It’s well known that pursuing a degree in the humanities or the arts can lead you to unexpected, (and sadly, sometimes unglamourous) careers. For instance, my mate Sarah got her masters in philosophy and now she’s a civil servant, and Jem who got his BA in archaeology turned out to be a network security officer. Aside from that though, most courses pretty much lead to becoming that thing that you’ve studied. Accounting courses produce accountants, science courses produce scientists and social work courses produce social workers.

But there’s another area of study that leads to unexpected careers, and that is game development courses in Melbourne. This city has some great institutions that offer game design. You wouldn’t expect a course in this field to be akin to the arty degrees in this respect and they do differ in one crucial respect. Although many who study game design don’t end up making those famous games like Grand Flash Auto and Fall Out, they still go down some exciting avenues. In other words, a career in game design isn’t going to land you a boring office job.

I know a whole bunch of people who’ve taken a Melbourne based game design course and gone down some fascinating career paths. Reese used the skills he learnt in game design to become a freelance computer programmer and now he works for a variety of high-paying clients. Andy brought his practical and problems solving skills to the world of art to produce interactive public installations for Melbourne to enjoy. And Emma, she probably took the most interesting path, developing games for high flying clients such as the Australian Open. In other words, studying in the field of gaming may lead you down a direct path and it may not. But at least in most cases, the practical elements of the courses lead to some really cool careers.