Careers Networking Series: Getting into Gaming - Photos
On Wednesday 20 April 2022, we were delighted to hold the second in our exciting new series of careers - Getting into Gaming - events in collaboration with the Japan Club of London Business School, where we were joined by gaming industry experts for an in-person panel discussion, followed by an audience Q&A and networking session.
The evening began with a talk from Kendra Evans - Localisation Associate at The Pokemon Company International - who outlined her career path, with a particular focus on pursuing an interest in Japan from a language perspective. Following a BA in Japanese Studies at the University of Cambridge, she noted how a year abroad in Japan had been vital for developing fluency, with the motivation to then work on the JET scheme also spurred on by a desire to further improve her Japanese.
Working in Yamanashi Prefecture as a Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) on the scheme, Kendra shared how her experiences translating and interpreting during this time also served her well when she returned to the UK for a Masters degree and then working at the Japanese Embassy in London. Broadening her skillset, she was even involved with organising a number of events at the Embassy, including one featuring wine from Yamanashi!
Kendra then went on to explain how the COVID pandemic was a moment of reflection for her, as she looked to pinpoint potential industries to progress her career further in. Utilising a five-pronged approach to specify areas of interest and then research these fields further, she realised a combination of her language skills and interest in videogames could be a perfect match. Beginning the role at Pokemon - a large company covering lots of different specialisms - she highlighted the importance of being inquisitive, as well as more broadly developing and maintaining connections both in-industry, and in the wider Japanese network in London.
Kendra was followed by Marc Melton - Managing Director of Marvelous Europe - who summed up his career progression from school to his current position as a mix of energy, experience, integrity, emotional intelligence, positivity, a sense of adventure and luck. In contrast to Kendra, he mentioned that while languages weren’t his strong point, he saw emotional intelligence as absolutely critical in his role; growing a team and making people believe in the direction of the company. With an aim to grow Marvelous in Europe, he explained the importance of their input in advising what would work well in the European market, and illustrated this dynamic of cultural exchange with two short video trailers.
He characterised the games industry as having real growth opportunity - with global revenues now exceeding both the film and music industries combined. Central to this is the emotional attachment gamers form with the industry’s output, indeed, that games can be seen as an artform. His presentation also highlighted the sheer diversity of roles that can be found within the gaming industry, including production, design, art, animation, audio, programming and quality assurance.
Ending on a high note, Marc summed up the biggest challenge in gaming as one of discovery - there is just so much out there; and that on the same note, this is also true with careers and personal identity. By letting employers see this value in you, you can add value to that employer.
For the Q&A session, we were also pleased to welcome Marc’s colleague from Marvelous - Emilia King - to the stage as we fielded an exciting and diverse range of questions from the audience, covering everything from the tricky transition between being a fan and consumer of games to then working in the industry and approaching games with critical distance, to the nuances of localisation for European markets, and even touching on future trends for virtual and augmented reality games.
Proceedings closed with guests mingling over food and drink in an informal networking session, the perfect opportunity to ask further questions as well as exchange experiences and tips.
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