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Develop has wrapped up for another year, and as always, it remains one of the highlights of my calendar. A week full of brilliant talks, catching up with studios, meeting new people and, probably my favourite part of the event, sitting down with candidates to review their CVs and portfolios. I spend a lot of my working week helping people improve applications, but conferences like Develop are different because you get to have proper conversations.
You understand where people want their careers to go, what they're worried about and why they've structured things the way they have. This year I spent a huge amount of time speaking with students, graduates, internship candidates and those in the first few years of their careers, and despite everyone having different backgrounds, the same themes kept appearing again and again.
The good news is that none of these are major problems. They aren't things that require rewriting your entire CV or spending weeks rebuilding a portfolio. They're relatively small changes that can make a surprisingly big difference to how a recruiter or hiring manager interprets your experience. Here are the three recommendations I found myself giving more than any others throughout the week.
1. Your Skills Section Should Be a Glossary, Not a Standalone List
This was comfortably the biggest trend I noticed. Almost every CV had a skills section listing software, engines and workflows, but far too often those skills never appeared anywhere else on the document. I'd see Unreal Engine, Unity, Maya, Substance Painter, ZBrush or Jira listed neatly at the bottom of the page, yet there wasn't a single example explaining where or how those tools had actually been used. From a recruiter's perspective, that's a genuine problem because we can't tell whether you've used that software professionally, during education or simply opened it for a personal project one weekend.
Instead, your skills section should act as a glossary rather than your evidence. Every major skill you list should already have appeared somewhere within your experience, project work or education. If Unreal Engine is in your skills section, tell me where you used it. If you're listing Substance Painter, explain what assets you textured with it. If Python appears, mention the tool or workflow you built. By the time somebody reaches your skills section, they should already recognise most of what they're reading because they've seen those skills demonstrated throughout the rest of the document. That one change alone instantly makes your experience feel more credible.
2. Make Your Relocation Availability Clear
This was something I found myself mentioning far more than I expected. The games industry has become increasingly international again, but at the same time we're seeing more studios bringing junior and mid-level employees back on-site. For experienced developers, remote work remains incredibly common, but for those earlier in their careers there's still huge value in sitting alongside experienced teammates, asking questions throughout the day and absorbing knowledge that simply doesn't come across as naturally through a Teams call.
If you're open to relocating, don't assume people will ask. Put it on your CV. A simple line within your profile or contact details saying "Open to relocation across the UK and internationally"immediately answers one of the first questions a recruiter or hiring manager might have. Particularly for internships, graduate schemes and junior positions, flexibility has become a genuine advantage.
Studios want people who are happy to immerse themselves within the team, learn from those around them and grow with the project, so making that willingness obvious from the first page can open far more doors than people realise.
3. Make It Easy for People to Contact You Through Your Portfolio
ArtStation continues to be one of the best portfolio platforms in the games industry, and almost every artist I met had one. The problem isn't the platform itself, it's that the messaging system simply isn't where most professional conversations happen. If somebody loves your work, you don't want them searching around for another way to reach you. Make your email address and LinkedIn profile clearly visible within your contact section so that getting in touch takes seconds rather than minutes.
While you're updating those details, it's also worth checking your profile headline. I saw lots of people using broad titles such as "3D Artist", when their portfolio was almost entirely character work or environment art. Be specific. If you're a 3D Character Artist, call yourself one. If you're an Environment Artist, Technical Animator or VFX Artist, own that specialism. Recruiters search using those specific terms every single day, and hiring managers often have incredibly niche requirements. The more accurately your portfolio represents what you actually do, the easier it is for the right opportunities to find you.
Develop is always a brilliant reminder that most CV improvements come from conversations rather than guesswork. After reviewing dozens of applications across the week, you naturally begin to notice the same patterns, and more often than not they're small adjustments rather than fundamental problems. Spending an extra half an hour tightening these areas can completely change how your experience is presented, particularly if you're applying for your first role in the industry.
If you're keen to see more practical CV, portfolio and interview advice like this, feel free to give me a follow. Every week I spend my days helping candidates navigate the games industry, and if sharing the most common patterns helps even a handful of people land interviews, it's well worth writing them down.
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