Tester job in the Games Industry - advice needed

Games testing must be a **** job. I got a card through the post advertising jobs for games testers. Totally uncalled for.

Good old saying rings true here. Never make your hobby your job!
 
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Firstly this is not for me; I have been happily employed for years now. This is for my cousin who just graduated from Uni.

Basically he has not done as well as he thought he would and I think it will be hard for him to get into the sector he wished to work in. I asked him the other day 'what does he like doing' and he answered what many of us would answer - 'playing games'.

That got me thinking that maybe he could work as a games tester. I have had a quick trawl on the internet and nothing obvious came up or was apparent. So I thought I would put this out to the advanced collective intelligence that is the OcUK forumites!

So guys; anyone know where he could start? Where such jobs could be found and what he would need to do? He lives at home and dare I say, could work for free for the experience if needs be. However a pay cheque, no matter how small at this stage would be welcome. He is based in the West Midlands so I guess at this stage any opportunities would have to be there.

Okay - over to you guys! Your help would be most appreciated.
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Frstly, I used to be a tester for a large coprorate company (that everyone wishes they could do) however i cant say where, ;) i got bored of doing my daily work after 2 weeks. it becomes a WoW grind, However i used my time between jobs to create a better way of testing, Now im still in the same job but i create/support the new Automated testing equipment and technquies that is used today.

Secondly - if hes really serious about testing tell him to look at the ISEB qaulifcations for Software testing there very highly regarded and would help a lot looking for a testing job.

next - a lot of games company use job agencies to find young people to test there games so sign up with as many agencies as possible. thats howi got my job.

third: get him to test games for free for a while for games in Beta or email small company about doing it. if you create nice reports youll be noticed.

Hope that helps
 
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Also, putting on my sensible-old-person hat for a moment -

I'm not in the games industry, but it looks like the most unstable, unreliable job possible. I can't imagine it being very easy to get a mortgage if you work in the industry, unless it's for one of the really big companies.

And it sounds really family unfriendly too - games studios fold all the time, you have to move to where the work is, with long hours to be done in the run up to releases, and every release could mean the end of the company. All nightmare scenarios when you have a family to support.
 
Converge said:
Everyone's talking as though it's easy to get a job as a games tester. :confused:
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Its not actually that hard, as long as you have basic skills and can write a report professionally, your sorted. It might be just because I am in the pipeline to the industry, but I would say at least once a week I get an email about this or that company wanting testers.

Sleepery said:
I'm not in the games industry, but it looks like the most unstable, unreliable job possible. I can't imagine it being very easy to get a mortgage if you work in the industry, unless it's for one of the really big companies.

And it sounds really family unfriendly too - games studios fold all the time, you have to move to where the work is, with long hours to be done in the run up to releases, and every release could mean the end of the company. All nightmare scenarios when you have a family to support.
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I agree and disagree. I know a few people in the industry and they have job stability, as much as can be stable in todays world anyways. That said though, my friends have all ensured that they are proactive so the company has no reason to rid of them. They know people that just go in, do their work and leave, good as the work might be, they have no interest in being there. My friends are constantly working on their individual portfolios and looking for new ways to boost their networking with companys and individuals in the know.

I guess though, you can apply what I just said to any industry. Most industries are just as volitile as this, but I think its because we are focusing on this one and not another. Does that make sense?
 
Seriously cheers for all the comments back. I knew I would get decent replies here.

I know that it is not the best job and it would be dull, but so would working on a till or a production line in a generic factory.

Oh well, I will talk to him and see what he thinks. Then he can pursue it if he wants. I am certainly not going to do the leg work. You make your own opportunities and all that.

Cheers again guys.
 
Unless you're a designer, a graphics artist, sound artist, etc, i.e. a non-formal discipline based on innate talent\ability (and ostensibly perfomed as a labour of love), the games industry is a pretty crap place to work. Speaking from experience here.
 
For starters i'd assmue most of the big games companys are based in london. To get in the games industry its often a case of knowing some one that all ready works in the industry.

Working for capcom you to be really good at games to be even considerd for a tester. You work to strict deadlines so you have to be able to work and test the games fast. How i got to work for capcom was luck really, my girl friends god father is one of the lead desingers for capcom in america. He put me onto the guy am working for now, the first thing i had to do was prove i was good at games. I did this by sending many screenshots and videos of me gaming. Once they was happy i was good enough i then sent off a cv. I have been playing games since i was five so i have a big knowledge of games especially capcom games which seemed to impress them. Now i dont have many skills or qualifications but they saw something in me and gave me a chance. So it really is a hard industry to get into unless your lucky and know some one who can get you a way in.

My only advice would be get some proof of him been really good at games send that off with a cv and hope you get lucky.

Games testing its self can be very borring depending on what role you are given, you dont get any input in making the games better all you are there for is to find bugs and mistakes. Sometimes it can be a case of looking for spelling errors in text, unplugging the controllers at differant stages in the game and other such mundane tasks. The hours are long and the pay is minimum.

As people have said playing games and testing games are totally different. Its really hard industry to get into and unless your really talented the pay isnt great. He may as well go work in a supermarket or factory cause games testing isnt much better. Plus if he likes playing games when your testing them all day the last thing you wanna do with your time off is play them.
 
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Testing games isn't all its cracked up to be. You will be flooded with bugs and constant crashes in alpha releases and only parts of the game will be tested and the rest locked. Also you cant play the game you will often be given specific things to test.

I wouldn't be a tester even if you payed me. Too boring, too repetitive, no enjoyment. Sure u get to see some of the game earlier than others but you will be thinking meh when it comes out after testing it for so long.

Now game design where you work on maps, mission scripting, textures that's the place to be.

Edit - Also a good way to get in to the biz is to be part of a great mod for a popular game. Developers do watch the big mods that are well organized and maintained and of a high quality. Just look at counterstrike as that was a mod first then valve liked what they saw it did for their game and grabbed em to work for them.
 
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I tested for a few companies years ago and it's not what it's cracked up to be as others have said. It can be good fun at times, the people you work with are generally pretty cool but other than that the work itself isn't great.

Also, there's a fairly large divide between testing and the rest of the games industry. Trying to make the jump across to design isn't an easy one. If he's really passionate about games and using testing as a stepping stone it can be done, but he will need to be focussed otherwise he'll be stuck in a low paid, under appreciated job. The skills he picks up won't be very relevant for many other jobs either so it's a bit all or nothing.
 
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