Dealing with Staffing Agencies (aka Contract Work)

The current trend of the video game industry is to be hired on a contractual basis. These are usually shorter contracts, ranging from six months to one year, although I have seen laughable contracts for only three months. My first advice to you, is that you are offered a short-term contract like this, and you already have a little bit of experience, then ask if it can be extended and wait. Sometimes, waiting silently is your best negotiation tactic. Many times studios may not contact you back anyway, so it's better to at least ask for the possibility of a lengthened contract than to quickly accept whatever they throw at you.

It seems that all staffing agencies are in the business of low-balling potential employees, and employees are expected to negotiate up from there. Just like when HR at a company would give you a fairly low figure just to see if you'll take it, but they are fully willing to increase that amount at least by $5,000. I had a three month contract pitched at me, unexpectedly, by a highly positioned recruiter for EA. I asked if it could be extended, and didn't think anymore of it. I thought that the person would be turned off or not want to contact me again, and I wasn't serious enough to go for a three month contract anyway. About a week or two later they got back to me, saying that it could be extended for one year. I didn't end up taking th
e job after goring through the interview, but it was comforting seeing that with such little work such a huge benefit can be had in the realm of your career, financial planning, and future lifestyle. Most people may be to prideful or shy to ask for such a thing, but this is what they are counting on to extort you for more money that should have been yours. A large amount of effort must be made on your part to change gears to a new job, especially if it requires relocation. This is why most recruiters don't bother pitching these short term contracts to candidates who are not already local.

This brings up another good point: it is probably wasting your time to talk to an agency recruiter if you are not local. They will be much more serious if you are local and will be scouting for positions specifically in that area, because they are local themselves. There is not a type of agency who can just hire someone from different cities and pass them new opportunities that way, although a big company such as EA can hire in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco, but probably are not willing to search for jobs as far as Seattle or Austin, even-though they have the capacity to do so. They would rather pass you to another recruiter, who is actually local to that city, at that point.

When recruiting agencies send you a comp, or quote, of your salary and contract length, this is not set in stone. I recently signed a contract with Microsoft, and the contract terms and title of the position literally changed three times in a matter of a couple of weeks. Don't think you can't negotiate or walk out on the contract because the agency will definitely make it feel like everything is official and that you are employed, before you even get a green light from the actual parent company that they are soliciting you for. This is also good to keep in mind so that you do not get your hopes up when you keep talking to a recruiter and they sound positive about the outcome, because what they think or feel doesn't really matter until the actual game studio wants you. I would still keep in touch and call them around once per week, just in case they are not diligent about checking in with the parent studio. This will also show interest on your part and be communicated through the recruiters check-up attempts with the studio.

A colleague of mine, who is familiar with the contract lifestyle and has been on one year contracts for the last five years, for the same studio, informed me that when he gets hired each time he positions competing staffing agencies against each other. He does this by getting a figure from one and then letting the other know about the offer, and seeing if they will match it. Some agencies value benefits more and other prioritize salary more. The benefits will be harder to compare and is a little more obscure, so he chooses the agency that will offer the higher salary figure. This is a good strategy and shows that even if you are dealing with one agency, primarily, it's never to late to shop around. Since I was local to Microsoft, I was getting inquires from different staffing agencies throughout the process of talking with one main one, because they must have automated search features and aggressively search for local talent when a position first goes live.

Contract work seems like it is here to stay, and is the new level of intern for people who are actually experienced. Once you successfully endure the test of the contract, you may have a chance for full time employment, but the most usually reward for good work seems to be an invitation back to the same studio with a new contract. I hope that everyone is contacting staffing agents or at least realizing that this is the process you will have to deal with, that way you won't be annoyed with how convoluted it is...because it is convoluted.

Happy contracting,
Ken