a test make damn sure it's very quick to do (< 1h).
Else you would:
- favour people with free time and people desperate for a job, not what you want as an employer
- show a relatively lower degree of trust compared to workplaces that don't do that and rely on an interview
- also "challenging" tests about a particular thing X are not necessarily a good predictor for future performance.

This is what I did last time. Although, you never know if they have really noticed the link or took the time to look at the stuff.

Or, people where telling me "Maybe the mistake is you don't show your work at the interview". Well, sometimes I tried, they shut me down, they didn't let me show because there was no time and they cared about the interview. Sometimes I show some stuff. The portfolio was a bit better, cause I thought it's not my fault anymore for not being able to insist and show them my work.

Later, I had some friend who is really more confident than me, better CV, more confident presentation of projects always at interviews, yet he had similar difficulty to get a job. So,. sometimes it's random, too many candidates, it's not your fault and interviews are stupid sometimes. I mean, those quizes and stuff, that cannot always differentiate the best of the good candidates (you almost never can, except maybe differentiate the bad ones and not always, I am not good at timed tests)

It doesn't matter, we both have jobs right now. Just wanted to say. You just go hit doors and if they don't take you, it's not always your fault, many candidates, hard to choose from.

There are two types of coders here:
1) People who do their most interesting stuff in the scene, because their jobs are simple and boring
2) People who do their most interesting stuff at work, and just write simple scene stuff for fun

I guess for the second group, it is a problem to give work examples, because a lot of stuff they wrote for their previous jobs can't be shown, and their scene stuff may not be all that representative for what they really can do.

scali: you missed
3) People who do interesting stuff for work and the scene (and it probably crosses over a lot), because they're leet

:)

Perhaps, but I don't know what Blueberry does for work.

I guess this depends on what field the job is in, I would definitely rather see examples than ask you a lot of questions. Then again, if you are applying for some banking software firm, I can imagine them not being very interested in your GP32 demos :)

The jobs were graphics related so it was relevant. It's mostly how these interviews are planned. There were some that they didn't ask for some showcase and if you were trying to find some time to show, they didn't have time, they were more interested to ask you questions and see how you present yourself. And there were other interviewers who valued showing your work, one on the phone said "Yes, if we call you, we would love to see actual work" (ok, they didn't call me).

I am more like number 1, not enough interesting work experience, more in the demoscene. And that perplexes me some times, because most of the stuff I show is non interactive and would look like a video and I have to explain it's still realtime graphics. I was even thinking to make an interactive engine with most stuff I've coded to have something to show for the future, but yeah I was lazy and didn't yet..

Yeah, this is a really good idea! Do it!

"OptimusGP32, the interactive demo"

Imagine the EULA you gotta read through for that.

just dont put that on your cv