Anyone looking for a UK Games Industry Job?

I'm currently looking for people to work within the following UK studios, if you have a great demo, showreel, portfolio, education, addiction to games or want to kill your current boss , drop me an email and i'll send you more information.

Sega Europe and Creative Assembly
Midway Games
Lionhead Studios
Rebellion, Core Design and Stranglite
Real Time Worlds
Vivendi Games
Rockstar Games

It would be great to hear from any of you!

John @ Probe Games

 

That's funny...about one of those studio's....not that he's current...just funny...

 

That would be Rebellion, Rebellion and Rebellion then?

 

...or you could apply directly and hope that by doing so the studio in question will:
i) think you're resourceful enough to find a job without someone doing it for you
ii) direct some of the money they save on an agency fee to your salary

Welcome to TCE John - we're here to help

 

seem's everyone has a tale

 

kneejerky - your almost 100% but what you may find (with particular studios) that your direct application will fall in to the black hole of jobs@*insert studio name*.com and may take a lot longer to bring any joy. The fee issue doesnt really come in to play as our job is always to get you the best offer possible and we are willing to do whatever it takes

Chomps - hehe yes indeed Rebellion Rebellion Rebellion but the history of these studios and the great games they have created up until the recent takeover is still worth mentioning, but it does go to show what a great company Rebellion is by taking them on board.

Thanks so far for all your replys, its nice to find a forum thats got a bit of life to it :razz:

 

My advice to newbies is take the time and effort to not use an agency. It can become a lot of hassle later on once you have become established.

 

Care to elaborate? I'm not a newbie and have never used an agency, but I'm thinking about it (in conjunction with direct applications) and I wouldn't have imagined it would be a bad thing with long term consequences?

 

Hmm.. well I've never done business with Probe.

However I have dealt with a number of other agents as a candidate. They can open the door for you on occasion and provide some interesting leads you might not otherwise know about. Generally though it's the same old names time and time again, and an email to the website will often do the same job and get you a slightly better deal because there's no agent involved.

On more than one occasion, the agent has done precisely the reverse of trying to get me the best deal. As soon as there's an offer on the table, ANY offer, the agent is bugging me 24/7, mobile phone, email, home phone, whatever, to take the deal. Bargaining doesn't come into it. In fact they try and talk you out of bargaining. As soon as you say 'yes' they can submit their invoice and be on their way to getting their cheque, so prepare for badgering levels that would shame a double glazing salesman.

I'm sure that you are 100% above board, John, but there has been quite a bit of questionable dealing from agents experienced by myself and members of this board. My advice to any candidate is stay on your toes.

 

It's a mixed situation. SOME agencies have strong relationships with some developers and can get you in thru the door for jobs that aren't openly advertised.

Sadly tho many agencies are only interested in their % and getting the invoice thru. I had one agency phone me chasing me for payment BEFORE his client had even started!! If you don't get the job they go very quiet very quickly - they've moved onto someone they will get a fee from.

Do NOT go with multiple agencies. The majority of agencies are all advertising the same jobs, barring a small number of exclusives. I've had some very heated calls with agencies who have sent in a CV for people we took on, but we used a different agent.

Some agencies will send your CV to every client they have on their books regardless of whether you want to work for them or are interested in their work. And that used to really piss me off. By the time you reach the 100th CV you have lost focus and some good candidates can be missed because you are reading the CV of one person from 5 different agencies or someone with skillsets that are nothing like what you need.

Having recruited many times we would ALWAYS give priority to direct applicants. We are saving 12-20% of your starting salary. You can use this in your favour and negotiate a higher starting wage. If I'm saving £3k in fees I'll feel more generous when it comes to talking about pay.

So to newbies... Take the time and effort to search out the kind of company you want to work for. Phone up and ask who is in charge of HR and send in a clear covering letter and CV. You never know where an email to jobs@ will go. Take 5 mins to put in a few snippets about why you want to work for them - believe me it makes a difference if someone is mailing you direct rather than having sent the same email to 100 companies saying "gizza job".

 

Well I’m going to have to agree with quite a large amount of what has been said so far, this is the typical reputation of 90% of the agencies out there and there is no way i can deny it doesn't happen when almost every experienced guy that comes to me looking for a job has got a story about an agency that messed things up for him.

