[BEIGE]

I have been trying to apply for a internship at Harmonix for a couple semesters now, with no success.

What I am wondering is, what are game developers looking for in a prospective employee? I have the feeling I'm not doing enough to stand out.

Actually, I can think of several things I can do to stand out, but most of them would get me arrested.

[taidan]

A former friend currently works at Firaxis. He got in by being a slacker/hacker who got poor grades but knew how to code, and by getting contacts there by going meetings of the local independent gaming development group, which they sponsored or something.

Also he tried making his own homebrew game about pirates and ninjas that was the worst thing I ever saw.

So ummm jealousy ITT

[Brooks]

My very casual observations of kids that've made it into Game-making suggest that there was a small fuckload of, well, "garage-banding" involved getting them there - personal projects, be they mods for popular software or stand-alone gear, that demonstrate an understanding of the videogame creation process and the various disciplines involved. If these projects are conducted in collaboration with other humans, some kind of Team Player ability's demonstrated too.

I suspect the Industry rather likes people who know something of the technical ropes, can get along with others, and are motivated enough to express these qualities through their work - make a videogame, preferably a superb one, then make (the relevant departments/employees of) Developers X, Y and even Z aware of its existence.
Failing any responses, you've at least got a superb videogame to feel a degree of pride in. One hopes.

In your specific case, OP, have you shown Harmonix anything supergreat that you were responsible for?

[extrabastardformula]

Dude in charge of writing and a decent part of scripting at Bioware/Pandemic got the gig bybeing a freelance editor in the collectable card business who was brought on before they decided that having an editor should be done in house.
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[exodus]

be charismatic but not overbearing, and try to have some sort of valuable skill.

for me, I just do the former two. I have no skills :(
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[IIOIOOIOO]

Does writing articles for some website actually count as being "in the industry?"

[exodus]

[Wall of Beef]

I was a tester at Activision Value, and a couple of the guys that were also testers moved onto Production just because they were hard-ass working testers who had good ideas. They also had college degrees in things completely unrelated to video games (Theater for one, and Law for the other). Now they get to work with such valuable licenses as Cabelas and Dancing with the Stars!
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[DecentBee]

Hey BEIGE, here's something I know. Getting into the industry isn't hard. If you want to do programming or art, that is. Design is a more tricky, since there's no real set route, but you can usually work your way up some way or another (should you want to, the pay is kind of lousy).

BUT!

I'm guessing you want to do audio, in some form or other. Yeah, that's a lot harder. Lots of small studios outsource their audio, or hire people on a freelance basis, rather than actually employing a full time audio team. Larger studios do have audio people, but there's not really much of a turn-over of these people so vacancies are rare as hens nipples. Most people I know who do audio for games either work freelance, and those I know of who are employed full-time by a studio either started out doing freelance work, or came from a film and television background.

Oh, when I say audio people I don't mean musicians. There are fuck all places that have in-house musicians on the books.

[BEIGE]

Well, I would like to do sound design work or music, sure.

But!

I am willing to start anywhere I can. I've heard QA and testing are shitty jobs that at least hold some promise for leading into bigger and better things.

[Broco]

If you get a QA job make sure it is at a developer, not a publisher. At a publisher you would normally be in a physically separate location from the developers and not get to chat with them outside of formal bug reports, so your chances of switching to a better position outside of QA are basically no better than if you were a complete outsider. It's more fun to do QA at developers too: you have more of a say in the development process. QA openings at developers are scarcer, but it is worth focusing on them.