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Helping Video Game Professionals Get More Jobs, Money, Confidence & Clarity 🎮
3 interview questions that expose a burnout studio
Howdy Reader, Most weeks the games news is about who got cut. This week the story I keep coming back to is about a team that won. THE NUMBER: 16 million Arc Raiders has sold 16 million copies, per publisher Nexon’s June numbers (reported by GamesBeat). Embark Studios grew from about 60 people to more than 120 to keep up. It still wasn’t enough. Executive producer Aleksander Grøndal told Game Developer the team was “constantly overshooting our capacity.” Monthly updates turned into burnout, so...
5 things I'd do to land a games job right now.
Reader, On a call yesterday, someone asked if they could pick my brain for free. I don’t usually do that. But the question they asked is one I hear constantly: “What would you actually do if you were looking for a role in games right now?” So instead of answering just them, I’m answering all of you. Here are the five things I tell anyone hunting for their next role in games. Stop applying. Around 90% of roles get filled through relationships, not applications. So flip your time. Spend 90% of...
Does simply mentioning "AI" get you hired?
Reader, The question that is on everyone's mind today: if I use the keyword AI in my resume, LinkedIn profile, portfolio, will that make me more hireable? In a survey of 1,000 U.S. hiring managers, nearly 8 in 10 said AI tool proficiency mattered in their hiring decisions (Resume Genius). Which makes sense. A client of mine, Wayne, told me that as soon as he added the term to his current role on LinkedIn, the calls from recruiters, start-ups, and hiring managers started to flow in. All legit...
From hopeless to hired in 8 weeks.
Reader, Reading about another layoff and seeing another LinkedIn post about someone who has been out of work for a year can do a number on your psyche. It's enough to make you give up altogether. But every time someone tells me that "the industry" is the reason they're not getting hired, I can't help but tell them that belief alone is what is going to kill their chances, time and time again. In the last month, 3 of my clients who were out of work for over 6 months, got hired after working...
How my client landed a 6-figure job using Instagram.
Reader, You read that right. A six-figure executive role, with equity, using Instagram. My client, Grant, is an exited founder in the world of gaming and esports. Millions of dollars raised, content impressions garnered, and fans reached. He had the golden touch when it came to business, but after his exit, he found himself unable to turn anything to gold when it came to finding his next role. After months of looking, Grant approached me and asked for help. He had seen that I helped a former...
Studios are betting bigger than ever. Here's how to protect yourself if they fail.
Reader, GTA 6 is reportedly going to cost up to $1.5 billion to make. Call of Duty hit $700 million. And those numbers are the reason your job feels less stable every year. Here's the math nobody spells out for you. When one game costs more than most companies are worth, that game cannot afford to miss. So one miss means mass layoffs. We've watched it happen over and over. But here's the part that should get your attention: the more expensive the game, the more expendable the individual...
How an Epic vet landed a 5-figure contract without pitching.
Reader, A guy I know just got a five-figure contract dropped in his inbox. He didn't apply. He didn't pitch. He didn't even know it was coming. Here's how it found him. A client of mine, ex-Epic and Bungie, had a hunch his company's product would run better in a game engine. He validated it, built it in Godot, took the FPS from 7 to 60. Then he needed someone to migrate the whole build, so he asked around. One name kept coming up. A DevOps guy known in those circles as the person who gets...
This one change helped a CMO land a his dream job.
Hey Reader, I’m going to share a marketing truth with you that is arguably the biggest hurdle in your career right now: It is impossible to read the label when you’re inside the jar. Think about it. When you’re "inside the jar"—living the day-to-day grind of crunch, bug fixes, and 14-hour days—all you see is the glass. You know every inch of your experience, but you have no idea what the "label" looks like to the person standing on the outside. In my 14 years in this industry, I’ve seen that...
I asked recruiters from ZeniMax and Activision why you’re being ghosted.
Hey Reader, Most of the job seekers I talk to are convinced they are fighting a "Robot Executioner"—an AI bot that deletes resumes before a human ever sees them. Last week, I sat down with recruiters from ZeniMax Online Studios, Activision-Blizzard and Mattel to get the truth. I asked them point-blank: Is AI auto-rejecting resumes, or is something else going on? Their answer was a massive reality check: The bot isn't the problem. The presentation is. Here is the data-driven reality of the...
Epic Layoffs: Why I’m still bullish on your future
Hey Reader, I’m writing this because the LinkedIn echo chamber is currently in a "Chicken Little" spiral over the 1,000+ layoffs at Epic. If you spend all day in that feed, you’ll start believing the sky is falling. But I’ve checked. The sky is still there. I know what it’s like. I’ve been laid off twice in this business. I’ve felt that specific brand of "what now?" panic that keeps you up at 3 AM. I’ve been beaten down, lived to tell the tale, and I am still here—more bullish on this...
Helping Video Game Professionals Get More Jobs, Money, Confidence & Clarity 🎮