CAREERS EXPO SPEAKER SPOTLIGHT: MARIA AMIRKHANYAN

The Women in Games Careers Expo: The Future of Work brings together voices from across the games industry to explore how careers are evolving – from emerging technologies and new ways of working to leadership, inclusion, and long-term sustainability. In this interview series, we speak with the speakers taking part in the event to learn more about their career journeys, the changes they’re seeing across the industry, and the advice they’d offer to those looking to build meaningful careers in games.

Here we speak with Maria Amirkhanyan, a founder and leader in the games industry whose journey began with big ambition and grew through resilience, curiosity, and determination. With a background in research, strategy, and business development, she has built her career around helping companies make smarter product decisions while also championing growth, leadership, and new opportunities for others in games.

How do you see the future of work in games evolving over the next 5–10 years, and what skills do you think will be most important for people working in the industry?
The future of work in games will be highly hybrid – across disciplines, geographies, and skillsets. The industry favours adaptable people who connect product, player, business, community, and technology.

Studios face greater pressure for high-quality decisions, making inefficiency costly. Teams need people who understand the why behind their work and its business impact.

Essential skills are adaptability, strategic thinking, communication, and cross-functional work. Crucially, human understanding (players, motivations, culture) will be paramount. While tools change fast, the ability to ask better questions, judge wisely, and link insight to action will remain vital.

How do you think emerging technologies will change the way people work in games, and how can individuals prepare for that shift?
I think these technologies will change work in games significantly. Certain tasks will become easier, faster, and more automated, which means the value of purely execution-based work may go down in some areas.

But at the same time, this makes judgment even more important. The question will no longer be only ‘can this be made?’, but ‘should this be made?’, ‘is it meaningful?’, ‘does it fit the audience?’, ‘what are the long-term consequences?’. People who will stay strongest are those who learn how to use new tools without outsourcing their thinking to them.

To prepare for that shift, I would focus on two things:
1. Build fluency: understand how new tools work, where they help and where they create risk.
2. Build depth: strengthen the parts of yourself that are harder to automate, such as taste, critical thinking, leadership, pattern recognition, ethical judgment and the ability to understand people deeply.

Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that helped shape where you are today, and what it taught you about navigating change in the workplace?
One pivotal moment for me was when I hired my first employee. Until then, career growth had mostly felt personal – about learning, proving myself, moving forward, but that moment changed the meaning of work for me completely.

For the first time, I felt very clearly that my role was not only about my own performance. Someone else was depending on me. I had to think not only about tasks and results, but about stability, protection, direction, and how to keep moving through uncertainty while others were looking at me.

That experience taught me a lot about navigating change in the workplace. First, that leadership often becomes real in moments of instability, not in moments of comfort. Second, that change is not only about adapting personally, but about creating clarity for others when things feel unclear. And third, that responsibility can change a person very deeply. It pushes a career from individual growth into leadership.

What practical advice would you give to women and marginalised genders who want to build sustainable, long-term careers in games?

1. Do not wait until you feel fully ready. Confidence often comes after action, not before it.
2. Try to build both craft and perspective. It is important to be strong in what you do, but it is also important to understand the wider context: how decisions are made, how teams work, how products succeed, and how the business side operates. That broader perspective helps create more options and makes a career more sustainable over time.
3. Pay attention to the environments around you. Talent matters, but environment matters too. Some spaces help people grow, and others slowly drain confidence, energy, and ambition. Long-term careers are built through choosing spaces, people, and collaborations that allow a person to stay strong.
4. Do not become smaller to fit the room. A lot of women and marginalized people learn very early how to adapt, soften, hide or reduce themselves in order to belong. But over time, that becomes expensive. Sustainable careers require skill, but they also require enough self-trust to keep more of yourself intact while you grow.

If you could change one thing about how the games industry hires, supports, or develops talent for the future, what would it be and why?
I would make the industry much better at recognising potential, not only polished experience.

Right now, many hiring and development systems still reward people who already know how to present themselves in exactly the right way, who already have access, or who already look familiar to the industry. That means a lot of strong talent gets filtered out too early, especially people who may have unusual paths, less traditional backgrounds, or less confidence in self-promotion.

I would like to see a future where the industry gets better at spotting people with strong thinking, strong instincts, strong curiosity, and the ability to grow, even if they do not yet fit the expected template. In my experience, some of the most valuable people in games are not always the ones who look the most finished at the start – they are often the ones who grow fast, think deeply, and bring a perspective the industry would otherwise miss.

You can hear more of Maria’s thoughts at the Women in Games Careers Expo: The Future of Work – an event dedicated to exploring entrepreneurship, leadership, inclusion, creativity and new career frontiers in games.

The event takes place on Thursday March 26^th online, and runs across all international time zones, ensuring it is accessible to all. Registration is free – and all delegates will have the opportunity to catch up on any sessions they miss via the Women in Games RingCentral Replay function. Register for your free place here.