This is why I don’t care about “formal education” as it relates to getting a job — this part of the following article is so right on:
My point is that jobs inevitably went to the people who had passion and ‘game’. The applicant with a functional mod, a playable demo, character models they created on busted hacked software at 4 in the morning based on some design pitch they have… those were who we hired, those are who we ARE. We hired people who -had- to make games because it was part of their being, and passed on those for which it was just an intriguing occupational option.
Gamasutra: Lee Perry’s Blog – The truth about how AAA developers view indies