That said, we are not just hear to make money. We all do a job for money but in an industry where everybody knows everybody reputation and good service is essential.

Its surprising that a lot of people trying to get in to the industry are given the wrong information, even Universities are not teaching them the necessary skills and tools. Many will try the direct route with a few studios, get no response and give up. We are hear for the newbies to get the best potential out of their current skill sets and tell them exactly what to put on a CV to focus it towards INDIVIDUAL studios.

As for the experienced guys out there we have built some great relationships with many of the UK's / Europe's leading studios and work hard to make sure you get noticed. As mentioned on this thread we DO have roles that arnt out there on public display and will match you to the best fit, avoiding the typical 'spray and pray' that has become the norm.

Rant rant rant, sorry guys, I’m sticking up for recruiters and it hurts to do it. One thing i can assure you of is a key question that you will get asked by Probe - What games do you like playing, what games do you like working on? Because at the end of the day that's what it's about and we want to get you on a project where your proud of the game your creating.

 

Misspelling(s) / grammatical error(s)

Sorry. If I was looking for a job right now, I wouldn't go for an agency that misspells things.

This might be the right or wrong stance to take, and you, John, might be the nicest guy in the world, but if the semi-official face to PROBE can't spell correctly, or take the time to double check spelling, I would certainly not want them to be representing me when applying to a new (life changing?) job anywhere, ever.

*according to Murphy's law, since this post is complaining about poor spelling, this post WILL contain one or more spelling and/or grammar mistakes, even though I'm sure I've checked it twice...

 

double post :/

 

Oh please, its a forum and the first ad had no spellings. John put the point across well I thought.

I agree with him too and will say newbies should use an agency. Agencys do alot of chasing, especially at smaller companys that dont check or reply to the jobs@ address. I remember how hard it was for me, especially as I didnt bother with a degree and the agency I used (Aardvark*) were excellent.

As for the salary thing, ive never known a company to pay more just because I didnt use an agency. Its rubbish. They will always pay as little as they can get away with regardless of experience. Its just good business.

Frankly all I expect an agency to do is forward my CV to and ONLY to the places that match my requirements (ideally asking me first if I would want to work at a company they think would be ideal), check the companys being applied to arnt related to the one I work at and chase them up if I got the job or not. There isnt alot of typing involved in that.

* Yes I know some people have had problems with them, I didnt but did with Datascope especially.

 

It's happened to me as a candidate and I've seen it from the employer's end time and time again. In meetings discussing what offer to make, the one question you're sure to hear is "did he come through an agency?".

There is only so much money for salaries. The agent's cut comes out out that.

 

As Sanchez says above, most places will have a set budget for filling a position. If I have, say, £30k for a position and have 2 people on the shortlist, one from an agency and the other direct. The one from an agency is only going to get 26k or so max as I have to pay around 15% to an agent, whereas the direct applicant has much more scope for negotiating himself an extra few grand. He might not be good enough to get that much or push himself enough to get the extra money, but it DOES happen.

Obviously it depends on the size of the company you are going to and the desperation of the studio to fill seats. Just because it's not happened to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen

 

I've been for an interview at a large UK based company, and when I told them I was not from an agency they said, oh, well that doesn't make any difference to what salary we will offer you.

Guess it depends on the size of the company, and how urgent they need to hire. And they're more likely to need an agency the more urgent the hire is needed.

 

They are the companys that should get recognition! Ive worked at 5 and not one has done that to the best of my knowledge.

 

Hi John,

I work as a recruiter for Stormfront Studios. We're looking for top engineering talent as well. Let's chat to see how we may be able to work together to help each other.

Thanks,

Marta Daglow
Stormfront Studios
4040 Civic Center Drive
San Rafael, CA 94957
415-461-5845
mdaglow@stormfront.com

Founded in 1988, Stormfront Studios as an award-winning developer of AAA games for Next Gen.

 

I too agree with your advice. Since most companies post their jobs on their website it is pretty easy to get connected.

My promise to anyone reading this is -- I'll return your email or call you if you'd like to ask me a question about connecting with our company.

Thanks,

Marta Daglow
Stormfront Studios
4040 Civic Center Drive
San Rafael, CA 94957
415-461-5845
mdaglow@stormfront.com

Founded in 1988, Stormfront Studios as an award-winning developer of AAA games for Next Gen.