"The expertise has been pumped up a lot," Marina Lopatina from WN Talents said about the main thing for 2023

We continue to summarize the results of 2023 with the gaming (or related to the gaming sector) teams. Next up is an interview with Marina Lopatina, Director of business development at the recruitment agency WN Talents.

What was the year like for the WN Talents agency? What have you done that I would like to highlight in terms of achievements?

In general, this year was, of course, difficult, like many others, but we managed to expand the geography of our clients. Therefore, we are now working very actively with the international market. There were a lot of negotiations with companies from Europe, Asia, and India. We learned to interact with them, learned to understand the specifics of the work, characters, and cultural interests of partners and specialists from completely different countries. It was quite difficult.

Accordingly, we developed the recruitment team in this regard - we trained in search, work and the specifics of interacting with people from different countries and cultures — international clients and candidates. As a result, we have formed a large base of candidates around the world.

This year we have been closing vacancies for companies located on different continents, so we can say with confidence that we are now a global international agency. The expertise has been greatly improved, and this is very encouraging.

What trends do you see in the personnel market in the Russian-speaking gaming industry today?

The global situation is difficult, and European countries are in crisis.

Since the beginning of autumn, the Russian-speaking gaming industry has come to life: many new customers have come to us, old ones have begun to return. Both of them seek help for complex and high-level vacancies.

To be honest, in my opinion, the Russian-speaking gaming industry is not decreasing: we hold a lot of meetups for HR specialists every month. In total, we held 11 online events for HR specialists. As always, they discussed trends and shared expertise. We keep our finger on the pulse.

An interesting fact: compared to last year, the salaries that our clients are willing to give to future employees have increased. One of the reasons is that specialists are already used to living abroad, and prices everywhere — including due to the influx of new residents - are rising (both for rent and for everything else). Following this, the requests of candidates are also growing.

Another thing is that companies are now choosing candidates more carefully and much longer. They are also ready to provide a good social package, ready to pay for relocation. But here you need to understand that I am talking about this based on our experience: recruiting agencies, as a rule, give difficult vacancies, maybe that's why the level of salaries offered is higher.

And what about the staffing situation in the European market?

In the European market, according to our feelings, the main in–demand specialists are business development managers and sales managers. The fact is that many companies are now in a difficult situation: everyone needs an influx of new customers, everyone is looking for new opportunities to attract money.

Thanks to this, we have formed a very strong base of candidates over the year, very skilled, and they are all strong in business development, so we are always ready to help anyone interested in entering European and any other international markets with such vacancies.

What are your plans for next year?

As always, our plan for next year is ambitious: to continue to enter new markets and get to know new companies.

By the way, we have already understood which market is more attractive to us, which one is more attractive to candidates. So we also plan to strengthen our presence in the relevant markets.