Companies Are Hiring Again In Silicon Valley

SAN JOSE, Calif: At a time when the software industry is still recovering from the fall outs of the bubble-burst, the computer gaming industry seems to be booming. This was particularly obvious at the many booths set up for recruiting talent at the Game Developers Conference here today. Tucked away at the far end of the show floor, the two neat rows of some twenty booths were packed with people, filling out forms, handing out resumes, talking to recruiters, and even vowing to come back tomorrow with resumes.

Some of the bigger companies searching for employees included nVIDIA, Lucas Arts and Microsoft and at least one recruiting agency. Lucas Arts and Microsoft would not comment on the turnout or even the sort of applicants they were seeking.

These are not general-purpose positions, though. The jobs available on the show floor of the GDC Expo here are mostly applicable to a core group of computer gaming professionals. The industry has had a shortage of these specialists for some time, so jobs have been plentiful.

Rhonda Nyberg, Manager of Staffing, nVIDIA said, "We, at nVIDIA have never slowed down our pace. The recession never really hit us. A lot of companies had lay offs. Not so at nVIDIA. Well, things were a bit slow in June and July of last year, but ever since August we have continued to grow and recruit industry professionals."

"It's sort of obvious why we're advertising at the GDC," said Jill Miller, VP Admin, of 3DO, a Redwood City based game company. "We're looking for a very specific mix of gaming professionals and artists. Since our industry is so specific, it's really a finite group of people we're targeting. In that sense we are definitely not looking for entry level people."

While there are some opportunities for beginners -- bigger companies like nVIDIA have spring internship programs and hire college graduates. However Nyberg contends that, "most of our jobs openings are for a specific niche of people." As of now nVIDIA has around 175 positions that are currently available. Recruiting Specialist Alexandra Reid, of Digital Artist Management, Inc., a recruiting agency for game industry professionals believes that highly specialized gaming industry professionals are almost always in demand. "Yes, it is a tough thing to place entry level people, but we welcome all programmers, artists, designers. Basically, it helps if you have some previous industry related experience."

While not in a recruiting frenzy, the gaming industry – unlike other software segments -- is at least hiring in the Silicon Valley. Ken Williams, a producer at Blizzard Entertainment explained, "The thing is that entertainment is different. It's never in a recession, because people, [they] like to be entertained. In traditional downturns of the US economy, in the great depression for instance, people flocked to the movies. We're making entertainment here. And we're looking for all sorts of people to help us do that. Artists, designers, game programmers. Yes, six months from now, we might even begin to start hiring software programmers. Who knows?"

Copyright © 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.