BEING A RECRUITER, AWARDS AND HUGE THANKS

I’m in a service profession, one that I’ve been proud to belong to for the past 30 years. For 19 years (so far) of that career, I’ve served the games industry alongside my colleagues at Amiqus.

When I started my first job in recruitment in 1994 my MD taught me that what matters in recruitment is relationships and service. He believed that if you do the job well, and focus on people and the details, then success would follow. He was absolutely right, and it’s an attitude that I’ve taken with me ever since. 

At some point, most people will go through a recruitment or hiring process and many employers will use an agency for that. The UK staffing market revenues are around £ 140 billion so it’s a huge part of our economy; there are 30+ million people in the UK of working age meaning a lot of employment touch points; and many are managed through recruitment agencies.

Recruitment done well should feel seamless, effortless, easy to navigate, with easily understood hiring decisions that are transparent, communicative, and where the process is undertaken at the right speed – lots of ways and opportunities to make a candidate feel special and individual.

To do recruitment well - to make all those plates spin and remember all the details - it’s a genuine art! We’re mentors, we’re confidantes, we’re advisors, we’re the eyes and ears of the market, we have data, we’re natural networkers…

I have spent all of my career doing my utmost to make sure that we’re a positive part of the recruitment sector. And at Amiqus we committed ourselves to working with the industry to collaboratively solve studio talent challenges and industry-wide issues - offering to do more than ‘just’ recruitment.

But does everyone love us? Absolutely not! I think it was only late last year that someone referred to agencies in the games industry as parasites. It’s a tough crowd to please sometimes…

We acknowledge that we don’t build or develop physical products, but we do offer the best and most professional, credible and experienced service possible, and most people that we interact with don’t pay anything at all for the service we offer them.

In 2024, during the worst trading conditions I’ve experienced in my working life, I’m so lucky to have the team that I have around me and the support that we have in the industry to try to get us through. We’re truly focussed on surviving right now.

And last week we were honoured to receive what is our 24th award for recruitment excellence in the games industry. I couldn’t be happier or more humbled that our industry believes in us so much and continues to choose to reward our contributions in this way. We never take anything for granted and never stop striving to be better.

A huge thank you to everyone who voted for us, thank you to Tandem Events, Bastion and MCV/DEVLOP for great events – and huge love to everyone who continues to support Amiqus.