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I currently work as a Junior Game-Programmer which I have been for close to 2 years (previously an apprentice for 1 year). Unfortunately (afaik)non of my formal education is relevant to my current role which includes :

  • GCSE's
  • Half a year as a web dev apprentice (the company I was working for went into liquidation)
  • A full year as a software development apprentice. Qual: Software Development (7650) L3 (while I was working as an apprentice game-programmer, actual assessments were fairly trivial and sparse)

I'm mostly self/company taught, and have a fair amount of experience shipping AAA games so i'm not really worried about anything CV-wise, other than an education segment.

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    Whats is a GCSE?
    – SaggingRufus
    Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 11:43
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    @SaggingRufus According to GCSE and A-level Students-Canada, they are roughly equivalent to grade 11 in Canada, basically a pre qualification. Once completing them you can then spend another 2 years in further education and move on to college/university.
    – George
    Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 11:48
  • @JoeStrazzere I live in the UK, they have a sort of intermediate status between full-time education and work. The actual qualification I've got is a level 3 version of City & Guilds Software development.
    – George
    Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 11:52
  • @George So how does your 6 months apprenticeship differ from a 6 month internship?
    – Summer
    Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 14:06
  • @Summer The company was slowing down and haemorrhaging staff, and learning facilities were on the same site. For the first 3 months we spent for too long on a health and safety assessment(due to a lack of dev trainers) and the final few months we really didn't do anything, the company also had a terrible name :p Bright Future Software. I think the 12month apprenticeship was probably very similar to a typical internship, it just came with a qualification.
    – George
    Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 14:18

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Its convention to include it on your resume so I would, otherwise it could be misinterpreted as you hiding the fact that you have no education at all.

I know that sounds extreme, but in the world of human resources, you are dealing with some people who look at things in a negative way, but at the same time, to be a bit fair to them, its data thats missing that could result in you being looked over.

I can relate to what you say about your formal education not being relevant, but perhaps it is relevant in some kind of way. Think about it carefully. Perhaps your degree in Philosophy is what helped you understand the difference between imperative and declarative programming patterns. I don't know if you were a philosophy major this is just an example.

There are some companies that do want to see some formal education in something, at least a Bachelors level degree.

If you already have that baked in your CV, then you don't have to worry about tweaking it when you run into those types of companies.

You will run into some cool companies who get it and say hey don't worry about your resume, most of those just read like a work of fiction anyway. That's word for word I took from a job description here on SO. But even then, just toss them your resume and ensure all the conventional bells and whistles are on it.

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A Junior Game Developer with just 2 years commercial experience? I think leaving out your education will make you less likely to be considered, not more, and if you were to get an interview, you would almost certainly be asked about it and specifically why you left it off your CV. The trouble is your CV might not get any further than the rubbish bin - with no mention of education, a recruiter or hiring manager might assume the worst... no education and/or just released from prison.

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  • exactly Nick, as I said above, HR people look at life in a negative way. I just didn't want to get into the possible jaded perceptions such as you eloquently described (no education/just released from prison).
    – Daniel
    Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 20:08

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