Which career road to go down?

This is kind of similar to the recent post on career advice and what to do.

I'm currently an I.T Technician Trainee (young) and don't get me wrong, I like my job but it really wasn't what I was expecting.
I work in a secondary school and it's constantly people asking me to install a CD which takes a few click of a button then DONE.
I enjoy Networking and Hardware - NOT THIS.
Anyway I've been thinking about this a lot and I've done a day introduction at Manchester University on Game Design - I LOVED IT.
Since I play video games near enough everyday of my life (call me sad if you wish ) I want to study this but that means going to college then university and NO income which means I can't afford for my bike to be on road and afford for things I like and want.

What shall I do?!

I'm off to uni in september and the no income bit isn't entirely true.

Depending on your age and circumstances - you can get up to £9,300 in London. £6,050 is loans and £3,250 grants which you don't pay back. The loan obviously you do.

You are entitled to that every year (depending on course, location and circumstances).

If you are an independent student (over 25 or any age and have been supported yourself for 3 years - defined as earning over about £8k for the last 36 months) then you can get the amount above if you study in london and your household income (defined as yours and your partner's income) is less then £25,000 p.a

Worth looking into

Originally Posted by EssexDave

I'm off to uni in september and the no income bit isn't entirely true.

Depending on your age and circumstances - you can get up to £9,300 in London. £6,050 is loans and £3,250 grants which you don't pay back. The loan obviously you do.

You are entitled to that every year (depending on course, location and circumstances).

If you are an independent student (over 25 or any age and have been supported yourself for 3 years - defined as earning over about £8k for the last 36 months) then you can get the amount above if you study in london and your household income (defined as yours and your partner's income) is less then £25,000 p.a

Worth looking into

Thanks Dave
The college wouldn't support me income though I'd be on a EMA with about 40 pound a week which is nothing really.
I just don't want to make the decision and then regret it

Just be very careful about games design, I know 6 or 7 people from my uni days and not 1 of them managed to get a job in IT let alone games design

Originally Posted by grimey121uk

Just be very careful about games design, I know 6 or 7 people from my uni days and not 1 of them managed to get a job in IT let alone games design

That's what I'm worried about!

[timwilky]

As someone with 30+ years IT. My view.

Think very carefully. Most large companies outsource development to low cost countries. Most first/second level support is done remotely, again from low cost operations. In other words the door has been slammed well and truly in the face of the young on the sacred alter of cost. (Yes it does come home to bite in the longer term).

So the real opportunities exist in the small dynamic and relatively young organisations. There you have a whole spectrum of IT disciplines to grasp, but usually sink or swim. I see in my own very large organisation people doing the same job they did 10 years ago. Do you want to be doing that.

A couple of years hardship whilst you get your degree wont harm you long term. But be warned it is a dog eat dog world. IT related degree does not guarantee a job. In fact very few of the people I work with have IT degrees. Most are engineers who seem to have drifted into IT roles.

[Fallout]

Game development is a really tough business. Game Design is even harder. Game Designers are one of the most important members of a team and therefore require exceptional skills and in 99% of cases, vast industry experience. I simply cannot see how someone can walk out of university with a game design degree and have any chance of getting a game design job. It's like someone getting an engineering degree, swanning up to the Honda R&D department and being let loose designing their next car or motorbike. It CANNOT happen.

I'd be very wary about that sort of degree. My suspicion is it's a mechanism for the college to make money and has a low conversion rate. To my knowledge game designers are usually industry experts - so 3D artists or lead programmers, with several commercial games under their belts, who move away from their techy role and concentrate on design. The exceptions are people with a solid portfolio in other things, such as 2D artwork, writing and animation, and these people will have exceptional communication skills and be interview techniques Gods.

Do you have any other game development related skills btw? Art, writing, animation etc?

I'd go do some work experince, find out about it, see if you actually like doing have a long hard think about it if you still want to do it then do. I'd check out skillset if were you, they were set up to help people in the creative industries.

[Fallout]

Even getting work experience in game development companies is difficult. They'll normally take on maybe 1 WE candidate, and often it's unpaid. Basically, they have so many people who want to get involved, they have their pick and don't have to encourage people on board. And again, you'd have to proof yourself with portfolios of work and demonstrate a passion for games and creativity.

[Bibio]

you have a job be thankfull.

game houses only employ the best of the best and unless you can show a talent for doing it they will not consider you so what will happen is you will end up designing screens/apps for gov bodies and large organisations. to get good qualifications to get you in the door at a decent salary you will need to do 6 years of study.

you may or may not have the talent so best thing to do is try and look for night classes or open uni to see how you get on. even try getting some books and do self study and if you can breeze threw those then it might be worthwhile looking at changing your role in the IT world.

if you enjoy hardware then how about getting your own company up and running servicing the private sector. you could start at night after work which is when most people want you to sort their computer. i used to do this and it was not bad money with plenty of work. if your good and quick your name soon gets around and before you know it your busy.

i started while at collage and by the time i was finishing UNI i had a fair old client list including a few contracts. some days i could make £300 and some nothing and on average it was about £80-120 a day. this was with no advertising and just threw word of mouth.