Miyamoto: It’s not all about the college degree

If Shigeru Miyamoto had just graduated, chances are, he won’t even land a job with Nintendo. He said so himself. This is coming from a man who’s way, way up the corporate ladder and is a living legend in the industry. That said, the prolific game lord looks past the prestigious on-paper creds and scouts for talent from those who came from ordinary colleges like himself.

If Shigeru Miyamoto had just graduated, chances are, he won’t even land a job with Nintendo. He said so himself. This is coming from a man who’s way, way up the corporate ladder and is a living legend in the industry. That said, the prolific game lord looks past the prestigious on-paper creds and scouts for talent from those who came from ordinary colleges like himself.

“Nintendo has become one of those companies that graduates from colleges and good universities really want to work for,” he told Edge in the magazine’s latest issue. “Because of that, the competition’s really become so fierce for positions. And that means that a lot of the recent recruits for Nintendo have tended to have the higher degree from the prestigious colleges and universities and whatnot.”

I often say to Mr Iwata: ‘If I was applying for a job here today, I, with my actual college degree, would probably not have been employed by Nintendo!

So if a regular guy like him who came from an ordinary college can make it to the top, others can show just as much promise. That’s why Miyamoto-san goes hands-on with the recruitment process, looking for talent that CVs and diplomas don’t show. “I might pick up on them and try to find out something really different within them which you can’t judge just by a college degree. That’s one of the special little jobs I set myself,” he said.

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Via Eurogamer