I've seen a job offer as game tester. Does this offer look good?

[FoRmaT]

So this game offer is as game tester for Nintendo in Germany.

But it's not Nintendo who's hiring. Instead, you work for a personnel agency with a permanent contract.

This is the job description, taken from the agency's website:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
These job conditions are fixed, there will be no exceptions.
40 working hours per week (Monday to Friday, 8 hours each day)
Shift work could be possible
Wage: € 1.200 net (after taxes) per month
Overtime hours will be paid
Health and social insurance guaranteed (inclusive)
Permanent contract with alpha, not Nintendo
Holiday privilege (24 days per full working year, 2 days a month given - regulated by the German working law system)
Holidays can be taken in accordance with Nintendo and alpha
No holiday privileges during project periodsAs for any other job you need to have some skills, that are:
Good knowledge in English (spoken & written) - Please note: English is the company language
One of the following languages needs to be your mother tongue: Spanish, UK-English, Italian, French, German or Dutch
Very good experience in playing computer games of every genre
Having fun playing videogames
Readiness to work in an international environment
Age: over 18 years (younger people are not allowed to work in accordance to the German law system)
Readiness to work and live in Germany over a period of months/years - Please note: Working from home is not possible! There will not be any exceptions!
Valid passportFirst of all, we need your application. By clicking on "your application" you can submit your application.
We need the following documents:
CV in your mother tongue (Spanish, Italian, German, French, Dutch or UK-English)
CV in English
A completely filled personal data sheet (see in upload area)Please note: Only complete applications will be regarded!
We will check your documents and we are going to call you a few days later for an interview by phone. There you have the chance to ask all the questions you may still have.
Afterwards you will receive an e-mail with 2 test sheets attached: one in your mother tongue and one in English. You will have to send those back via e-mail.
Please do not use any aids or ask for advice from someone else to fill the test - be honest with yourself, as there will be a second test on the same level here in Germany.
If you pass the test, you will be invited for an interview here at our office as well as at Nintendo‘s office. Both interviews will take place on the same day.
Coming to Germany:
We will meet here at our office (if you come by train/plane, you will be picked up at the station/airport for free). There will be a short interview at our office before you will be visiting Nintendo with us. Only if you pass this second test in your mother tongue, you will be interviewed by Nintendo.
Our company will receive the test results within one week and we will tell you as soon as possible if you get the job as a videogame tester.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Does this sound alright? Is there a huge disadvantage in not working directly for Nintendo? The hiring process seems a bit like a PITA...

On the application form they ask three questions to which I'm unsure what the best answers would be:

-Why do you want to work as a videogametester? : I've heard that at some companies the wrongest answer is "because I love games". Is this true? Because that's basically the reason... Or what's a good answer?

-How many games have you ever played? (first to last level) : I must have played hundreds of games, but finished maybe only a dozen or so. Should I say a couple dozen, or more like "100 plus"?

-How many hours/week do you usually spend with playing games? : I'd say 15-20 hours/week is the time I do spend. Is that too low for a tester? Should I answer 20-25, or maybe even 50?

Also, googling for "become game tester" there are a lot of links to articles by some Sean Saunders who claims to be a pro tester (and wants to sell you info or a book on how to become one yourself). This guy says it's a good idea to mention things like "I read a lot of game forums", "I always read gaming related sites" and stuff like this when putting together your cv. Is that a bunch of BS or is that actually something to put on a resume's letter?


On the other hand, I'm invited for a job interview on monday, as a passenger check in agent at the Frankfurt airport. That's probably a lot more stress and headaches, but on the bright side, I guess that job pays a bit better, I dunno. Not sure what do to if on monday the passenger handling company says "we want you". Because on one hand I think I'd prefer the tester job, but on the other hand I'm afraid to ask for a week of thinking time, because that might piss them off, and I wouldn't want to lose a bad "yes" for a good "maybe". Hmmm....

[Pogo]

-Why do you want to work as a videogametester? : I've heard that at some companies the wrongest answer is "because I love games". Is this true? Because that's basically the reason... Or what's a good answer?

