Meet Mike who's a gaming company director and explains how he got there. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.
Mike Rose - Games publisher
I work with a bunch of different video game developers to make sure that their video game comes to a variety of different platforms like PC and console and I help them each day to make sure that their video game settle when they come out.
There's a lot of different ways to getting to working in video games. I went through the writing about video games, I was a games journalist and I eventually worked through that and then was picked up by a video game publishing company. Someone else who works with me was a Twitch streamer for several years and I hired her from her work as a Twitch streamer. Another person who works for me, a programmer, he went to university and did it the more traditional route and if you talk to anybody in video games, the chances are they will have probably come into video games in a very different way from everybody else you talk to.
Myself and my employees, we don't work in an office together, we all work from our own separate homes and just video call each other every morning to have the morning meeting. I personally am not a giant fan of commuting; it means we can all, pretty much, as bad as it sounds, roll out of bed at about ten to nine and we're just straight into work. You do need to be the kind of person who has a lot of discipline for this. If you don't have that discipline, then it can really mean that you're not getting the things done every day that you need to be doing.
Experience is also the big thing, you know. It's a bit of a Catch-22, how do you get the experience if you don't have the experience in the first place to get hired? And a lot of people will do these kinds of things on their own, they'll build small tech demos or they'll write design blogs, just so that they can show, they have something to show to an employer. Enthusiasm is just so useful when you get someone that is coming in and they are, they just, they really want to learn and they really want to just do the best job. Those are the most useful kind of people that I've worked with.
I did some strange subjects, like I did Latin and I did Ancient Greek and, at the time, I thought to myself why am I doing these? This seems a bit it seems a bit silly! but they were very useful for me in the end because I think that they helped me with logic and just puzzle solving.
It's just incredible to be able to help a developer put a game out there that they've been working on sometimes for years and years and be able to see the satisfaction for them, that lots of people are playing their game and they can now sit back and sort of just enjoy that rush really.
It's just incredible to be able to help a developer put a game out there that they've been working on for years and years.
- Mike works with different video game developers to get their products published on different platforms, like PC and console, and to make sure everything runs smoothly
- He says there are a variety of routes into working in video games. Mike worked as a games journalist, before moving to a video game publishing company. You could also study at university first, or work as a live game streamer
- Mike says it’s hard to get the experience for a job like this, so a lot of people will do things for themselves - like build small tech demos, or write design blogs - so that they have something to show an employer
- The key skills needed for this role are enthusiasm and discipline. Mike works from home, which means he needs to be motivated to get the job done.
What to expect if you want to be a business owner
The salary and working hours when you own a business can vary enormously but what's most important is that you work hard and love what you do.
Working for yourself looks different for each person and each business, but in general it means you:
- run your own business and are responsible for its success
- can decide how, when and where you do your work
- charge an agreed, fixed price for your work
- sell goods or services to make a profit
- can hire people at your own expense to help you or to do the work for you.
You can be both employed and self-employed at the same time. You can work for your employer during the day, for example, and run your own business in the evenings and at weekends. It’s important to contact HMRC for advice if you’re not sure if you’re self-employed.
You can get help with setting up or developing your business, through the government’s business support services, for example, for advice about tax or about how to find funding to start your business.
This information is a guide (source: GOV.UK).
For careers advice in all parts of the UK visit: National Careers Service (England), nidirect (Northern Ireland), My World of Work (Scotland) and Careers Wales (Wales).
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