Zelda creator doesn’t have the qualifications required to work at Nintendo today
Veteran developer discusses Nintendo’s recruitment, need for high qualifications
Shigeru Miyamoto believes that Nintendo would not employ him today if he applied for a position with his original qualifications.
Speaking to Edge magazine, Miyamoto said: “Nintendo has become one of those companies that graduates from colleges and good universities really want to work for.
“Because of that, the competition’s really become so fierce for positions. And that means that a lot of the recent recruits for Nintendo have tended to have the higher degree from the prestigious colleges and universities and whatnot.
“I often say to Mr Iwata: ‘If I was applying for a job here today, I, with my actual college degree, would probably not have been employed by Nintendo’.”
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Miyamoto assured the industry that he still looks out for those with qualities that aren’t reflected by official qualifications, even getting involved in the interview process himself.
“I might pick up on [applicants] and try to find out something really different within them which you can’t judge just by a college degree,” he said. “That’s one of the special little jobs I set myself.”
Its a sad state when paper is the only thing that matters..
I for one do not have a degree. I had a job interview last week for 1.5h. The guy said there were no other reasons for not allowing me into the second round. Except for that lack of paper...
I like the fact that Miyamoto is getting involved in the interview/screening process to try to identify those rare people who carry a unique spark of creative passion which can't be seen on someone's educational record.
Quite frankly, some of the people I've interviewed with seemingly excellent "paper" qualifications were not worth seeing. I'd have spent the time more profitably talking to a plank. Judging someone only by their ability to turn up at college and survive academia is not a good way to find creative staff. The most creative and practical people we (and no, I'm not going to say where I work) have are those who don't trumpet their own "qualifications", but just get on with the work.
Don't worry Miyamoto san. We'll give you a job.
What a pointless thing to say. The games industry is totally different now - you werent ABLE to get the kind of qualifications you can now back then, so its irrelevant. Its just headline grabbing blarble.
Its kinda like me saying "well if i'd have been born in 1925 i'd have no chance of being an artist because i'd have been conscripted for war and probably been killed".
I wasn't. So i did get the chance. Move on.
PS Miyamoto is great. Its just a silly headline.