Yeah that's definitely the wrong answer. I think the job is more akin to something a beta tester would do... go through functions of the game in a certain way, map out exactly what was done when things worked, map out what was done when things didn't work, try to reproduce the bugs that caused things not to work, and document everything in detail. I'd say the process is akin to organization and patience. Loving games has little to do with it.

How many games have you ever played? (first to last level) : I must have played hundreds of games, but finished maybe only a dozen or so. Should I say a couple dozen, or more like "100 plus"?

I'd probably just lie and say 100+

How many hours/week do you usually spend with playing games? : I'd say 15-20 hours/week is the time I do spend. Is that too low for a tester? Should I answer 20-25, or maybe even 50?

20 hours a week is like 3 hours a day. I'd probably say 25-30.


I don't see how it'd hurt to mention your general gaming interests through forums and online gaming sites and things of that nature.

[JoshV]

I'd probably just lie and say 100+



Err, the question was how many games have you played, not how many games you have finished. 100+ wouldn't be a lie =) I don't think they really care that you didn't manage to beat ganon on that last zelda game.

[FoRmaT]

Yeah that's definitely the wrong answer. I think the job is more akin to something a beta tester would do... go through functions of the game in a certain way, map out exactly what was done when things worked, map out what was done when things didn't work, try to reproduce the bugs that caused things not to work, and document everything in detail. I'd say the process is akin to organization and patience. Loving games has little to do with it.


Hmmm, that's probably a very good description of what a game tester does. Now I have to package the statement that this appeals to me into a one-line answer. Hmmm, task one of the job!

I agree with your other tips. 25-30 hours/week sounds like a good balance of having a life and enjoying games, and finishing 100+ games certainly sounds reasonable. Hopefully, I won't have to describe the last level or outro of those games. I'll have to pull a "oh, crap, Alzheimer!" if I'm asked to do that.

[FoRmaT]

Err, the question was how many games have you played, not how many games you have finished. 100+ wouldn't be a lie =) I don't think they really care that you didn't manage to beat ganon on that last zelda game.


They did ask for games played first to last level. That would be a small list in my case, but I guess a good dose of exaggeration won't do any harm ;)

[stusser]

Doing the math on that salary, I would ask about prospects for advancement. Oftentimes QA testers look to move to design; being outsourced that would likely not be possible.

[Jarmo]

I guess a good dose of exaggeration won't do any harm

It might. The people in there surely know games. They might ask you some questions about the end of a game you claim to have completed.

The original question tells them something about your perseverance and patience. Both are needed in spades in testing.

For an another question, saying you want to participate in the making of games and want to make games have better quality and thus be a better experience for the player might be a good answer, but only if you mean it. Don't say it if you don't really feel it, it shows.

[FoRmaT]

Doing the math on that salary, I would ask about prospects for advancement. Oftentimes QA testers look to move to design; being outsourced that would likely not be possible.

No, that is true, but at least it would be a first foot in the door. From there on, who knows?

[FoRmaT]

It might. The people in there surely know games. They might ask you some questions about the end of a game you claim to have completed.

Yes, that would really be embarrassing. I might cheat by reading a few dozen plot summaries on wikipedia, I guess...

The original question tells them something about your perseverance and patience. Both are needed in spades in testing.

I would have to work on that. But of course I'd approach a job in a different way than my free time.

For an another question, saying you want to participate in the making of games and want to make games have better quality and thus be a better experience for the player might be a good answer, but only if you mean it. Don't say it if you don't really feel it, it shows.

This I could say and it would be honest, yes. I'll work that into the motivation answer.

[Coca Cola Zero]

-Why do you want to work as a videogametester? : I've heard that at some companies the wrongest answer is "because I love games". Is this true? Because that's basically the reason... Or what's a good answer?


