How to find a career in video games – Milo Farto

And I have decided to see the world this way, It was my choice. See the world based on the goals I want to achieve and not the impediments that stand in my way. 

And I just wanted to show you what MY GOAL was and still is, my driving force, my motivations. Which are working with amazing people in a great environment and creating what I love the most that it turned out to be, what?… yes VIDEO GAMES.

And this is the goal, right?

And it took me a long ride to get in here. Mostly because of my decisions but also because of the struggle with the industry itself. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth every single second of it.

I have flash news here: There is no magic solution that tells you that following three simple steps you’ll land into your dream job. IT DOES NOT EXIST! I’m so sorry guys. There is no ‘right’ or guaranteed way to enter the industry, so don’t expect to land your dream job right away.

I also want to say that: It’s POSSIBLE! I did it, and let me tell you, I’m not special at all so you can do it as well and hopefully faster than I did.

Let me tell you a story, ok? Let me tell you the story of a little boy. The name of this boy is Milo.

Milo was born in northwestern Spain. In a place called Galicia. This place of birth is harsh, is tough, it’s on the coast, and the weather is pretty bad, it rains a lot for months and it’s cold. It’s simply grey. But at the same time, it is natural, It’s wild and free, spectacular and precious, and being from a small coastal town Milo learned how to appreciate the beauty of simple things. 

And I can tell you, because I know Milo well, that his fate would surely have been completely different if it weren’t for his parents who always supported him in his craziness from an early age.

Milo had his first computer at the age of 9. A 512Kb Sinclair PC, with no hard drive guys, no hard drive, no internet at all, and just one videogame. Phantis! And he just falls in love with that thing, as simple as that, he falls in love with that videogame. It represented the perfect mixture of his passions: films, adventure, and interaction. In that videogame he was able to actually Do things, not just being a viewer, a passive spectator. That literally blew his mind. And suddenly everything made sense, and his journey started.

All the odds were against him. But you know what? Milo decided to focus on his goals and not on the roadblocks standing in his way.  And at that time, at 9 years old, he decided that he wanted to do that for the rest of his life. He would never stop playing video games from that moment on.

Milo finished high school and kept playing video games as much as he could. Went to college studying Computer Science, and kept playing and playing…

Studying Computer Science kind of fulfilled one part of Milo’s brain, right? the tech part. But he also felt the need for something else. He decided to leave Galicia, yes… leave his whole family and friends, and move to Barcelona to study a different degree in digital and Graphic design. He focused on his GOALS again and not in the 1200 km that separated him from his family.

Now, Milo was complete (or that was what he thought) he had his technical skills and his artistic skills very well-tuned. But he didn’t join the video games industry yet.  He started as a researcher studying 3D fabric simulations and also teaching 3Ds Max and Computer Science. 

He thought that maybe video games could wait a bit longer ‘cause there’s still a bunch of stuff to learn. 

He decided to go with the flow. Kept educating himself with a master’s in Visual Effects, an MBA, and a bunch of other subjects because he wanted to be a complete professional, not a single specialist. There’s nothing wrong with being a specialist. It’s perfectly fine, but this is Milo’s story, and he wanted to follow the management path. He was just thinking about filling the gaps that he felt he had to fill in order to become a great Creative Manager. Of course, he kept playing video games.

He jumped from college to a private company learning how to manage teams, and how to think out of the box to create amazing visual projects using videogame engines. He was just growing and learning, developing soft skills or what Simon Sinek calls it “HUMAN SKILLS”, how to treat people, and how to grow his team.  

After all of that, he decided that it was the right time to create his own company, and that company had nothing to do with video games…

He met this Film Director from Brisbane Australia. He was struggling with the studio in charge of the visual effects of his film, and he offered Milo the chance to jump into the project and finish the film. Milo hadn’t done that ever, but he thought that maybe it would be a good chance to learn about business and how to build his own team…, so he did it. 

They finished the film, they delivered the shots and that is how his journey as a business owner started.

For the next 12 years, he worked on many different projects, involving many different types of people and creating amazing products. They used video game engines to create Virtual tours for amusement parks, created Virtual experiences using gamification for private companies, 2D, and 3D animations, visual effects for films and ads, product design, motion graphics, minigames, etc… thousands of projects that were filling the small gaps he felt he had to fill.

He learned how to work with people around the globe, how to grow teams, how to deal with difficult situations at work, and how to take care of his business and the people dependent on it. He was just pouring small grains of experience into that bottle with increasingly smaller gaps.

Of course, he kept playing video games.

So, one day, when he felt he was ready, he decided to finally take the step and jump into the video game industry. Ready for the second time in his life to leave everything behind and start a new adventure. He left his team, his 12 years old company because he was chasing his dream. 

The moment had come, and he was in his 40s, It wasn’t going to be easy but again… Milo focused on his goals and forgot about the rest. He created a personal website and started to do networking with people related to the videogame industry instead of just applying for positions. He knew how companies worked in terms of hiring because he owned one in the past. 

He invested his time in meeting people, talking to them, helping them from his experience, and adding value to the conversations and projects. If someone had a problem, Milo was there to help propose ideas. The main strategy he had was focusing on GIVING not TAKING.

He only wanted the people in the industry to know him and to be aware of his experience, so he decided to help as much as he could. Commenting on Linkedin, through emails, private chats, and more.

So, suddenly he started to have a circle of people in the industry, and the referrals started to come. He applied very few times to positions just to check how the processes were, but the real opportunity came in the form of a recommendation.

The people in that company knew that he had no experience in the video games industry, but they also knew his trajectory and his past experiences. They made the decision to bet on him. that’s it! But not for the sake of his pretty face but for all the work he had done in the past, for every step he took every decision he made, and every experience he embraced.  Finally, Milo got his dream job and broke into the video game industry by joining FunPlus.

Conclusion

It’s your work to PROVE that every single decision you make is thinking about breaking into the video games industry. No matter if you are coming from within the industry or, as happens in my case, from a different one.

It’s work your to prove that you can bring real value to the company. That you have the hard skills, the human skills, that you are willing to help and keep learning. And that you live and breathe video games.

You know, You are going to face different battles along the way, and different speeds in the process but all of you should have the same amount of energy and determination to achieve your goals. That should be a constant in your life. Otherwise, you will be betting on luck, and luck is a very unfaithful partner. It tends to show up to those who work harder most of the time. So, please, don’t bet 100% on luck. It’s not going to work.

And lastly, I’d like to mention that there’s not only one way to get the job of your dreams. Set your goals, follow your guts, stay curious, and move. Don’t waste too much time planning. Of course you should have a plan or a roadmap, but at a very high level, or you’ll be investing too much time thinking instead of starting to move towards your goals, so move, do things, learn, and collaborate with each other, be passionate about games, and please… play video games!!!! It’s the only way you have to know the product. And you have to know the product.

By the way, just in case you are wondering what kind of games I’m playing right now… there you go: