Being offered a job is just the first part of developing your career in the game industry. What position you land, your salary and how you work your way up through the ranks has a lot to do with negotiation. Studios will want to support new employees and develop them with the company’s working style in mind, so while you may harbour dreams of running your own company someday, knowing how to get what you want from employers is essential for a successful career.

What salary should you expect from your first role?
A typical starting salary in the game industry is between £18,000 to £24,000 per annum. In addition, many game industry professionals enjoy benefits and performance-based bonuses once they’ve completed their probationary periods.

If you are joining the industry from another sector and have professional or commercial experience that is both relevant and transferable, it is possible that you can negotiate a higher starting salary – or even a more senior position.

How much leeway is there to negotiate starting salaries?
And, of course, is it wise to do so for your first role? You certainly don’t want to talk yourself out of a job by asking for an unrealistic amount, but at the same time you should accept a very low offer without question.

It is important to consider the offered amount within the context of the whole package – including any benefits and bonuses that might augment your annual take-home total – as well as well as whether or not the company is able to help with, or pay for, any relocation costs.

Remember, too, that a salary is easier to renegotiate with a year of excellent performance under your belt.

If you do decide to negotiate, make sure you are aware of the pay-band for the role you are applying for and the cost of living in the area. A recruitment agency that has a long-term relationship with a studio may be in a better position to broker a package that will suit your needs.

Negotiating job roles
Many developers are extremely flexible when it comes to the activities employees undertake, and there will often be multiple projects on which it is possible to work. It’s important to keep this flexibility in mind when planning your long-term aspirations at a company. As with pay negotiation, the key factors here are an acute awareness of the company’s trajectory and operations along with the demonstration of strong technical abilities and personal motivation.

Do entry-level salaries vary much between roles?
While there is certainly variation between the different industry roles, even at junior level, that variation is minimal – typically between £3,000 and £5,000 - and often down to supply and demand as much as any other factor. Art- and design-based roles are currently seeing more applications than, say, programmers, so those able to fill coding gaps may be offered more as a result.

Transferable skills from other sectors
The recruitment agencies we spoke to have noticed a considerably wider range of opportunities for professionals from other sectors to join the game industry due to its rapid expansion into new areas and platforms and broadening audience. Some key transferable skills include:

• User experience designers from web, media or e-learning backgrounds (to assist with the usability of front ends and UI’s in game – especially social based gaming) 
• Web developers from web and technology backgrounds (useful for the web based gaming surge we have seen in the last few years such as Facebook and free-to-play browser games) 
• Marketing and business development candidates who have experience in looking at methods of how to advertise and attract consumers, while also monetising products more commonplace in other industries. 
• Database coders from the financial industry whose skills are directly applicable to the ever more complex economies of social and massively multiplayer games.

This guide was put together with the help of industry experts from several recruitment companies, including: Amiqus head of games recruitment Stig Strand and principal consultant Peter Leonard; Aardvark Swift director Ian Goodall and videogames recruitment consultant Hollie Heraghty; Datascope senior games consultant Alex Wright-Manning; Interactive Selection managing director David Smith; and OPM Jobs managing director Kim Parker-Adcock.