I wouldn't say that answer is wrong, they do even list "Having fun playing videogames" in their "skills" section. Just don't make that your COMPLETE answer. It should be more something like, I love games and I've always been fascinated by the process in which they are made and blah blah blah, perhaps highlighting how you've always enjoyed attempting to break game systems just to see how they react (which many people who aren't pro game testers do enjoy). You might want to work in how you enjoy playing favorite games over and over and over and over and over trying new things, since that's what you'll be doing (with the exception that the games probably won't be your favorites and they'll be in shitty unplayable states by released game standards, of course).

[Jose Liz]

Why do you want to work as a videogametester?

Because you love challenges, are determined to get your foot in the door in the videogames industry, and want to help make their games even better.

Auto-admit.

[FoRmaT]

Thank you, CCC, that sounds really good. I hadn't even thought of the "breaking the game" aspect, which I actually do enjoy!

[FoRmaT]

Because you love challenges, are determined to get your foot in the door in the videogames industry, and want to help make their games even better.

Auto-admit.

I like that!

[Angie Gallant]

How detail-oriented are you? How good are you at not just breaking a game, but explaining in text exactly what you did to break it? Do you have the patience to do it 10 times in a row to make sure all your steps are necessary and see how often it breaks that way? Can you keep your cool if your bug comes back with a tirade from a developer who is having a bad week? How willing are you to dig in to the base cause of a bug or do you just want to ship off a superficial report the first time you notice something? Do you have obligations outside your job that could prevent you from doing long hours at the drop of a hat?

A few considerations to make. Whether or not you like games is pretty immaterial to the job itself. When I think about the best testers I've worked with, and the traits I worked on myself in order to excel at my job, I thought about attention to detail, communication, diplomacy, and ability to hold my ground.

[WarrenM]

I don't see why they care how many games you finished. You weren't testing those games so it's a totally different context - I.E. you were playing for enjoyment.

[FoRmaT]

They probably think they can see how "hard core" I am that way.

One other thing I noted is that on the application form on their web, they ask for the date of birth, which is illegal in the EU.

[FoRmaT]

Angie, thanks for your thoughts. I really appreciate them.

[JeffL]

What Angie said.

Many years ago I did testing for a few companies, in particular on some Gary Grigsby SSI wargames and some David Landry stuff, amongst others. David formed a company that did testing for SSI and some other companies, and he and I used to chat a lot. (For you youngsters, David was an outstanding wargame designer.) He told me that he got a lot of people who wanted to be testers, thinking it would be cool playing games and getting paid for it, and 80% quit because the job is getting an unfinished piece of code, testing it in every way possible, finding bugs, reproducing them and documenting it well, etc. In fact, for many of the games for which I was a tester, the game was pretty much ruined for me by the time we got done testing it and it was released. I was just sick of it, plus I'd seen so much of how the sausage was made.

That said: you probably want to differentiate yourself from all the applicants who think playing games and getting paid for it is cool. They'll be overwhelmed with kids telling them they play 10 games a week, play 16 hours a day, etc. Differentiate yourself by being more about the profession: tell them you are fascinated by the process of game design, you are turned on by tearing a game apart in a systematic manner, you want to be able to help game designers produce more robust products by digging into the functions of the game in meticulous detail, etc.

[Jakub]

# Wage: € 1.200 net (after taxes) per month
Can you afford to live on that? Also, game testing is a good way to grow to dislike gaming. You start seeing games as a series of formulas, systems, and processes, rather than as games. It's sort of like having a magic trick explained to you.

[Angie Gallant]

Very true. It generally takes me about a year of not working on a game of a genre to be able to enjoy any games in that genre again.

[StGabe]

How detail-oriented are you?

This.

Video game testing usually isn't that fun although it does vary. Ultimately "detail-oriented" is the top qualification. You also need a healthy stomach for repetition.

One thing that is important with QA jobs is how close you are to working with developers. If you ever want to do something else you want to make sure that you're pretty closely coupled. In many QA jobs there is basically no relationship between QA's and devs at all and you're just a disposable resource.

[ScubaV]

I find it interesting that they specified UK-English as opposed to just English. They don't want Americans?

[kerzain]

Americans are fine, as long as you don't wrinkle your nose when asked if you want to go halvsies on a spotted dick.

