Finnish Games Career Day – job fair for Games industry professionals on 28 October is now open for applications

Have you been thinking about changing your job or exploring new opportunities abroad in the games industry? Then, Finnish Games Career Day is the place to be! It’s an online and interactive event where you can meet some of the leading Finnish games studios, explore multiple open positions, get advice on how to get into the Finnish games industry and make your job search easier, and chances of scoring an interview for your next career step. Even if you are not ready to change your job now, you can use this opportunity to get to know the companies better, try out their games and network with gaming professionals from all over the world! 

All you have to do is to submit an application and wait for an invitation to join Finnish Games Career Day. 

So what else does Finnish Games Career Day have to offer? You will get to meet participating companies like - Remedy Entertainment, Epic Games, Seriously Entertainment, Fingersoft, Redhill Games, Critical Force, Nitro Games, DoDreams, Panzerdog, Mainframe Industries and many, many more! Apart from studios’ presentations, we will share information about relocating to Finland and the support you and your family members will get if you decide to accept an opportunity in Finland. You will also hear from participants from past events, who already live and work in Helsinki, about their experiences and they will also answer any questions that you may have.

The event will be online and interactive:

• In the main event, participating companies will present themselves, new projects they are working on, talk about company culture, recruitment process and open positions.

• At the expo area, attendees will be able to visit interactive company stands and engage in live sessions with studio representatives.

• On the Career Wall, we will advertise multiple open vacancies from recruiting Finnish studios. 

• You will be able find representatives of any company by associated tags and chat with them or book an online call.

• You can even have a ‘virtual cup of coffee’ with recruiters in the lobby of the event and discuss open opportunities directly with them

Last year, we organized similar job fairs in Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Kyiv and helped 25 professionals to start a new page in their careers in Helsinki. This year, there are over 300 open positions in Finland at the games studios. And one of them could be yours! 

Why come to Finland for a career in the gaming industry?

Firstly, Finland has consistently been rated as the ‘happiest country’ to live in the world. This is based on world-leading education and healthcare systems, safe and clean environment for family living, many social and recreational options and a beautiful landscape that promises over a thousand lakes.

Secondly, “Finland is one of the leading gaming hubs in Europe and has some of the fastest growing game studios in the world.” says Oleg Paliy, CEO of Games Factory Talents. With an annual turnover of 2.5 billion euros per year. This industry employs about 3,500 professionals and about 35% of them are foreigners. Furthermore, with English being the official language in the industry, this presents some exciting opportunities for industry professionals from all over the world. 

There are about 240 game companies in Finland: from small startups to world-famous names like, Supercell, Remedy Entertainment, Rovio, Electronic Arts, Zynga, Ubisoft, Housemarque, Next Games and many others. So, if you have been thinking about gaining international experience and developing yourself in the games industry, then Finland is the right place to do it!

How can you join Finnish Games Career Day?

If you are now intrigued and want to join Finnish Games Career Day, then take a couple of minutes to fill out a simple registration form. You can also find the registration link and much more information on the Finnish Games Career Day website. While filling your registration, please indicate your specialization and skills, attach your resume and a link to your LinkedIn profile, portfolio or GitHub profile. We will assess your experience and match you with relevant job opportunities before the event itself. We will accordingly contact you, before the event, about any matching role(s) and invite you to an online interview with our talent specialist at the event. 

After filling the registration, you will get an email and a link to the online PINE platform and you can use that link to join the event on 28th October.

To help you get comfortable with the online PINE platform and prepare you to get the most out of the event, we will organize a preparatory WarmUp webinar on October 14th. You will get tips on how to fill up the attendee card and attract the attention of recruiting companies, get an overview of the capabilities of the online platform for the event and get answers to any of your questions.

We hope to see you on October 28th at 9.00 am (East European Time) for Finnish Games Career Day! Do not forget to sign up via the registration form before the event!

PGC Helsinki Digital - Special offer for Finnish Devs!

Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital is getting closer! And although it will be global and 100% online, we still very much want to celebrate the best of Finland like we always do in September. So we have created a special offer for Finnish developers to make it easy for them to attend.

Exclusively for Finnish developers: if you buy 3 tickets together, you get the third one free. It’s a special ticket type that goes live tomorrow.

The code FinnFree makes the 3-for-2 ticket appear!

Join Pocket Gamer Connects Careers Week!

The games industry is always in a state of flux. New opportunities and companies spring up as old projects scale down. Many of the normal channels have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, as well as other companies having to make difficult decisions with layoffs.

To support jobseekers during this difficult time,welcome to the first Pocket Gamer Connects Careers Week, to run during Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #2.

What it entails:

• Digital jobs board listing on the main event channel

• A mail-out of key vacancies to all attendees

• A virtual jobs fair (match-making event where we connect jobseekers with recruiters)

• Focused talks, panels and round-table discussions regarding recruitment

• Supporting editorial coverage on PocketGamer.biz

As part of this initiative, a number of jobseeker tickets will be available free to people currently out of work and looking for a new role. This will not only give you access to the specific recruitment opportunities but also all other aspects of the Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #2 event (five days, ten tracks, 200+ speakers, access to MeetToMatch platform, Discord chat and more).

If you’d like to get involved and find the next step in your career, sign up here.

Recruiters can also get involved and share their vacancies by using this form to register interest or contacting chris@steelmedia.co.uk

CORONA AID: Digi & Game Center Needs Your Support! - Help us to reach 15K goal at Mesenaatti.me! #savedgc

There are great items for everyone to support, check them out.

