Recently I was at a presentation where one of the senior technical artists of Crytek spoke. I had a chance to talk with him one on one afterwards about the kind of programmer a place like Crytek was looking for. For R&D, first on the list was a Masters degree in a technical field, which is not surprising, though this can be overlooked in the exceptional case of a mind-blowing portfolio. For less core engine development, a Bachelors is the standard, but a community college graduate with an excellent portfolio would still be seriously considered. I had similar responses when I spoke with owners of local independent Toronto studios at my local IGDA chapter.

On this basis, I'm very seriously considering continuing my education after I finish my 3 year diploma at Humber College. In the interest of well roundedness, and to pursue my non-game interests, I'm thinking of doing something business related for my undergraduate degree, probably commerce, and a Masters of computer science after.

I do realize it's not always easy to get into graduate school, and taking an undergraduate degree not directly related doesn't help. However, I can get letters of recommendation from a variety of professors I know, who have PhDs in fields such as physics, computer science and theoretical chemistry. I'm hoping that will offset the less technical nature of, say, a commerce degree. Although, one of my current professors who specializes in quantum physics suggested that it is possible to go straight into a Masters degree without a Bachelors in certain exceptional circumstances. I'm flattered my prof thinks I'm skilled enough to even consider it, but I'm not sure it would be right for me even if I could.

There's two problems here. First, I want to get some non-computer education and I really love business, securities and trade. Commerce seems ideal for this very strong secondary interest of mine. I'm not so passionate about it that I want to do an all-out MBA (though who knows what the future holds), so I think a Bachelors would be the best way for me to experience the field. At the same time, I'm 23 now and while I should qualify for 2 years of credits between my diploma and previous university experience, I would be 25 by the time I graduated. Assuming 2 years for a Masters, that's 27 before I'm in the workforce full-time.

Granted, at that point I would make a significant amount of money, but I'm also as impatient as I am stubbornly persistent. I want to get into the meat of the business and start contributing something valuable. I know I already can, though more education will help of course. I'm not totally decided on this issue.

I'm going to an open house at one of the universities I'm interested in this weekend. Maybe they will persuade me.

In the mean time, I've become the student federation rep of the game programmers at Humber. I'm working to improve the course, it's rigour, co-ordinate with clubs and art students, and plan some sort of demoscene style event. I have my final year courses and projects on top of that (though I'm happy to say my mid-term average is a solid 93%). I'm also keeping up on my self-interest studies into math, reading my books, my ACM subscriptions and newsletters, going to the IGDA meetings, and working on a programming contest. I also have the SIGGRAPH 2009 DVD set in the mail. I'm glad I got my smartphone, otherwise I'd never be organized enough to do it all. Quite busy.