[Chris Nahr]

I find it interesting that they specified UK-English as opposed to just English. They don't want Americans?

They are most likely doing European localization testing as well, and the mother tongue clause is for people being able to test one of those localizations as well. I don't think game text actually gets translated from American to British English, but the British game manuals I've seen are definitely localized.

[moss_icon]

They don't want Americans?

who can blame them.

[Lorini]

Here in the US, personnel agencies charge from $10k to $20k and more to hire a person provided by the agency. So keep that in mind if you really want to work for the company...they may not want to pay the fee.

[Miramon]

Wage: € 1.200 net (after taxes) per month

Geez. What are income taxes like in Germany -- say 25% for you at a guess -- +5% "solidarity" tax, right? That seems like a pretty miserable rate of pay to me for a supposedly technical job. Just more indication of the disrespect for QA in the industry, I suppose.

Are you just out of school and living at home with no rent? If so, just maybe, if you are ardently committed to the game industry, and this is your only way to get a foot in the door.... but otherwise it seems like a demeaning rate of pay for a demanding job.

[bloo]

Jumping aboard the "Listen to Angie" wagon. Angie interviewed me for a QA job once in the back ago (or however that Mad Max 3 quote goes).

Can you keep your cool if your bug comes back with a tirade from a developer who is having a bad week?

Hehehe. I'm laughing but I don't want to say way. Good times.

[Charles]

I don't see why they care how many games you finished. You weren't testing those games so it's a totally different context - I.E. you were playing for enjoyment.

Ehh. It's to make sure you don't get bored of games in the middle, because testing is super fucking boring, and if you can't finish the average game you play, you have no chance as a tester. Seriously, it'll be putting you to sleep the second week in.

[JeffL]

Ehh. It's to make sure you don't get bored of games in the middle, because testing is super fucking boring, and if you can't finish the average game you play, you have no chance as a tester. Seriously, it'll be putting you to sleep the second week in.

Yep. Also, remember that you will often be testing games that are really sucky games. So you will be working on an unfinished, buggy section of a crappy game. For hours and hours and hours. Not to scare you off, but people here who have done this want to make sure you understand what you are getting into. Think of one of the crappiest games you have played. Now imagine that the code is unfinished, the graphics aren't done yet, and you are assigned to test the, oh, scoring routines by trying every variation of getting points in a given segment of the game, for hours. Then, when you jump in one section and the game locks up, rebooting, reloading, trying to reproduce exactly what happened and then trying to do EVERYTHING you did before and all variations to determine the precise way to create the bug, and all the ways that do NOT result in the bug.

It can be interesting, to be sure, but I remember in the time I did it, playing some piece of crap Laser Squad or some such game, my character being unable to enter a door, getting killed by enemy soldiers I couldn't see (and having to test if that was what was happening, was it intentional, or was I just triggering some bug,) finding the "working" pieces of game to be completely stultifying, and thinking "I hate this game, I would never play it even when it was done, and I hate that I'm spending hours and hours on it."

OTOH - the best situation is when you are working directly with the game developer(s) and having some dialog with them (if they aren't prima donna assholes - I won't mention in public the one I had that experience with) and they listen and appreciate the feedback and ideas. I assume that working for a testing company as opposed to directly for the development company/producer may put a barrier in that prevents that - don't know.

[FoRmaT]

I appreciate all the feedback.

I can see myself getting bored, yes. But on the other hand, my last job was recepcionist in a small holiday resort on Tenerife, where some days were busy as hell, when there were many arrivals, while other days had me literally just sayin "good afternoon" and "good evening" for the whole day.

That job paid €1050 net.

If I go back to a job in a hotel recepetion here in Germany, I'm looking at a salary of around €1600-€1800 gross, which in the end is maybe €100 more than the tester job. The airport job im being interviewed for tomorrow will probably be in that salary region, too, I guess.

I'd love to move to some other, sunnier country were obtained titles aren't as important as they are here :(

I've been offered to go live in my wife's parent's house, but that's in Peru. I don't really see myself working 40+ hours to earn $400 at the end of the month...

