Optimism and new growth
There has been a lot of churn during the first half of 2009. However, here at Mary-Margaret Network we are seeing increased hiring and signs of new development on the rise and growing on our job board daily. The game industry and the entertainment industry in general have been touted as recession proof; still many companies felt the pinch and scaled back a bit in recent months. It seems that a big enough recession touches everyone. Perhaps new growth is an indication that earlier layoffs were part of the regular cycle in this sector, where shelf lives are short as new and exciting technology is developed and the next big games are promised. It is also true that with the recession, many companies took the opportunity to cut back and rebuild their strategies.
Close on the heels of major announcements at this year’s E3, Microsoft recently posted 24 new openings on our job board. The Austin, TX game community, hit hard by several closings and layoffs earlier this year, is now growing as well. Bioware Austin just posted 10 new jobs in community, quality assurance, and game design. Check out both Microsoft and Bioware job postings as well as others below in this newsletter and on our job board.
Sure, we are still in a less than optimal economy right now. To dwell on how bad the media is saying the economy and/or job market supposedly is should not prevent you from finding a job. For each of us who has ever searched for a job, we dress ourselves in optimism because that is what we do. We are optimistic no matter what anyone tells us. We want to project some of that optimism and share it with those in the game industry - whether by offering advice, spotlighting a veteran, or sharing our ever-increasing job board.
