Search for a Star 2012 goes live

Aardvark Swift has opened the third annual Search for a Star programming competition, calling on final year under-graduate and Masters students to enter the respected talent search.

More than 55 universities are entering students in this year's competition, which aims to highlight the brightest programmers with the most potential, give out valuable feedback on their work and improve their understanding of industry recruitment processes.

"Entering Search for A Star gives you early exposure to the sorts of questions and processes that you'll experience when interviewing for your first industry job," offered Greg Booker, technical director at Headstrong Games and Search for a Star judge.

"It gives you a chance to show your abilities and stand out from the crowd, something that's really important in an increasingly crowded graduate job market. It's a great addition to your CV and should be a lot of fun too."

The competition is split into three stages - a two hour programming test, a week long programming task and a panel interview with leading members of the video games industry. Students can apply through their course leaders or directly on the official site.

"We're delighted to be running the competition for its third year and are very pleased with the response we have had from the Universities," added Mark Hope, graduate specialist at Aardvark Swift.

"The games industry feedback has been amazingly positive. Studios appreciate that the competition highlights talented individuals, while also helping to create another line of communication between developers and academia. This type of contact between universities and games developers is vital if we hope to increase the quality and quantity of graduate entering in industry. Many of 2011's participants were extremely strong, with a large number having gone on to secure roles in the UK games industry as a result of the competition."