I have an oportunity (or potential oportunity) to work with a company porting games to the Xbox Live and PSN "platforms".  I've never worked in the gaming industry before, but I have always been interested in it.

Have any of you worked in the gaming industry, porting games or doing any form of game development?  Is there any reason to think it won't be as fun/glamourous as it sounds?

I've been coding for as long as I can remember, I don't think the work itself will be beyond my abilities in any way, although setting aside enough time to do it may be.

Also, anyone have any experience with the Xbox 360 and PS3 dev kits?  what can I expect?

I never worked in the game industry as I haven't even gone to college yet but from what I can tell, the play for all of the jobs except game testing are decent. However, it also requires a lot of hard work. I am a little young so I don't know all of the in or outs of the industry

If you know your stuff, go for it. Its a great opportunity

I don't think your questions can really be answered in a concise manner.

The game industry is very difficult -- lots of hours, decent pay (but not per hour), and crushing deadlines around every corner. If you truly love it, you'll bear down and stick it out, despite its downfalls. If you don't, you will want out in a big way.

Porting games to XBL and PSN will be a really awesome learning experience, and it'll be punishing, in terms of hours you put in, and stuff you'll need to learn, even if you're a veteran programmer from almost any other industry. Its the last bastion of high performance, to-the-metal computing, outside of some pretty rare other vocations.

There is huge variance in the skills of people working in the industry as well -- especially at the "little company" level. Your company will be made or broken by the talent, and dedication, of the people you work with, no matter how pleasant their personalities are. Once/if you start working at a major studio, the average skill level really tends to leap ahead.

It will *not* be glamourous. It can be fun, but it really depends on why you're into it. If your idea of fun is "gruelling hours, punishing deadlines, moderate pay... for the sake of art and creativity"... if so, then you are set to love it. I'm not joking in the slightest.  You'll certainly have a much different perspective as a gamer after working in the industry for just a little while.

That being said, it is the only industry (outside of research for the military and other gov't organizations) I have ever had a serious career in, and I've seen a *lot* of people, and companies, come and go.  I will never leave, because my heart is in it, but I can understand why others might want to, and inevitably do.

In game school now for Art/Design. You should ask twesterm though, he's a level designer.

Game programmer = $$$ art = pre-production, etc.

Depending on what you need to know, I can help to an extent.

BTW Gamasutra.com is great.

Double, sorry damn IE.  Anyway w/ XBL XNA dev is great with C# and Visual Studio. Easy to port via Xbox XNA launcher.

Working in the games industry is fun, just be prepared to do a lot of work with no real special reward for all the overtime you will put in. Also face the fact that you just might be burnt out after your first game because people do lose interest all the time.

Also, take a look at the studio culture. What do they wear? Do you do flex time or set hours? How do they handle crunch? How do they handle compensation for crunch if any? Are there any benefits sharing for released games? How often do they crunch (if they tell you they don't crunch, run)? On average, about how many hours does the person doing your job work a week? What does the break room look like? Do they do any activities like play TF2 together or anything outside of work?

They all seem like pushy questions but they are all great to ask and things you really want to know before accepting the job.  Also, the more questions like that you ask the better you look.  Oh, and when you leave the interview make sure to ask for everyones buesiness card or contact info and send at least the HR and lead a thank you email the next day.  A phone call to the HR person can work even better.

Sadly can't tell you much about the PS3 and 360. I work on those but I talk to the editor and the editor talks to the console so they're all the same to me.

Yeah crunch is important simkin especially during those "judgement days" before gold. Be prepared to live at work during those times if you go for programming. In addition, the Creator's Club for XNA might work out for you during the duration between now until you go into the biz if you do. All said and done, you will get paid for your games and potentially make a good portfolio piece for an interview. Also, love your whiteboards for programming interviews :)