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[jcorb]

Personally, I work in email marketing (specifically fundraising) and I've never found any success in applying for jobs in the Gaming industry. Even when willing to take a pay cut or relocate, I just always wonder how people manage to get their foot in the door.

Especially on cover letters, whether you want to sound *strictly* professional, whether you want to convey your passion for gaming, or just how to run the gambit on all that?

I imagine such jobs are likely few and far between -- I doubt there are really *that* many studios that can actually afford to pay people any kind of a salary -- but still, it's just something I come back to. I've always been obsessive about anything "video game" related, and after working "regular jobs" for most of my adult life, I honestly want to shift gears and work in an industry I'm *actually* passionate about.

Any tips on any of this stuff? Particularly from anyone who has worked in the industry, or even been involved in the hiring process before?

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

mid size to larger studios are looking for "non-developers" all the time, they need people for all their other departments like any other business as well.
As for cover letters, I don't really believe in them, and depending on the size of the studio it might not even get read, but if you do write one you can definitely keep it informal a bit, by talking about the company and what you like about it, but don't write what's essentially a fanboy letter.

 

[nush]

Games companies have marketing departments, so there’s your way in.

 

[wondermega]

Probably not always pertinent, but in some cases might be worth reaching out to some smaller indie devs (who usually have zero idea about marketing!) and see if there's any who might want some help. If they can pay you anything that is a bonus, but be wary, a lot of those people usually expect "marketing will take care of itself" (hint: it never does!) so they may be reluctant to throw any money your way. Still, it will get you thrown into getting some directly relevant experience which will make it easier when you apply to bigger outfits.

And on that note, as far as applying to bigger outfits.. whether you want to court the small indies first or just go right towards companies that do actually USE marketing, just do your homework and find out who is out there 1st of all. Are there any local to where you live? Would you be willing to relocate? Perhaps the places you are interested to apply will be fine with remote work? Whichever the case, and cast as wide a net depending on how hungry/eager you are, simply go for the gusto. Build up a list of companies and contacts (peruse linkedIn, other social media, webpages etc) and just cold-send your materials over to every company which is relevant, rather than only replying to job postings. A lot of the time it might end up in someone's junk box, so maybe find out the relevant department heads and send them snail mail as well. Again, many of these will end up being ignored, but like anything it is a numbers game/how badly do you want it. It's been ages but early on in my career as a level artist I used to employ similar tactics to just get eyeballs on my stuff. It actually got me talking to some people that I'd otherwise not have access to.

Also, if you are conveniently located near where gaming events happen (PAX etc), get a ticket and show up and just do your thing, those places are riddled w/ marketing folks, all kinds of producers etc. Maybe get ahead of it and find out what social meetup events will be happening (again, usually when you dig around relevant social media for such events). There's tons you can do, just got to be patient, proactive, creative, and a bit aggressive.

 

[John Marston]

I've known a lot of colleagues who applied as testers to get their foot in the door.
They went on to become level designers, game designers and even programmers.
The workplace itself is the greatest school sometimes.

But as stated above marketing is also a big part of the industry so you should combine this with your passion for videogames.

As far as being an actual Dev expect long hours, useless meetings and game Directors saying "Hey I saw this on TV yesterday we should put it in the game" 2 weeks before release.

But I still love my job

Good luck!

 

[Northeastmonk]

I wonder about retirement. Can you actually retire from a company without being one of the big shots? All these layoffs and people getting let go. It feels so unstable unless you’re doing something like finance or marketing. Something unrelated to actually making the games.

 

[L*][*N*K]

I say Don’t, from what I have seen it is an extremely hard process, you will barely make any money the studio will make all of it, and at the end of the day the people you make games for are assholes they will disect every aspect of your game and bully you online and send you death threats, find a job somewhere else man.

 

[JonSnowball]

Be a brown nosing sycophantic yes man and you'll get a job in the industry immediately for low pay and long hours. Ask me how I know!

 

[ahtlas7]

Don’t have any social media accounts. Alternatively, have social media accounts loaded with ’flavor of the month’ supporting posts.

 

[BbMajor7th]

There are huge email marketing teams within major platform holders and piblishers, as well as many other omnichannel digital marketing opportunities that run from the gamut from hard data and analytics (where you can make a very tidy living) to areas like production, design, copywriting and user journey planning.

These would be a good place to start looking, but you won't find sophisticated outfits of that size at studios - you'll want to apply to bigger publishers. A lot of them will hire through specialist recruitment agencies, so reaching out to some of them is probably wise.

Passion for gaming is probably something to keep on the CV but don't go too hard: product knowledge is increasingly scarce in the industry and it's a problem for marketing teams. Being plugged into the hobby at a user level is very beneficial to marketers. That said, professionalism is key - you don't want goggle eyes fan boys parading around the place. You're dealing with highly sensitive stuff daily and you need to be able remain objective.

Lastly, while it's not seen as glamorous, marketing (at a big publisher) is absolutely where you want to be. Marketers get to work across hundreds of titles, work with dozens of different publishers and studios, have more international travel opportunities, get paid a lot more and get a shit tonne of freebies.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

Pronouns are important, don't forget that.

 

[jcorb]

Curious if there are any specific skills (particularly ones you could acquire with a certificate in like 3-6 months) that would be more likely to lead to reliable work?

I'm starting a new job at the end of the month, but it's back doing political work. I would be so much happier being able to embrace my love of video games as a career, but I just don't know where to even start.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Don't.

