Have you ever wanted to work in video games? Many EA interns become full time employees, and we’ll be looking at a few new faces that have recently joined EA in this series.

We sat down with a software engineer based out of Tiburon to find out what it’s like to get your first big break in gaming.

Anurag Bhagwat believes that fortune favors the brave, and with that he took a leap of faith, and followed his instincts to the Videogame Engineering program at the University of Utah, leaving behind an opportunity at Georgia Tech that didn’t quite feel right to him.

From there, rather than letting a pass on his first interview with EA crush his dreams, he doubled his efforts, and interviewed again a few months later, securing an internship at EA Tiburon. He ended up getting an offer just a few weeks into his second stint with EA.

And if you look close at the crowd in NBA LIVE 15, you just might catch a glimpse of Anurag.

What are you working on right nowat EA? I’m a rendering engineer on NBA LIVE.

What do you hope to be working on in ten years? Hopefully, I’ll still be working on videogames.

How did you first get interested in videogames? My parents bought an NES when I was a kid, and I was instantly hooked.

What have you had the most fun doing at EA? I would have to say my first internship in SSummer 2012. It was first experience in the gaming industry and everything about it was great. I got to work with some amazing people and learned a lot. The other interns were really cool as well and we had a lot of fun together.

Where were you doing when you found out you would be receiving a scholarship with EA? I was told I had a meeting with Group GM Cam Weber, which I thought was about some feedback on how the new grads were finding their experience at Tiburon. So after a little bit of small talk, Cam told me that the meeting was in fact to let me know I had been awarded the scholarship. Needless to say, I was very surprised.

Do you have any advice for someone looking to break into the industry? Just keep trying and don’t lose hope. Getting into the industry might seem really hard but it isn’t impossible.

What’s your favorite part of the job so far? Just the fact that I’m having new problems to solve every day is exciting to me. Like figuring out how to implement a new feature or trying to squeeze out an extra millisecond for optimization. It can be exhausting at times, but the challenge is what makes work interesting and exciting.

How did you first get interested in videogames? My parents bought an NES when I was a kid, and I was instantly hooked.

If you weren’t working in videogames, what would you be doing? Some other job in the software industry, or maybe an automobile engineer.

Lightning round! One-word answers, please. Favorite videogame of all time? Battlefield

What did you do after work to relax or distress? Play videogames.

Where did you go to school? Undergrad at the University of Mumbai, and a masters from the University of Utah

How do you play? (Console, PC, mobile, etc) I have 3 consoles, a pc, and a handheld.

What’s the first game you remember playing? Mario.  

 

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