Interview

New Year, New Job: King.com's Tommy Palm on key mobile skills for 2013

Pick a speciality

New Year, New Job: King.com's Tommy Palm on key mobile skills for 2013
With 2013 well and truly underway, now's typically the time when the industry's great and good take a quick look around and, CV willing, consider making a swift move to a rival firm.

But how can you stand out from the pack, and what are the skills that studios are really looking for in this industry?

To find out, we decided to sample the opinion of those leading the very firms folk may be eyeing up a move to, getting to grips with just what successful applicants have that sets them apart from the masses.

First up, here's King.com's mobile guru Tommy Palm with his top tips for finding a new job in 2013.

Pocket Gamer: What skills will be most in demand throughout the mobile games industry in 2013 and beyond?

Tommy Palm: The growth in the mobile sector will continue to be strong and there is demand for specialists in all fields – developers, artists, business intelligence, data analysts and marketing experts.

Companies are looking for developers who can help them with cross-platform functionality, marketing and back-end systems. Digital distribution has increased the need for real-time data gathering and analyses. It's an exciting time in mobile games.

What competencies and/or qualifications might your company be looking for from any candidates this year?

We more than doubled our workforce last year and will continue to expand the Kingdom during 2013.

Great engineers are always in demand. At King.com we use C++ and OpenGL. We understand the importance of being very selective with our programmers. A deep understanding of design patterns, algorithms and abstraction is a good start.

What's your one piece of advice for those seeking a new job in the industry in this year?

Make sure you have a clear speciality, pick a field that is growing and become an expert at a niche. It is always easier to sell a message that is simple to grasp.
Thanks to Tommy for his time.

You can sample top tips for getting a job from other mobile industry luminaries here.

Staff Writer

PocketGamer.biz's news editor 2012-2013