Video Game Recruiter
Cece Harris, Rainbow Studios
Cece Harris is the recruiter for video game company, Rainbow Studios in Phoenix, Arizona. Rainbow Studios has been making video games in the Valley for 23 years. Cece has been with the company for the last eight years and was among their first fifty employees. They now have 130 employees.
What’s the best way to make contacts in the video game industry?
The best way to make contacts in the video game industry is to really put yourself out there. There are a ton of events you can go to just to meet people who work in games. The IGDA, the Game Developers Association is one organization who has networking events all the time. Also, colleges have a lot of different opportunities to meet people who work in games. Sometimes there are guest speakers on campus and other times it’s just going to a career fair and networking.
Probably the best place to hit a lot of people at once is the Game Developers Conference that takes place every year in San Francisco. This year the event is going to take place March 23-27 at Moscone Center in San Francisco. They actually need volunteers to work the conference, and often times you can get your trip paid for if you volunteer. I actually know people who have gotten their flight paid for in exchange for volunteering. I’m going this year. I would recommend that if you’re serious about working in video games, print up some business cards and get out there. Shake as many hands as possible and don’t be shy about meeting people.
How do you recruit for Rainbow Studios?
I’ve used job board services like Jobing.com before. But mainly, I do the majority of my recruiting on LinkedIn and by putting out the position need internally and seeing if anyone knows someone who would be a good fit. Because the thing you’ll find in the video game industry is that everyone knows everyone. It’s a tight knit group. So the people that already work here are my best recruiting source.
But LinkedIn is a great resource too. Not so much Facebook. I had a difficult time trying to find people through Facebook. But if you’re not on LinkedIn, I’d suggest creating a profile and uploading all your professional information. Because I find a lot of people through LinkedIn. I look at their resume and put an emphasis on their skills, both their future upside and their current skills.
How many cold calls or unsolicited resumes do you receive a week?
I receive anywhere from 50-75 unsolicited phone calls or blind emails from people per week from people who want to work at Rainbow Studios. So it’s a very competitive field to get into. Which is why it’s so important to make contacts so you can take away the ‘cold’ in the cold call, and the ‘blind’ in the blind email.
One of the things we do with our interviews is we get questions from the people who follow our interviews from resources like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. One of the questions that was submitted relates to the ‘nerdy’ stereotype in the video game industry. The question that was submitted said, ‘Have you ever kissed a girl?’
Well, I’m a girl. And no, I have never kissed a girl. That stereotype isn’t very accurate.
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Career Interviews for Career Exploration » Blog Archive » Career Interview: Video Game Careers Says:
February 17th, 2009
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