This section is an expanded FAQ and provides some great information from the perspective of an EA Hiring Manager. We grilled our top recruiters and hiring managers and got answers to the questions that interested candidates are always asking us.
What kind of schooling would I need to be a Computer Graphic Artist for EA?
We don’t recommend any specific schools, but rather that a good foundation in traditional art skills is critical. Having these skills no matter what institution or program you attend will help to give you a base and a depth to draw upon throughout your entire career. Layering on that is also having some experience with 2D and/or 3D graphic software packages. This can mean to take a program utilizing these tools in addition to learning traditional skills or just to take a single course simply to learn the software itself. Another avenue is to read the tutorial guides provided with popular animation/modeling software. Some guides are harder to follow than others, but most are fairly simple. Doing your research about what is the best avenue for you personally to take is recommended, as there is not one single road to take to get hired into EA or the industry in general.
Finally, computer design is a big field. Most games companies like EA have people with specific talents doing specific jobs. For example, we have Character Animators, Environment Modelers, Texture Artists, User Interface Artists, Lighters, Visual Effects Artists and many others. Many artists can perform more than one skill, but everyone has a specialty that they're most passionate and talented in. One thing artists need to do is figure out what area they enjoy most, and focus on that section. In the end, realizing what 1 or 2 areas in the spectrum of Computer Graphic Arts you are best at will help you to both establish and get the most out of your career.
I'm putting together my portfolio. What should I include?
The simple answer to this question is – your best work. Pick pieces that display your range of skills, but again – these should only be your best work. It is not helpful to include your beginning pieces to perhaps show how you have evolved, as the reviewer won’t take it that way. It will simply be seen as having uneven work and no eye to critique your own quality level.
More specifically however, EA would like to see your work preferably submitted in VHS tape format. (It is the easiest way to view and show a group to review your work.) CD is also acceptable, but not as accessible. Websites are often not detailed enough or take too long to download, but it can be a starting point or place to show additional work. Showing samples of your traditional art skills is also very welcome. This can be done by attaching some color photocopies or perhaps show as stills at the end of your VHS tape. Please note that whatever work you submit is non-returnable.
Finally, it is absolutely necessary to include a demo reel breakdown sheet along with your submission. We want to know what work you have done (specifically), what software you used, how long it took you, what the piece was for, are the models nurbs or polys, how many polys were used and any other relevant details you can think of. The more details the better. If you don’t include a demo reel breakdown sheet then we can’t submit your work for a position at EA until we receive it.
Basically have fun with your portfolio and view it as the avenue to showcase your skills and talents. And remember the easier you make it for people to review the more likely it will be reviewed by a greater number of people at EA!
What kind of on-the-job training might be required?
As an intern or entry-level artist, you would always be in "learning mode." A good manager will work new artists into progressively more advanced tasks (with shorter deadlines) as they develop their skills. And much on the job training comes through a mentoring of new artists by a more senior member of the team. In addition, we send employees to specific training sessions offered both in-house at EA (through our EA University department) and sometimes out of house if necessary.
Do you believe that there is currently a need for 3D animators?
There will always be a need for animators and every other discipline of Computer Graphic Art. EA and the rest of the industry will always go through cycles with some times there being many more jobs available than others. However, if you have the talent and the skills then you will always be able to find work at both EA and the industry at large. The most talented people are always working.
What types of people work at your company?
Making video games is a team effort--just like hoops--and requires different people to play different roles--again, like hoops. There are:
- Engineers writing computer code
- Artists making 3D models and textures
- Sound designers creating sound FX and awesome music
- Game designers writing scripts
- Producers overseeing the whole process
- Marketing folks who help sell the product to the public
Is it possible to get a job at EA without a degree?
There are people here who do not have their full degree. However, interns must stay in school to remain in the intern program.
