Choosing Wisely: How to Pick the Right Course for You?

Landing a career in gaming is a dream for many, and with Wargaming Forge, you’re able to get your first step on the ladder by learning the essential skills that could see you start your journey in our industry. A Wargaming Forge course can be the first rung on the ladder which could lead to an internship and even a permanent job offer! Sounds simple, right? While Wargaming Forge can be that helping hand you need, it’s very important that you consider your options before applying for any course to see if it’s the right fit for you. We’ve prepared some handy advice to use when looking at which course to choose.

At the end of the day, if you were put before the guardian of the Holy Grail from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you’d want him to utter those famous words: “You choose wisely.”

Tip #1: Choose something you’re interested in and passionate about

It might sound obvious, but it’s important to choose a course or discipline that you could see yourself doing long-term, and that you aren’t just applying for such a course because you really, really want to land a career in gaming (don’t worry, we understand and we love your enthusiasm). 

If your passion is storytelling, your time may be better used on honing your craft, writing more, and working on your ideas (some believe that writing a page a day and making sure you stick to it is the way forward). On the flipside, if you’re wanting to get into game development, it might not be beneficial to take on a marketing course. 

It’s also important to note that some courses have specific pre-requisites. Courses like Software Engineering and Maintenance that we’ve run in 2023 require rudimentary knowledge of certain coding languages, for example.

Remember: Passion can be a driving force to keep you going when you reach any stumbling blocks!

Tip #2: Consider the course length

Our courses vary in both terms of length and weekly hours required. It’s important to understand how much time you can dedicate to the program. For example, a course or internship which could cover or fit into your summer break from university would be perfect, but a 6-month internship might not be possible if the number of hours expected of you each week might be a bit too much for a full-time student. We understand people like to burn the midnight oil, but we don’t want your university work or social life to suffer!

Tip #3: It’s all about “location, location, location”

We have offices all around the world, but that doesn’t mean we have all departments represented in them. All of our courses (and internships) detail which offices are taking part in them, and this is a guide of where you could end up working if you are lucky enough to be offered an on-site internship or even a full-time role at Wargaming.

This is why it’s important to temper your expectations too, as unfortunately, we may not always be able to offer help with relocation and can only look to hire people who are legally able to work in a given country.

However, all our online courses are open to everyone, so don’t worry!

Tip #4: Be patient

At Wargaming Forge, we’re continuously growing. In 2022, we added a new location in our Vilnius office and 2023 saw the introduction of teams in our Belgrade office join the mix. As the program continues to evolve, we’ll be able to offer even more courses and expand cover new disciplines. So, while we may not have mentors sharing the knowledge of their discipline right now, that’s not to say we won’t in the future. After all, we’re like the mythical hydra with the sheer number of departments and disciplines within Wargaming, just with a lot more heads.

Tip #5: Stay tuned

We will be constantly adding new courses to our site throughout 2023 and beyond, so it pays off to follow us on social media and subscribe to updates from us. You can follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/wgforge/), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/WGForge) and LinkedIn (https://cz.linkedin.com/company/wargaming-net) or you can chat with us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/pNSXFxwQEy). Additionally, you can find a list of available courses at wgforge.wargaming.com.

Bonus Tip: Take the leap

If you’ve always dreamt about working in the gaming industry, in either development or publishing, we want you! Don’t talk yourself out of applying because you’re concerned about this or that, that you might not be the best writer or the most knowledgeable about Python. Wargaming Forge courses are learning experiences for both the mentees and mentors, and our friendly team of mentors are doing it because they want to give back to the future of our industry.

As they say, “The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step”.

We hope you find these tips and tricks helpful. We’ll be posting more guides like this one over the year, so keep an eye out!

Wargaming Forge. Turn your passion into a career!