Increased Requirements

So after another day at work I come home and check my emails. A daily ritual it seems. The GameIndustry.biz email immediately got my attention (as usual). GameIndustry.biz seems to be pretty much to go to place for info, help and general advice on how to break into the industry. It also has a job board (the largest I've seen) where companies and agencies post various job openings within the industry.

There are probably hundreds of jobs. The only issue I have is experience. My choice of university course didn't help. Doing a degree in what is essentially a Social Science has no benefit in the gaming world. But, I never went to uni with the intention of getting a degree to push me into a career. I went to experience the lifestyle and help decide what I want to do in the future. It was only after university that I decided that the gaming industry was the career choice for me.
Thus, I was relegated to the fact that I needed to start from the bottom, and work my way up. Therefore I had to start a game testing. A relatively competitive position apparently. A great deal of people apply for it, hoping to play games for a living (or make their way into the industry like myself). But, with the number of new games coming out, surely there would be a great deal of positions. And, to an extent there are. The only issue is most are contract positions (3 or 6 month jobs) or require 2+ yrs experience. The contract positions I could handle. Even in this depression/recession I am happy to gamble and take my chances. Mostly in order to gain the 2+ experience that permanent positions require. The only issue I'm now finding is the contract positions are getting less and less. While the permanent positions seem to have more and more requirements. No longer is it just 2yrs experience. But, coding knowledge too. Where as, previously, such knowledge was beneficial it was not necessary. While it was needed to work up the career chain, it was something you could learn on the job.