Summary

Your skills are in demand right now - is it time to consider your options? After the past year, it’s definitely time to reflect and look forward. The employment landscape has changed, and we can help you to navigate the new normal, to create the ideal role that matches your ambition and the lifestyle you want.Get in touch for a Career 1-2-1 with one of our team. Even if you’re not thinking of a move right now, we can help you to shape your next role for whenever you're ready.  You’re in control of your career, we’re here to look after every detail for you. Email hello@amiqus.com - subject line Career 1-2-1 and we'll be in touch to arrange a call. 

Summary

The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #ChooseToChallenge. In the words of the organisation behind this brilliant initiative, a challenged world is an alert world. In the context of gender bias and inequality, it’s important for us all to continually challenge behaviour and attitudes that are unhelpful and potentially damaging to our collective effort in creating a more inclusive and welcoming environment for women. To anyone who is experiencing any kind of harassment, the #ChooseToChallenge message couldn’t be more appropriate. But for anyone – male or female - witnessing it in their workplace, the message is just as important, if not more so. If we are to create safe, welcoming environments for female talent within the games industry, it is the responsibility of every single person working in the business to step up, support co-workers – and continue to challenge. For my part, I want to call out and highlight some behaviours that perhaps people don’t always think are a problem, things that can make women feel uncomfortable and we don’t always know what to do. How should we react? I’m talking about things like the tone of emails to women, how they’re addressed – things that may be considered ‘small’ or insignificant, but that actually have a cumulative impact on overall attitudes to women in the workplace (and elsewhere). If you’re aware of the Everyday Sexism Project that was launched by writer Laura Bates a few years back, you’ll understand what I mean. The initiative aimed to raise awareness of the things that happen to women every day including those things that have become normalised, small things – micro-behaviours, if you like – that serve to undermine women and young girls. From supermarkets having separate sections for boys’ and girls’ toys and pink razors being sold for ‘ladies’; to professional women being on the receiving end of ‘mansplaining’ in the workplace – the campaign has made huge strides in highlighting what is unacceptable in today’s modern society. But, while the supermarkets and fashion stores have mostly reconsidered their strategies, there are still many examples of ‘everyday sexism’ we see in the workplace, all the time. And I can give you recent real-life examples experienced by two women in our team. Our work as recruiters means that we spend a lot of time connecting and communicating with people via LinkedIn. A recent exchange between one of our team and a potential candidate saw him telling her she “has a beautiful name”, with the message becoming increasingly flirtatious (from his side) thereafter - and resulting in him trying to follow her on Instagram (her personal account). Another member of our team was told by a potential candidate that he’d taken all morning to draw a picture of her from her LinkedIn profile – and had loved spending the few hours looking at her..We are supposed to find it funny and flattering – if we don’t we are uptight and rude...Neither of these incidents caused direct harm but are they appropriate ways to talk to a recruitment professional? Absolutely not. Would they have happened to a male colleague, I suspect not. It shouldn’t be up to a woman in the Games industry to highlight this sort of behaviour as unacceptable, it should be understood by everyone. Within the games industry – as in the rest of the workplace, and society in general – we must #ChooseToChallenge all attitudes and behaviours that undermine women and young girls. Of course, we continue to stand firm and united in condemning and fighting injustices and wrong doings when it comes to serious incidents of bullying, sexual harassment and inequality in the workplace. But I also #ChooseToChallenge the ‘everyday sexism’ that continues to blight our industry and beyond. I urge everyone to do the same – and make it an ongoing consideration of the way that we communicate and act towards women. Because eliminating these ‘small’ things really will make a BIG difference…

Summary

Many of us have dreamed of becoming our own boss at some stage in our career, and the transition from permanent worker to freelance contractor is an exciting journey to make.Our Contracts Manager, Simon Pittam, spoke to us about moving into the contracting world of the games industry.  The industry is increasingly seeking out contractors to help fill skills gaps and meet deadlines ahead of new releases. The games industry is very project-driven and more companies than ever are coming to us and asking for freelancers to cover specific work for periods where they’re short-staffed or to help meet an urgent milestone. They typically want to add a skilled resource for a specific period of time - which can be anything from a day to up to 12 months - without adding them to the permanent headcount.Getting started To break through in the contracting world, you need some experience, skills, a strong CV and an even better portfolio. Whether you’re an artist, animator or a coder, you need to be able to showcase your best work to clients in order to stand out and show what you can bring.There’s nothing to hold you back from becoming a contractor in games. If you’re already experienced and working in a permanent position then you can certainly move into a contracting role where there is market demand. It’s all about finding the right opportunity, so shop around for something that really appeals.What to expect Contractors are informed of the start and end date of a project before taking on the work but we do find some companies extend contracts beyond this. As with any job application your agency with speak to you about your skills, what you are looking for and give you information about the role and studio before submitting your CV to the client. Don’t be surprised if after a couple of Skype interviews you are asked to start on Monday! The turnaround from application to starting can be very fast.Let's talk about money The pay rate is typically daily for contractors as opposed to an annual salary so you’ll want to do some maths around what you need. Also bear in mind as a contractor you won’t get paid for holidays, so some of this higher rate is to reflect this.As you’re not on the payroll of the employer directly you can choose to operate as your own limited company or be paid via an umbrella company. Here at Amiqus we can talk to you about how this works. The work you do is submitted via a timesheet on a weekly basis and the hours and days soon add up. What makes contracting so attractive? From a client perspective, contractors are brilliant for creating a flexible team, meeting short-term hiring needs, staying agile as a business and of course experienced contractors can often come in and hit the ground running with minimal training. For candidates, contracting is a great career-option for many within the industry offering huge flexibility in roles and allowing you to pick and choose the projects you work on. It can give you exposure to a large number of companies and games and allows you to really take charge of where your career heads. It’s also brilliant for picking up new skills across different platforms or emerging tech such as virtual reality. If you’re looking for variety, contracting could be a perfect fit.How can Amiqus help? Amiqus began supplying contractors to the games industry back in 2007 and since then we’ve seen significant growth in this business model. We work closely with studios to help them appreciate the benefits of hiring contractors, and the processes we have in place to make things as simple as possible for everyone involved from interview to getting paid.We’re on-hand for advice throughout your contract too, getting to know many of our contractors well and placing them time after time into new opportunities throughout their careers. We’re always looking for talented contractors to place in some of the world’s leading games companies. If you’re ready to make the move or simply want to speak more about the opportunities available, get in touch with us.