Where are all the Unity jobs?

Hello,

I'm not sure if I'm just looking in the wrong places or not but the Unity Game Development job market seems like a barren wasteland. I would entertain mobile development but am unable to find any jobs there either. It's especially bad for juniors. Did I miss the bus or are other places apart from Indeed and Glassdoor with more opportunities?

Thanks!

 

Commercial, Job Offering:
https://forum.unity.com/forums/commercial-job-offering.49/

Also, your location makes a difference, along with your country.

 

i'd just contact companies directly for that, or asking trainee positions (to first get in).

maybe junior positions are less advertised,
since they are less critical and if it costs to post them in those big sites..(?)

but can see many jobs in unity & game dev related discords too.

 

Thanks a bunch for that link I'll check it out

 

Thanks for the reply! Are there any discords you can recommend? Cheers

 

Depends on your country also (although some jobs might be available as a remote),
so look for local game dev groups too.

https://discord.com/invite/unity
VR/XR https://discord.gg/frzny7CDee
Finland https://discord.gg/DqJuMr7A5C , https://discord.gg/pASuCqxjap
https://gamesjobs.fi/
https://www.skillsearch.com/search?keywords=unity&where=

 

Thanks! Looks like some great opportunities in Europe, I live in Canada unfortunately. Ideally I would find a remote job however. Would you say these jobs are hyper competitive or more obtainable? Cheers

 

I think joining local game dev groups will be very pertinent. Perhaps junior devs don't find work as much as the work finds them

 

Joining teams over huge spans of time zone differences (+- 5 hours and more) will generally be difficult. European teams will be more happy to onboard someone remotely from within Europe than someone from the Americas or Asia simply because sharing about the same office hours is still considered important.

There is a huge demand for Unity/Unreal developers but you won't find many open positions on job platforms like Monster etc. for whatever reason. Perhaps it's simply the ratio of quantity vs quality that speaks against such platforms, some of the worst applications I've seen came from applicants through job portals rather than those who went straight for the company's website.

Thus I would definitely check to see what software companies are or may be using Unity that are close by and scan their jobs/career pages. Also look for industry businesses, manufacturers, architects and so on ... more and more non-gaming companies are visualizing if not simulating their processes and products using game engines.

 

Have you checked LinkedIn? Seems quite active here in Europe, not sure if it's used a lot in Canada however.

 

Networking is everything -- that is, making friends in the industry so you can all mutually help each other. Attend events such as conferences (preferably in person, but online is better than nothing) and local meetups. You can find meetups on meetup.com.

Also join the IGDA. The purpose of the IGDA is to provide resources for professional development and advocate for people in the game development industry. Once you're a member, join the IGDA Discord server and keep an eye on the #jobs channel.

You might also find some leads on workwithindies.com. But if you're just getting started, consider larger studios instead of small indies. Larger studios are more likely to have junior positions, as well as more consistent funding.

Also, don't look for "Unity" jobs, look for game development jobs. Don't paint yourself into a corner by only knowing Unity. Game dev jobs quite often require a variety of skills and tools.

Good luck!

 

Mutually helping each other being the key here. Every once in a while it's brought up on Jason Weimann's podcast that if you just join a community and only expect to be helped or get jobs through it the members will notice it and be less inclined to help out.

 

Sounds great, I'll check out companies in my area, thanks a bunch!

 

No I don't have an account, I wanted to get some quality experience first but I may have to make one to get some in the first place, thanks!

 

IGDA looks great, I will become a member for sure. I like the idea of being more multifaceted as well. As I work to complete my project I will try and expand my skillset as much as possible so that I am a more versatile asset. Great advice thanks!

 

I joined a couple forums wanting to help out on the programming side but people were so quick to respond I wasnt even needed lol. I will have to focus on expanding my skillset for sure

 

Forums are often the exception as (a) not being a real time discussion means someone can just drop by whenever they feel like it, and (b) previous discussions linger around so it's not just for the benefit of the person asking.

 

It's very hard to really get to know other people in forums. Forums are fine for dialogue like this, but if you want to meet people do realtime events like conferences and meetups.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys!

Yeah that's partially why the forums appealed to me as even someone years down the road looking for an answer could have benefited.

 

For sure. It can be fun to network. I'm going to reserve some amount of my development time everyday to getting to know the community. Thanks for the help guys.

 

I ain't gonna window dress it. You are competing at your level with people who pay 25 cents for a burger in their country. You would be best served by creating and releasing one or two games, even if not commerically viable to prove you are not just a script kiddie asset flipper but can follow a product thru from concept to release.

 

A big part of the reason is that people know each other in the industry, and know who they want to work with and usually know who is looking and who isn't. Basically, jobs don't often get publicly posted. In small and med studios, if a role needs to be filled, it is often done quickly. Large studios often have policies that require publicly posting, so you will be more likely to see job posting at big studios, but... that role may already be filled.

My last 4 studios weren't roles I "applied" for, they resulted from a friend pinging me with "u looking". And in all those (and other studios) when we need someone, usually a message just goes out "...anyone know a eng/producer/artist" and usually someone does. Also with the studio layoffs recently, people from those places get sucked up quick, sometimes as opportunity hires (that happened to me about 7ish years ago). As a result of that type of thing, I have worked with some of the same people multiple times.

I get that it can be frustrating, but the trick with games industry is getting in the door. (such as mentioned above, making your own games to get noticed). Once in, and assuming you are good, it gets much easier to move to another studio.

Also, talk with a friend or someone you know in the industry, find out what is available or if they know of anything. Jobs often only get posted when they have trouble finding someone. (studio with a bad rep, uninteresting game, or very specific skill set). Any posting that are looking for entry level are going to get hammered with applicants.

 

My first 3 Unity jobs I got just from replying to SEEK ads. Seek ads are kind of rare, but I'll see a new Unity job pop up every 2-3 months or so. Once you have some experience you will start getting contacted on Linkedin or approached by recruiters.

I think it's a lot more fruitful to stick to professional platforms like Linkedin, Seek, Indeed etc.

 

Totally agree. I've released a game in another engine and am working on my first release in Unity. It may not happen until I get a couple good quality projects under my belt.

 

This makes a lot of sense. With the widespread adoption of unity as a result of all the available resources there are probably a massive amount of devs out there but a much, much smaller amount of highly skilled ones. I imagine the former gets weeded out pretty quickly. Thanks for the insight!

 

Yeah, from what I am seeing this industry is easy to maintain but difficult to get in.

 

Two things jump out at me here if you're looking for work.

1. Don't be Unity-specific. I can't speak for everyone, but to me that's waving a giant "Novice" flag. If someone understands and is experienced at their craft the tools don't matter too much. Picking up new ones will slow you down a bit, but it won't stop you. And most experienced people will have experience with multiple tools (though some of it might be some time ago, because they've had the same / similar positions for a while). Same deal with programmers and programming languages, by the way.

2. Game dev in particular can be a hard nut to crack, for reasons @zombiegorilla already explained. The thing is, the same skills are increasingly used in a variety of other industries and, conveniently, Unity are actively pushing in those directions right now. So don't be game-specific either.

 

Right, I didn't begin to think that some of my skills are language agnostic. I imagine if I went over to Unreal I would be able to pick it up at a much faster pace than I would if I were just starting. I think I will look into other tools to test this and also look into how Unity is evolving into other industries as well. Thanks a bunch for the reply!

 

Again, I can't speak for others, but personally I'd look for actual experience across multiple environments and/or toolsets.

As someone starting out, I'd prioritise having a portfolio with multiple small projects each showcasing different things, but over time building towards a specialisation of some kind.