Want to make games? Drop out now!

[alexxkay]

Game Developer Magazine's latest issue features the results of their annual salary survey. Although there are caveats involved with any set of self-reported data, I think at least the relationships between different subsets of data are likely to be accurate. And I noticed something that surprised me in the table "Average Salary by Education and Discipline".

In all disciplines, those who completed "Some College" make significantly *more* than those who completed a Bachelor's Degree. Those who went on to "Some Graduate" made even *less* than those with Bachelor's.

Actually *completing* a Master's Degree gets you a salary roughly comparable to "Some College", though in some disciplines it's a bit less, in some a bit more. In none is it *enough* more to suggest being worth the investment.

At the Doctoral level, only Programmers reported anything. "Some Doctoral" makes more money than "Some College" -- but an actual Doctorate makes *less*.

So, if you're a college student who wants a successful career in the games industry, apparently the best thing you can do is drop out!

Comments

[dariusk.livejournal.com]

But even controlling for that, in the game industry in the early days it was UNHEARD OF to have a college degree and in some cases could be a hinderance. It's more to do with the history of the game business than it is has to do with the more general realities of American business practices.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

"and in some cases could be a hinderance"

Why was it a hindrance? And have those reasons gone away? Or, if the reasons were irrational prejudices, have the people who held them gone away?

Seems to me that the industry still has lots of institutional stupidity left over from the early days.

[dariusk.livejournal.com]

I was not around in those days, but from speaking to folks who were, it was mostly the garage developer rock star attitude. People looking at a potential employee would literally say, "This guy must be pretty dumb to have wasted his time on a college degree." Like, LITERALLY THOSE WORDS. Those prejudices lasted all the way to about 2003 I'd say.

There are still people who look down on those with degrees, but they are rare and they mostly have learned to swallow their own prejudices.