Spain would be nice, but with the 15% unemployment rate they've got right now, I'm a bit scared to go back...

[MatthewF]

I used to be part of the interview program for testers at EA (they send you 3 people, a senior tester, a programmer, and a producer). I was the programmer. One of the programming questions I had to ask in the interview was, "Ok, see this stapler right here? What would be the best way to test it?"

The guy thought for a moment, then picked it up and threw it against the floor -- not super hard or anything, but it surprised everyone a bit. It smashed into about 10 pieces. He said, "It broke. That's a poorly-made stapler. I think you basically just need to take a game and throw everything you have at it, and if it breaks, it's poorly-made."

He started working there fulltime the next day.

[Jon Rowe]

That is awesome.

I work as QA for a software company (non-gaming). It isn't bad, plenty of ways to move up from there... definitely a foot in the door position.

[Hanacker]

The guy thought for a moment, then picked it up and threw it against the floor -- not super hard or anything, but it surprised everyone a bit. It smashed into about 10 pieces. He said, "It broke. That's a poorly-made stapler. I think you basically just need to take a game and throw everything you have at it, and if it breaks, it's poorly-made."

He started working there fulltime the next day.

That story doesn't really work if the stapler doesn't break, though.

[Rasputin]

That is awesome.

I work as QA for a software company (non-gaming). It isn't bad, plenty of ways to move up from there... definitely a foot in the door position.

As said above, and I want to emphasize this, foot in the door depends on how closely you work with devs. Working at the larger publishers, like Nintendo, Activision, etc, you're often just an ass in a seat that never really meets with anyone on the other side of things, and completely disposable.

[JeffL]

I used to be part of the interview program for testers at EA (they send you 3 people, a senior tester, a programmer, and a producer). I was the programmer. One of the programming questions I had to ask in the interview was, "Ok, see this stapler right here? What would be the best way to test it?"

The guy thought for a moment, then picked it up and threw it against the floor -- not super hard or anything, but it surprised everyone a bit. It smashed into about 10 pieces. He said, "It broke. That's a poorly-made stapler. I think you basically just need to take a game and throw everything you have at it, and if it breaks, it's poorly-made."

He started working there fulltime the next day.

What I love about that story: a good tester has to not only do what the average player might do in a game, he has to test all the unexpected things a player might try. An average tester would just grab some paper and staple - a good tester would open the stapler up and try to staple that way, or drop/toss the stapler against the floor. Love it!

[cesare]

Yeah, super. None of the studios I've worked at would hire somebody who smashed a stapler on the ground during an interview to prove some vague point about the importance of thorough testing. Don't do that.

[kerzain]

I'm kind of associating the whole "gotta throw everything at it, like a stapler to the floor!" with trying to get a PS3 game to run on your Wii before you see if the damn thing even runs on a PS3.

Couldn't he have stapled once first and THEN smashed it on the ground? At least he'd prove he has something worth testing first, before throwing the thing into an environment it wasn't designed for.

Not only would I not hire the guy for breaking my stapler, but I would make him eat the pieces.

[GloriousMess]

I've always wondered; would an applicant that has commercial software developement experience be a better candidate than someone who solely plays games, browses forums, keeps up to date, etc? Coming from the former perspective, I would rather choose someone who shared my experience over someone who simply plays games. I would imagine (hope) that if a candidate has experience making software, he can understand how best to test it, produce the bug report, and work with the developers to fix it.

Has anyone reading this recruited an ex-software developer into a testing position? Did they last that long? Were they any good? If so, it might be worth mentioning any programming or analytical experience you have early on in your C.V., FoRmaT, and associate it (somehow) with gaming. No harm in using it in an interview either as far as I can see.

Also: games testing can be a soulless job or a satisfying and fun job, depending almost entirely on who employs you. I hope the working environment is good enough.

