UK-based esports and gaming job listings website Hitmarker is no longer allowing companies to advertise unpaid positions on the platform.
This includes volunteer, unpaid internship and commission listings.
Individuals (not companies) who still want to advertise these types of roles can do in the #for-the-love-of-it channel in the Hitmarker Discord server, but they will be “subject to even more rigorous moderation than before,” explained Hitmarker here.
“Community projects where everyone is working together for nothing to create something of value are welcome; bedroom LLCs looking to exploit free labour are not,” it added.
Hitmarker always reviewed volunteer and unpaid roles in the past before putting them live, and now it’s removing them entirely. Existing unpaid posts will be removed from the jobs feed at the end of this year.
“Volunteering and interning unpaid should be for charitable or public causes only – there’s no place for it in the private sector and people working unpaid in the private sector is actually illegal in many countries.”
Hitmarker
“We’ve always moderated volunteer roles very vigorously, and have rejected more than we’ve approved, but we’ve recently found ourselves becoming more and more uncomfortable with these kinds of posts appearing on our platform. Not least because we haven’t ever seen another organisation like our own that progressed to become a full-time employer relatively quickly.
“At our core, we believe in a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, and that’s why from now on we will no longer treat volunteer roles, unpaid internships, and commission-only roles as equal to their paid counterparts. Volunteering and interning unpaid should be for charitable or public causes only – there’s no place for it in the private sector and people working unpaid in the private sector is actually illegal in many countries.”
All roles are moderated before they are put live, which will prevent any companies trying to cheat the system and hire people for absurdly low amounts like £5 for example.
Hitmarker gives employers different options to choose from, starting at a free basic level as well as paid gold, platinum and diamond options.
In addition, Hitmarker said email applications and internal applications, i.e. those sent directly through the platform, will no longer be supported. Hitmarker said “neither are conducive to running an effective and fair hiring process that treats candidates with respect”.
It did say it attempted to create its own web-based applicant tracking system (ATS), but is no longer doing this, and instead advised employers to use existing service providers like GoHire.
The move was extremely well-received by the esports community on Twitter earlier (see responses to the tweet embedded above).
Hitmarker started life as a volunteer passion project in the esports industry back in May 2017. It has since broadened out into the wider games industry, and last year Hitmarker raised funds on Crowdcube.
Hitmarker was recently a finalist in the 2021 Esports Awards.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
