Esports Hyper-Growth Pt III: Staff
This is a 4 part series:
Part I: Contenders vs Pretenders
Part II: Players
Part III: Staff
Part IV: Investors
I would like to start this section by introducing my background some. I have interviewed, hired, and fired hundreds of people from hourly to senior management roles and have designed internships and career experiences that led to very rewarding opportunities. Career and talent development is important because it’s great for a business’ success — but more importantly, it’s a huge positive impact on someone’s life. This focus on people’s careers continues with the players and people I work with. When I’m asked in an interview about my proudest accomplishments, it always has to do with the positive impact I’ve had on the people I am lucky to work with.
So when it comes to esports staff, I’m a little more sensitive to it— they are the most under appreciated, hardest working (they work more than pro players at times and deal with more crap as the middle men/women), and usually the most caring and unselfish since they take care of others. On top of that, they get little recognition, the least back in terms of compensation (sometimes unpaid), and attention.
I see so many hard working, passionate, selfless people get taken advantage of simply because they don’t know any better or are just so excited to be working with any org to get into esports. So this article is mostly for staff working with or deciding to work with T2–3 orgs, the advice here pertains to how esports is experiencing hyper-growth and doesn’t really apply to T1 orgs. For T1 org employees, there are great articles about how to be a great employee.
The Unpaid Staff Member’s Journey
Usually their stories go like this, they accept unpaid position for a promise of it being paid someday, “we’re building something great, trust me…best in esports, etc.”, and great growth/success/funding in the future (it’s the same ploy used to attract players, “hey, we are going to get funding soon, then this and that will happen, etc. — all you need to do is sign the dotted line”).
These are the growing pains of esports in hyper-growth and it’s particularly more of an acute problem in esports than other hyper-growth industries.
They get the unpaid position (not a job) and are trying to learn how to do it with little training and guidance — communication and goal setting is really poor or just doesn’t exist so not much is getting done. Because it is unpaid with little and/or vague expectations set, the staff often struggle due to poor leadership. Sometimes, that is seen as they aren’t good or as committed to their unpaid job and the criticism comes.
Some staff spend months to years working for free then are told they aren’t qualified or fit to be in that role when someone else better comes along — and that someone else usually gets a paid job offer.
Then the staff tries to find other opportunities (hopefully paid) and the new potential employer or org discovers that this staff member was let go and there wasn’t much results or accomplishments during their tenure with such a T3 org.
That staff member usually isn’t hired due to 1 or more of the 3 reasons below
1) The T3 org doesn’t have a strong reputation that helps them in the job seeking process — in fact, if the org has a poor reputation, it actually hurts the candidate.
2) Results of the T3 org are mediocre or non-existent, they are no expectations or goals set for the staff so they really don’t know if they are succeeding or failing — this always translates to org results.
3) When the T1 org or business interviews such candidates, they find little to none of the required skills or experiences needed to be successful in the paid position they are looking to fill.
When I was with a T3 org, I was told by a well-known person/company with a big project “no, we do not want to work with your [T3] org, we want to work directly with you.” That’s when I knew, just being associated with this org was actually not good for me.
The story continues with the staff member wasting months to years of their time…life working on an unpaid “career” and the experience is usually mediocre. And if the org isn’t successful with clear long-term consistent results, working for such an org actually hurts the unpaid worker way more than it “benefits”.
The staff receive no kind of meaningful developmental feedback and coaching during their time at the org to actually learn and grow in their roles, they just get lots of criticism when things go wrong and little to no recognition when things go well.
What’s the definition of toxicity in gaming again? And it keeps happening time and time again at T3 orgs — outcomes of poor and ineffective leadership. Some of these T3 orgs have been in business 3+ years and they go through the same cycle, hiring new social media or PR people, churning through countless designers, how many Marketing or PR Directors did you have?, etc.
And because of the reputation and results of bad T3 orgs, it’s a stain — a liability — on the staff’s resume. It’s pretty sad how these people are treated and then the org calls an unpaid position a “career”.
Can an Unpaid Position be a…Career?
Career refers to what a person does to earn a living — to support and take care of themselves and their family.
To call an unpaid esports position a career is not authentic.
Because there are many people who so badly want to make esports a career (hence willing to work for free for months to years) and these individuals are the one most suspect to being taken advantage of. It’s not a career if it’s unpaid, maybe you can say it’s a career path towards a career, but unpaid work isn’t something sustainable long-term.
When I worked to build and develop people’s careers, it was about helping them become not only a better performer/leader, but a better person — that is what careers are about. It’s about the person’s life and livelihood, offering a career means you are supporting their families, kids, and themselves — helping them grow personally and financially.
Get the most out of your unpaid experience
Many of us are trying to make it there and sometimes doing free work does make sense if it’s with the right leaders and orgs — there are good success stories of people in esports who have worked for free and gone on to bigger (paid) successes. So here are a few tips for those of you who are willing to work unpaid esports positions to ‘get ahead’. I am referencing unpaid internship programs below because it has great guidelines you need to ensure are put in place for you, so you benefit and grow from taking on such a risky unpaid “career” move. And frankly, it’s a way to weed out bad leaders who won’t even bother to put any effort into your unpaid “career”.
Before we begin, read some of these articles:
- Why Your Unpaid Internship Makes You Less Employable — Forbes (many of you who do unpaid work are usually in school)
- Let’s Get Legal: Guidelines for Paid or Unpaid Internships
The most important piece is that the unpaid experience is for the benefit of YOU.
So after 2–3 months and you don’t see any benefits to you, here’s some great advice below:
How about signing documents?
If you decide to accept the unpaid position, you don’t need to sign anything, especially a 1-way non-discloser agreement (NDA) or any document (really ask why you need to?). And if they want you to sign stuff like that, which means you’re signing your rights over, then they should compensate you. That’s why players sign a contract and in return get thousands in compensation. Or when you sign for a job, the company is providing you a wage/salary, benefits like healthcare, etc.
Remember, the unpaid position needs to benefit you. Is there a training program in place to help you learn and do your role better? Is there a document that explains your training and timeline — usually 2–3 months — of the unpaid experience? Will it lead to a paid opportunity by the end of the unpaid experience? Documents like these are good because it helps you hold them accountable to take care of you and is great for employee/leadership engagement when it binds both parties to be committed in a mutually beneficial relationship.
I do not recommend staying longer than a 2–3 months unpaid, if 3+ months of your hard work and commitment lead to nothing fruitful, don’t stay, it’s time to move on.
Hedge yourself, make sure you stay in touch with well connected leaders and individuals in esports and keep exploring for paid opportunities — there are a lot of resources out there where you can set alerts and notifications when such opportunities arise. This is what I call always knowing your opportunity cost — you’ll better understand the cost to you of an unpaid position only by staying aware of other opportunities you are qualified for out there.
Once you finally realize the true opportunity cost of working for free (because you found a paid gig) you’ll see that the grass is really greener on the other side— both figuratively and money-wise.
Thank you for reading, if you are a staff member who has any questions or need any help, please reach out to me.
