Life's at a halt.

Spike.3007

I have had this feeling for a while now that nothing is moving forward. I dropped out of highschool over 2 years ago when they lost half my credits and over a bunch of bs. I've been living with my girlfriend and her dad for a few months now. Also, I dont have a job and my car is broken.

Ever since some random day in third grade I've been obsessed with becoming a videogame designer. I always thought I'd be in college by now you know working on my dreams. However, now I just feel stuck. I had my own place for a year, made some really stupid mistakes. Now I'm around 3000 bucks in debt and I'm sure thats growing. I'm at my dads house right now using the internet... But we dont even have that at my girlfriend's... I want to get my G.E.D. but thats like 75 bucks for the test. Oh yeah, Target's been trying to get me in to an orientation for 3 weeks now, no clue about that.

Any advice? Thanks in advance.

Fantasma

Have you considered finding a job?, this seems like the first priority, too much thinking about doing something and not doing it can be harmful.

Maybe you feel things don't move forward, but you can be sure time is moving forward, everyday you stay static, it is a day that will never come back, time passes, and we become older with every sunrise, you could choose to become wiser, learn something new, or just do useful things, nobody is going to make the homework for you.

I feel like you sometimes, but you have more options than me, I get up everyday and fight.

Spike.3007

Yeah, I'm learning a new program Adobe After Effects. If I get decent at it this guy is willing to pay me to make advertisements from 15-30 seconds and the target thing... I guess your right. I've juse been really depressed about it recently.

FirstComradeStalin

If you really want to be a game designer, you will have to work for it, especially with your current situation. These should be your priorities, in descending order:

1. Fix your car. Borrow from your parents if you must. You need a car to get a job.
2. Get a job.
3. Pay off your debt (this step will take a while)
4. Take GED classes/Take the GED. I doubt you'll need classes, or even a study book for that matter, but to each his own. Especially, when money's scarce, it can't hurt to buy a $20 book to guarantee your $75 goes somewhere.
5. Go to community college for two or more years as a part-time student getting credits
6. Go to a regular university to get your degree. At this point, if student loans will still be too much of a burden for you, continue as a part-time student. I'm not sure about what to major in, I'm sure someone here involved in game design could tell you what to do. My guess is something either art-related or computer-science-related, or maybe both.
7. Graduate, get a job.
8. ???
9. Profit!

OK, those last two steps are a joke, but I would hope you profit. Here's the thing about this, though. The entirety of this plan hinges on one simple thing: getting your car fixed. Get it fixed promptly. It's the only way you can get a job (unless you live downtown and you have access to public transport), so it's your #1 priority.

Edit: Alternatively, you can try to become a game designer without college, but I'm not sure how likely that is.

Spike.3007

Well I can pretty much catch a bus anywhere I need to go with very little walking involved. However my last 40 applications resulted in two maybes the other one turned into a no and target is the only one who offered me the job but is still waiting for an orientation to open up or whatevers going on there... I could always go work for a carwash but the last time I did that I didnt last more then one 10 hour shift. I couldnt stand that place.

edit: Yeah tried making a game a while ago.... 6 years later I realised an MMO is a horrible idea to start with... still want to make that game just need more resources...

FirstComradeStalin

What about Target? You said they've been wanting you to come to an orientation. Where have you applied those last 40 times, if I may ask? I really don't know how you've had trouble finding a job in retail or food service. Maybe just talk to the manager personally next time, say you're interested in the job, shake his hand, be personable, and then give an application. That's how I got a job at Moe's in high school, and at a Best Buy after that. Just tossing in an application seems too impersonal to me.

Big Dookie

Spike.3007 wrote: »

Well I can pretty much catch a bus anywhere I need to go with very little walking involved. However my last 40 applications resulted in two maybes the other one turned into a no and target is the only one who offered me the job but is still waiting for an orientation to open up or whatevers going on there... I could always go work for a carwash but the last time I did that I didnt last more then one 10 hour shift. I couldnt stand that place.

You have no high school diploma. Congratulations, you aren't going to like any of the jobs you can actually get.

Sorry to be blunt, but for the most part, that's just the way it is. Until you can at least get your GED, it's going to be tough for you to find a job you like - and even getting one doesn't guarantee that will change. Unfortunately, you're just going to have to work some jobs you don't enjoy for a while. It sucks, but you did drop out of high school, so you're just going to have to suck it up and do it. You can't afford to quit a job just because you don't like it. At this point, it doesn't even matter what the job is. ANY job is better than being unemployed and leeching off your girlfriend.

So yeah, I agree with Stalin. Get your car fixed and get a job, and then you might be able to start moving forward. I've been in a similarly crappy situation where I felt stuck, and the first step to getting out of it was getting a steady job that I hated with a passion. It motivated me to get back into college and back on track. It's tough, but once you start moving forward, you'll gain momentum. But at some point you have to actually start moving.

