I’m a recruiter in the Los Angeles area. I currently have some game development openings I’m recruiting for, but I’m running into a bit of a problem that I hope someone has a suggestion for. I’m an avid gamer and I’d really like to break into this area of recruiting. Usually when looking for candidates I can put out an advertisement, search the job boards (dice, monster, hotjobs), or get referrals. I’ve been very successful finding other types of software engineers (embedded, J2EE, etc…). Finding game developers has become a struggle. Does anyone have any suggestions about good places to recruit game developers in the LA area? If any of you games developers have used recruiters in the past how did they find you? I’m not trolling for resumes. I’m just looking for suggestions.

Mike, you wrote:

>Does anyone have any suggestions about good places to recruit game developers in the LA area?

Yes.

>If any of you games developers have used recruiters in the past how did they find you?

1. By using Google and finding my website.
2. By meeting me in person at IGDA chapter meetings, L.A. area networking events, or at industry parties, or at industry conferences/trade shows.
3. We were frequenting the same online forums.

In one word: networking (and schmoozing in general). Build yourself a network of people you know, and strive to maintain and expand this network. Many job offerings as well as people ready to leave are in this 'market'. You just need a few game development contacts to expand from there. No offense, but I'm a bit surprised haven't found that out already; it's pretty basic for a head hunter.

You can also register to LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/) or Plaxo (http://www.plaxo.com/) to keep track of know-knows-who and contact info as they change jobs and location. LinkedIn has the ability to see the network of people available to you from your own contacts and navigate from there.

-cb

A method that never failed is to summon developers to a game programming contest. It can be done via Internet. Then you will choose the best scored developers for an interview.