help finding work ..No experience

Sanne

As he is willing to relocate, keep an eye on Wired Sussex. It's a job board for the digital/media community in and around Brighton and there is quite often junior positions coming up which require programming skills. Not necessarily games development but things like testing, web development, e-learning development (sometimes called " e-learning builders") etc. Companies advertise directly so no agencies which I found helps when trying to highlight transferable skills as you can send a cover letter etc.

Link - hope it's allowed

Good luck!

missbiggles1

jammy_dodger wrote: »

staying with a family member in the nearest city to be available for work whilst learning to drive and widen options cant afford to live independantly without employment and income

That's good, I'm sure it will help him. It also means that he'll be able to do voluntary work to aquire some skills , improve his CV and get a decent reference.

paddyrg

May be a bit late in the season now, but holiday parks often need staff, and provide on-site accommodation. Students/fresh graduates are common. Try

http://www.leisurejobs.com/minisites/bourne-leisure/
https://www.bournejobs.co.uk/search
or http://www.leisurejobs.com/ for other companies as well.

Savvy_Sue

Starlet wrote: »

As you would probably appreciate, your first job isnt your dream job.

Let's say 'your first job isn't USUALLY your dream job'. If you don't count my Saturday job in the Coop (lasted two weeks) or my temping during holidays, my first proper grown up job WAS my dream job - proofreading! Someone willing to PAY me to read books all day - bliss!!! :rotfl:

Sanne wrote: »

Link - hope it's allowed

Absolutely, as long as it's not you touting for business (which it doesn't sound like it is).

jammy_dodger

Sanne wrote: »

As he is willing to relocate, keep an eye on Wired Sussex. It's a job board for the digital/media community in and around Brighton and there is quite often junior positions coming up which require programming skills. Not necessarily games development but things like testing, web development, e-learning development (sometimes called " e-learning builders") etc. Companies advertise directly so no agencies which I found helps when trying to highlight transferable skills as you can send a cover letter etc.

Link - hope it's allowed

Good luck!

thats a great link Sanne thank you just passed it on to him hes well pleased a fair commute from highlands but as i say hes willing to relocate fingers crossed

SLZ

jammy_dodger wrote: »

Can anyone offer advice on how to find work with no experience My son now finished university and looking for a job just wondered if there was any avenues we may not of thought of
he has degree (computer game developement) but willing to give anything a go
he has had interviews but no joy
the feedback is lack of experience
hes qute a shy introvert but is trying his best using the time at present to learn to drive and applying for dozens of jobs each day and looking in store windows etc
he has gone along to job centre
they are suggesting he could try for work experience placements . he just needs a chance so is going along with that to see if someone somewhere will take him on also looking at volunteering
.it seems such a shame he is keen to work and live independantly again but cant get on the ladder
any advice welcome
thanks for reading

Did he not do an internship or placement at the end of his second year? Most students do.

Has he looked at graduate schemes? He may be a bit late for this round (some do hire year around though) but that should be his first port of call for a job otherwise he could try retail for a bit until he figures out what he wants.

Edit: After a little think has he checked out the likes of EA (based in Guildford), Rockstar North (Edinburgh) or Rockstar London/Lincoln as well as others such as Sony, Ubisoft etc? As from what you have said, he's focused on retail which is great as it's a job but it's not what his degree is in and there are loads of opportunities, it's just whether he has the transferable skills which for most jobs I saw having a peek, he should have from his degree.

And if he can get experience in video game development, he'll want to look towards Canada or more specifically Montreal as that's where some of the major video game studios are based and the major money.

Sanne

jammy_dodger wrote: »

thats a great link Sanne thank you just passed it on to him hes well pleased a fair commute from highlands but as i say hes willing to relocate fingers crossed

No worries - fingers crossed!

I found two jobs through their job board and there's new opportunities pretty much every day. From working in a software house and in the e-learning industry I know that a lot of companies in Brighton are very young and willing to give graduates a chance if they show enthusiasm and talent as there is a shortage of good people in technical areas.

Good luck again!

szam_

Games development, as someone mentioned, is incredibly difficult to get in to - and it's an incredibly volatile market. Work for an indie studio and the game is a flop? Companies go under quite often because they haven't the finances to survive - and often that is the route to getting to the bigger studios, especially here in the UK - Rockstar, Codemasters. some of Bethesda's studios etc.

I once wanted to go in to games development - but the job security is so poor, I just couldn't do it.

I would honestly look at junior developer roles in any sort of software until you can find an opportunity to get in to games development or testing. I personally work on ePayments and financial software, didn't anticipate that 10 years ago, but here I am. It's not exciting, but it's my first step towards getting to a full development.

Personally though, if I was serious about getting in to the games industry via. testing, I'd be looking at Montreal in Canada as my prime location, there are a lot of third party large testing studios there who test for quite a few AAA studios/publishers.

Alternatively, get him to a games convention - I'm off to EGX in Birmingham in a few weeks, and they have a games career fair there. I think tickets are sold out now, but if you can get down next year or something and actually speak to developers and people in the industry, might give you some of their personal insight, clues on where to go next, and maybe even a few leads for jobs.