Back to school season has begun, and with it, the daunting question of ‘What career path do I want to take? Did I make the right decision choosing this program?’ is probably starting to creep up in the back of your mind.

Here’s a bit of advice from a person who’s still faced with that same question but decided to take a chance and dive into something she had no idea she’d realize she enjoyed.

I went into a Journalism program knowing one thing: I love to write. Funny thing was, I didn’t love to write about news-related topics, specifically hard news and crime and the nitty-gritty court reporting. In fact, at first, I thought I’d made a mistake, that I had been too confident and excited and jumped into something I wasn’t prepared for - which I had.

But the highlight of that was that I learned a lot about writing. I found that I was able to apply the skills I’d gained writing sports articles, opinion pieces and election night righting towards the articles I actually enjoyed. By dipping a toe in the water of every different type of article and topic, I was actually able to find the type of stories I was passionate about.

Over the course of my two-year program, I narrowed my sights on gaming-related articles and stories. Whenever the opportunity came up to follow the Game Development students to competitions and events and interview them about the games they were making, I was always amazed and invested in the passion and drive behind their ideas and execution.

In the process, I was able to get to know some of the students' professors and interview them for both related and unrelated topics surrounding the Game Development program, which, in turn, helped me land the coolest internship ever.

As a final requirement for graduating my program, I had to spend four weeks interning in a position generally of my choice. Several peers chose to pursue an internship with local newspaper companies, the typical choice for a journalist. However, given my lack of passion for that field, I encouraged my professors to look for a gaming-related internship position.

Turns out, it was the best decision I could have made!

The interview with David Evans, the owner of Falling Squirrel was a blur, but I remember sitting back feeling pleased with how well it went and how easy it had been to talk about something I enjoyed. I talked with Dave about my hobbies and the time I spend writing stories in my free time. I had always loved fiction and fantasy and especially enjoyed pouring hours and hours of gameplay into titles like Dragon Age and Dungeon Siege, and, more recently, Monster Hunter: World.

I explained that I loved being challenged and facing tasks or opportunities I might be wary or unsure of and that story-telling and idea-generating was a passion of mine. I was eager to address the fact that I wasn’t just a fan of playing games, but that I was also fascinated by the actual process of building games from essentially one line of code and that I wanted to make sure that the people behind the games and behind the hard work were noticed, acknowledged and most importantly, praised for their projects.

Over the four weeks of working with Dave, I shared my time and skills with other gaming companies and peers. I spent time learning the technical language for business and marketing paperwork, taking the time to copy-edit and ask questions to help make the reports easier to understand. 

I was an idea-board and writing assistant to both Falling Squirrel and Creative Bytes, acting as a blank slate in order to help them bounce ideas and suggestions off of me. I also played through the demos of their games in order to provide feedback.

Innovate Niagara, the office building both companies worked out of, had me interview another game company’s owner to talk about the new game they had been producing using the building’s resources and rented office space.

In the span of four weeks, I touched base with and networked with, at least three different game development companies as they worked on and mutually collaborated ideas for their upcoming titles. It was an incredible and fulfilling experience to be a temporary partner to these companies and helped me realise that, even though the whole experience took me out of my comfort zone, it gave me the confidence to continue pursuing the jobs I want. 

Never settle for less than what you’re capable of! Be bold and remember to give every opportunity your best shot, you never know where you’ll end up.

Toni is a freelance writer and recent graduate of Niagara College. She is looking into a career in gaming news as soon as humanly possible. Here is her LinkedIn. This article was available first to Patrons.