this is quite interesting. so i had no credentials or experience when i got my first tech job. although my experience was at a AAA game dev. i became a renderi

this is quite interesting. so i had no credentials or experience when i got my first tech job. although my experience was at a AAA game dev. i became a rendering programmer which is generally considered to be a specialised role as well... this was down to a combination of personal connections, having a rock solid demo and knowing my stuff inside and out. my experience there was that oxford graduates with 5 years + experience ranged in quality from 'gifted hard worker' to 'dead weight' with a heavy leaning towards the 'dead weight' end. literally you could have replaced some of these people with large rocks and it would have saved the company money. being able to demo skills is valuable and should be expected during hiring imo, but sadly many employers have not grasped this in their interview and selection process. on the other hand in small high pressure teams avoiding bad hires is super important... imo this is the genius of the test you were given - unlike almost every single examination and course work in academia, it puts you into a real world situation and demands a solution without warning (knowing when your exam is) support (lecturers) or cheat sheets (textbooks).