PathSource - GAMING PROJECT MANAGER, IN-DEPTH: Getting A Rush From Solving Hard Problems

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GAMING PROJECT MANAGER, IN-DEPTH: Getting A Rush From Solving Hard Problems

About this video

Gerald, a gaming project manager, describes the challenges of his job, what he likes most, his key decisions, how difficult getting into the industry is, and work-life balance. He tells us that he gets a great rush from solving difficult problems, which is his favorite part of his job. Luckily for him, difficult problems crop up constantly.

Degree: International Relations

Job Title: Gaming Project Manager

Job Summary: Game Developer

Job Description

Game developer is an umbrella title for different roles in a development team that works together to create games. A game developer can be a game programmer, game architect, game designer, game artist, etc. They use computers to structure, design, test and publish games for different platforms.

On-the-Job Training

None

Quick Facts

Average salary

National Statistic Change Location

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$60,000 - $145,000

Projected Job Growth

20 to 40 percent

Typical schedule

Full-time, Long hours, Flexible, Irregular

Typical workplace

Office, Indoor, Home

Personal Qualities

Detail oriented, Patience, Problem solving skills, Creativity, Teamwork, Artistic, Technical skills, Mathematical skills

Educational Path

Education Requirement

Bachelor's degree

Recommended Education Degree

Bachelor's degree

Recommended Majors

Computer Science
Computer Programming
Mathematics
Audiovisual Communications
Graphic Communications
Liberal Arts
Visual Arts
Literature

Related Careers

Software engineer
graphic designer

View Detailed Career Data

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P3.instances[0].transcript.parse_transcript_data({"transcript":"What do I like most about my job? I think day in day out, I deal with really smart people. And we form a good working relationship, a rapport, and together we solve really hard problems. And so that's probably the biggest rush for me. I'm feeling tingly just talking about it. But that is the really neat thing. When you're working in software-- I'm not saying that everyone needs to be in software-- usually something that's really hard takes a day, and something that's impossible takes a week. And that's a really fantastic place to be because you see so much change and great things that happen. What is the biggest challenge of my job? I think where I am, I work for a very young company. We're only 11 years old now. And when I came in as the project management office manager, we didn't have a lot of process. We are fantastically successful, and we did that through, I would say, brute force and people working in hero mode. And in order to be scalable and predictable and more successful, we need process to sort of not constrain people, but to make ourselves more predictable and follow a common process so that people can shift from one area, whether it's a project or some kind of infrastructure work, to another and understand that, OK, I'll be able to find the information that I need here, and this is how we open and close tasks and things like that. So just trying to put in the process that makes us predictable and reliable and scalable without slowing anyone down or it being too much overhead is probably my biggest challenge. I think for me personally, it was probably taking some risks. When we're younger, we have more opportunity to take risks and there are fewer consequences. And I think I've been someone who's been relatively risk tolerant all my life. I quit a job that I had managing student university residences to jump into this crazy gaming world, and I've never looked back. And it's all just been because I was open to the change and was willing to take a risk. Is it hard to find work in my field? By the virtue that I'm a project manager, I would say that it is more challenging. It's more competitive because there are fewer positions available in the industry. So it can be a challenge. I think the best thing to do is to put in those 10,000 hours, become an expert, and really be-- I don't want to use the term \"passion\" because I think that's sometimes misunderstood or misrepresented-- but you have to really understand why you're there and why you like being there. I have a very good work-life balance, which is important to me because I'm married with children. And we like to do lots of fun things. So yeah, it means that showing up at work and being focused and making sure that I need to get things done that I have to do that day so I don't have to stay late. But in the end, the trade-off is that I do have good work-life balance now. ","file":{"id":385807,"video_id":"3432342206001","name":"2449-Gerald-Manager of Project Management Office2 In-depth","duration":188941,"thumbnail_url":null}});