Want A Better Game Job? Here’s How a Recruiter Can Help

Breaking into the game industry is one thing, but navigating your career once you’re in is an entirely separate challenge. In this conversation, I sat down with Peter Franks, a professional headhunter who’s spent years placing senior talent at top game studios. His firm specializes in experienced hires, but he shares insights you’ll be able to use at any stage of your game dev career. We talk about how the job market is changing, what makes a candidate stand out from the crowd, and how to build relationships with recruiters—even if you’re not looking for a job right now.

Peter is an “external” recruiter (also called a headhunter), meaning that his firm is hired by game companies to find candidates to interview. That’s in contrast to “internal” recruiters, who are employed by the company directly. External recruiters are often used to help fill high-profile or time-sensitive roles.

Jason Bay: Let’s start with the basics—for people unfamiliar with how external recruiting works, give us a quick overview of where you plug in compared to the typical process of “Apply for a random job and hope someone calls me back for an interview.”

Peter Franks: I work as a headhunter for games companies – which means that I work on a retained basis for games companies who want to build out their leadership teams. Typically I work on “C” and “VP” level roles – across key functions like product management, design, marketing, engineering, finance and operations.

I tend to work on a small volume of senior placements. We never advertise our positions, but rather target passive candidates who we think have the skills and experiences we are looking for, and try to persuade them that the opportunity with our client is a better, more attractive career opportunity. [Note: A passive candidate is someone who is not yet looking for a new job.]

We work from client to candidate, and on an exclusive basis. In this context, we try to offer the highest quality service to our clients and candidates, underpinned by a strong network in the games industry.

Bay: Most people I know in the industry have had at least a couple “bad experiences” with recruiters/headhunters. Anything from ghosting, to overpromising, to downright scams. What are some things to look for in a recruiting firm to make sure they’re legitimate and actually helpful?

Franks: Unfortunately, there are a lot of rogue recruiters out there and ghosting is a prime example of where recruiters should do better. Whilst there’s never a good excuse for it, ghosting typically happens because the recruiter doesn’t care enough about candidates who are no longer of use to them.

As you become more senior, the quality of recruiters you encounter tends to be higher. Obviously, C and VP-level executives won’t tolerate being treated badly, nor will clients want to use a recruiter who represents them unprofessionally to the market.

There are good recruiters at all levels however. Ask friends in the industry for recommendations and look to work with recruiters who have a demonstrable track record in the games industry, with reputable clients and testimonials from happy clients and candidates.

Bay: What are some tips for working with recruiters most effectively? On the flip side, what are some mistakes you’ve seen that should be avoided if possible?

Franks: If you have identified recruiters who specialize in your area, and who you are keen to build a relationship with, there’s a few things you can do to work with them effectively:

• Firstly, make sure they are aware of you – share your resume and keep them updated when you change jobs, or if you are looking for something new.
• Try to avoid just having a transactional relationship with a recruiter where you only interact when you are a candidate on one of their projects. Check in with them every six months or so, and help them with recommendations of other candidates where the role isn’t the right fit for you. Recruiters appreciate that.
• Don’t be offended if a recruiter isn’t keen on engaging with you at a moment in time. It might be the case that they just don’t have anything for you. If you’re not a solution to a current requirement, it’s likely they will want to focus their time elsewhere.
• Never try to cut out a recruiter and go to their client directly after they have approached you about a role. That burns trust instantly.
• If you can recommend recruiters to potential clients, that will definitely get you in their good books!

Bay: What advice do you have for senior employees who might be interested in making a move to a more executive leadership role (for example, a senior engineer looking to move up to Technical Director or CTO)?

Franks: Once you start getting to “C” or “VP” levels (or are keen to be promoted to that level) – building relationships with headhunters (rather than normal recruiters) can help you to make that step.

The more management experience you have, the easier it will be to secure leadership roles. Even if you don’t have much line management experience, most CTO or VP Engineering roles for smaller companies want a “player / coach” who can manage and lead but is also quite hands on, for example doing code reviews, and advising the team on how to solve engineering challenges. So the skills you have as an individual contributor are still valuable in this context.

It’s easier to secure an executive role in sectors where you have a lot of experience – so maybe try networking with earlier stage companies in your field who may need C and VP level folks as they expand.

Bay: There has been a lot of turmoil in the game industry recently – layoffs, studio closures, high-profile commercial flops. What’s your industry outlook for the next few years, and what are some strategies to navigate these challenges successfully?

Franks: It’s undoubtedly been a tough market in the games industry over the last few years, with many talented candidates being laid off for reasons outside of their control. The market has gone from being a “candidate’s market” to a “hirer’s market” with lots of candidates chasing a relatively small number of attractive roles.

Advertised roles are often heavily over-subscribed, so it’s often better to try to network directly with relevant recruiters and hiring companies. Even in a tough market, some companies and sub sectors are thriving. Try to identify those pockets of growth where you are a good fit and reach out proactively to CEOs, Chief People Officers, VPs of Talent, internal recruiters and so forth. You won’t necessarily know who is hiring in your area from the outside, but you’ll massively increase your chances of being thought of if something does come up.

Bay: You mentioned some sectors are thriving. What are good examples of that?

Franks: At a market level, I think the mobile and free-to-play games sectors remain attractive and some of the biggest companies like Supercell and Scopely are growing strongly despite a challenging market. There are also always new studios emerging which creates new job opportunities. Our reports into the fastest growing games companies show the fastest growing mobile games companies by headcount for example.

Generally, I’m a sceptic on Web 3.0 gaming and I think AAA gaming has challenges given the huge cost of developing new titles. I think indie games on Steam and other platforms will grow as their lower cost means that they have potential for strong profitability and they have the ability to create more innovative, exciting games. 

Bay: What advice do you have for younger people, or people earlier in their game dev career, just starting out? Any hiring trends you’re seeing that newer game developers could take advantage of?

Franks: I think AI will increasingly automate engineering, content creation and marketing. Technical skills in these areas may become less important over time.

Building strong data science and analytics skills I think would be very helpful for a young person entering the games industry. Live games generate a huge amount of data at a product and marketing level, and the ability to analyze that data and derive useful insights from it is key to the performance of games studios.

Neon River is an executive search firm founded by Peter Franks with deep experience of working with games clients around the world.

Image: toa-heftiba/Unsplash