That’s exactly what Matthew Brown is hoping for. He recently won Playstation Networks reality TV show The Tester 2 and won a $5,000 signing bonus, a 46” 3D Bravia TV, a limited edition The Tester PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, and most of all, an entry level position as SCEA’s newest video game tester in the Quality Assurance department. “QA is one of the entry level positions that would give me a foot in the door, he explained. “I’m only 24. I have six years of experience, but it’s all lower level experience. I know I have to get my foot in the company somewhere so I’ll start in the bottom and work my way up.”
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Brown wanted to work in marketing and PR for a video game company, so he studied sociology and marketing at the University of California, Berkeley. However, getting a lucrative position with a company like Sony straight after graduation, even though Brown had interned at other non-gaming firms, is next to impossible so he decided to enter the television show competition in order to get a QA job and a chance to get noticed by the company. “It’s who you meet and who you know,” he said. “There’s so many great qualified people. It takes standing out to get a great position.”
(More on TIME.com: Are Video Game Developers Growing an Industry For Apple Devices?)
Will Powers, winner of the first season of The Tester, agrees. After his first job as a QA tester, he transferred into Sony’s PR department. Powers worked in gaming journalism for websites like The Big Bag and Gamer Access, but wanted an even more in-depth role in the gaming industry. He initially thought he wanted to go into localization since he had focused on Asian Studies and Japanese in UNC Chapel Hill, but realized that he was more fit for PR, which he believes is the other side of journalism. “In the economy right now, hey, I know people with college degrees who are working in grocery stores,” Powers explained. “One thing that’s really great about QA is sure it’s an entry level position and sure there aren’t necessarily tons of qualifications, but it makes people that are qualified that do the job really well stand out even more.”
“As long as [Brown] goes in with a humble attitude, granted he won this show so he has this great launch pad, QA is a great beginning job for a career depending on his personal drive, if he’s able to jump out and chooses to jump out,” Gocke added. As with any job, the power to succeed is always in the hands of person in control, but it’s especially true for gamers.
(More on TIME.com: The Mythology of Mario: Q&A With Nintendo’s Legendary Shigeru Miyamoto)