Tag: Jobs

A total of 387 participants completed the 2019 Survey of Program Graduates. These individuals identified themselves as having completed or being in the process of completing a video-game-based program at a post-secondary institution. The participants included both undergraduate and graduate students.

For those based in the United States, the average salary of all employed survey participants was $61,000. For full-time workers, the average salary was $68,000. This is significantly higher than the median salary of all American workers, which is reported to be $36,300. This average includes all workers, regardless of education level.

Compared with workers with similar education outcomes, game program alumni seemed to earn slightly more, though exact comparisons proved challenging. For example, respondents between 22 and 30 years of age earned an average of $57,500 per year. In comparison, starting salaries for all post- secondary graduates in the US in 2018 were reported as $50,390.

Across the survey sample, women on average earned $61,750. Men, on average, earned $59,730.

Salaries steadily increased, except for the oldest cohort. For example, the youngest cohort of respondents (17-21 years) earned an average salary of $40,000, while those between the ages of 31- 40 earned approximately $76,200.

A total of 387 participants completed the 2019 Survey of Program Graduates. These individuals identified themselves as having completed or being in the process of completing a video-game-based program at a post-secondary institution. The participants included both undergraduate and graduate students.

84% of respondents stated that they were currently employed. This included full-time, part-time, and contract work, as well as self-employment. The rate of employment increased with the age of respondents. For example, 70% of the youngest cohort of respondents reported being employed compared with 100% of the oldest cohort.

Of those in the 2019 survey who reported being employed, approximately 77% had full-time work, 16% had part-time work, and 5% were self-employed. 12% indicated that they had secured contract work.

From the data, it is reasonable to conclude that respondents engaged in multiple forms of work. For example, of the 251 respondents who described their work as full-time, 34 also indicated that they did contract work on top of their employment (9% of the entire sample). With respect to employment type, the percentages did not change significantly from the 2015 survey, although the previous survey did not explicitly ask about contract work.

A total of 387 participants completed the 2019 Survey of Program Graduates. These individuals identified themselves as having completed or being in the process of completing a video-game-based program at a post-secondary institution. The participants included both undergraduate and graduate students.

The number of respondents who stated that working in the video games industry would be their first choice for a job dropped significantly the more years they spent in the industry. For example, at five years since graduation, the percentage of men who said that the video games industry would be their first choice for employment was 64%, compared with 95% of men who just graduated.

Women saw a much more precipitous decline, going from 85% to 40%. The rate drops particularly quickly for women after in the industry, falling from 90% one year after graduation to 64% after two. There could be many reasons for this. One might be the well-documented toxicity of some aspects of the industry to women—a factor already covered in-depth by both academics and games journalists.

It is also worth considering other factors that may be at play. Further research on this topic could shed valuable light on how people’s desire to work in a particular industry changes over time, and whether the trend stabilizes or potentially reverses over a longer period of time.