Making better matches between graduates and games studios

The research shows that graduate recruitment in the games industry continues to be on the rise, but at the same time many young developers are still struggling to find a job in games after graduating - so what's going wrong?

The results of our 2016 Grads In Games Employer Survey holds some answers. Almost 90 percent of the studios who responded have hired graduates within the last 12 months in all areas of games development, including design, art, programming, analytics and QA, so they know what they're talking about.

Produced by the Grads In Games initiative, the survey findings routinely show us that there's a gap between what the games industry needs to see from graduates and what's being delivered by UK academia. Specifically, graduates are often lacking the high level of skill or specific technical abilities which employers are looking for.

When asked what the most common skills code graduates are weakest in, C++ ranked highest by studios followed by use of source control and experience with games engines such as UE4 or Unity.

"When it comes to technical skills in demand, it's always C++," says GaaSworks CEO Jason Fielder. "I drill it in every time we visit universities as part of Get In The Game and Search For A Star."

"When it comes to technical skills in demand, it's always C++"

GaaSworks CEO Jason Fielder

"You need C++ code regardless of interviews wherever you go. You also need to have a portfolio to demonstrate what you can do, because if you don't, there's so many graduates out there who you won't stand out against."

Familiarity with using game engines was also identified as a key weakness of art graduates, the survey says, as well as ability to perform low-poly optimisation, and a lack of finished projects and portfolios of good quality work to show off.

Animation and VFX graduates, meanwhile, were ranked weakest in games-specific portfolios, in engine work, animation quality, FX (particles) expertise and technical animation for games. These are the areas studios would like to see improvements.

Then there's the part studio experience plays: while graduates are right to assume that it's a key thing most employers value in a graduate hire, our employer survey shows that portfolios, demos and showreels are actually more important to studios when deciding whether or not to interview a graduate.

Indeed, Outplay Entertainment HR Manager Emma Purvey notes students are routinely let down by the presentation of their portfolios and their applications in general.

"We get graduate applications who are obviously smart and placing great grades, but without the context of what was involved in attaining them they give us little to assess on," she says.

"Routinely the majority of their CV is taken up with them writing about their part-time job. We are told what degree they've done, but not what projects they've worked on, nor the games they've developed in their spare time or at game jams."

"We get graduate applications who are obviously smart and placing great grades, but without the context of what was involved in attaining them they give us little to assess on"

Outplay Entertainment HR Manager Emma Purvey

All the studios in the survey agreed that students should take part in extracurricular activities in order to broaden their skills and improve their employability. Game jams were the highest ranked suggestions, closely followed by hobby games projects, attending industry networking events, and actively seeking internships and placements.

"The people that really stand out, whether they be a graduate or someone more experienced, are those that pursue their career as a hobby too," says Wibbu CTO Liam McGinley. "It could be a side project, making a small but polished game or creating YouTube videos to help others. It's just about having a passion for what you do."

It's with these issues in mind that we encourage students wanting a career in gaming to consider our Get In The Game tour, and our Search For A Star and Rising Star competitions. They were designed precisely to help students develop the critical skills which studios are looking for, and leave them with an impressive piece of work to add to their portfolios - plugging some of the gaps employers identify.

"There are many facets to Search For A Star," says Edge Case Games' Principal Engineer Greg Booker.

"Students are exposed to studio-level testing and interview techniques and develop a project for their portfolio. What's more, progressing through the competition significantly increases their chances of finding a placement or job after graduation."

For the first round of the Search For A Star and Rising Star competitions, programming students sit a C++ HackerRank coding test, designed by a team of industry professionals, including Furious Bee's Lizi Attwood and Boss Alien's Thad Frogley.

The highest scoring coders make it on to round two, where they're given a prototype to develop into a Windows 10 Universal App within two weeks using Unity.

For art graduates taking part in our competition, the focus is on creating and improving on portfolios, something that always scores highly with studios.

For round one, students submit a portfolio piece in their chosen discipline (environment, character, animation or VFX) which is then assessed by industry experts from studios including Sumo Digital, Playground Games and Rare.

"The graduates who are coming out year on year are coming out with more and more experience"

Outplay Entertainment HR Manager Emma Purvey

Round two goes even further, requiring students to create new, high quality portfolio pieces within UE4 to a professional brief.

While only four students leave the competition as winners, all qualifiers should find themselves with a finished art piece or a published game to add to their portfolio and impress any potential employers.

And despite the issues with specific skills like C++ and in-engine work that we've already mentioned, studios are nevertheless quick to note that there are still talented graduates being produced every year.

"The quality level of talent emerging from universities just gets better and better," says Emma Purvey.

"The graduates who are coming out year on year are coming out with more and more experience that we can quickly utilise, whether they've worked in a studio while at university or [from] their work on personal projects."

We want to see more students getting experience and fewer talented graduates who leave university technically capable, but don't have the knowledge or skills required for the particular roles they're applying for.

The Search For A Star competition and Get In The Game careers tour aims to resolve this barrier before students enter the world of work, helping them to develop those industry-essential skills and improving their chances of landing their first games job.

If you're interested in learning more about Search For A Star, applications for 2017 are now open.