Belfast briefing: Deloitte recruiters target gaming students

Grumbling parents complaining about the price of high-tech Christmas presents for their off-spring might like to re-think the cost of the outlay following a new ploy by a Belfast firm to find the best recruits.

One of the “big four” accountancy firms, Deloitte Belfast, has announced plans to introduce a trial “gaming” assessment as part of its process to attract some of the North’s brightest students to come and work for them.

The company plans to hire up to 40 school leavers as part of its 2016 "BrightStart" project which gives teenagers the opportunity, over a five-year programme, to get a degree through the University of Ulster and also obtain professional qualifications.

Deloitte’s Kieran O’Neill said the firm is looking for people who “think and innovate differently”. The company will now assess applicants over a 20-30 minute session as they play a special app which was developed by a recruitment-focused software company.

Risk

According to Deloitte no previous gaming experience is needed and the app will collect information which gives “a more objective and richer measurement of a candidate’s natural preferences, such as the level of risk they are willing to take, their response rate to different situations and how innovative they are”.

Deloitte’s Belfast operation has recruited more than 200 additional employees in the past 14 months as part of a £30 million investment programme unveiled by the firm last year. It intends to grow its workforce to more than 700 people in the North by 2019.

According to the firm if its “gamification” pilot proves to be successful it intends to roll it out to all new graduate and school-leaver recruits.

But Deloitte is not the only company that sees the benefits of getting high-tech, savvy talent on board at an early age.

Microsoft is on the hunt for "great talent and innovation" this week in Northern Ireland as part of its Greenshoots programme. This is a project, which it has developed with Northern Ireland Screen, to help local, early stage, start-up game studios develop new game titles for Microsoft, Xbox One, Windows PC and mobile platforms.

This week in the North, representatives from Microsoft, NI Screen and industry investors will assess pitches by a number of start-up game studios. Five early start-ups will be chosen to participate in the Greenshoots programme which will provide a package of technical support, business expertise and up to £20,000 for each selected games studio.

According to Alastair Hamilton, chief executive of Invest NI, gaming is an emerging industry in the North. It is worth an estimated £6 billion across the UK but Hamilton is hoping that emerging talent, such as Belfast-based Blackstaff Games, which released its first game this month, will help Northern Ireland build on its fledgling gaming platform.

Invest NI is backing the first Game Development Academy in the North which opened its doors last month to its first 16 participants.

Legend

If any of the 16 are stuck for inspiration they could do worse than remember that even the Lisburn-born gaming legend

David Perry

had to start somewhere.

California-based Perry was the founder and president of the early game development company, Shiny Entertainment, which was acquired by Atari. He then co-founded and became chief executive of Gaikai, a cloud-based gaming company that was bought by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2012 for $380 million.

Perry always advocates that you can do anything you put your mind to – whether it is in the virtual or the real world.