GDC: A Learning Experience (Post Mortem)

Taking a moment to look back on all of it, I have a few things to say about the whole experience.

What Worked

• The parties were an excellent place to network, and so was the W. I got stacks of business cards and lots of requests for me to send resumes at the parties. The expo floor and career pavilion were not nearly as productive for me.
• Using humor was always successful in meeting people. Whenever I had an opportunity, ("What a lovely necklace!" to a guy who had beads from another party, or "I want one!" to a guy with a glowing ball from Activision) it was an excellent ice breaker to starting a conversation.
• Quick exits whenever I annoyed somebody. Almost always the next person I approached was far more worth talking to, which made me glad I hadn't wasted time with someone who didn't really want to talk to me.
• Profiling people to decide who to talk to. Before I started paying attention, I ended up talking to a lot of people who were students or also looking for jobs. When I started scanning the room to see who looked like producers and leads, I ended up talking to some of the top dogs in the Industry. They gave me good advice, good leads, and sometimes even asked me for my resume.
• Having a flash drive on hand with a demo of my game. This got me an impromptu interview that led to a second interview the next day, which led to an internship offer!
  

What I'll Do Differently Next Time

• Bring fewer resumes and CV's and instead print them out as I go. I only handed out a few, and I would have had plenty of time to restock if I started to run out.
• Spend more time at the W. The W is a great place to network just about all day, so I think next time, I'll just hang out in the lobby whenever I don't have a better place to be.
• Remember people. The most embarrassing moment I had was when I introduced myself to someone I'd already met, especially since it happened to be someone at CCP!
• Bring code samples and a graphics demo with me as well as the demo of my game. At my interview, after they saw my game, they immediately asked for code samples, and I didn't have any on me. Luckily, I had them at my hotel and they let me bring them the next day. At Crytek, I was asked for the graphics demo I listed on my resume. It would have been far more impressive if I'd been able to whip it out on the spot.

Regardless, I had a wonderful time at GDC, got a nice stack of business cards, and met a wide variety of amazing people. I'm definitely going again next year.