5 things you should be doing to get into esports in 2022

Are you looking for ways to improve your esports career hunt? A new year is always an excellent time to take up something new, so we at Hitmarker wanted to share some of our tips about what you could be considering to level up your employability in 2022.

Find out where to network

The most common thing we hear  from esports professionals on what helped them get their foot in the door, or what helped land their current job, the answer is networking. Having your name — and more importantly your abilities — in the mind of decision-makers and professionals can help you find opportunities that you might otherwise have never been aware of.

But we’ve spoken about why networking is vital in plenty of places, so how should you go about doing it?

The first thing to consider is where you can find the right people to meet. There are a number of online communities, including the Hitmarker Discord, that are designed to bring together those both working in gaming and those interested in making it their career. 

Finding a group that not only puts on events designed to make networking easier, but is also there to create a community for like minded individuals, will make networking much easier than blindly reaching out on social media.

That being said, looking in more traditional and populated areas is also a good idea. Not every professional with an interest in esports is in the Hitmarker Discord, so using LinkedIn or Twitter to connect with those who work in similar sectors to you, or the ones you want to get into, is worth doing.

Send out messages

Now that we’ve worked out where to network, it’s time to discuss how to actually reach out to people. Sending a cold message can be difficult, but if you follow these tips it should be a little easier and will increase your chances of a positive reply:

• Introduce yourself. Make it clear who you are and what you do
• Get to the point. Don’t just message: ‘Hi, how are you?’ Let the person know why you’re messaging without being demanding. Something like: ‘Hey, I’m reaching out as I saw you’re a professional game designer and I’ve been looking to get into the field. I’d love to talk to you about your experience if that’s possible,’ will help prime the person you’re reaching out to
• Be authentic. Don’t copy and paste something and send it off to hundreds of people, as that will be spotted and ignored miles away. Reach out with thoughtful messages, in the same way that you’d hope someone will reply thoughtfully to you

If you follow these tips you’ll get more interactions when you reach out to people, and while not everyone will be able to help you, there are plenty of professionals who will be happy to give up some of their time.

Researching your dream jobs

While you might not be in an immediate position to find a new job, whether that’s because you’re still studying or in another profession, it’s still worth considering what you may need to do to take your next step. The same way you should choose your A-levels or degree based on what you want to do after education, you want to be developing skills that will be useful to you when applying for a new role even if you’re not currently searching.

For example, if you want to go into social media, it’s worth looking at some job descriptions in that field. This will allow you to spot any trends in terms of skills needed or any other requirements you may have initially overlooked.

This is also the best way to keep up with software demands so you’re aware of what companies are actively using. Being an expert in TikTok may be very helpful in 2022; being experienced in MySpace is a little less so.

Not only should you be using this time to look at roles you think are of interest, but you can also use it as an opportunity to check out related career paths that you might not have considered before. Seeing what other jobs are out there that utilise your core skills will give you a broader view of what you qualify for.

This will help you go into your chosen sector confident that it’s the right one for you, which is a very positive place to be in.

If you’re ready to start your research, you can find over 12,000 gaming jobs on Hitmarker.

Building skills

This goes hand-in-hand with doing your research. In an ideal situation, you’d be able to research the skills needed for your desired role, then go about building those to become the perfect candidate in that field.

If every job description for your dream sector talks about needing to be proficient with a certain coding language, then make sure you’re proficient in it! 

It’s always best to take a course, whether through formal education or online, to show that you have the skill, as an accreditation can be valuable proof that you’ve reached a minimum level, but learning the skill in your own time is also valuable. If you can truthfully mention in an application that you have the majority of key skills that are needed, then it’s going to be hard for the hiring manager not to consider you a leading candidate.

This is also an opportunity to see if you’re actually as interested in certain areas as you thought. While being a caster might seem like an amazing job to you from the outside, spending some time learning how to research and review VODs could show that you’re not as excited by the job as you initially thought. 

While we hope learning new skills in your desired area will only help increase your passion, dodging wasted energy on applications that aren’t right for you is just as important, even if it may not feel like it at the time!

Cleaning up your social feed

Esports is digital by nature, and it’s likely you’ll have an online presence yourself if this is the industry you want to work in. Having a professional and positive online footprint will not only avoid turning off potential employers, but it will also make networking much easier as it invites people to connect with you, rather than it always falling on you to do the outreach. Checking over your past posts and removing anything that may not be viewed in a positive light may take a little while if you’ve been online for a few years, but it’s worth doing.

If you want to learn more about why this is important, or what you should be considering when it comes to your online brand, you can find out more with our video on the topic.

Those are some of the key things you can be doing to make your esports job hunt in 2022 the best it can be. While this isn’t an exhaustive list, these are the areas that will add the most value to you while also being relatively straight forward. 

Even if you’re not fully ready to take on a new gaming job in 2022, following this advice will help you become a more employable and informed individual for whenever you do want to take the next step.

Good luck on the job hunt!