Look a little deeper and terror strikes

Its seems from first glance that everything’s ok, with excellent statistics but look a little deeper and terror strikes, people that have been in the industry years are being laid off how on earth will I be able to get into the industry, at least its only my first year and hopefully the industry will stabilises by then but that thought is fighting against the other that’s saying this could get really bad and by the time i’m finished there wont be any jobs for people starting out. So it seems i’m having a bit of a reality check. The only conclusion is that if i’m going to have any hope in hell of getting a job for the next 2 ½ years i’m going to have to get my act together and work my arse off.

As to being specialist or a generalist in one way being a generalist would mean finding a job easier but only if you’re excellent at the different areas and not just having a mediocre knowledge/skill in multiple areas. Otherwise become a specialist and be as good as possible in that area.

The face of the industry is smiling showing good profits but theses figures are of those games which have already been developed and on the selves which is giving the false impression that the games industry is ‘recession proof’. The truth is that there are widespread lay off's even the giant EA are cutting back and not just a little but 10 per cent of their global workforce which is about 1,000 people.

Outsourcing from a company view is cheaper but with more risk, the work that is outsourced has to be considered carefully however from a job hunters view this isn’t as good as places that they would fill are now going abroad.

Image by Yue Minjun -Big Swans
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060323/diamante_01.shtml
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3901/game_developer_layoffs_the_real_.php
http://www.britishgaming.co.uk/?p=2208