“You Got The Gig” is a Q&A style interview with students and alumni about their job hunt strategies. If you’re a student or alumni who’d like to contribute your own tips & experience, email Toni for more info!

Yuxin Gao (MFA ’20)
Junior Producer at Tender Claws

Is this your first job/internship?
This is my first full-time job. I have had many freelance gigs since graduation.

How did you approach your search for a job/internship? 
I didn’t start job search actively until December, partly because of the Incubator and finishing the Incubator project. Another reason is .. I thought I didn’t have a decent cover letter and portfolio. Eventually, the motivation to put together a good cover letter comes after I started seriously searching for jobs. I found LinkedIn search really helpful, workwithindies.com helpful, other sites I frequently checked are gamejobs.co. I heard https://gracklehq.com/jobs was good too. I checked these sites every 1-3 days, depending how busy I was with freelance work. I set a goal of applying for at least 3 every week because I knew job searching can be difficult and it’s easy to lose hope. I thought to myself, if I sent out 3 every week, at least I would not completely give up. I paid close attention to the date the job was listed, and gave priority to jobs that were listed within 10 days. I came to the conclusion that I would have a better chance to get a review if I sent out an application within 2 weeks after its listing. I usually would not pursue a job that’s listed over a month ago. In order to get accurate information, I would go to the company’s website – career section, to confirm the real listing date. I found this very helpful.

What did you do to find positions you are interested in? 
Besides looking at job sites, I also did a thing – checking the websites of companies that I admire, or have alumni working there, no matter whether I saw job posts from them, to see if they have any job openings just listed on their website or slipped my usual channels. I did apply and get an interview from one job through randomly browsing their site.

What kinds of positions did you apply to, and how many places did you apply to before getting this position?
I applied to mostly Associate Producer, Junior Producer roles, and one time a Business Developer role out of curiosity, which got rejected almost instantly. I was sort of confident about my experience/skills, but not sure if I can take on a leadership role from the start. I would look at Producer listings as well. If it’s a startup or a smaller team/company, I would give it a try. I applied for 9 jobs before getting this position. I got mostly no-reply or rejections from AAA studios, however, indie studios were pretty interested in my background, which gave me a lot of confidence that I was very grateful.

What materials did you submit as part of your application?
A very solid cover letter with selected projects, an ok portfolio, and a solid resume. I went to Wasserman Center and reviewed my cover letter with Leslie Findling, who’s very helpful. I didn’t finish building my own website, so I was using Itch as my temp portfolio when applying.

Was there a specific game/project in your portfolio you tried to showcase?
I highlighted three projects when applying. Only one is a video game. The other two are an exhibition, and a card game that’s getting published. For my card game, I didn’t have a portfolio page on my own itch/website, so I was temporarily using my teammate Mary’s portfolio page while hurrying up putting together my own. I hope it is helpful for others to know that I didn’t have everything together perfectly the way I planned. They were just there while I was improving them as I sent out each application.

Do you have any tips for preparing application materials?
If you are an international student, don’t be shy asking for copy-editing help. Attend a STEM OPT workshop sooner rather than later, so you can strategize which kind of jobs are ok for your OPT. A full-time job is most desirable, however, your options are more than that. Sometimes, a good-length contract job is valid and pretty good too. Especially if you don’t have much game industry work experience, having a contract job might lead you to more opportunities than waiting for a full-time one.

Tell us a bit about the application and interview process:
I had interviews with three companies – all indies. After I sent materials, one replied within a week (which is incredibly fast), the other a little over two weeks. The third one was a referral and they reached out after a week. The interview length ranges from 30mins to an hour. Some one round, the others two rounds. I was asked about my background, if I am familiar with Agile/Scrum softwares, if I have specific experience with 3D games, how I communicate with others, examples of me handing a challenging situation, and also high level questions like where I am in my career(What I have done, and what am I looking for in the next few years?).

Did you have to do any sort of skills test/project as part of your interview? What was it like?
No tests or projects for my role. If there’s two rounds of interviews, the first round was with the founder/co-founder of the company, who were more likely to ask high level questions. The second round was with a Senior Producer, which tends to ask more specific technical questions, such software knowledge.

What advice do you have for other students looking for a job/internship?
Job searching feels similar to apartment searching. It largely relies on timing, so it’s really important to be persistent and consistent. It’s also possible it doesn’t work out perfectly the first time. But don’t give up. Start with something and acknowledge that you are good enough for a job.

During the interview, always ask them how the day to day work looks like, how big is the team, who you work with/report to, how long is a workday, and ask why they decide to interview you. All these questions not only help you get a feeling how it would be like working there, also help you understand how you are seen as attractive. It gives you confidence, which is important for job search and starting a job.

Did you hit any roadblocks during the job search?
At one point I was juggling five projects(personal + freelance) at the same time. I worked a lot and barely made enough for rent. By the end of December I was really struggling financially and thought about whether I should look for another odd job just to help get by. I was scrapping time for job applications, meanwhile as an international student, I also have a timer that’s running out quickly. By arrangement and luck, most of my projects were concluded or went into pretty stable states in December, that was when job search really started. I also got hold back by not having a website as mentioned above.
If you are international students at Game Center, we should find an opportunity to talk about when to mention you need OPT sponsorship as well. It’s an important conversation and can be confusing to first timers.

Where can people find your work?
All my video games will always be posted on Itch.io https://ghaoyuxin.itch.io. Additionally, if you are interested in China related topics and documentaries recommendations https://twitter.com/ghaoyuxin.