Hey guys, just thought I'd let you guys know that I've been offered my first games industry job! It's for a small company called Outerlight, who you may remember made the Half-Life mod The Ship. That was a prototype to test their game design and gauge interest, and though fairly rough around the edges, it showed a lot of potential. Since then they hired a fair few more people, licensed the Source engine, and are due for a release of the game proper on Steam sometime in May.
I spoke to them at a jobs fair and, due to my experience with the HL1 and Source engines, and my mix of design and programming abilities, they phoned me up a few days later and asked me in for an interview. That interview was a couple of days back, and while there are a few things I would have changed about it if I could, in general it went well. I heard back from them today and they made me an offer, which I took them up on.
The position is as a part of the design team, but I will also be involved in some (mostly design oriented) programming. To me this sounds just about ideal, as though level design is what I would say is my main career focus, I do enjoy programming and hopefully this position will offer me the best of both worlds.
I should be joining them soon after I finish my uni course in May - woohoo!