Career Options
Videogame firm expands to TorontoThe head of a London video games company says he's been forced to open an office near Toronto because he can't find enough help in this area. |
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 [ 2007-06-05 ] |
© 2007 Jupiterimages Corporation
Steve Bergenholtz of Beanbag Studios said he needs 30 more staff immediately to handle work the company is receiving.
"We really do want to stay in London, but we have to maintain all our options to expand." he said
Bergenholtz said he is seeking experienced C++ programmers, offering bonuses of more than $100,000. The company is in the process of opening a second office in Toronto because the area has a larger talent pool and some prospects are reluctant to move to London.
Beanbag will maintain its London operation which has 14 employees. Bergenholtz hopes to expand to 40 in London.
The company did manage to lure an experienced programmer from Electronic Arts in Vancouver. Bergenholtz said the new employee was planning to rent but was so impressed by London's affordable housing market he quickly bought a home.
Mike Katchabaw, a computer science professor at the University of Western Ontario, said he is not surprised Beanbag is having trouble finding enough staff in London because competition for good programmers is intense across the continent.
"Beanbag is trying to hire a unusually large number of people all at once and even in Toronto that would be difficult," he said.
Katchabaw said Western's computer science department established a specialty in video programming last September. But the program only has three students this year because the entrance requirements are stringent. Katchabaw expects a major expansion of the speciality in the coming years.
"A lot of people got scared away when the tech bubble burst in the early 90's, but now there's a looming crisis of too many jobs and not enough people."
Information on the jobs at Beanbag can be found on the company's website, www.beanbagstudios.com
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