It’s an old misconception that video gaming isn’t a useful hobby when it comes to getting into employment. Although breaking into professional gaming is certainly difficult (not impossible, though – more on which later), it’s absolutely not the only position that being a good gamer will help you attain. There are lots of skills and abilities that gaming can teach you that can come in massively handy when it comes to looking for work. It’s just a matter of finding out what those positions and skills are and then applying yourself accordingly. Here are just 8 professions that gaming can help you break into.
- Online casino gaming
Believe it or not, being a gamer can make you an excellent candidate for online casino gaming. There are so many skills that gaming teaches you that are also applicable when it comes to online gambling. For example, as a gamer, you’ll often be required to be persistent in order to shake off multiple losses or deaths. Similarly, in casino gaming, you’ll need persistence if you want to make serious money, as you’re often going to lose before you start winning. If you’re interested in online casino gaming as a video gamer, why not hit up CasinoHEX and get started?
- Professional gamer
It might sound obvious, but one of the most prominent jobs you can get as an experienced gamer is to do what you love professionally. Of course, taking this route is by no means easy. There’s a lot to consider when you think about becoming a professional gamer. Many attempts to do just this end in failure, so before you commit your entire life to learning a game professionally, make sure it’s what you want to do. If it is, and you’re relatively young, then there’s no reason you can’t break onto the professional circuit and take the gaming world by storm.
- Esports manager
The world of esports is enjoying a boom right now, especially with the coronavirus confining everyone to their homes. If you love esports but you can’t see yourself actually playing games professionally, then you may want to consider looking for an esports team to manage. Being a gamer in your spare time can really help you to gain the knowledge you need to manage an esports team. If you know what your team is going through during a loss or win streak, you’ll be that much better disposed to help them understand how to get through it or capitalise on it.
- Video game designer
Have you ever found yourself playing a video game and thinking “I could do better than that”? Is this more than a passing thought that you seriously entertain during many of your waking hours? If so, you might want to consider becoming a video game designer. Be warned: becoming a game designer isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You’re effectively embarking on a career as a scientist and a coder, so it’s not just clicking and dragging assets and expecting your game to be done. If you’re willing to put in long hours for your dream, this could be the job for you.
- Gaming journalist
Before you enter the gaming journalism industry professionally, be warned: this is one of the most competitive jobs you can possibly hope to get, so the competition for positions will be fierce. Simply having the right qualifications and being a good writer won’t be enough to get you places as a gaming journalist. Still, if you’ve got the perseverance (which, as we said earlier, gaming can teach you) and you’re convinced your pitches are solid gold, then gaming journalism could well be the avenue for you to pursue. Just be aware that everyone else has ideas too, so you’ll need a unique hook.
- YouTuber/streamer
If the structured world of gaming journalism doesn’t appeal to you, then you could always pursue a career as a YouTuber or a gaming personality on streaming sites like Twitch or Mixer. Again, the competition is incredibly fierce for these positions, but if you think your personality is strong enough to create a niche for yourself, then this could be something to look into. There are a lot of prerequisites for getting into gaming streaming, so before you embark on this career, make sure you’ve got everything on the list.
- Marketing
Are you passionate about video games? Can you see yourself shouting from the rooftops about the latest release and proselytising to people about why they should buy it? If so, then maybe you should consider a career in video game marketing. This isn’t always an easy job; sometimes you’ll need to market games you may not personally believe in. However, video game marketing can also be an extremely rewarding job that gives you massive returns when you create a campaign that’s memorable, so it’s a matter of luck and hard work.
- Hardware designer
Companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are always looking for people to help them design hardware. If you think you’ve got what it takes, this could be an avenue you break into. Of course, this is a difficult field to enter, because it requires advanced and specialist knowledge that’s quite difficult to come by. Nevertheless, if you often find yourself taking consoles apart and tinkering with them to see what makes them tick, this could well be the career for you. Just don’t expect to enter at the top level; you’ll probably need to do time at a fair few startups before moving on to the big kids.
