I can't find a job in gamedev (unity) in my city. How to be?

Question

Game development

After graduating from university, I tried to find a job as an intern or junior to write under Unity. I worked for a year not in my specialty, but about that (technical writer). After that, I remembered that I was invited to graduate school to do a project on Unity. And now I've been here for three years, two of which are officially as a programmer. Competence in development is growing weakly, a lot of side postgraduate work such as articles, translations of articles into English, conferences, reports and other bureaucracy. It's annoying that all this takes a lot of time instead of doing the main thing - growing as a developer. There is no mentor either - everything was studied and is being studied by me on video, habr and by typing. In my city for the last 4 (!) months I saw vacancies from only one company in the field of game development, but they needed a senior. The more time passes the more I feel myself in a swamp. Should we start from scratch in some other area that is not interesting, but is better developed in our city? I don't want to make games on my knee, I want to work in a team, exchange experience, etc.
I work hard, but it does not affect the salary. My head is in place, I grasp quickly, I can study on my own, but I can’t find another job. Despondency overcomes. How have you overcome this in your life? Give me a kick in which direction to look. How to find a job when you want to work and are ready to learn new things?

Answer 1

You have as many as three options: move, find a suitable job remotely, or change the direction of activity to a more in demand in your city. The main thing is to change something, because in this situation, as you have now, IMHO, you will irrevocably turn sour ...
And you can also go talk to the company where you saw the vacancy of a senior, and talk about your professional growth. It could be a very useful conversation.

Answer 2

Hello! I would like to summarize the above - the topic of moving and settling in another city is very interesting.
1) Experience - here Sad but true. Any work begins with closing a hole in the business process of a particular company. And then he showed that you can close - they gave out an oar! It doesn't work otherwise. I see that there are some here, well, or there is a desire
2) Portfolio / resume - a mirror of experience. You need to write a resume for a specific vacancy. Strictly concise and strictly to the point.
3) Job search - search as on standard sources HH.ru, Superjob.ru, Robota ua, Work ua, Jobs.TUT.BY (even better on the InGameJob.com aggregator )
4) Money is a growth prospect. Here it is better to choose the golden mean.

Answer 3

With normal work in the regions, there is now a pipe in general. It remains either to freelance or move to St. Petersburg or Moscow. Personally, I chose the second option. However, even here most of the vacancies are so-so. Serious offices are looking for seniors, and sharashkin offices (of which the majority) put up a million demands and offer a salary for nothing.

Answer 4

There is only one option - moving to Moscow / St. Petersburg. And it's pretty easy to find a job. You can search remotely or locally. On the spot, as always, it's easier. You can also, as an option, try to find a remote job with a subsequent move. In fact, this is less likely to happen.
I had a situation almost like yours. I moved to St. Petersburg as a result, and then left Russia. I strongly advise you to defend your PhD, if there is such an opportunity, and it will not take more than the standard three years in total. Having a degree really helps to get a job for a foreign customer from Russia or immediately work abroad. In addition, it has a positive effect on salary negotiations.
Of course, knowledge is more quoted than a degree. But there is one more benefit.

Answer 5

I had a similar problem, because there was no work for the required stack in my city. I had to move to Moscow, worked for a couple of years, upgraded to the middle, then returned, and now I can find a remote job without any problems.

Answer 6

As a brainstorm, there is actually another option besides moving to Moscow or St. Petersburg.
Move to Kyiv or Minsk. Cities are not as noisy and cramped as Moscow, not as rainy as St. Petersburg, and there are many vacancies.
I was once offered a job in a Google office in Moscow, I looked at the conditions in which their employees live there and refused (a very expensive apartment rental)

Answer 7

Move to Moscow

Answer 8

Try to create your own project. Even if you don’t make money, this is an indicator:
1) you can create something
2) you can bring the project to the end
3) you know how the sphere is roughly arranged
There is, of course, the option of migrating to another city, but the risks are big.