I've been looking at a lot of resumes over the past few months for an associate tools engineer position at Bungie. So I thought I'd offer some thoughts/advice based on my experience so far. 1/13
#gamedev #gamedevelopment

Disclaimer: There's no official checklist all of us Bungie hiring managers follow, so these are only my personal thoughts on what I look for in a resume. But you might find that some of these are generally good things to think about for any job. 2/13

Know what you're looking for. We have a lot of open engineering jobs right now. Applying for one or two closely related ones will give you an edge over someone applying for all of them. 3/13

When I see someone applying for a lot of positions at once it just tells me they're shotgunning it and hoping for the best. That they're not really passionate about any of them. 4/13

Know the job you're applying for. Resumes that don't show experience or training related to the job at hand get turned down. If you're trying to switch careers, use a cover letter to explain that (see following posts about cover letters). 5/13

Cover letters definitely help, but aren't required. If you write one, keep it short. One or two paragraphs is great. Use them to explain anything important about yourself that isn't obvious in the resume. 6/13

Proofread your cover letter. Reading "I'm excited to apply for a position at Naughty Dog" isn't a deal breaker by itself, but it may count against a borderline resume. 7/13

Personal projects aren't required, but help. Especially for junior positions, it's a great way for people without industry experience to show off their skills and passion for video game development. 8/13

What's more important, knowledge or experience? Knowledge. Every engineer we hire must have a certain base level of programming knowledge for the position. But since knowledge also comes with experience (hopefully), it's a definite plus if you have some. 9/13

Is a degree required? No. But you need to be able to show that base level of knowledge I mentioned in some way. If you are going to college, a CS or some kind of programming degree is best for this position. Does the college I went to matter? No. 10/13

For a tools engineer specifically, communication and a customer service attitude are as important as programming skills. We're looking for people that want to help other people. If you can show that in your cover letter or resume, that's huge. 11/13

Don't give up if you get turned down. Keep learning, keep pushing yourself to improve through other jobs and personal projects. Then try again in a year. We recently hired someone on their second try at getting into Bungie. 12/13

Realize that there's an element of timing and luck involved in hiring. Don't take it personally if you get turned down at any stage of the process (I know it's hard). Again, don't give up. Always keep striving for your dreams. 13/13

Oh, and here's the position if you're interested... https://careers.bungie.com/en-us/careers/engineering/2092870/associate-tools-engineer