Don't Be Shy, Attend Events!

Students can use all the help they can get when it comes to finding a job after college; myself included. I hope to encourage students to try something new and put themselves out there by attending events. Being an introverted person, putting myself out there tends to be a difficult thing. But, going through this experience changed me for the better.

About two months into my program at full sail I was living in Los Angeles and I saw an advertisement for the Game Developer’s Conference. It was the smaller conference GDCNext, which focused more on indie companies and mobile games. Immediately, I applied to be a Conference Associate. I was extremely nervous because I didn’t have much experience. However, I knew it would be a great opportunity that I did not want to pass up. I ended up getting accepted and was ecstatic to be a part of the conference.

While attending, I was reading through the schedule seeing which talks I wanted to attend and which I wouldn’t mind working at. There were so many things I wanted to do, I knew there wouldn’t be enough time to see it all. They had talks on marketing, programming, art, finances; every part of a game-making process, there was somebody speaking on it. Hearing from industry professionals in person has a much higher impact than reading articles.

During training and throughout the conference, there are so many people to meet that there is no way you could remember everyone’s name. I met a Lead Artist from Blizzard, Full Sail graduates starting up their own companies, and even Full Sail students from the campus who flew out to LA just to work at the conference. It was networking gold! Being such an introvert, it was great to be around people similar to me and force myself to interact with and meet new people. That was definitely an experience that changed me for the better.

After the conference I did some research and wanted to work at the big GDC in San Francisco. I applied last year, but I found the date a little too late to be considered for associate so I was placed on the waiting list. This year I applied the day the application opened up. Unfortunately, I was not accepted but I will continue to try because of how great of an experience I had at GDCNext 2014. I was reading some of the things happening at the conference such as the Game Design Workshop. “Attendees will immerse themselves in the iterative process of refining a game design and discover design concepts that will help them think more clearly about their designs and make better games.” I hope one day I can attend the conference because I’m working for a game company and get asked to attend myself. I highly encourage everyone to try to attend events such as GDC.

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