Getting Hired As a Video Game Tester – What Skills Will I Need to Break Into Video Game Testing?

If you have a passion for playing video games I’m sure you have pondered the possibility of making video games a career choice. The video game industry continues to grow by leaps and bounds even as the economy continues to bottom out. As the games continue to grow more and more complex the need for additional employees to develop them gains more steam.

If your curiosity has gotten the better of you and you have been surfing the web on this subject I’m sure that you have come across the following pitch page. “Gamer sits around his apartment playing Halo all day while getting paid over $100 dollars and hour!” I’m quite sure that you have enough common sense to realize that getting hired as video game tester is going to be a little tougher than that.

Their are two different terms that get thrown around in this category. They are beta testing and game testing. Beta Testing usually means to get a copy of an unfinished title to test at home for bugs and errors in game play. The majority of beta testers are testing games for free just so they can have the first crack at a hot new title. Getting hired as a video game tester is to actually be testing games as part of a team in order to improve gameplay. Gaming companies hire testers on a wide range of circumstances depending on the situation.

Some testers are hired on as part time or full time employees. Other times testers will be hired temporarily on a contract basis. Often, when applicants begin hunting down testing jobs they believe that their love for gaming is all that they need in order to land a testing job. Having a love for gaming won’t hurt your chances but you will need some basic skill sets in order to increase your odds of landing a position as a tester. You will need good writing and grammar skills. You will be writing detailed reports regarding the bugs you uncover while testing games.

A game tester must be able to type in complete sentences. A game tester must also be able to understand, and correctly use, proper punctuation and capitalization. You cannot become a tester at a game company where everybody uses English, if you cannot communicate properly in written English. A thorough knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel will be helpful.