Nathan Adcock, PR and marketing manager for recruitment specialists OPM, shares his top five tips for people looking to make a change in their career in 2018
January is a time where people like to fire up the old CV and think about looking for a new job. This isn’t always an easy task, particularly in the games industry, so here are a few things you can do to increase your chances.
Preparing your CV and portfolio
It’s important to bullet point your job skills at the top of your CV, don’t assume that the person reading your CV knows what your job involves. Hiring managers look through a lot of CVs, so by highlighting your skills, it is easier for them to figure out what you do before they lose interest.
Portfolios should ideally be a mix of personal and professional work. Send relevant work to the jobs you’re applying for if you have it. For example, if you’re applying for an environment artist role, you need to show examples of your environment work.
Get networking
The phrase: 'It’s not what you know, but who you know’ is still very relevant in the modern recruitment world. Websites such as LinkedIn are a great tool to get out and talk to people in the games industry. Create a profile and get networking, you never know what opportunities could present themselves by doing this.
Improve your online profile
Online communities can be used to see how games industry professionals present themselves and their work; these are the people you will be up against. A lot of people put their portfolios online, so you can see how yours compares and ask for critique. If you make your online profile better than the competition you might even end up having hiring managers find you.
Target studios
Not all companies put their jobs on job boards, so it’s a good idea to target companies yourself. Find a list of game developers and look at their jobs pages. A lot of studios accept applications even if there isn’t a specific job live at that time. Another idea would be to look at recently released games - studios tend to hire for their next project once a game is released, so this is a good time to get your CV across.
Stay Positive
You can’t always get the job on your first try. We worked with a candidate who had 13 interviews and was turned down after completing the first ten. He naturally started to doubt himself and was thinking of giving up the job search. He must have learned something from the first ten because he was offered a job from each of the remaining three interviews.
Try not to feel disheartened when things don’t go well, listen to feedback about your CV, learn from your interviews, and, with a bit of persistence, you could land your next job in games.
This piece is part of our New Year New Job coverage for the start of 2018. If you want to get in touch to share your insight, email [email protected].