Joe Barnes - What he looks for in a new hire

Joe Barnes has been in the game industry for 22 years. He was worked on games that have come out on the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. Barnes enjoys working on low level engine programming. When Barnes is looking for a new employee here are things he looks for in them.

First thing he looks for is if the person has strong C++ skills. If you are going to be an engine programmer you are going to use C++ as your primary language. So having strong C++ skills and being comfortable with the language will do you well. Barnes also likes to know that you are interested in the language because having an interest in C++ will lead to learning quicker. Understanding the ramifications of code you write is also a big deal because you knowing what your code is doing extremely important. You will be working in a team, so knowing how your code can and may affect the project as a whole will save the team lots of time from debugging.

Next thing Barnes looks for is if the potential employee is a team player. Making games is a team effort, so enjoying who you work with is key. Especially when you are working 60+ hour work weeks, you will hope the people you work with are likable. Being a team player also means being able to ask for help and working well with others. As the new guy you will want to ask to help constantly, so you understand what is going on in this company’s code base. You do not want to waste time trying to figure out something when somebody else already knows the answer. 

Some questions you may be asked in the interview process are what is the difference between const char * p and char * const p. Also seeing if you are able to reverse a string in place. And being able to tell what is wrong with this method, Vector Cast( Vector Direction).