Support us here (in Finnish): bit.ly/Save-DGC-Korona-Aid-Fin
Support us here (in English): bit.ly/Save-DGC-Korona-Aid-Eng

The idea of ​​a digital and gaming community was born in 2012, when the Expa Game Business Co-operative was founded. Since that year, studies, surveys and opportunities have been sought to make such a community a reality. That moment came on Wednesday, January 1, 2020, when the Digi & Game Center (DGC) opened on Matarankatu in Jyväskylä. Now, DGC’s operations are at stake due to a coronavirus that has had a significant impact on the revenue streams of the DGC that manages DGC’s Expa. Expa is responsible for e.g. rents for public premises totaling € 15,000 over a three-month period. In order to keep this long-dreamed community in Central Finland, we invite you to fight against the corona!

Digi & Game Center, where all the IGDA Finland Jyväskylä Magic happens!

What is Digi & Game Center?

The Expa Game Business Co-operative , together with the Central Finnish gaming and digital community, has established the Digi & Game Center (DGC) in Jyväskylä. DGC is a community and ecosystem that brings together Central Finnish gaming and digital experts under one brand and creates a framework for high-quality and diverse production of gaming and digital services and cooperation between companies and educational institutions in Central Finland and internationally. DGC's offices were sold off immediately and the operation has got off to a very good start. DGC has provided 16 entrepreneurs and companies with office space in a resource-wise and cost-effective way, facilities for Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences (JAMK) game developer training for Demo Lab, GamePit space for JAMK's youth game coaching, cost-effective mobile workstations and meeting rooms. for various lectures, trainings, workshops and gamers, as well as facilities for a modern XR-AR-VR studio that can also be used for recordings. By the end of February 2020, DGC will e.g. was attended by more than 1,000 visitors, the first Finnish Game Jams were held, the gaming networking event Game Business Booster, as well as several lectures and massive openings. Now this start has been significantly jeopardized by a coronavirus pandemic. In particular, activities that are important for (Peliosuuskunta Expa) Expa Game Business Co-operative's business, such as organizing events and trainings, and renting premises, are not currently possible. Because Expa operates the space, it corresponds to e.g. rents for public premises, which means EUR 15 000 for a period of three months. In addition, many service production projects have been suspended due to the situation and their continuation is currently uncertain. That is why we call on you to support the DGC and fight the effects of the corona!

Values ​​guiding the operation of Digi & Game Center:

• Strengthening the awareness of the local (Central Finland) gaming and digital industry both domestically and internationally

• Employment of gaming and digital professionals locally - Increasing the attractiveness of Jyväskylä among experts in the field

• Close and networked cooperation between different companies, experts, developers and educational institutions

• Sustainable development and internationalization

Expolore the Digi & Game Center in 3D:
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=tGEm1yhqJ6t

Website of Digi & Game Center:
www.digigamecenter.org

Where does the money from the Mesenaatti campaign go?

An excellent question with a simple answer: the money is used to cover the rental costs incurred by the DGC for the Expa Game Business Co-operative and other expenses such as accounting and salaries. Expa operates the DGC and is responsible for rents for the center’s shared facilities, which will accrue around € 15,000 over three months.

One of DGC’s companies, W1llou Agency, has also been employed in the campaign, and product rewards will be made in Finland. At the same time, we support Finnish companies as well as the buyers of the campaign.

We are not talking about a large number of buyers, so the goals are very achievable!

For example, to achieve our minimum goal – € 15,000 – we need

300 buyers of Collect All! product package
OR
120 #XmasJKL ticket buyers
OR
10 buyers of the DGC Loves U visibility package
OR
2 namings of the Stage reward buyers + 2 namings of the meeting rooms

After deducting the taxes and other expenses such as ordering the product rewards, DGC will have € 9,000 left. With this, we can cover about two months of rent.

For example, to achieve our maximum goal – € 50,000 – we need

1000 Collect All! buyers of the product package
OR
34 buyers of the DGC Loves U visibility package
OR
20 buyers of the Gamification and Game Industry lecture
OR
10 buyers of the Collision of Worlds workshop

After deducting the taxes and other expenses such as ordering the product rewards, DGC will have approximately € 25,000 left. With this, we can cover about five months of rent, which already helps a lot.

What is Game Business Co-operative Expa?

The operator of Digi & Game Center is Game Business Co-operative Expa (Peliosuuskunta Expa), which is a community open to everyone, e.g. for game creators, researchers, students, teachers, events or other persons and entities operating in the field in Jyväskylä or in the territory of Central Finland. The purpose of Expa is to promote the success of the gaming industry in the Jyväskylä region and Central Finland. Expa was founded in 2012 and has been an active advocate for game developers in Central Finland ever since. The cooperative has 116 members and a separate 2-year board. The current chairman is Tuomas Roininen, he is also IGDA Finland and Neogames Boars member.

Expa Game Business Co-operative (Peliosuuskunta Expa), is also IGDA Finland Jyväskylä Hub one of the very first IGDA Finland hubs since 2013.

Website of Game Business Co-operative Expa: www.expa.fi

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Homeschooling initiative for parents/gamedevs!

Dear gamedevs and parents,

As you are aware, COVID-19 has made lots of schools close their doors and parents are homeschooling their children.

Since this is all new to most of us, it creates lots of challenges for teachers, parents and most importantly - children!

But you, me, we all, can make a difference!

You may have been making games before, or maybe you are only starting. Regardless, let's unite together and make simple games (think of it as a edu-game-jam) from school tasks and this way help with the situation.

Interested? Sign up in following form and we will send more details about the initiative!

https://forms.gle/4B5q4H1mMZwRkAMH9

Behind this fantastic initiative is Samuli Holopainen and we at IGDA Finland wish to support it - join us!