Epic Games is well known as the creator of the video games Fortnight, Infinity Blade, Gears of War, and Unreal. The video game developer also brought us Unreal Engine, one of the best free game engines that allows us to play games such as Among Us.
If you love the video game industry and are an expert in art, engineering, production, design, publishing, or business operations, read on to learn how you can get a job at Epic Games.
Epic Games: Company Background
Epic Games is the story of one man, Tim Sweeny. He started off developing video games in his parent’s home while employed as a mechanical engineer, eventually creating both Unreal Engine and Epic Games.
The video game, software development, and publishing company is based in North Carolina and was originally named Potomac Computer Systems.
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Started in 1991, Epic Games later developed Unreal Engine, the world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D video game creation platform that enables photoreal visuals and helps power Epic’s own video games.
Epic Games has been raising the bar for video game development for the past two decades by expanding the creation tools in Unreal Engine. The platform gives creators the freedom to produce gaming content and create immersive experiences and interactive virtual worlds.
Compared to similar platforms like Steam, Epic is a cheaper game publishing platform, taking only a 12 percent cut of profits. As of 2020, Epic Games has secured its place as one of the top video game companies, with an equity valuation of $17.3 billion.
Epic Games; headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, is an exciting and creative hub that offers exciting job prospects for developers who want to create fun and innovative games.
What’s It Like to Work at Epic Games?
At Epic Games, you will be creating video games alongside people from all over the world. The company that never settles for less and has built a work environment that will push you to become a better developer and innovator.
The Environment
Epic Games has created an exciting workplace atmosphere focused on game development that even includes an adult slide. It is fast-paced and will keep you on your toes in terms of both creativity and technical execution.
Epic prides itself on nurturing a collaborative, welcoming, and artistic environment. This includes creating cutting-edge games and crafting game engine technology that allows others to create and publish stunning interactive experiences.
Longer Work Hours
Depending on which department you work in at Epic Games, you are likely to be working long hours, including weekends. If you are involved in game development and updates, you will need to work extra hard to get products ready on time in order to beat out competitors.
Although it depends on the project, oftentimes in creative technology roles, there is less emphasis placed on work-life balance. It is considered more important to help out your team members. If you are looking for a regular nine-to-five job, then perhaps Epic Games is not for you.
Job Perks and Benefits
Along with a competitive salary and the perk of getting to play the latest produced games, Epic Games also offers a generous benefits package. You can expect to receive a 401(k), and dental, medical, and life insurance, plus holiday pay and bonuses.
Getting a Job at Epic Games
The first step toward getting a job at Epic Games is to prepare your resume. If you are applying for a more artistic job at Epic, you should submit a portfolio along with your resume to showcase your skills.
How Hard Is It to Land a Job at Epic Games?
There is a lot of competition for the openings at Epic Games, so hiring managers must sift through many portfolios. Your application will likely be rejected the first few times you apply. But if you ask for feedback and can improve your work, you can always try again.
Applying for a Job at Epic Games
For many people applying at Epic Games, the most important component is their portfolio. In many cases, you don’t need to show a large quantity of work, but you do need to show high-quality work that demonstrates your talent.
Senior Recruiter Emily Gabrian noted several years ago that a strong portfolio may contain just six, high-quality examples of work. Review your work and include only your best projects.
You should also be aware of your online presence, as recruiters may look through your social media platforms. Be sure that your profiles are professional and show samples of your work. Make use of your LinkedIn profile, and keep your tweets professional.
Lastly, your resume must be clear and concise. You can add links to your work, and content that will genuinely show your skills and experiences.
Epic Games Application and Interview Process
If you have applied and made it to the next phase of the hiring process, you might be sent an assessment test. This is usually for those applying for programming for game development positions. The assessment will test your knowledge in C++ or another programming language.
Then, you will complete a short screening with a recruiter. If you are successful, you will be given a formal interview that will last around an hour.
The formal interview will be pretty standard. It will include questions on your technical knowledge, experience, why you want to work for Epic Games, and your personality.
Epic Games Career Opportunities: Job Titles and Descriptions
Below are some of the current job openings at Epic Games as of December 2020. You may also want to browse their website to see the full list.
Animation Programmer Internship
- Salary: Varies
- Level: Beginner
- Required Experience: Strong C++ knowledge and math skills, experience with animation, low-level animation systems, and physics-based IK systems, awareness of exposure, graphics, tools, audio/video, networking, memory handling, script compilers, I/O
This Epic Games animation programming internship starts in summer 2021. In this position, you will have the opportunity to work on challenging projects, including maintaining the core systems of Unreal Engine 4 and optimizing them for other platforms. You will work with tech professionals and will need to know how to code a game.
FX Artist
- National Median Salary: $75,270
- Level: Experienced
- Required Experience: Strong reel/portfolio with Real-Time FX work, eye for timing, animation, and motion of real-world objects, ability in secondary areas like animation, modeling, skinning, or lighting.
This position is for an FX artist who wants to work on the ever-evolving Fortnite. You will need to have a strong sense of dramatic effects and be able to recreate them in a real-time particle editor. For this role, the company is looking for a self-motivated team player. You will also need a technical understanding of Materials and Logic programming.
DevOps Engineer
- National Median Salary: $107,510
- Level: Experienced
- Required Experience: Knowledge of Go, Python, and Shell, administrative experience with CI/CD systems, AWS and cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes domain expertise
In this role, you will become a part of Epic Games’ cloud infrastructure team. This position involves cloud services, deployment tooling, and workflows. In this role, you will create a developer-friendly CI/CD platform, operate with Kubernetes, utilize Helm charts, and service mesh applications.
This job involves work on Epic Games’ real-world infrastructure which serves hundreds of developers and millions of players.
Development Director (Fortnite)
- National Median Salary: $146,360
- Level: Expert
- Required Experience: Eight years of experience in leadership and production roles, experience in contracts management and negotiations, onboarding, off-boarding, and performance tracking
This position is for an experienced development director for the Fortnite game team. In this role, you’ll be doing strategic resource tracking, capacity planning, ensuring optimization of resources, and collaborating with other departments.
The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in leading large teams in developing and releasing titles.
Marketing Operations Manager
- National Median Salary: $135,900
- Level: Experienced
- Required Experience: Experienced gamer, social media expert, written and verbal communication skills, excellent project management skills
The marketing operations manager’s job is to tell the story of Epic Games through the games available in the Epic Games store. You will need to have experience in marketing strategy and be able to engage with a game’s communities on various platforms.
Game Design Intern
- Salary: Varies
- Level: Beginner
- Required Experience: Passion for game design, deep understanding of video games, familiarity with the game you will be interning with
This internship starts in the summer of 2021. As part of a design team, you’ll work alongside design experts to actively contribute to the title you are working on. You will be part of a small, collaborative team and will need to find solutions to improve a game. The internship also involves system design, monetization, and the best game design experience.
What Does It Take to Get a Job at Epic Games?
If you want to work at Epic Games, you must admire the company and its games. You should also possess the required skills and have experience working on other projects. If you want to get the job, make sure to continuously improve your portfolio so that hiring managers will take notice of your skills.
There are many possible career paths you can take at Epic Games, from customer service, UX design, sound design, and HR, to social media positions.
If you don’t see the job you are looking for on their website, you can join their talent community to receive regular updates. If you want to discover how to get a game design degree or become a game developer, see our other articles.
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