PROGRAMMING

By Jonathan Hunter — Lead of Talent Acquisition, AAA video games. Nearly a decade hiring for major studios. Last updated: [August 2026]

You get hired as a games engineer by making your engine and language proficiencies visible within the first two seconds, and by quantifying the impact of what you built. Contrary to the common fear, 90 to 95% of CVs are read by a human recruiter rather than filtered out by AI. That human is scanning for a specific technology stack and for evidence you solve problems at scale — not for a complete history of every bug you’ve fixed.

• Explicitly state your contribution, the specific tools used, and your quantifiable impact.

• ALWAYS list the engine you worked in.

• Keep it succinct - your CV is a highlight reel of your problem-solving, not a novel!
  

Getting a job in the games industry as an Engineer is highly competitive. Whether you are a Gameplay Programmer, Graphics Programmer, or anything else, there are some powerful things you can do to improve your chances.

Engineers often want to put everything they’ve ever done on their CV, turning it into a dense technical manual. Whether you are passing the recruiter’s two-second scan or being reviewed by a Technical Director, brevity and readability are critical.

What recruiters are matching your CV against

The recruiter has spoken to the hiring manager and reduced a long job description down to three to five hard-skill attributes. They are scanning your CV against that cheat sheet. For engineering roles, those attributes are usually:

• Technology & software (e.g. C++, Python, Unreal Engine 5)

• Concrete solutions (e.g. custom physics pipelines, memory optimization, AI state machines)

• Impact and scale (e.g. multiplayer netcode handling 50k+ daily users on a AAA title)

When describing your experience

The best thing you can do to get hired is provide concrete examples of the tools and solutions you used. An engineering CV has to clearly demonstrate that you are an effective problem solver and solution builder.

On impact: quantify your work. If you optimized code, state by how much (e.g. reduced frame time from 8.3ms to 3.8ms). If you built a system, state who used it and what the tangible business or gameplay result was.

And…

Always explicitly outline the technology stack. Don’t hide your engine or language experience inside a dense paragraph — bold those keywords so they jump off the page during the initial scan.

My three CV rules

These are the same three rules I apply to every CV I review, whatever the discipline.

1. Make it easy to read. A recruiter spends roughly two seconds on the first scan of your CV, deciding whether to keep reading or reject. Use white space, bullet points, and bold text on the keywords that matter, and put the most relevant information at the top. Two pages is standard — the exact length matters far less than whether the page can be scanned quickly.

2. Be explicit. Never rely on the reader to infer anything. Use the formula: task + tool or technique + product or location + result. If it isn’t written down, the recruiter will not guess it, and they will not look it up.

3. Favour facts over descriptions. ‘Improved efficiency’ and ‘good team player’ are opinions, and they carry no weight. Objective, quantifiable facts are irrefutable. Back up statements with numbers wherever you can.

For engineers, that means explaining exactly how you contributed to the final architecture: what specific features you engineered, how you collaborated with other departments like Design or Art, and the technical metrics behind your success.

ALWAYS be explicit, telling the reader exactly what you built and the scale of the project:

Implied

Wrote code, fixed bugs, and improved game physics using C++.

Explicit

Gameplay Engineering: Engineered a custom collision detection system in C++ and Unreal Engine 5, reducing frame time by 4.5ms and optimizing performance for a AAA multiplayer extraction shooter.

Related guides

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•     How do you get hired as a Games Industry QA Tester?

•     How do you get hired as a Games Industry Producer?