Recruitment platform Games Jobs Finland hopes to solve Finland’s workforce shortage

As a sign of how Finnish gaming has developed recently, Finland now has a new matchmaking platform and jobs board for game developers. Games Jobs Finland (GJF) is a recruitment platform specifically made for the Finnish gaming industry, which is, according to KooPee Hiltunen, director of the Finnish Game Developers Association (FGDA), in a serious shortage of work force. The website was launched yesterday during the Finnish Game Awards, an event held in the Helsinki last night which mainly focused on rewarding last year’s best Finnish games.

According to the data provided by the FGDA, the value of Finland’s game industry in 2013 was a little north of €2,2 billion, while the core industry’s turnover had increased by €600 million since 2012. Currently Finland is home to around 200 gaming companies, half of which have been established during the past few years.

Since the growth is clearly visible it’s no secret that the gaming industry, including the big developers as much as well funded startups, is in high need of new, talented employees, which is where Games Jobs Finland steps in.

In terms of high performance matchmaking, the GJF platform will provide the ideal channel through which game companies can recruit talented developers. But it’s not only developers game companies are after; the significant advancements in game technologies have created needs for a new generation of game-related jobs, especially in analytics and digital marketing.

“Game developing education in Finland can now satisfy junior level positions in the industry”, says Arja Martikainen, Senior Game Consultant and game employee recruiter with more than a decades experience. This means recruiting is often directed abroad, something which GJF possibilitates since it’s a necessity.

But just like the names suggests, the GJF is mainly focused for Finnish companies, and hopefully Finnish job-hunters. There’s no apparent reason why it wouldn’t work out, however, it means the firms, just as much as the future employees, need to know GJF is out there and they need to start actively using it.

In the meantime, we have to say our own jobs board is getting good traction if you have any positions to fill.