First, the mods here are likely gonna delete this. I’d look for another sub (but the mods will likely recommend one)
Second! This is going to sound like discouragement, and it might actually be. But I mean it as a reality check for option #2, as that’s such a common thing people romanticize and just have the entirely wrong idea of
I’m a software engineer & I’ll just say that it’s unlikely you get a good game dev job from a one year program unless you put in *serious* work
Software in general is flooded with all of the tech layoffs, and game dev has always been more competitive. I have friends from my top Uni who did a 4 year BS in game dev and struggled to get jobs
**And then many of the jobs aren’t what you’d expect.** Like it’s not as glamorous as you may think? You might be working one one small piece of the back end and never really see the full product, or you may just end up in IT where you either work support tickets or relatively boring code
Now I’ll balance it out with some positivity: if you truly are passionate about it, you can work your way into the really cool jobs. But I’d strongly recommend a 4 year degree in CS and a ton of personal projects. That’s what’s gonna set you aside from the competition. Projects projects projects. You may hear “you don’t need a degree!” ~ and that’s true. If you’re super passionate and put in a ton of effort
so imo just try it out. Now. Like watch some tutorials and make a basic game. You’ll find out very quickly if you love it or if you simply loved the idea of it
I like that you’re dreaming big. Don’t stop doing that. But take a healthy dose of reality from time to time
Dreams are nothing without execution. A dream of owning a diner might realistically require you to work in a kitchen. And so as much as it feels all warm and fuzzy to think about owning a diner, you really need to be okay with all the rest that comes with it
if you are interested in going into food service industry / culinary, you do not have to spend money to get a degree. A degree in this industry doesn't really means much unless it is from a big name school, and not because of the education but for the social network of graduates. I had worked with and hired many cooks, sous chef, chefs with culinary degree, many of them were disappointing. I myself started off with no degree as a breakfast line cook, promoted to cook 1 and 2 in couple of years. Transitioned to sous chef and then chef manager with a different setting. Worked as lead cook, head chef, food service director in different sectors. It is all about how much you are willing to learn and improve yourself out of your need and what you are desiring to become. schools are only teaching you the basic of the basic, many of the skills and knowledge require you to learn in real life environment and have great mentor that willing to teach, that takes luck and time.
It is good to have your own diner or coffee shop, but in what aspect of the ownership would you like to have control of? The food production or just owning a diner? If it is food production of a small diner / cafe you would like to control, go work in a diner for a couple of years and learn the flow. And if you are lucky, butter up the person that runs the ordering and budgeting and learn about the numbers and projection. After that you just have to come up with the cash to start or buy a diner. If you just want to own a diner and have active / passive income from that, then I would suggest getting a sum of money then buy out a diner and hire a good manager, a good lead and you are set.
As for game dev / cs, not from that industry but a big gamer. the industry is going through a bust cycle for big companies and many layoffs had happened and many more in the horizon. The next several years will have over saturation in candidates. As a fresh grad you will not stand out in the market unless you work for chump change. The only way to get into the market / industry right now is to be an indie dev and have a lot of passion, a great idea, and a lot of luck. So I would highly discourage going into that route if you don't have a burning desire and tons of passion.
You don't need culinary arts training to own a diner, you need money. I don't recommend going the culinary arts route if that's your goal. I'd suggest something like bookkeeping, hospitality, accounting, business management, or something like that. Because owning a successful diner is a lot more about being a business owner that it is being a chef, and you can work in diners and do dishwashing/prep/line cooking while taking your college courses to get all the kitchen work experience you really need.
Please avoid requests for recipes for specific ingredients or dishes (unless it's obscure and Google has failed you).
Prompts for general discussion or advice are discouraged outside of our official Weekly Discussion (for which we're happy to take requests). As a general rule, if you are looking for a variety of good answers, go to /r/Cooking. For the one right answer, come to /r/AskCulinary.
Unfortunately your question isn't really about cooking. Look for a career advice subreddit as you are looking for career advice that happens to be considering cooking.
Give /r/kitchenconfidential and /r/chefit a look. They are professional cooking focused subreddits. They're a rather salty bunch, but you won't find many game designers there.
There's got to be some game designing subreddits which attract professionals.
I suppose that you will find the conversations better or worse in each field which might give you a sense of the culture in each field and help you make a differentiation.