Aside from the intern program, it is still a good idea to get a degree or complete a program. Why? Because finishing a program (particularly a degree granting program) gives you a chance to learn and grow. You develop your skills and you will give yourself a foundation from which you can solidly continue to build upon. Often school is a chance to experiment, it shows that you are able to commit and see through a task and usually you come out of it with a solid portfolio of work to show prospective employers. So it is possible, but particularly as the industry continues to get more sophisticated it gets harder and harder to enter the industry without a degree or equivalent program.
What kinds of opportunities are there in the gaming industry, and what kind of training do I need?
In addition to working in the areas of Art and Programming, there are many opportunities within the studio side of the gaming industry. However, most of them start at entry-level positions. These positions include game testing (Quality Assurance), Customer Support, Assistant Producers and Production Assistants. Usually these positions are the starting points to careers along the Production side of the business.
It's also highly recommended to be well versed in a variety of college-level subjects. In the fields of Marketing and Production, you'll find that a wide range of courses have a strong application to our business. Music Appreciation, Art Appreciation, Finance, Computer Science and Project Management will provide you a wealth of information that can be useful to your career in this industry. In the world of production, there is no single degree that gives you a clear-cut advantage over other curriculum. Some of the more successful producers have had anywhere from no college degree (not recommended!) to an MBA. The more thought you put into picking and completing meaningful college courses, the less time you spend "learning the ropes" on a company's expense.
What about starting my own development company?
One BIG bit of advice is that before you try to start your own development company, ask other small developers what they've done to ensure their success. It is also highly recommended spending time on both the Publisher side as well as on the Developer side. You'll find two completely different worlds! From this and any other research you can do should help you in really assessing whether or not it is really feasible to start your own business and more importantly if you would even enjoy that experience. Many people start their own development company so that they can have creative freedom and what really ends up happening is now they have to focus on running a business. Figure out what is right for you & enjoy!
I'm planning to apply soon to EA Academy as a Software Engineer intern, but I was wondering what kinds of skills and experience you look for in an intern. Are there any specific areas you want interns to know before they work for you? Is any area—such as linear algebra, multivariable calc, physics, networking, in-line assembly, OpenGL®, Microsoft® DirectX®, data structure—especially important? Or do you look more for quantity of coding experience?
A great cover letter will help set your resume apart from the crowd. I'm not talking about a well punctuated "I'm a people person" spiel. I'm looking for something that conveys your passion for computing, games, and EA. YOU know why you kick ass and should be hired instead of the other folks. Tell ME in a few paragraphs. I want a real person, not another drone.
As for skills, you should definitely know C and C++ very well. Along with your portfolio, provide notes that quickly communicate what skills each program in your portfolio shows off. For example, you could note: "This program helped me understand graphics," or "I was working on AI in this little program."
I also tend to nail interviewees with lots of debugging questions. You'll spend as much time debugging as writing for a while, so I'm looking for deduction and critical reasoning skills. These are also key when understanding code written by other people. This is something you might not learn in school, but you'll spend a lot of time doing.
As for other, specific skills: yeah, math and physics are important, and yeah, understanding networking is important. However, everything is all-important and you can't know it all. What you want to show me is how FAST you can learn new things. A classic interview question I ask is "Give me an example of something you picked up and learned on your own quickly."
My own personal bias is also towards people that are well rounded. If it comes down to someone who has a 4.0 and no external interests, or someone who is smart but has also done non-computer stuff, I'll go for the latter. Especially important is experience working in large teams and interacting with people who are bringing different skills and ideas to the table.
In summary, I'm looking for people who know how to write code, read code, and learn new things. I'm looking for people who love games and play them. I'm looking for people who understand technology, but also understand that communication skills are just as important.
What's more important, a degree in Computer Science or working experience?
If there's enough experience on something applicable (like a game done for another company), a degree and work experience can sometimes be interchangeable. It's probably best to get a degree and then experience, if only because you obtain a certain amount of discipline through education that you don't necessarily get on the job. There are also exceptions. My degree, for instance, is in Communications, not Computer Science!
