If you are an individual who has a passion for gaming, technology or even social media marketing then you definitely might want to consider a career in the massively booming eSports market. This industry offers a wide range of different career options to choose from.
The most obvious career choice and probably the most lucrative within eSports is that of a gamer. It is also the hardest career to make a success of within eSports. Millions of people worldwide dream of being a pro gamer. To really make a career from eSports you would have to be very dedicated and one of the very top players of your game of choice in the world. If you succeed you can make insane amounts of money, both in sponsorships and also tournament prize money. One of the top-notch players in the industry might even want to sign you up for their professional team.
There are many content jobs now in eSports, that could be either producing creative content for games, marketing materials and even eSports events. It could be creating written or visual content, editing that content or producing the graphics needed. To create content for the actual games you will need to have somewhat of a creative spark, ideally be good at storytelling and have a deep understand of games. If you aren’t particularly creative, but have a good eye for spotting errors, then working on the editing side of content would be the perfect job.
Software development is an area with many opportunities arising within eSports on a regular basis. Many gaming companies need software developers and game programmers, not just for the games, but also for their website and apps for example. You will ideally need to have solid expertise in coding and be good at problem solving to work in this area.
Sales is a career that exists in most industries and the eSports world is no different. eSports has the need for sales jobs now mainly in terms of selling sponsorships, for players, teams and events and it is now big money with companies paying millions in eSports sponsorships. You could also work for a hardware company in sales in this industry. You need to have the typical skills required for sales such as negotiation and being a good communicator as well as an interest in gaming of course. All these attributes are more likely to ensure you succeed at sales within eSports.
Writing and journalism is also a growing field within eSports. With the industry becoming bigger and bigger there is an increased requirement for blogs, websites and news articles on eSports. If you can’t land yourself a job writing with a magazine straight away, it is worth possibly starting your own blog discussing different games and even consider doing write ups of eSports tournaments or different gamers that do online streams. You can then look to approach publications with your work and hope they take a liking to it.
It is clear though that the opportunities within the eSports industry just look set to grow and grow. So now is definitely the prefect time to get involved in this rapidly growing form of entertainment.
Written in co-operation with Claudia Hansley