Bethesda Softworks’ Emil Pagliarulo, the lead writer and designer for the hit RPG Fallout 3, recognizes the importance of not being an asshole.

It’s one of the qualities that he says will help would-be development professionals get into the games industry.

“We say at Bethesda we have a low asshole quotient,” Pagliarulo said during a GDC session that outlined how he started a career in the games industry.

“The game industry is very small, and if you’re an asshole today they’re going to remember you six years later.”

Prior to his career in game development, Pagliarulo, who has a creative writing degree, was the editor of gaming website Adrenaline Vault. From there, he moved into development, heading to Looking Glass Studios as a jr. designer working on the Thief series, and then to Ion Storm in Austin, Tex.

For Pagliarulo, there’s really no right or wrong way to get started in game development. “I really think if you’re serious about entering the industry, enter any way you can, as an intern or QA guy… You’re much more likely to be promoted up in the company. Two of our great programmers started out as interns,” he said.

Aside from suppressing your inner asshole, Pagliarulo offered simple but important guidelines to get started in games: Work hard and get to know people.

Also, he says, be humble and have a personality. “Some jr. developers seem to have a sense of entitlement, like, ‘I’m the badass you need to hire.’”

In addition, be really, really good at what you do, he says. And when applying for a company, know the firm backwards and forwards. Be a fan of its products.

Pagliarulo also said that for Bethesda, it helps if applicants have experience with their publicly available modding tools. An education from game design programs is also now recommended, although at first, developers doubted the legitimacy of such courses.

Sticking with your goals should lead to a satisfying career, but the designer says, “You’re not going to be a rockstar overnight.”

Sande Chen contributed to this report.