Emma Park's 3 Easy Steps To Get A Games Industry Job That Might Take You 10 Years | Winter Spectacular 2023
Ever since I was able to conceptualise that there were people making the video games I played, I knew I wanted to be one of them. Eventually, after ten years of strategically chosen office jobs, I became a fully-fledged member of the video game development industry, working as a Project Manager / Producer at one of my favourite studios, Bithell Games.
I’m not sure what a typical journey into game dev looks like nowadays, but I do know this about my own journey: I didn’t start in game dev, and it took me ten years to get here. When I think back on how exactly I achieved that, I can break it into a few key concepts.
Compromise
It’s easy to feel that if you don’t hop on the ‘games industry’ bus as soon as possible, then you’re going to miss your chance. From what I’ve seen, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I know many people who found the skills they developed in similar roles outside of games put them head and shoulders above their gaming contemporaries.
I'm one of them. My first office job was email marketing at an adult toy company. Yes, that kind of adult toy. After two years of discovering that managing things was very fun, actually, I was able to weasel my way into something called digital advertising operations - so, so boring - at a company which specialised in working with video game studios and publishers.
Friend, I didn’t even know what digital advertising operations was when I landed that job. Turns out, it’s all about how you frame your experiences - how are you more of a team player, more organised, more productive than the one hundred other CVs that say the same thing? How do you use those skills better than anyone else?
In time, my strategic job-hopping meant that when I felt ready to apply for games industry roles, I already knew how studios and publishers worked. I knew how they launched products, how they marketed them, what a development cycle might look like, how to manage developers, their needs and their pain points, and most importantly, where I might fit into the process, all without having actually worked in a studio or publisher myself - because I elected to compromise for ten years. There is no bus to miss. Just start today.
Build A Skills Portfolio
When asked, “What do you want to be when you’re older?”, very few teenagers are going to answer, “I want be a project manager for a video game development team”, or, “I want to market video game launches”. It’s more likely you’d hear, “I want to make games, but I don’t know where to start”. I certainly didn’t.
For programmers, writers, and artists, the way forward is perhaps more clear-cut. A portfolio of work is the best resource you can place in front of a potential employer. Combining your skills with on-the-job knowledge gained working in a similar role as a web developer, copywriter, or graphic designer will mean you stand out of the crowd when the right role comes your way.
The thing is, I’m a natural project manager, obsessed with organisation, communication, and productivity. For those of us who excel in these so-called ‘soft skills’ frequently used as CV padding, understanding how we fit into the bigger picture and demonstrating our worth can be tough. Your best move may be landing a job in an adjacent industry - particularly agency work.
Agencies are companies to which other companies can outsource work. For instance, a games publisher doesn’t need to hire a marketing department: they can pay a marketing agency to do the job instead. Fact: most marketing you’ll see coming out of the video game industry has been impacted by an agency at some point. They’re way more prevalent than you think.
As a result, agency jobs are more common and are better for intern and entry-level roles. They’re a great way to discover and hone what you’re best at, while working on a host of varied projects which look great on your CV. If you land an agency job that works with video game companies, you might even get to squeeze a couple of high-profile studio names onto your CV, too.
Programmers, writers, and artists can fill their portfolios with game jams, blog posts, and concept art. Your portfolio might be the campaigns you’ve delivered and projects you’ve managed, and what you specifically brought to the table. It could take years for the right role for you to pop up at your favourite game studio, asking for exactly your skillset - it’s your job to make sure your skill set matches the job when it appears.
Find What You Love To Do
I experimented with video game art commission work alongside my office jobs, and was able to determine very quickly that it wouldn’t suit me to turn that hobby into my day job. In hindsight, I’m relieved I was able to learn that before diving in headfirst. I’ve had so many different job responsibilities across my roles that today, I have a clear idea of what I do and don’t like to do, and where I excel.
My one true calling? Project management. Really, I adore it. I’ve had a great deal of less-than-stellar roles where the light at the end of the tunnel was that I got to manage something. Trust me: it will be much, much easier to stick with the grind and convey your expertise if you love what you’re doing. So, here’s where compromise ends, and I get a bit sappy. You will be much easier to hire if you clearly love what you do. Not a passing interest - love. And it’s worth taking the time to find what that is.
Your unique combination of skills will find a home in the games industry. Once I’d realised that I would perhaps make a good games producer, I swiftly found out - through reaching out to games producers via socials and using mentorship programs like Limit Break - that a producer’s responsibilities can differ hugely company-to-company, and that I shouldn’t be discouraged by not being quite right on paper for one, not quite hitting the marks in the interview for another.
There is no one-size-fits-all for any role in this industry, and so while it might take some time until you’re ready to take the plunge or for that one perfect role to appear - and I encourage you to take that time, compromising a little less with each job-hop - you can, and will, find the right role for you. Your job until then is to make sure you’re ready for it when you find it.
