All Those Hours Of Tetris CAN Pay Off With A Computer Gaming Career!

Jarrod sharpens his business skills by playing a challenging game of Transport Tycoon.

Jarrod, 21, recently had an interview with Electromagnetic Arts, a prominent computer game publisher. He thinks the meeting went well, and Jarrod hopes that he demonstrated to management that he had the right stuff to begin a career in the field he loves the most--computer gaming.

"I think Mr. Frick, the human resources manager, was impressed," said Jarrod, whose gaming accomplishments include everything from Asheron's Call to Zork III. "He seemed particularly interested in my resource management skills, which I developed from playing games such as Age Of Empires, Starcraft, and Transport Tycoon."

"And I spent two years playing Quake," Jarrod continued. "That definitely shows dedication, perseverance, and that I was a team player--when I wasn't deathmatching that is."

To increase his chances of getting hired, Jarrod brought along his portfolio which contained screenshots of some of his best scoring performances, recorded demos of his winning games, and letters of recommendation from game server administrators. He even included copies of savegames as evidence of his progress and accomplishments.

"Mr. Lee's resume includes an impressive list of completed games," said Frick, who is responsible for hiring students to test his company's games for errors. "Of course we'll need to check his references--people he's defeated in multiplayer games, clan and tribe members, that sort of thing. But I'll admit that Mr. Lee has strong problem-solving abilities and must have extremely fast reflexes, job skills that can get him in the door--and into the server room."

One thing working in Jarrod's favour is his commitment to his full-time pastime of gaming. He has sacrificed wealth, love, and happiness to become the best game player that he could be. It's not an obsession, oh no, but that passion for gaming that will help Jarrod succeed.

"There aren't many people who would give up friendship, an education, or a healthy lifestyle, to focus their entire existence on defeating computer games," said Frick. "It's that rare human quality that could make Jarrod a useful and manageable resource to our company."