 

[AJUMP23]

Don’t let people know you are going to break it. Break in, take what you can and leave before you get caught.

 

[BbMajor7th]

Curious if there are any specific skills (particularly ones you could acquire with a certificate in like 3-6 months) that would be more likely to lead to reliable work?

I'm starting a new job at the end of the month, but it's back doing political work. I would be so much happier being able to embrace my love of video games as a career, but I just don't know where to even start.

What area do you want to work in? The development side or the publishing side? Both have a huge number of different roles to consider, but if you already have experience in email marketing, that could be a good way to get in - publishers have huge CRM teams firing off hundreds of campaigns every year and it's only growing in importance as the social media has become harder and more unreliable. If you've got experience in putting together audiences, building out emails in a CMS and working with stakeholders to deliver assets and hit publishing deadlines, you could easily move into that space.

 

[cormack12]

Don't.

This.

My brother did an actual video game art degree course. Got a 1st, applied for countless junior jobs, offered to work for free to get experience. Nothing. Although some companies were nice when he reached out (shoutout to rare and creative assembly). He did all the networking and went to EGX etc. Was willing to relocate for companies like Reflections (Ubi). None of the grad programmes seem to be for anyone who isn't DEI these days.

Now he's studying SQL to be a SQL analyst. It might seem lucrative but it's one of the most closed and competitive industries I've seen tbh. My advice would be get a broader skillset. Or be amazing at coding in the proper deb languages - and I mean amazing. Most roles, even art roles are now asking for extras like scripting experience or pipeline QA etc.

 

[Hypereides]

While I have respect for the hard working creatives in the industry and their craftsmanship, I'd strongly advise anyone against trying to get into the business regardless of what they hear.

It might've been a neat work environment about 20+ years ago, but things have changed dramatically since then. Stick to playing or creating games in your spare time. Don't turn it into a profession.

 

[BbMajor7th]

While I have respect for the hard working creatives in the industry and their craftsmanship, I'd strongly advise anyone against trying to get into the business regardless of what they hear.

It might've a neat work environment about 20+ years ago, but things have changed dramatically since then. Stick to playing or creating games in your spare time. Don't turn it into a profession.

Can confirm, it's way more corporate, cynical, and money-grubbing than it used to be. Inevitable given the massive expansion of the medium, but still disheartening to watch.

 

[ScHlAuChi]

What John Marston said!

Alternatively you could try to learn the skills by playing around with Unreal and Unity and build stuff yourself.
The modding scene is a good starting point as alot of people doing that end up in the industry or making indie games.
I started out as a UT99 modder and later landed a job at Ubi Montreal due to the skills learned working on mods.
Alot of testers I worked with at Ubi back then later became leveldesigners themselves.

 

[mitch1971]

The Do's are: Don't.

 

[-Minsc-]

While I have respect for the hard working creatives in the industry and their craftsmanship, I'd strongly advise anyone against trying to get into the business regardless of what they hear.

It might've been a neat work environment about 20+ years ago, but things have changed dramatically since then. Stick to playing or creating games in your spare time. Don't turn it into a profession.

Would you even say "learn to code" is 20 years too late?

 

[Hypereides]

Would you even say "learn to code" is 20 years too late?

Probably depends on which branch of software development you'd want to pursue. Some skillsets are more in demand than others. Generally, IT is a field that frequently shifts and changes in what's new and sought after.

 

[MaestroMike]

Eat a lot pizza and sushi and drink a lot of diet pepsi; learn Japanese and move to japan

 

[Tams]

If you can code? Go work for a bank or investment firm. Better pay, better working conditions, and finish on time. If you're lucky and cunning you can make yourself indispensable to them and they will pay you very well to just be on call most of the time.

Good at art? Then some fashion houses, architects, or even film/tv studios will pay you better and have better working conditions.

If you really want to pursue this, then really just make it a serious hobby and try to make your own game.

 

[kurisu_1974]

So busy with the dos and the don'ts that we completely ignore the why.

 

[-Minsc-]

So busy with the dos and the don'ts that we completely ignore the why.

Honestly, I believe people would be much happier if both playing and creating video games were treated as a hobby.

 

[Tams]

So busy with the dos and the don'ts that we completely ignore the why.

Because the answer is rather off-putting.

You just get your work torn apart and mocked by people like us.

 

[fran.fernandez]

I did a lot of software development (banks, automobile, touch panels ,
Hospitals) and at my free time I released couple of games (some had 60k user monthly ) just for fun.
I got called to work at a game company more than 13 years ago, mostly was porting to other platforms (windows to ps4, ps4 to switch , Xbox to pc … etc) touch a lot of famous games code, later I change to mobile and worked with Google doing optimization for some games and making personalized profiling tools , I rewrite the unity post process for old gpus and opengl2. From that time I had being approached multiple times (unity, Ubisoft, Capcom, Sega/yakuza, net ease, cygames etc ) i still work in game dev (AAA) mostly UE5 research/ optimization and tools.

So.. actually I never approached them, just happened. Mostly of people I know that are not programmer / designer start as QA (very low salary)

Edit; also the porting company was a little bad (work/life) . After that I never did extra work in more than 10 years, work/life balance is very good. No issues with paternity leave, work remote when I want , good salary and health benefits , the one I love most is free airplanes tickets one time a year for all my family to go back my
Home country (that’s already 12k us in savings)