[WarrenM]

Ehh. It's to make sure you don't get bored of games in the middle, because testing is super fucking boring, and if you can't finish the average game you play, you have no chance as a tester. Seriously, it'll be putting you to sleep the second week in.
Yeah, but I do think context plays a lot into it. I won't play a shitty game on my own time but if you're going to pay me a salary to do it, fine, I'll struggle through.

[WildElf]

Here in the US, personnel agencies charge from $10k to $20k and more to hire a person provided by the agency. So keep that in mind if you really want to work for the company...they may not want to pay the fee.

That sounds like a recruiter fee. What happens with testers at every large publisher I've worked at or have known people to work at use a third party agency to handle the testers because you have a massive pool of temp contract workers that's not worth it to handle directly. There's no negative from that to getting hired full time (except that it's usually really hard to get hired fulltime no matter what).

As for the fee, 1200 euros a month works out to roughly $9-10 which is pretty good for a tester in America. If you want to get into games, it's the best way to do it - unless you have an interest in programming or art. Many of my QA buds from 10 years ago are an array of producers, PR folks, biz dev, marketting, QA leads, and all sorts of things. When I jumped into it, it was lean for the first year, but well worth it. I was also single, living in a cheap apartment, and recently out of college, and didn't not have to ask a family to help carry a burden.

Glorius Mess: It's certainly an asset, but not necessarily better than "someone who solely plays games" and has a passion for them (forum browsing doesn't enter into it). Along with clear communication, a good troubleshooting instinct, playing games well is really important (you don't need to be the best, just capable). I've had mixed results, hiring a dedicated game player generally has been more consistent. Usually the problem is that people from software misrepresent their gaming ability. But seeing testing experience of any kind on a resume is definitely going to draw my attention.

[Alan Au]

Actually, there's a fairly decent Wikipedia article about game testing, which includes links to several interesting articles on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_tester

- Alan

[FoRmaT]

Sent the application yesterday.

That airport job offer was a fucking joke. Less money than flipping burgers!

[John E. Motion]

Are you legally able to work in the Schengen Area? Not being an EU citizen may be an important factor. (You're Canadian, right?) Some companies don't want to hire non-Schengen folks. I think it's a higher tax/wage burden or perhaps additional paperwork. I've never really looked into it.

[FoRmaT]

Canadian? I wish! I'd very much like to move there or the US. I'm German, though.

[Jakub]

Why do you want to move away from Germany?

[FoRmaT]

See, I've lived in Spain since I was nine or ten years old, and moved back to Germany in 2007 because I thought I'd find more employment stability, with a permanent contract (which are hard to come by in Spain, but are the norm around here) and other advantages in many aspects of everyday life, like better healthcare.

But it's tougher than I thought because I don't have any "proper" job education, apart from several years of experience, and it's hard to find a job when you don't.

It's so ridiculous here, there are so many professions that don't even exist anywhere else, like for example... "specialized bakery seller". I kid you not. You spend 2-3 years learning the in and outs of selling bread. Crazy. In Spain, my wife went to a bakery and applied for a job, and was working the next day. They showed her the couple dozen products they sold and how to use the register and that was it. She was working. But here, people don't get opportunities if they don't have titles to show.

Here, you normally don't even have a chance to work as cashier in a supermarket if you don't have formally learned the job.

All I get are rejection letters or no answer at all. When I do get a call, it's like the job as passenger check in worker I interviewed for on Monday; they called it part time, with a guaranteed 100 working hours per month, plus extra hours. Night shifts. Often, working 8 days three times in a row. Salary? €9,45 gross per hour, which in my taxation class comes down to ~ €600 per month. More if you do extra hours, of course. They don't even HAVE this job as full time. Only the way I just described.

I had an interview in a very nice four star hotel, to work as a receptionist. I turned them down because they offered €1050 net plus food per month. For me, that's a damn joke. I made more than that when I worked in a two star hotel on Tenerife, and Tenerife is the second worst paying area in Spain, only before Extremadura.

I hate the weather. I spend twice-triple on heating and electricity as I did in Spain. Car insurance/tax costs twice as much, too. It's hard to make friends here. Most of the nice people we meet are foreigners.

I'd love to work on the other half of the pond.