Rare at Black Tech Fest 22

We were proud as punch to be a silver sponsor for Colour in Tech’s Black Tech Fest in London last week, a tech convention all about connecting the Black community with opportunities in tech, taking place during Black History Month in the UK. 

Black Tech Fest opened their doors on October 11th 2022, and attracted over 3000 people to the three-day event, which featured an impressive array of speakers from Entrepreneur Steven Bartlett to singer Michelle Williams – we were buzzing with excitement to be there!

Armed with an enthusiastic bunch of Rare volunteers, adorned with special Rare x Black Tech Fest t-shirts, and our very own Belle from Sea of Thieves beckoning people over, we chatted all about life at Rare and what exciting careers are available in gaming to any curious folks who attended our stall. 

Day one was focused on early careers and provided guidance for aspiring tech professionals. Five of our volunteers bravely took to the stage to answer questions from the audience on their careers thus far. Featured was Software Engineer Lorna, who gave a glimpse into her own journey into Rare, finding her way via a college course at the age of 25.

“At 25, I thought ‘I like games – maybe I could program’ and my local college had a course in software engineering and game development. So I went and did that whilst I was working full-time. I saw that Rare did internships and when I graduated I applied for the internship and I got it, and now it’s been three and a half years and I'm still here and I’m very happy. So I had a very non-traditional entry into the games industry.”

Our speakers also provided guidance for the aspiring game developers sat amongst the audience. Ben, one of our software engineering interns, gave his advice.

“Don’t try to be the next best thing by yourself – if you're proactively creating games or tools, you might work on one amazing new idea, but if you do lots of lots of small, short ideas in things like game jams, you gain a wide range of experience and that experience can help you find what you enjoy and what you love to do in your spare time or professionally as a job.”  

Featured alongside Rare was Xbox’s Project Amplify, a campaign that features 14 Black employees from across Xbox sharing advice, insights and highlights from their time making games. 

Overall, we left the event on the final day inspired, invigorated and keen to continue this work into the future. If you’re interested in knowing more about Rare’s career opportunities, check out our careers page here or read more about Rare’s approach to Diversity and Inclusion via our page here.