Game Testers

I know of hundreds of people hired to be game testers that didn’t have any additional college education. I have helped over 1000 people get into the industry through becoming a video game tester. I developed training and education for people to become video game testers.
It has been made into online self paced training on the PowerUp Games Website.
Http://PowerUpGames.com it is used in some college courses.

Consider http://PowerUpGames.com, It has a certification course for Game Testing at a lot cheaper price than a single college course. Try Game testing to see if you like the industry. If you like it, you may want to go onto a 2 year degree or a 4 year degree depending on where you want to be in the industry in 5 years or 10 years. You can always use Game Testing as a summer job to help financially get you through college.

The reason people get more education is that it is becoming competitive to get a game testing position. The better your resume and cover letter and references and portfolio…. The better your chances.

Now lets talk about some other answers you may need to know about…

Let’s talk about Location. Some locations in the US have few jobs in the Game Industry.
It is also hard to get a farming job in downtown New York.
The question is, if you can’t find a job in your area, are you willing to go to where the jobs are?
If a close publisher will not hire you, you will have to go to the main Video Game Hubs in the US.

Now lets talk about what some people consider to be video game testing….
Stay as home game testing should be considered an Urban Legend. Winning the lottery would be easier than finding this as real employment. If it was real, what percentage of the US or world population would like this as a job or career? 40% or more? How many billion people is that…

You can also seek beta testing gigs where you get a copy of the software or promotional items you can sell on ebay. Just use Google and sign up for the beta programs.

There are also usability studies… The most famous is Microsoft’s Usability Lab… Again, they may pay you or give you something, you usually have to travel to where they are.

Becoming a game tester is do-able but sometimes you need someone to show you the way.
Of the people offering help, this will help you avoid SCAMS…
Never pay for a subscription to find a game testing job. They are usually scams. To see if they are…
Email them and see how long takes them to respond to a specific question.
Make sure you get 2-3 phone numbers of people who have been with them for 6 months or more
and call them to see if they think it was worth it. Ask these people 2-3 specific questions about what they got for the money, how helpful was the staff, what jobs they applied for etc…

Here is Nintendo info on getting hired…
Www.nintendo.com/corp/tester.jsp info on getting hired with Nintendo.

To increase your chances of getting a career game testing position…
Become familiar with what game testing is, terminology, etc and build out a good cover letter and resume.

Get some good experience and be able to talk about what you did in with the knowledge and terminology you have learned about Game Testing.

Become familiar with the basics of game testing so after you land a position, you can keep it.
(there are some companies that will hire 10 game testers knowing that after 2-3 days, they will know the best of the group and will lay off the rest. It is cheaper than doing a deep interview process)

Remember, there will be several hundred people applying to any game testing position and you have to get your resume to the top for a phone interview and past the face to face interview so you can get the position and show that you know what it is and that you know what you need to do to become a Game tester.

Have someone in the Game Industry review your resume and cover letter. Get someone who was a game tester or even better, someone who has hired game testers.

If you want help completing the above steps, please investigate our Training at http://PowerUpGames.com

Here are some Game testing jobs available right now.

Http://newjersey.craigslist.org/ofc/2044742518.html

http://newjersey.craigslist.org/ofc/2056150616.html

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/sof/2018190459.html

http://www2.jobirn.com/?q=Game+Tester+-+Contract+jobs

http://jobtarget.simplyhired.com/a/job-details/view/jobkey-11091.4687158/jp-8/hits-69

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admin answers:

Most state labor laws prevent minors under 15 or 16 from working. You will have to wait.

In the meantime, I would study computer programming, audio mixing, and 3D modeling so you’ll have a leg up when you’re eligible.

By the way, I’ve applied for game tester jobs in the past, and even with a college degree the field is still competitive. Try to make a friend in the industry.

Better yet, code your own game so that you can show that you already know how to debug something!