I have a quick question regarding starting out in the game industry:
I have been thinking lately about applying for QA game and LQA tester jobs and I wonder what type of skills, courses, qualification would help me get a job or what I should look at that would help/are necessary for QA testing?
I have looked at software courses, some of the programs that are being used for logging bugs etc but Its so many I have no idea where to start. Any tips or advice where to start?
Also, I know that QA testing is nowhere near “playing the game as a job” and that it can be tedious, soul-crushing, under appreciated etc but I would like to get my foot in since I have no programming, coding or developing experience whats so ever. The end goal would be working with sound and music.
So everything I say should be taken with a pinch of salt as your mileage may vary.
Firstly, it depends where you are trying to get a foot in the door. I wouldn’t bother applying to Ubisoft/EA/Rockstar because:
They typically require previous experience with QA on a shipped game (or multiple games).
You will be competing with other people (who might be programmers etc) that are trying to find a way into the industry (including QA people from other AAA studios looking to move to a new company).
You are better off going for indie studios or mobile-focused companies (gambling etc). They typically don’t require much more than having a passion for games and the ability to complete repetitive tasks without losing concentration.
Secondly, Unity Certifications would be a good way to show you have the capacity for self-learning and that you are somewhat competent at development (especially if you have no portfolio).
“Future creators, start here on your path to a career within the real-time 3D ecosystem. Test your foundational Unity and C# programming skills, and tell the world that you’re ready to create games and apps in Unity.”
"This certification is designed for professionals in roles such as Unity Developer, Software Engineer, Software Developer, Mobile Application Developer, and Gameplay Programmer. "
"Showcase your job-ready Unity skills by earning an industry-recognized credential and start on a path to a career within the real-time 3D gaming ecosystem. "
I’ve never worked at somewhere that didn’t use Jira (https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira) so it seems to be fairly “industry standard” (QA/Development/etc) but it’s not difficult to use as a QA or dev… it’s only if you are managing Jira stuff that it becomes complex so I doubt you will need to be proficient.
However, you should also bear in mind that any projects you have (game-related) will show a passion for game development and could be the deciding factor between you and the next person.
QA is basically a “no experience required” job. I mean there are companies (AAA studios mostly) that have much higher standards but outside of that - just showcasing a passion for games (and maybe 1 or 2 small projects to show me you can QA your own work) is enough in most cases.
A lot of QA jobs are minimum wage because of the low-barrier to entry. I’ve worked with QA people before that literally had no experience whatsoever in games or QA…
but they had a good job history, had a passion for games, and interviewed very well. They end up getting hired and assigned a senior QA to train them for the first few months.
Hopefully some of this helped.
oh and being good with Excel is a bonus.
and if you see QA jobs with ridiculous requirements like “must have a degree” just apply for it anyway. A lot of times it’s the HR folks who post the job ads (and have no idea about skill level) but the applications are passed on to a dev or manager in most cases.
Starting out in video game QA depends on what testing methods the company employs. Test automation is a bigger deal today than it used to be, but not every game company employs it extensively or at all. So there may be requirements for whatever test script language they use, there may be requirements for different testing frameworks or tools, etc.
On the other hand, when I got a QA job 2 decades ago for Mattel Interactive, it was basically just I had a few years of computer troubleshooting experience which showed I could investigate and troubleshoot, I showed I was pretty smart, and I was interested in the types of games they were working on. So the official requirements for that job were pretty slim (but so was the pay ).
This is exactly what I need and it is extremely helpful I will get right into all of this.
I have downloaded Jira and will have a proper go/watch tutorials etc so I learn it and I think I will start off with all the basic Unity tutorials they have before having a go with the certificates.
I would recommend taking a part time distance learning course with a university of college to also bolster your chances. Here in UK, all QA jobs tend to go to people with computer science degrees, or degrees in game design or other related course. Sometimes they have an actual qualification in Software QA itself, but that is super rare and usually an addition to normal education.
But generally you wont get a proper QA job (here and in a lot of EU or US) without a proper qualification towards gamedev, other than the 0 hour contract QA that SEGA had going at one point (which still all the people I know who got the role also went to uni to study games).
Many places offer 6 month courses distance learning, which can be done on the side of your daily activities and will go a long way in making you stand out in what is increasingly a over applied to field.
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I will get right into all of this.