How To Write A CV and Covering Letter For A Game Tester Role

By Jonathan Petts

Task 5

A very key part in the interview and application process for a job is your resume or CV and your covering letter. This shows your employers you key attributes and what work you have you done, you qualifications and your passion for the job, to basically sell yourself to the employers to make them think they want to you.

Presenting your self is also very important in non-verbal ways and in verbal ways. Such as:

Non-Verbal-
Have a good popsture - do not slouch in youre chair sit up straight and do not cross your arms this give is a negative attitude.
Have a firm handshake - this is a must that can be applied to all forms of life
Ensure you dress well - a suit or smart clothing to show you are dedicated and show you want this job
Make sure you are clean  - have a showrr brush your teeth well, and do not go out and party or get a hangover the night before, if you are well presented this shows you are a good person, and first impressions are key if you turn up like a mess you wont be hired.


Verbal -
Do not swear - try to use your best language this shows good etiquete
Try to be polite - Remember pleases and thank you, thank them for the interview

First impression are everything put yourself in the employeers shoes, you want the best person for the job and want the person to take the interview seriously.

For example I will show you how to create a resume for a role as a games tester and take you through the process of writing and what you will need.

Firstly you need to know how to lay out a CV things shows you key points you experience and how you want to develop and basically sell yourself to the employer.

Firstly you will need to give your basic information:

Name

Address

Phone numbers

Email

Website

DOB

This gives the employer a name to call you numbers and ways to contact you and if you have a website then can go and look at your work as we are applying for a game testing role if you make videos reviewing games or find bugs glitches and play a lot of games and post them this would be a big help as they want to see you have a passion for this topic, and that you already have an understanding of this role and how to do It.

We now need to get into the personal profile, you need to talk about your personal aims such as I love playing videos games and it would be a dream to test them for a living. Such as you wish to gain experience as a game tester and progress to become a more senior game tester one day. 

Then we need to talk about our qualifications, say where you have studied what level of qualifications you have received and if you got A-B-C’s or Merits or distinctions.

So for example

West Kent College

Tonbridge

Kent
2010-2012

BTEC National Diploma in Media

Subjects studied:

Bethany School         

Goudhurst

Kent

2005-2010

GCSE

GCSE Grades: History A, Maths C, French C, Geogrpahy A Etc..

This shows your level of qualifications and shows your level of knowledge and yhour ability to learn develop. It shows an knowledge of the subject or a general understanding of the subject you are wishing to get into, in our case it is not as needed as there are not qualifications but it is still important as it shows you can work well and learn new things well.

Then you need to talk about yourself your experience and what you have worked on :

My key qualities are …

I’m skilled in…

I have completed work experience at…

Such as for a month I worked at criterion games a runner getting software and delivering packages to people who required them, this means I have an understanding of how a games company works, if you have actually had any games testing experience, such your blog or YouTube has a large following and a developer send you a beta copy to post reviews and gameplay and report bugs, this is ideal if you do this as it shows you are dedicated to you work if you post a lot, it shows you are already in the industry and you are serious about it.  Give links and example of your work.

Give details of who you worked for and their contact detail if they wish to contact them for a reference.

Next you need to talk about your skills:

This is where you need to shine show how well suitable you are, such as if you run a blog or youtube say how you write long posts about the review of games gives links give peoples feedback provide more links to your work. Talk about how are very good at playing games such as game achievements, did you find any bugs in games knowone else did, and reported it and the developer fixed it. These are the kinds of things you need to tell them, are you good at presentations can you hold meetings and talked to lots of people, and describe things well so issues can be fixed give any speeches you have made this well help.  Any skills you consider valid or are proud of to show why you are a fantastic individual will be ideal.

Next we talk about what interests you this just gives the employer an idea to what kind of person you are this is very important to show you are not just a solid games and you need to show you have other passion such as film making, you love being creative anything you do such as a captain of my local football team will make you seem like someone who could work well in their team.

Finally provide actual references to previous employers, so they can contact them and find out first hand what you are like to work with. You can put “ I can supply these on request” or if you wish to supply them to stream line things put name of people, such as your manager, ways of contacting them like address or email or even phone.

Also do not forget to add you contact details at the bottom, saying if you have any questions I will be quick and happy to reply with phone numbers and email addresses.

