The Overlooked Audience | Krystal Cooper
Krystal is a Media and Technology thought leader. Entrepreneur, engineer, producer and activist, she has made her marks at every and each organisation who has had the opportunity to count her as a member.Personally, I am always amazed by her enthusiasm, her forward-thinking and her pragmatism.Here, Krystal shares with us her journey in the Gaming Industry.
How did you get into the video games industry?
I love entertainment and new media, prior to games I worked in the film and television industry. Games pretty much go hand in hand with film, tv and animation, so it was a natural fit.I was also a big fan of unity software and used it in graduate school and hackathons for AR/VR projects.
I attend a lot of the industry conferences, follow different companies, engineers and tech evangelists on social media. I was able to get an informational interview through networking with members as a part of the Blacks In Gaming organisation. That ultimately led to me to joining Unity as a producer on the Spotlight team.
In your opinion, what efforts the video game industry can make to attract and retain black women talents?
I think overall, their recruitment efforts need to focus on Black women and speak to the culture in the gaming industry being a safe space to work.I also think they need to start earlier in university recruitment and also recruit professionals in other industries.Seeing Black women represented, treated well, given equitable pay with opportunities to grow in their career is crucial.
Any words of advice for anyone looking to be part of the games industry today?
Research as many companies as you can before applying, look at their financial statements, read about company culture, what initiatives they support and what their long-range plan is.T
here are so many different entry points into the games industry, and the large part of them are not only technical roles. I would say figure out what you want, the range of roles can vary from place to place and then pick what type of company you want to grow your career at for example a game studio, a game publisher, an e-sports company, or even a media company that has a game development division.
I also can not stress enough the importance of social media; there are so many job postings that have a direct connection to the recruiter or hiring manager. It’s a great opportunity to break into the industry.