Spike.3007

I typically ask for the manager when i hand in applications, and always call back to see if they have looked at my application. I applied at a bunch of places probably not 40 but still, Petco, Petsmart, Tucson Desert Pet Center, I had an interview with a lady about video editing but i was under qualified, Circle K, Quick Mart, Gas City (this place said they would interview me and then said they wernt going to interview me so I dont know), Walmart, Target, Best Buy, EB Games, Software Etc, Sunflower Market (health food store), Wild Oats Market, Costplus World Market, Walgreens. There were a few more just cant remember off the top of my head... I shouldnt have quit Fry's (Kroger), they wouldnt give me a break all day but I guess it wasn't that bad looking back on it.

edit: Yeah actually my GF just got a job a couple days ago, but shes been without one for a while now too...

FirstComradeStalin

So you've had jobs before but you quit them because you didn't like them? There was a thread recently about a guy in such a predicament. He simply could not find a job, but he had a history of quitting other jobs, and I think we came to a consensus that that's his main problem. My only advice to you is keep trying, go lower if you must (think hard manual labor, it's summer after all) then try to leverage that into a better job somewhere else. Also, try to not mention too much about your former jobs, if not gloss over them entirely.

Spike.3007

Yeah... I have alot of regrets about quitting past jobs... I've had alot of jobs... I've worked on an airforce base for a year and a half doing dishes, went from there to petsmart for a month, then walmart for 8 months, then a carwash for a day then gas city for 6 months tried having two jobs twice once at a japanese restaraunt the other on base again delivering pizza, neither of those worked out, then I worked at a frys gas station for a month.

Dulcius_ex_asperis

If you can take a bus anywhere you need to go, do it. Get a job anywhere. Someone said you're not gonna like the jobs you can get, because you don't have a H.S. diploma. They are right. I can't get a job I really like, and I'm a year away from a bachelor's degree. I've worked some jobs that really, really suck. If you need the money, though, you don't really have a choice. So get out, work, get your GED, and then move from there.

Right now, getting your GED sounds like the most important thing to me. Then you can get a better job, at the very least. So go get to work, man. And don't quit.

GoodOmens

Spike.3007 wrote: »

I want to get my G.E.D. but thats like 75 bucks for the test. Oh yeah, Target's been trying to get me in to an orientation for 3 weeks now, no clue about that.

Any advice? Thanks in advance.

So, these last few statements baffle me. Target's been trying to get you in...that sounds like a job opportunity. Call them, find out when orientation is, go there, listen, start working. You'll have the GED money in no time.

There are a few questions you have to ask yourself, and think about them very seriously:
1. If you do get enough money to take the GED exam, do you believe you are ready to pass it?
2. You say you want to get into videogame design. Have you actually spoken with or communicated with anyone who's made it in the industry? Have you taken any relevant steps to get the knowledge and skills you'll need to make it? My suspicion is that, as the video game industry grows and becomes more sophisticated, the competition for those jobs increases.

You've gotten yourself in a bad situation, and it's OK to wallow for a very, very short amount of time. Then, get to it.

Ardor

While you make not like a majority of the jobs you find (there's a reason they pay you), there is one very big thing you can take home from them besides a paycheck, the ability to work and hold a job you don't like. Showing you can hold a job for longer than 6-12 months at a time goes a long ways for companies when they look for employees. Why? Because it's expensive and time consuming to hire people with paying for advertisements or going through temp agencies to the time it takes to review applications and interview people.

So an old co-worker of mine got a job once where he put his military experience on the application, for an HR (Human Resources) job. As he came in to the interview, the interviewer had circled his military experience on his copy of the resume. He handed it to my co-worker and stated that he circled this part because "So what?" He wanted to know why that was applicable at all.

The answer he used helped him get the job. "It shows that I can work hard and get tasks done for jobs I don't enjoy and with people I don't get along with."

In your case, working jobs for, I think the standard is roughly 9-12 months, helps show potential employers that you won't simply walk out on them after a few months, which is very important to them. Many employers seem like they would rather have a decent employee who wouldn't quit on them compared for a great employee who's had a record of leaving wor places after 3 months.

Aldo

A friend of mine is in a similar situation, he didn't finish high-school and he's been unemployed for a long time. He has spend most of his days looking after his nephews without getting any money from his brother, but he stopped doing that in favour of actually getting paid for a painful, crappy job. Once he has earned enough, he'll try to get his GED and he'll try to find work he might actually enjoy.

It takes an awful lot of hard work to get in the gaming industry and most of your jobs would probably consist of looking at code all day trying to find a mistake someone else made and rectifying it without causing any more mistakes. If you're lucky, you might actually write up some code yourself. If you really want to do this, your first step is earning money, screw learning how to work with Adobe and what-not, you've got a debt and you're living on the charity of others. You're better off learning how to weld at the moment. Much easier to make some cash with something like that, really.

welding is actually pretty fun, too.

Burning Organ

Getting to know what part of making a game you want to do would help.
3D or programming is always a start. If you have free time then invest that time in getting some skills in those areas. If you have enough free time and experience consider joining a mod team to help build a portfolio or to get more experience.
Focus on your job and studies as well, because if the mod/game doesn't succeed... You don't want to have nothing left.
While I'm not myself in the games industry it seems they mostly want experience, and from the requirements of various programming spots I've seen it's around 1-2 years with a specific language (mostly c++).