Apprenticeship as a Game Producer/Projectmanager

dr.jones · 05-17-2010, 12:37 PM

Hi Guys,

my name is Jonas I am 22 and from Germany. I always loved games and after finishing school I decided to become a game designer and later a game producer. So I planned to go two years to Vancouver Film School (VFS) and attend their "Foundations in Visual Art & Design" and "Game Design" programms. I came back (to germany) from Vancouver two months ago and decided not to return to Vancouver for my second year. I realized that the two programms aren't really good and I didn't want to waste all my college money on my second year there. The last two month were really confusing because I didn't really now what to do next. I still wanted/want to work in the industry as a Designer/Producer but decided not to attend game specific schools anymore. Mainly because I was disappointed by VFS (the two programs I took).
Three weeks ago I found an job opening for an apprenticeship as a Game Producer/Projektmanager on the web. I send a mail to the HR person and one week ago I send my resume. Now I am waiting for their response. The apprenticeship would be at a Ubisoft owned developer studio (Blue Byte) here in Germany. It would be a three year apprenticeship and I would get paid. Blue Byte develops the "The Settlers" series. I dont now if you know the games. They are well known here in Germany and pretty succesful.
Do you think this is a good opportunity to break into the games indusrty? I would love to get the apprenticeship I just wanted to hear a second opinion.
Besides that I woud really like to study part time and get a degree in Business Administration. Would that make any sense.
Sorry for the long post

And thanks to everyone who takes the time to read it.

P.S. This is a great site/forum just found it a few weeks ago

tsloper · 05-17-2010, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dr.jones

Do you think this is a good opportunity to break into the games indusrty?

Only if you get accepted.

dr.jones · 05-19-2010, 05:24 AM

@ tsloper thanks for your answer. What do you think on getting a business degree besides the apprenticeship?

tsloper · 05-19-2010, 06:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dr.jones

@ tsloper thanks for your answer. What do you think on getting a business degree besides the apprenticeship?

Yes. Good idea. Learn about budgets, schedules, product management, personnel management, and business relationship management.

dr.jones · 05-26-2010, 11:33 AM

thanks tsloper for your help. I really appreciate it!!!
I got invited to a assessment center next week and now i'm preparing for it. I already started to check out some sites about interviews in the industry. Maybe someone of you knows some more articles or has a tipp.
These are the ones I already checked out plus some german sites.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=21424

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/featu...tions_and_.php

Thanks in advance.

diogo fontes · 08-27-2010, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dr.jones

So I planned to go two years to Vancouver Film School (VFS) and attend their "Foundations in Visual Art & Design" and "Game Design" programms. I came back (to germany) from Vancouver two months ago and decided not to return to Vancouver for my second year. I realized that the two programms aren't really good and I didn't want to waste all my college money on my second year there. The last two month were really confusing because I didn't really now what to do next. I still wanted/want to work in the industry as a Designer/Producer but decided not to attend game specific schools anymore. Mainly because I was disappointed by VFS (the two programs I took).

I'm planning studying Entertainment Business Management at VFS, you could talk more about what 'went wrong that you did not like there?

Dmitry_S. · 10-13-2010, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diogo fontes

I'm planning studying Entertainment Business Management at VFS, you could talk more about what 'went wrong that you did not like there?

Let me just guess. I think dr.jones just missed the program he needed: he went for "Game Desing" and "Foundations in Visual Art & Design" and I guess there is a difference between this programs and Entertainment Business Management. Correct me if I'm worng but I think if you going to learn how to be Producer you will need EBM and if you are passionate for creating you own games (write storylines, desing levels, create characters, maybe work with programming tools or even lead and coordinate the disigners team) - you need "Game Desing" and "Visual Art" programs. Surely, for producer it's important to know game desing but as I know producer's job connected with business and management part of game creating more than with art and writing story or program code.

There is also was an article: "Five Common Mistakes In Choosing Masters Programs For Video Games" http://gamecareerguide.com/features/..._choosing_.php
This situation looks like the first one in this article

About the best decidion dr.jones was able to made: I think in such situation maybe it's a better idea to choose the work, because there is much more opportunities to learn about industry and get new experience while being employed. Expecially if the company is interesting in your grown.

And of course it is a good idea to get some additional courses and studies while you are employed if you want to continue your career or made yourself better and more valuable specialist. By the way it is exacly what I wanted at this moment.

Jwong · 10-15-2010, 11:27 AM

Speaking from being a Vancouver resident and knowing some people around here, VFS has created a lot of game careers for its student. I'm not sure what kind of bad experience you had, but you were probably expecting something different than you experienced.

I know quite a lot of VFS grads that are in the industry, and some of them went straight into design positions. I think if you are to make a very expensive decision, you should do a lot more research because if you stuck it out at VFS, you probably would have came out knowing a lot of industry people.

Also, I think you only took the one year foundation courses which cover all of the arts. The VFS foundation program is there for students to figure out which discipline they want to enter. The second year, in which you decided not to return to, is the 100% game design focused program (For the record, I am a grad of their rival school, The Art Institute of Vancouver).

Aside from all that school jazz, apprenticeship is a great way to break into the industry. Though you should expect that you may not get that offer, so don't believe that you can stop and wait for one job opportunity. You need to continue to look for every possible job opportunity.