The first batch of e-sports undergraduates are about to graduate: the employment situation is particularly good, but not many do e-sports
This summer, the first batch of e-sports students enrolled in 2017 are about to graduate and face the job test.
Ten years back in time, perhaps no senior high school student would think that he would devote four years of college to "e-sports."
This new major, which has just been established for four years and has been questioned, will send away their first batch of students. How will the market view them?
"The employment situation in the class is particularly good, but strictly speaking, there are no students who are engaged in e-sports work." Chen Zihang, who is studying digital entertainment at the 17th level of Communication University of China, said. He will choose to go abroad for further studies and change to other majors.
Similar to him, Zhang Xiaoxuan in the same class also gave up e-sports and entered an Internet company to engage in media-related work.
A number of colleges and universities headed by China Transmission have opened e-sports majors, which has released a signal that the industry will move towards scientific and professional in the future.
But from the actual interviews, how to build the e-sports professional teaching system, how to build the teaching staff, and how to solve the disconnection between theory and practice, these unresolved issues have made the actual value of e-sports education not fully reflected.
Why is employment "not e-sports"
“Everyone’s employment direction is more towards games rather than e-sports. Most people enter Internet giants or game companies to do game planning, game operations, and game technology jobs. About six or seven students choose to study for graduate school. Other students may Change careers, such as going back to take a civil service exam, etc." Chen Zihang introduced.
Whether they abandoned e-sports or e-sports abandoning them is actually hard to tell.
Among the 23 colleges and universities offering e-sports-related majors across the country, Communication University of China is the first 211 college in China to offer e-sports majors. This major is classified under digital media art (digital entertainment direction), mainly including game design, E-sports management, etc.
The 20 fresh graduates in the field of digital entertainment who graduated this year are also the first batch of graduates majoring in e-sports.
Chen Zihang has rich experience in planning and organizing e-sports events.
In his sophomore year, he had the ability to organize a hundred-person e-sports league. With his rich experience, he entered the top mobile game department of a certain line of Internet giants as an intern, but he failed in the retention competition.
"The last few retained by the department were all 985 graduate students. Some of them had little understanding of the game when they came in. But the final result is that they are recognized by the boss with higher education and learning ability." Chen Zihang said.
On the contrary, Chen Zihang does not think this is a "good job".
The internship in the e-sports business of Dachang is more complicated, there are not many valuable jobs, and there is no sense of accomplishment in controlling everything when running a game in school.
More students changed their employment direction out of practical considerations.
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security "New Occupation-E-sports Players’ Employment Situation Analysis Report", in the first half of 2019, the actual sales revenue of the e-sports industry was 51.32 billion yuan, with more than 440,000 e-sports practitioners and an average monthly salary of more than 11,000 yuan. .
However, in the interview, many students told CBN that the salaries of e-sports related jobs are not so high.
"Except for the e-sports departments of some major first-tier companies, most e-sports companies belong to Party B, and they are engaged in some very executive jobs, and the starting salary is much lower than that of the game planning of major companies." Chen Zihang said.
Play games and learn high numbers
Judging from the employment feedback of classmates, the current e-sports industry generally does not require high academic qualifications for fresh graduates.
"For e-sports companies other than Internet giants, 211 college graduates are already a difficult level to recruit. For these companies, spending this money to recruit a graduate with a high degree is far It's better to hire someone with years of experience." Chen Zihang added.
It is understood that in the course arrangement of the Digital Entertainment Major of Communication University of China, e-sports only accounts for a small part of the total courses.
In terms of courses, e-sports, the school has cooperated with Hero Sports (VSPN) to offer basic theoretical courses including introduction to e-sports, as well as practical courses such as event guidance, event operation, and game data analysis.
In addition to e-sports, students also need to learn basic courses such as mathematics, game technology, art production, digital media technology, etc. The content involves high-number line generation, C language, 3DMax, digital image production, audio and video editing.
Classwork and graduation assessment are also rich and open.
Upon graduation, students majoring in e-sports can choose one of the thesis and graduation design. They can either do research on a phenomenon in the e-sports industry, or design a game across majors and other students. Daily classwork includes Design board games, plan competitions, play games and write reports.
"For example, in our introduction to e-sports class, the final homework allows students to make a creative plan for e-sports. Events or e-sports variety shows can be used. As long as they are related to e-sports, there is a wide range of choices." Zhang Xiaoxuan gave an example.
In addition, the teacher will also give the students a list of games and ask everyone to write a report after playing. Many the thesis and key ideas are collided during the game.
Although the learning process is full of fun, in the eyes of many students, the setting and planning of some courses are not yet mature.
Talking about professional learning experience, Zhang Xiaoxuan said, “In terms of course selection, there is actually no option for limited professional selection. Basically, all courses must be selected to get enough credits. Secondly, most professional e-sports courses come from teachers from outside schools. The courses are based on their internal training materials, and the subjects are mainly management trainees, who face some problems in course matching."
What are the advantages of the "regular army"?
What kind of talent does the industry need?
The industry has not yet been able to give a clear answer.
According to the “e-sports operator” skill standard promulgated by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, “e-sports operator” refers to personnel engaged in organizational activities and content operations in the e-sports industry.
The profession requires good observation, understanding, adaptability, interpersonal communication, organization, and coordination skills, good language and written expression and autonomous learning skills.
Zhu Qinqin, secretary-general of Shanghai E-sports Association, said in an exclusive interview with China Business News that to understand the profession of e-sports, we must first put e-sports in the cultural industry.
E-sports companies need people from the upstream, midstream, and downstream links of the industry chain, including legal affairs, computers, and broadcasting. Companies require applicants to have basic vocational skills and have a certain understanding of e-sports-related knowledge.
The current four-year study of e-sports professionals, whether they can provide these skills, to what extent they can provide these skills, and how much their current study can bring themselves to employment competitiveness, in fact, remains to be discussed.
"Domestic e-sports education is still in its infancy, and the system is not perfect. Compared with high-level vocational colleges that emphasize practical operations, undergraduate schools focus more on the cultivation of comprehensive qualities, and it is prone to a situation of Demand is relatively alienated." Zhu Qinqin told China Business News.
Chen Zihang has personal feelings about this.
"It also took four years. Compared with our classmates majoring in broadcasting and computer science, we did not master the core technology. When we are employed, it is easy to obtain knowledge related to e-sports, but it is difficult to acquire professional skills with more outstanding competitiveness in a short period of time." Chen Zihang Said.
Zhang Xiaoxuan also believes that there are no restrictions on professionalism if she wants to work in e-sports.
"Majors are more dependent on specific tasks. For example, if you want to be involved in event planning, the Management Society may have an advantage. Even if it is a less relevant major such as Chinese language and literature, it is not difficult to switch to e-sports if you are interested."
The e-sports industry itself has no shortage of successful cases of inter-bank employment. The most typical case is the e-sports host.
Currently active on the screen, including Yu Shuang, Ling'er and other e-sports host, are all born in broadcast host professional.
From the perspective of professional settings, the broadcast host major has not offered any e-sports courses in four years, but they can still get a good job in the e-sports industry with their strong professional skills.
Zhu Qinqin believes that in the future, e-sports is more likely to be a direction rather than an independent professional.
You can start from the existing professional system of colleges and universities and add professional skills in e-sports.
This can not only meet the needs of the e-sports job market, but also broaden the employment of students.
(In the text, both Chen Zihang and Zhang Xiaoxuan are pseudonyms)
Author: Qiu Zhili ▪ intern bear Jiayi