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Where And How to Find Reliable Salary Data in the Game Development Industry (Demo Report on System Analyst Salaries)

By leveraging a variety of sources such as job search websites, specialized salary data platforms, recruitment agency reports, industry-specific forums, and professional networks, you can gather comprehensive and reliable salary data.
Where And How to Find Reliable Salary Data in the Game Development Industry (Demo Report on System Analyst Salaries) - Boost InGame Job

Navigating the job market in the game development industry requires a clear understanding of salary expectations. Here’s a focused guide on where to find reliable salary data and how to use these sources to your advantage.

1. Job Search Websites

  • Glassdoor: Offers user-reported salary data along with company reviews, which can give insights into the overall compensation packages.
  • LinkedIn: Provides salary insights based on user profiles and job listings, useful for benchmarking against industry standards.
  • Indeed: Includes salary information in job postings and has a salary comparison tool that aggregates data from multiple job listings.
  • InGame Job: A job portal that focuses on the games industry. It has a special section with salary data based on the candidates’ CVs, which is updated every 3 months. 

2. Specialized Salary Data Websites

  • Levels.fyi: Focuses on tech industry salaries, including game development roles. It provides detailed information on salaries by levels and company comparisons.
  • PayScale: Aggregates self-reported salary data and offers tools to compare salaries across different companies and job titles.

3. Recruitment Agencies and Reports

  • Hays: Publishes annual salary guides that cover various industries, including game development, with detailed market analysis.
  • Creative Personnel: Specializes in the gaming and digital sectors, offering insights into salary ranges and hiring trends.
  • Values Value: Every year, these guys, which focuses solely on the gaming industry, together with the InGame Job portal, release the Big Games Industry Employment Survey. This survey highlights salaries across key professional areas in the industry. Additionally, recruiters from Values Value collaborate to create custom salary reports for industry professionals who want to match their salary expectations with the market. You can also order such a report 🙂

4. Industry-Specific Platforms

  • GameDevMap: While primarily a directory of game development companies, it can help identify potential employers and industry hubs where salary data might be available.

5. Professional Communities and Forums

  • Reddit: Subreddits like r/gamedev and r/cscareerquestions are valuable for discussions about salaries and job conditions, where professionals share their experiences and insights.

6. Networking and Professional Associations

  • Conferences and Meetups: Attending industry events like the Game Developers Conference, DevGAMM, devcom can provide networking opportunities and insights into industry standards.
  • Professional Associations: Organizations like the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), Women in Games and so on often conduct surveys and publish reports on industry salaries.

7. Social Media and Messaging Platforms

  • Telegram Channels: Many channels focus on job postings and industry news in game development, where salary information might be discussed. For example, InGame Job Telegram Channels.
  • Facebook and LinkedIn Groups: Join groups dedicated to game development careers to engage with professionals and access shared salary data.

8. Direct Employer Research

  • Company Websites: Some companies publish salary ranges in their job postings, especially in regions with salary transparency laws (for example, Slovakia).
  • Contacting Recruiters: Engaging with recruiters who specialize in game development can provide personalized insights into current market salaries.

9. Educational and Training Institutions

  • Coding Bootcamps and Universities: Institutions that offer game development programs sometimes publish placement statistics, including average starting salaries for graduates.

Example Research Based on Open Sources: System Analyst Salaries

For a specific role, such as a Systems Analyst, we (InGame Job and Values Value) conducted research using several key sources to gather salary data in Ukraine and Europe. The findings from this research can provide a template for how to approach salary data for other roles in the game development industry based on free open sources.

  • DOU.ua: This Ukrainian platform provides salary insights for IT professionals, including trends and average salaries by city and experience level. We checked the open data and collected the findings here. The salaries are monthly, given in US dollars.
Where And How to Find Reliable Salary Data in the Game Development Industry (Demo Report on System Analyst Salaries) - Boost InGame Job
Where And How to Find Reliable Salary Data in the Game Development Industry (Demo Report on System Analyst Salaries) - Boost InGame Job
  • Djinni.com: Another valuable platform that provides salary data and job listings specifically for the tech industry in Ukraine and Europe. Since there were few System Analysts at the Middle level, calculating the median for them was not possible, so there are medians only for Junior and Senior level specialists. It is also worth noting that not only System Analyst positions are represented here, but also Business/System Analyst positions. But this data gives us an understanding of the market anyway.
Where And How to Find Reliable Salary Data in the Game Development Industry (Demo Report on System Analyst Salaries) - Boost InGame Job
  • Glassdoor: This global platform offers comprehensive salary data based on user reports, including insights into bonuses and other compensation aspects. It aggregates salaries of systems analysts in the IT sector across the most prominent European countries. However, due to outdated salary data, only the most recent information is presented, resulting in some specialist positions being omitted. For instance, in Poland, data for Senior-level specialists was not included due to its outdated nature. Additionally, as the site has already calculated median salaries, specialist salaries are displayed from minimum to maximum, with the median showcased in the Average Salary section.
Where And How to Find Reliable Salary Data in the Game Development Industry (Demo Report on System Analyst Salaries) - Boost InGame Job
Where And How to Find Reliable Salary Data in the Game Development Industry (Demo Report on System Analyst Salaries) - Boost InGame Job
Where And How to Find Reliable Salary Data in the Game Development Industry (Demo Report on System Analyst Salaries) - Boost InGame Job
  • SalaryExpert: This site offers detailed salary reports based on geographical location, industry, and experience. It compiles salary data for systems analysts, albeit without specifying their field of work. Additionally, it includes all the prominent European countries, accessible directly from this website. Their survey categorizes salaries from Junior to Senior levels and offers the average salary across these roles. In this table, the smaller figure represents the minimum salary for a Junior specialist, while the larger figure indicates the maximum salary for a Senior specialist. The Average Salary denotes the median between these two ends.
Where And How to Find Reliable Salary Data in the Game Development Industry (Demo Report on System Analyst Salaries) - Boost InGame Job

You can conduct such research for free if you want to understand how much your colleagues earn in different locations. Please note that on the aforementioned resources, we are considering the desired salaries of candidates, not the actual ones. Therefore, you should adjust your salary expectations depending on how you are looking for a job: whether you are being headhunted or you are applying for jobs yourself.

Reports that can be ordered from recruitment agencies (such as Values Value) will contain data on the current salaries of surveyed respondents. It is always important to understand how to correctly interpret data from different sources.

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By leveraging a variety of sources such as job search websites, specialized salary data platforms, recruitment agency reports, industry-specific forums, and professional networks, you can gather comprehensive and reliable salary data. This multi-faceted approach will help you set realistic salary expectations and make informed career decisions in the game development industry. Remember to consider the total compensation package and stay updated with the latest data to navigate the dynamic job market effectively.

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