Originally Posted by Lyte

*These views are mainly relevant to mid- to senior-level positions only.

Apparently my interviews are some of the most grueling experiences at Riot, so I was asked to voice some thoughts here. Every company, every school, every lab or club has an all-star or two. I think everyone has met someone like this before, where we reflect and say, "I don't care what I'm doing or where I have to go--I want to work with that person and learn from that person." Riot has teams of all-stars. So what does that mean?

It means it's not about just having great ideas. When you are working with industry experts in every discipline, everyone has amazing ideas. The next big idea for a game feature could come from QA, Game Design, or even Marketing and with so many smart people focused on the same goals, I hear a lot of great ideas. In a vast majority of interviews, I'll listen to dozens and dozens of great ideas.

"I would do this for League."
"I want to build this for Riot."
"I have a great idea for this new feature."

But guess what? In 99.9% of cases, I've heard the idea 200+ times already. However, if an applicant takes a great idea and shows me how they actually executed the idea and got tangible results--that's impressive. Students often ask me, "Well, how do I get a position in PBJ? No game developers are really hiring psychologists or neuroscientists so I can't get experience." Why do you have to be at a game studio to execute on a great idea? We're now in a day and age where you can create mods, build models, or run analyses that are all valuable to game developers--why not just do it and prove that you can execute on your great ideas?

Secondly, teams like player behavior don't need to hire anyone. We're looking for the best and we are willing to wait. I often ask applicants, "What do you bring to Riot that we currently don't have?" The reason I ask this question is because I want to know exactly what is the opportunity cost of not having this person at Riot. Am I worried if this person joins a competing game developer? Is there something we simply cannot create or build without this person?

You'll notice that at this point I haven't mentioned degrees or experience. Sure, degrees and experience are correlated with intelligence and knowledge, but we all know it's not everything. Without those things, you need to have created enough awesome and show enough tangible value in your projects to the point where an interview later, I'm thinking: "We cannot afford to lose this person--they have to be a Rioter."

Originally Posted by davin

This bears repeating. The people who really rise to the top of the pile are those that are doing what they're doing because they want nothing more than to do that. Maybe it's more like they HAVE to do it, that's how bad they want it.

Other psychologists often ask about how you get to do research in games. Of course, the answer is simple: You do research in games. The world is flush with data and opportunity. Find a way to do what you want to do, show people that you're passionate and talented and driven, and the positions will be there.

Originally Posted by Barbarian Bill

I'm going through a BS degree in Game Simulation and Programming. Now I've been looking for jobs all around California and Riot Games was my top choice, but the reality is that 98% of the game programming market does require you to have 6-10 years of experience.

Some colleagues of mine are actually getting jobs in these businesses without the 5-10+ years of knowledge and Triple A title development. They started in the same boat as me, not knowing a single thing about programming and ending up with the degree with job offers.

I know Internship helps which I hope to apply for one at riot really soon, but is that enough? Personally I would love to get out of school and go straight to programming, but with today it just seems like you either have to create your own gaming business, become the bestof the best of your class, or work at McDonalds until you learn enough.


Edit: I would like some rioter to respond, I had this question on my mind for a long while before this post.

Originally Posted by Damiya

Thirding this, as a terribly junior member of the Riot team. I'm obviously not in a place where I hire people like Lyte or Morello, but I can talk a little bit about what got me a job here.

Over the summer I had the wild idea to turn my passion for UI modification and coding into a position in the industry; so I did. I started working on the exceptionally rough UI for The Secret World, finding exploits, fixing bugs, creating value, and helping drive that fledgling coding community.

Long story short, I levelled up my resume and added a very concrete example of my love for games to my portfolio. Like most of you I had little projects here and there, but without putting the hours in to figure out what I could do and make it happen, I certainly wouldn't be on a team as chock-full-of-awesome as Riot is.

I guess what I'm trying to say is.. Why wait for the community API?

Originally Posted by Barbarian Bill

I'm going through a BS degree in Game Simulation and Programming. Now I've been looking for jobs all around California and Riot Games was my top choice, but the reality is that 98% of the game programming market does require you to have 6-10 years of experience.

Some colleagues of mine are actually getting jobs in these businesses without the 5-10+ years of knowledge and Triple A title development. They started in the same boat as me, not knowing a single thing about programming and ending up with the degree with job offers.

I know Internship helps which I hope to apply for one at riot really soon, but is that enough? Personally I would love to get out of school and go straight to programming, but with today it just seems like you either have to create your own gaming business, become the bestof the best of your class, or work at McDonalds until you learn enough.


Edit: I would like some rioter to respond, I had this question on my mind for a while.

Originally Posted by Lyte

Without those things, you need to have created enough awesome and show enough tangible value in your projects to the point where an interview later, I'm thinking: "We cannot afford to lose this person--they have to be a Rioter."

Originally Posted by Damiya

...concrete example...

Originally Posted by Morello

Honestly, this. School and education are valuable, but a degree does not get you a job, it lets you start trying to get a job that requires a degree. There's no entitlement from having a degree that gets you a job.

Requirements aren't there to make people feel warm and fuzzy, they're there to make sure people have the appropriate skillset. Some jobs are fine with less experience (design can be one of these!), others are not.