What is more valuable in your company, your programmers, your 3D artists, or your software designers?
To really succeed and build great products, none of these is more valuable than the others. Each is absolutely critical to a product's success.
If I get a Master's degree in Computer Science, which areas should I focus on?
A Master's in Software Engineering would provide a very good framework for the sort of knowledge set we're looking for. If you were to focus on Graphics or Artificial Intelligence as you work toward your Master's, that would be even better.
To the Hiring Manager: How do you choose your software engineer interns out of the numerous candidates that apply? What recommendations would you give me to increase my chances of getting a coveted EA Academy internship?
I reviewed many, many resumes for the intern positions in our group, giving strong consideration to great game programming experience and the level of enthusiasm for working here. The people I selected simply had the best experience for the tasks we wanted performed. I was looking for people who would be able to jump into our project and make strong contributions to our existing codebase, which requires a working knowledge and expertise of 3D graphics programming, without leaving us with code that would have to be re-written or extensively maintained.
Though I can't speak for every development group at EA, I think the best experience to acquire would be in 3D graphics programming. Since we are creating 3D games here, nothing impresses us more than an example of a 3D game that we can actually play. We like to see cool features, such as environment mapping, gouraud shading and vertex coloring of textured polys and examples of mip mapping, for instance. I know this seems like a lot to ask of a college student (whose experience is usually limited to basic 3D programming for class projects), but believe it or not, I talked to a few candidates who had created playable games using at least one or more of these features.
All of the key engineers on our project here started programming on simple computers (such as the Commodore 64, Atari® 800, or Apple® ][) in junior high or high school, and all of them created games during those early years as a way of learning to program. In my group, we probably wrote more than 40 small- to mid-sized games before we graduated from high school!
If I had seen someone with a simple 3D driving game—one that involved perhaps controlling a 3D car on a simple oval track with a few other cars on the road that the car could pass or bump into, a kind of a shareware-like version of MarioKart™—that person almost certainly would have been hired. If you're looking for a position in a group that makes sports games, maybe you should work on a game with some basic 3D figures moving around on a field playing soccer or some other game. For a first person game, you might want to try a basic DOOM™-style game where you are walking around in a simple building and you can shoot various things that pop out in front of you.
I'm studying for a Computer Science degree. What courses at school are most applicable?
For engineering, you should focus on getting a Computer Science or Computer Engineering (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science mixed together). Useful courses would include linear algebra, logic (philosophy), and computer graphics (applications of linear algebra). I would also throw in some physics courses.
What does an EA SPORTS™ Product Manager do?
We work hard. There's a lot of work and a lean staff, but that leads to an inherent level of excitement. Here are some of the things we do:
- Play games. We like games. We know what's hot now, and we play it. We critique games that are out. We talk about games that are being played and why we think people like them.
- Watch a lot of sports on TV and have a passion for the sports we work on.
- Learn our own product inside and out.
- Know the video game industry and the sports industry and think about how the two fit together.
- Think about our consumer all the time, what they do on a Saturday, who they talk to, what they think is cool.
- Write in-depth marketing plans that take into account all of the above elements. We make sure we know whom we're targeting and why we're targeting them, and that the programs we select reach them effectively.
- Execute. All that great thinking is nothing unless you can pull it off.
- Develop advertising briefs with the agency.
- Develop promotional programs.
- Develop packaging.
- Work with league contacts.
Things to think about if you want to get into games:
- Know the video game market. For example, know how the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Nintendo GameCube™, and Xbox™ fit in with the PC.
- Know the developers in the market and how they relate to the above platforms.
- Play games.
- Develop an opinion on the hottest games out there (on all platforms).
- Play a game on the Internet.
- Read industry trade press (MCV, Next Generation, etc.) and web sites (CNET, ign, etc.)
- Read "Joystick Nation" and "Game Over"—they're good industry primers.
- Be patient. There are a lot of people who want to get into games, but everyone's looking for someone with experience working in games.
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