A great resume might be the key to landing your dream job, but it won’t make a difference if nobody reads it. That’s where your cover letter comes in. A great cover letter helps you stand out from the crowd. And it makes that recruiter or hiring manager eager to learn more about you — rather than passing you over.

In short, a great cover letter can be your key to getting noticed, scoring an interview, and ultimately landing your dream job.

So let’s dive in and learn exactly how to craft a strong cover letter, step by step. We’ll offer specific advice, look at cover letter examples and samples, and provide a cover letter template you can copy-paste to get started writing your own.

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Today, I’m doing a video “teardown” of 3 actual resumes from job-seekers in the video game industry. All of the resumes are pretty good, but they make some super-common mistakes that I see all the time. With just a little more work, these can become the sort of eye-catching resumes that are impossible for recruiters and hiring managers to overlook.

Most of these mistakes are extremely common—in fact, I’d be willing to bet that your own resume contains at least 3 of these mistakes right now! Watch the video to learn what they are, and how you can fix them before you apply for your next job.

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In this episode of Game Industry Career Guide Podcast, I answer a question from Travis, who asks “I am a recent computer science graduate. I applied for a tester job at Ubisoft and, following your advice, I submitted everything as a PDF file. But I recently listened to another podcast that said big companies, like Ubisoft, don’t actually read resumes, computers do, and that we should use a plain resume with specific fonts and save it as a Microsoft word or a TXT file so the computer can parse the information. Is this true? Is my application going to be overlooked because I submitted PDF files?”

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why big game companies use machine learning software to filter resumes
  • Whether certain file formats and fonts might cause problems for your application
  • A clever trick you can use to find out what’s allowed by any company’s resume-reading software

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In this episode of Game Industry Career Guide Podcast, I answer a question from Gabor G. who asks, “I found a lot of useful information about game testing in this post. And now all I need is a CV or Resume. And that is the part where I need a little help. I have almost no experience in CV writing and I don’t find any useable example or template on the Web.”

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • The best way to get past the hardest part of writing your resume or CV
  • How to write your personal Summary (not an Objective!)
  • The #1 mistake most people make when writing their work history, and how to avoid it

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In this episode of Game Industry Career Guide Podcast, our question is from Mark H. who asks, What are the best job websites to post my video game resume?

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why posting your resume to a job board isn’t enough (not even close!)
  • What exactly happens when you post your resume or CV, and why it’s bound to disappoint you
  • How to change from a passive job search to an active search
  • My top 3 recommendations for the best websites for video game jobs

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This article is part of our Video Game Job Hunt Guide. Read the full guide to learn how to write a strong resume, build a winning portfolio, ace your job interviews and more.

Screen shot from Particle + Noise shader demo, Brandon Fogerty
A graphical programming portfolio can make your resume mesmerizing.

If you’re searching for a job in the video game industry, it’s important to have an online portfolio to showcase your work. That might be easy for artists that already work in a pixel-based medium – but how can video game programmers make their code into something visually appealing that looks great on a web page? Read more »

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This article is part of our Video Game Job Hunt Guide. Read the full guide to learn how to write a strong resume, build a winning portfolio, ace your job interviews and more.

Old typewriter
I typed my gaming resume on this clacker. J/K.

When I applied for my first game studio job back in 2001, I knew that a good resume was important. Naturally I searched the Internet, hoping to find good advice and resume samples that worked. There wasn’t much out there back then. But what little I did find was conflicting and contradictory. Not helpful.

Functional or chronological? Combination or targeted? Formal or creative? MS Word or PDF? It shouldn’t have been so hard to get a straight answer.

That was a long time ago. Today, there’s 100 times more advice out there and it’s 1,000 times more conflicting and contradictory. Still not helpful!Read more »

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This article is part of our Video Game Job Hunt Guide. Read the full guide to learn how to write a strong resume, build a winning portfolio, ace your job interviews and more.

A students writes her resume
Does your game dev resume set you apart from the competition?

The goal of a resume is to make you stand out from hundreds of other job candidates, so you can land an interview and ultimately get a job in the video game industry.

Don’t underestimate how important it is to write a good resume. This is your chance to make a great first impression on potential employers. Don’t blow it!

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