During the Business of Computer Games seminar our first guest lecturer was Lisa Corbett from the Aardvark Swift, well know for being a specialist agency for games recruitment. Website can be found here: Aswift.com

Lets first begin with a simple overview of ASwift (in short). Established in 1989, and they help graduates or games veterans to find new jobs in the games industry. As explained by Lisa, 90% of it all is related to the games industry. We found out, also, that the 10% left over was on gambling games, which was intriguing.

Guest lecturer Lisa Corbett, has been working for ASwift for a number of years and she specialises in helping programmers get their jobs. They have other specialised consultants for different aspects of the games industry ranging from Artists/Designers through to Sales and Marketing. As for the guest lecturer, this benefitted most programmers in the session, that includes me.

Lisa explained that, there is more demands towards games agencies now than there was a couple of years ago. One of the points given was that specialised agencies is able to pick up graduate or appropriate candidates for a company looking to fit someone to an open role. If you read development magazine you will definately see alot of recruitement advertisements from many companies. Magazines like Edge, GameDeveloper magazine, Games etc all have an abundance of games recruitement ads. One particular reason I found slightly humourous is the fact that some companies are now getting put off by advertising on magazines as they reach numerous amounts of audience in various age range, and alot of the companies and frustrated by the fact that they received unwanted CVs/mails from 14 year old people that loves to play games and would like to join a company. But since the games industry has evolved this much, it has become a much more serious business, involving more than a dozen people to create AAA titles. With an agency, this can all be filtered out, giving way for more appropriate applicants to get their CVs read.

In the recruitement process, as a games developer, you obviously need to have an enthusiasm for games. With Aardvark Swift, as explained by Lisa, they help you get your first job in the games industry if you are a graduate student. They also help you find placements for different locations you prefer. Although ASwift mostly concentrate in UK placements, they have sent applicants abroad. Now living areas, especially close to London, expenses rises but ASwift also help in negotiating a good salary so that you are able to live in the area and earn at the same time. As Lisa mentioned, most graduate salaries start around £18,000 – £20,000 per year, weekly wise divide these values by 52 and you get around $340 – £385. Technical directors receive over 1k weekly, thats over £60k a year, obviously one aspect in getting into the gaming industry.

Over the years salaries have risen quiet alot in the industry. I would like to sidetrack a bit and show you an article for last years industry salary survey found here: Game Industry Salary Survey 2007

Now I’ve linked directly to programming section, because it’s more apparent for this article. As explained in the article there was a slight drop from the previous year but still for applicants with less than 3 years experience the average income is around $57k, half that and that’s what you will be receiving in pound equivalant, which is not at all bad for a graduate income. Obviously hard work pays you back hansomely. I would also like to encourage you to read all of this article, just to get an overview of the business in the games through the salaries point of view.

As well as negotiating salaries, they will also help you refine your CVs to get that interview you are looking for. They have a large amount of clients in the industry. A list of their client can be found here: Client List. They have links to many industry giants, and in the future will see more companies working with agencies in picking out the appropriate applicants.

And to the final point, What is the catch?…well there IS no catch, which sounds as though a fairy just whispered it into my ears, but yes it’s absolutely free. As explained by Lisa, the companies pay Aardvark Swift to recruite for them, essentially having a recruitement section of your business. It’s a big plus sign for graduates, and will help alot in getting the right first entry job.

Aardvark Swift have recently introduced the Graduate Game Programmer, which highlights the most successful graduate. Their career prospect will be followed through the press, which is good to make a name for yourself. It’s a good opportunity and it’s obviously something I will be taking part of.

Finally here’s a large list of graduate vacancies made available through ASwift: Graduate Vacancies