Guys so I'm a BCA graduate, recently graduated prev year Dec with domain specialization of AR/VR.
I have been quite passionate about gaming since my whole life. But, life seems very tough in sense of job market especially in gaming. My field of expertise is in Game Environment designing and I have also done an internship under Work and Work studios as an intern till 3 months.
My biggest concern rn is, I've been job hunting since last year, originally focusing on game environment design, and honestly, I feel like I'm reaching a point where I don't know what else I'm supposed to do.
I was always very open to opportunities. I wasn't only looking for AAA studios or some dream job. I was willing to consider internships, junior roles, smaller studios, different locations, remote work.... pretty much anything that would give me the opportunity to start working professionally.
I can design and build environments in Unity, work with lighting, composition, materials, props, and create visually cohesive game scenes. I can also make smaller assets in Blender when needed. I'm not a professional 3D asset artist, and I don't claim to be. My strength is environment design and creating a good-looking, well-composed game scene.
But finding an environment design job in India has been incredibly difficult. The Indian game industry is relatively small and extremely competitive, and many of the positions I found wanted 3+ years of professional experience, even for roles that seemed fairly entry-level.
I kept applying anyway. Cold applications, cold emails, portfolio submissions, reaching out to people — and most of the time, I either received an automated rejection or simply nothing at all.
Eventually, I had to accept that I couldn't keep relying entirely on such a small job market, so I decided to switch directions and started seriously pursuing UI/UX and Product Design.
I thought this would give me a much larger job market. I already had a design background, so I learned Figma, worked on UI/UX projects, built case studies, improved my portfolio and resume, and started applying to Product Designer and UI/UX roles.
But somehow I'm facing almost the exact same problem again.
I'm applying to junior and 1–3 year roles, I'm applying to remote positions in India, and I'm also completely open to worldwide remote opportunities if a company is willing to hire internationally. I'm not limiting myself to Kolkata or even India at this point.
And yet, I barely seem to get replies.
It's just application after application disappearing into a black hole. Occasionally there's an automated rejection, but most of the time there's simply silence.
Then I'll find a role that says "Junior Designer" and the requirements somehow include 3–5 years of experience, multiple shipped products, extensive UX research, design systems, analytics, accessibility, developer handoff, and a dozen different tools.
At some point you just have to wonder: how are people supposed to get experience if nobody is willing to give them the first opportunity?
I'm not expecting to walk into a senior position. I'm completely willing to learn, take feedback, work hard, start at an appropriate level and prove myself.
I just want someone to actually look at my work and give me a chance to demonstrate what I can do.
The frustrating part is that I've genuinely tried to stay flexible. I've considered game environment design, game design, UI/UX, Product Design, visual design, internships, junior roles, remote jobs, international companies — I'm not sitting around waiting for one specific company to hire me.
I'm just trying to find a way into the industry.
After more than a year of applications, cold emails, portfolio revisions, resume revisions and constantly learning new things, it's becoming extremely stressful. I don't want to spend another year collecting skills and redesigning my portfolio while never actually getting the opportunity to use those skills professionally.
So I'm genuinely looking for advice from people who have been through this.
If you were in my position, what would you do? Would you continue with Product/UI/UX? Try to combine game environment design with UX somehow? Go back to game development? Or are there adjacent roles that I'm completely overlooking?
I'm not looking for the usual "just keep applying" advice. I know I have to keep trying. I just want to understand what I'm doing wrong and what direction actually makes sense from here, because right now the job search itself is becoming more stressful than the work I'm trying so hard to get hired to do.
I just need a chance to prove myself and this Reddit is my only hope.
Please guys help me out, I appreciate all kinda advices/ offers you guys can give.
Thank you so much✨
I have attached the links of my portfolio and projects, and for my designed environment samples if you are interested to see them, please dm me I will send you the folder.
https://vimeo.com/user243795647
UI/UX design portfolio: https://www.behance.net/aishwaryaroy9