Covering letter:

The covering letter is just as important as the CV this is the key selling point you say why you are the ideal employee, a CV is just listing the facts, a Covering letter is saying why you need the job, why you are suited to the job and to make them want to hire you.

This guide will show you how to write a perfect covering letter.

Firstly give your information, and set it out like a letter with you information and contact details.

Then say why you are enquiring and it would be a good idea to thank them for reading your covering letter and taking them time to read it.

You will want to attach your CV to this, and say I have attached my CV to this.

Now talk about why you are interested in the job, say why you want it why is is perfect for you, they will want to know that you will work hard, say how you have proven this by running a popular games review and blog would be idea. You will also want to say why the company your applying for is the ideal working place for you, and how your admire the company and it would be a dream come true.

Now talk about previous experience you have had, talk about how you enjoyed it so much and it felt like the perfect job for you, you can talk about the work you did and show examples of this.

You  will want to talk about why you are suited to the job, you may want to talk about how you have a keen eye and you can notice things in games that people don’t usually notice, and you can stay very focused as for a job as a games tester you may spend a whole day playing one level looking at every pixel and going places you don’t even need to go to see if there are any glitches or issues in the game.

Now I will show you my examples of my CV and Covering letter applying for this Job:

http://www.ttgames.com/jobs/

This is the jobs description:

We have an ongoing recruitment process that pools applicants and contacts them when games testers are next required. If you would like to be considered the next time we hire, please email your CV and a covering letter to jobs@ttgames.com.

The role would be situated at our office in Maidenhead, and applicants must have:

- The ability to work both Early Shifts and Late Shifts
- Excellent verbal and written English
- Good knowledge of the games industry and current consoles
- Proficiency in PC applications (including Microsoft Office applications)

If you are re-applying, then please state this in your cover letter.

Curriculum Vitae

Jonathan Petts

Full Name                  Jonathan David Petts

Address                      (Address Here)

Phone numbers         01892 542947 

Email                          jdpetts@gmail.com 

Website                       wannabecinematographer.wordpress.com

DOB                           10 March 1994

Education and Qualifications:

2005-2010                   Bethany School, Goudhurst

                                    GCSEs                       

                                    Grade A          History, Maths,French, Geography, RS

                                    Grade B          Science, English LIT LANG

2010-2012                   K College, Tonbridge

                                    HND  Media Production

                                    Grade              Merit

Experience:

I have set-up a successful blog and YouTube channel that has 300,000 viewers a week, in which I review video games across all platforms, I show reviews, glitches, bugs and montages.

I have tested games for a number of small indie developers’ in the Kent area very successfully.  They contacted me because of my blog, and felt I was suitable because I showed I had experience and could give positive constructive feedback.

I have been involved in a number of Alpha tests for Sony games.

I can provide contact details for two referees.

Jonathan David Petts

(Address here)

TT GAMES

34 Crossbrough

Maidenhead

Kent

TN97BP

Dear Sir/Madam, 

I would like to apply for your open position of Game Tester. I saw your advertisement online, and am very experienced and interested in this field. I enclose my CV. 

For the past two years, I have been working as a Game Tester for Sony Products as well as indie game developers in the Kent area . In that time, I have gained considerable experience in testing new and existing prototypes for game sales. I have been instrumental in the design and implementation process, and have added much appreciated feedback and analysis to this end. I have always been very technically inclined and love computer games. 

I feel your company would be ideal to work for as I have played many of your games and actually reviewed them on my blog and Youtube.  Your offices are local to me and I would have no issues getting to and from your studios. I have always wanted to work for a studio and I feel I can be a real asset to your company.

I would really like to meet with you in person to discuss this opportunity .You can contact me on 01892542947 or my email address.  I hope to hear from you soon.

Yours faithfully  

Jonathan Petts  

Something else that is very important is a showreel, this shows a combination your work in a short video to summarise your capabilities and show what quality of work your produce as then the potential client can make a decision based of how good he/she thinks your work is.  You can easily give a link to people of put it on a CD/USB stick that you can hand out to people.

I have created a showreel, this was a previous showreel as my abilities have developed and moved on and worked on other jobs I have updated it, but this is a showreel that has already been posted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PQufk_z0kE

In this example i could give client this link and they could see the work I have done. Since i posted this video I have worked with other clients and other projects just this has not been posted yet.