How I Got My Job at Nvidia

Do You Need a Qualification to Work in Tech?

Q: Knowing what you know now, if you could give yourself some advice when you were starting out in your career, what would that be?

Well to be fair, I haven’t exactly been at it all that long! Compared to a lot of people I’m still a bit of a n00b here.

Q: Are professional courses (eg degrees in IT, game design, Microsoft qualifications) worthwhile, or are experience and contacts more important?

I think courses and certifications are absolutely still worthwhile, I don’t want to give the wrong impression here. Just to emphasize this, I’m still taking classes on the side, while working at Nvidia. But it’s also necessary to acknowledge that courses can’t teach you everything that a given company might value. In fact, it can be funny to sit in technology-orientated classes with curriculums which might be a bit dated when viewed in the context of the processes and technology I see at work every day. I think that’s pretty cool.

Over the years technology has changed so much, and I don’t think anyone should assume that certifications guarantee success. As you know, in our industry we’ve seen ideas and technologies that have been created in what was effectively someone’s basement which were simply awesome, because they were fuelled by passion and vision. I know of a few people who have worked at Nvidia in a technical role and didn’t necessarily go to school for graphics, or get a degree from college. They learned a lot on their own and spent their spare time writing a lot of code.


That said, at some companies, a foundation or outright expertise in your field via a certification or degree can make the difference between getting an interview or not. In my case in particular I got a bit lucky. I came to meet some people who were willing to take a risk with hiring me because they saw that I was willing to work hard and I was really devoted to gaming and hardware. I was simply willing to do what it took to get involved with a company that really excited me (including a lot of volunteering and what was originally a 1.5 hour commute each way).

At some companies, I imagine that simply having contacts might be able to get you an interview, which can be very helpful, but it can’t sustain you as a proficient employee. I’m not totally convinced having contacts alone can accomplish that.


Q: Are certain roles more or less suited to having formal qualifications? Would you say you need to have a degree in game design to work at a game studio, for example, or could anyone find a role within either Nvidia or any of the companies you work with?

I believe the role is a big factor. Despite my experiences, for some roles you simply need to have a specific set of knowledge to build on top of immediately after you’re hired. For example, given my lack of knowledge or certification in the field of electrical engineering, I definitely shouldn’t be routeing signals for our next-generation GPUs, unless you’re looking for a fresh batch of GPU keychains!

More than anything, I think it comes down to what you know, and how well you know it. In my opinion, a degree means very little if a person did the bare minimum in school and didn’t bother to understand the material very well: they’d fail interviews for most companies, as interviews are usually pretty intense. I think most people would agree that a degree without actual knowledge isn’t useful.