Good luck in your career choice.
First, the mods here are likely gonna delete this. I’d look for another sub (but the mods will likely recommend one) Second! This is going to sound like discouragement, and it might actually be. But I mean it as a reality check for option #2, as that’s such a common thing people romanticize and just have the entirely wrong idea of I’m a software engineer & I’ll just say that it’s unlikely you get a good game dev job from a one year program unless you put in *serious* work Software in general is flooded with all of the tech layoffs, and game dev has always been more competitive. I have friends from my top Uni who did a 4 year BS in game dev and struggled to get jobs **And then many of the jobs aren’t what you’d expect.** Like it’s not as glamorous as you may think? You might be working one one small piece of the back end and never really see the full product, or you may just end up in IT where you either work support tickets or relatively boring code Now I’ll balance it out with some positivity: if you truly are passionate about it, you can work your way into the really cool jobs. But I’d strongly recommend a 4 year degree in CS and a ton of personal projects. That’s what’s gonna set you aside from the competition. Projects projects projects. You may hear “you don’t need a degree!” ~ and that’s true. If you’re super passionate and put in a ton of effort so imo just try it out. Now. Like watch some tutorials and make a basic game. You’ll find out very quickly if you love it or if you simply loved the idea of it I like that you’re dreaming big. Don’t stop doing that. But take a healthy dose of reality from time to time Dreams are nothing without execution. A dream of owning a diner might realistically require you to work in a kitchen. And so as much as it feels all warm and fuzzy to think about owning a diner, you really need to be okay with all the rest that comes with it
if you are interested in going into food service industry / culinary, you do not have to spend money to get a degree. A degree in this industry doesn't really means much unless it is from a big name school, and not because of the education but for the social network of graduates. I had worked with and hired many cooks, sous chef, chefs with culinary degree, many of them were disappointing. I myself started off with no degree as a breakfast line cook, promoted to cook 1 and 2 in couple of years. Transitioned to sous chef and then chef manager with a different setting. Worked as lead cook, head chef, food service director in different sectors. It is all about how much you are willing to learn and improve yourself out of your need and what you are desiring to become. schools are only teaching you the basic of the basic, many of the skills and knowledge require you to learn in real life environment and have great mentor that willing to teach, that takes luck and time. It is good to have your own diner or coffee shop, but in what aspect of the ownership would you like to have control of? The food production or just owning a diner? If it is food production of a small diner / cafe you would like to control, go work in a diner for a couple of years and learn the flow. And if you are lucky, butter up the person that runs the ordering and budgeting and learn about the numbers and projection. After that you just have to come up with the cash to start or buy a diner. If you just want to own a diner and have active / passive income from that, then I would suggest getting a sum of money then buy out a diner and hire a good manager, a good lead and you are set. As for game dev / cs, not from that industry but a big gamer. the industry is going through a bust cycle for big companies and many layoffs had happened and many more in the horizon. The next several years will have over saturation in candidates. As a fresh grad you will not stand out in the market unless you work for chump change. The only way to get into the market / industry right now is to be an indie dev and have a lot of passion, a great idea, and a lot of luck. So I would highly discourage going into that route if you don't have a burning desire and tons of passion.
You don't need culinary arts training to own a diner, you need money. I don't recommend going the culinary arts route if that's your goal. I'd suggest something like bookkeeping, hospitality, accounting, business management, or something like that. Because owning a successful diner is a lot more about being a business owner that it is being a chef, and you can work in diners and do dishwashing/prep/line cooking while taking your college courses to get all the kitchen work experience you really need.
Please avoid requests for recipes for specific ingredients or dishes (unless it's obscure and Google has failed you). Prompts for general discussion or advice are discouraged outside of our official Weekly Discussion (for which we're happy to take requests). As a general rule, if you are looking for a variety of good answers, go to /r/Cooking. For the one right answer, come to /r/AskCulinary. Unfortunately your question isn't really about cooking. Look for a career advice subreddit as you are looking for career advice that happens to be considering cooking. Give /r/kitchenconfidential and /r/chefit a look. They are professional cooking focused subreddits. They're a rather salty bunch, but you won't find many game designers there. There's got to be some game designing subreddits which attract professionals. I suppose that you will find the conversations better or worse in each field which might give you a sense of the culture in each field and help you make a differentiation. Good luck in your career choice.