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I have a MSc in computer science and my love for Unreal Engine 4(UE4) shaped my MSc education into working with game artificial intelligence.

Creating my LinkedIn profile/cv/resume for applying to UE4 related jobs, I can't figure out where should I put my UE4 experience under.

I don't have any published games (so I can't provide a portfolio), most of my work was to create a "barely playable" game and experiment with different coding paradigms/trying alternative architectures on it to understand the inner workings of UE4 better.

Due to 3 years of these experiments as a hobby, I'm now immensely experienced in UE4, and it is something I would love to shape my career around, and I really really enjoy it :)

But how do I write all these into my LinkedIn profile, and my cv/resume? I was never employed, I received a small grant from our university in early 2020 for UE4 related research, but with the state of the world everything fell apart (key member left).

This is more than a hobby for me, and I can't figure out where/how to write about these so I can show potential employers I'm very proficient in my "hobby", and I'm looking for work.

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  • Do you have some publicly accessible repository with your work that you can link to in your linkedin/resume/etc?
    – sf02
    Oct 22, 2020 at 16:17
  • @sf02 I have all my projects locally saved, however they are either broken(cant afford working on to revive them due to economic reasons) or not worked on for a long while(got like 5 projects in which I explored an engine subsystem, and once I was satisfied with the amount of research, I left them to die). I don't believe they are worthy of displaying publicly due to their "experimental" nature, should I do otherwise?
    – Emir Artar
    Oct 22, 2020 at 16:32
  • Apparently last 2 projects, not 5.
    – Emir Artar
    Oct 22, 2020 at 16:41
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    Does this answer your question? How to put something on your resume that is hobby-like but is incredibly relevant to positions you're applying for?
    – gnat
    Oct 22, 2020 at 19:14
  • Have a link to either videos of your experiments or those "barely playable" builds. In CV just write you have experience in UE4. It's for others how they scale it. For some you might be very good in something they look for, for others you might be good material for future development.
    – SZCZERZO KŁY
    Oct 23, 2020 at 8:58

3 Answers 3

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For LinkedIn specifically, you can add projects to your page. I think this would be the best way to communicate all of the different aspects of your experience and demonstrate that you know what you're doing.

For your resume, create a list of your projects and give 1-2 sentences on what you did with each of them.

Finally, when applying for positions, write a cover letter. In that cover letter, you can say things like "In your job posting you specified needing in proficiency in UE4, during the last 3 years, I have done x,y,z,... on UE4 projects." This will draw more attention to that experience.

You have now communicated in several places your experience and when interviewers see it, they can ask more about it.

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You show proficiency in hobbies by having a polished product. Doesn't matter if it's wood carving or a game engine. Until then you're not proficient in it, you just know a lot about it but not enough or not completely enough to have a masterpiece to show off.

It's hard to get people to wade through unfinished projects to prove anything, because it's a lot of work and quite often the competition has something. That's been my experience anyway. I've made quite a lot of money out of hobby type activities and even been called up to see a Head Of State. But each time I've had something complete and impressive to show.

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    I would just add that the term "complete" don't exist in the games industry. And "impressive" is debatable.
    – SZCZERZO KŁY
    Oct 23, 2020 at 8:53
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Nothing beats a great demo. If you have experience, but no great demo, you might want to realize that in the company's eyes, all you have is your opinion of great experience which they can't verify.

Put the project on GitHub. Cut out the unnecessary parts. Get it running, even if it's primitive. Take a few videos of it, describing what you did and what you want to do next. Then you have a demo.

Use that demo in your sales pitch of your skills. You'll kill the competition.

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