Everyone’s career path is different: some people find their calling early on, and others a bit later. Here’s Max’s story of how you don’t have be junior in years to be a Junior Game Developer.

Max’s Career Journey

Q. What did you do before Hutch?

A. I’ve had a number of roles throughout my career.  Initially, I graduated with a degree in Industrial Design in 1991. So before the days of decent PCs (let alone mobile phones) or even the Internet. My jobs have been many and varied, including writing NVQ training plans for manufacturing plants, Quality Manager in a training organisation and sheet metal factory. Assembly team leader making and calibrating pressure instruments, water test rectifier at the BMW Mini Cowley Plant, welder and a variety of different business administration roles. I’ve even spent time on a fishing boat and dug holes doing groundwork.

Q. What made you want to apply for the job you now do? If it was a major career change, what inspired you to make the change?

A.This role was a natural progression for me. Having been made redundant at the end of 2015, it was clear my cornucopia of different jobs might be interesting, but not “going anywhere”. Since I invariably ended up running an Excel spreadsheet in my jobs, I wondered whether I had a head for programming and decided to re-train (spoiler alert: turns out I do :) ).

I initially did some home schooling, the Harvard on-line CS-50 Introduction to Computer Science course, and having found it both challenging and rewarding, I enrolled in a Degree course in Games Programming at Kingston University in 2016. Thus began 3 years of intense work, and I still look back with some pride on the projects I developed. The culmination of which was my personal project, a fully documented 2D games engine designed for beginner level programmers which uses the HTML canvas element. I still make the odd game, or just create funky visualisations, on it when I get the hankering.

Once I graduated, I had to run the gauntlet of recruitment, and thankfully Hutch saw fit to give me a chance as a Junior Developer, albeit one of more mature years.

Q. Are there any particular skills, experience, characteristics that you think were instrumental in getting your job?

A.I guess what I lacked in actual programming experience, was compensated for by my life experiences to date. I’ve been demonstrably  involved in various management initiatives, at all levels. And my communications skills mean I can talk to pretty much anyone.

Max’s Game Developer Career Tips

Q.    What careers advice would you give your younger self?

A. I wish I’d put as much work in for my first degree as I did my second. But I was young and there were too many distractions.

I’d say: Take every opportunity to up-skill. Even if you find it boring, just bite-the-bullet, engage with the material, and be the best you can at it.

I’d like to say “don’t fret about not having a fixed career plan, it’s much more fun to wing it and take opportunities as they arise”.

Q. What are the best 3 tips you would give someone looking to get into a similar field?

A.Practice, practice, practice.  OK, maybe more helpful …

• Pro-actively study. Do on-line courses, don’t wait to be spoon fed material, seek it out and engage with it.  When you find something interesting, keep digging !

• Side projects. You’ll never do them all, but find a few, develop them and FINISH them. They are useful portfolio pieces.

• Remember, you don’t need to know everything.  Programming is a vast field, with numerous specialisms.  A working overview (and then Google) is often the only gateway you need.

Q. What’s the best bit about your job? And what’s the hardest part / the bit you wished someone had given you a heads up on!

A.There’s two bests.  Working with the Top Drives team is a delight, but the real kick is when I see content I’ve worked on appearing in the game.  I never find that boring.

The worst bit?  Something I wish had been stressed more at Uni.  Programming is a set of knowledge plateaus and walls.  When you hit a wall, it’s hard to maintain the big picture.  i.e. that if it was easy, anyone could do it!  Every programmer hits these walls.  It goes with the territory, so try not to beat yourself up about it.

Thank you Max for letting us pick your brains! And for those reading, we hope it has inspired you to think about your own career paths. A career path that might lead you to Hutch!

Check out our latest vacancies here: https://www.hutch.io/careers/