Brighton Gaming Fanatic Lands New Job As A Games Tester

Jay Murphy, 27, from Brighton says his 10-year-old self would be super impressed by his career.

A video games fanatic has hit the top of the leader board by scoring the job of his dreams – being paid to play all day, as he tests out new releases ahead of other players.

Made redundant from a job in a sweet shop in February 2020, Jay Murphy, 27, was sideswiped by the pandemic when he was unable to travel from his home in Brighton, East Sussex, to London for a new role with a software firm that he had hoped to start in March 2020.

Left high and dry without access to the furlough scheme like many of his pals, he feared the worst – only for him to hit the jackpot when he spotted an advert for a tester on a gaming platform and it looked like the perfect fit.

Jay, who lives with his girlfriend Iva Moutelikova, 28, who works in social media, said: “This is 100 per cent my dream job.

“It’s fantastic. My 10-year-old self would be super impressed with me today!”

“They would think I had the absolute life – and I do.”

An avid gamer since he was old enough to play Alex the Kidd on the Sega Master System at the age of just two with his mum, his interest has never waned.

“I’ve loved gaming from the minute I could hold a controller,” he said.

“As a kid, I had a PlayStation, a PS2, an XBox, a PS4 – it’s just been a constant cycle of games my whole life.”

Childhood favourites included Crash Bandicoot, Crash Team Racing, and Bust-a-Move, and when Jay got his PS2 he started playing Need for Speed, Call of Duty and TimeSplitters.

But his devotion to the pastime really took off when he was 12 and began regularly playing Call of Duty and other games online.

Jay said: “I started playing COD and Dead Space, all these classic games that are considered part of a golden age for modern gamers.”

He added: “I was playing every day after school. I had a whole group of mates – about eight of us – all playing together.”

Moving from London to the south coast at 18, to study history, politics and culture at the University of Brighton, Jay never lost interest in his hobby.

Despite moving in with Iva – who is not a gamer – in 2017, after they met on Tinder when he graduated in 2015, he still continued to enjoy his game and console collection.

He said: “There’s a game series called Metal Gear which is my favourite of all time. It has about eight or nine games to it, so you can’t just reduce it down to one console.

“I also really like the Nintendo Switch – it’s really innovative and every time they release a console, starting with the GameBoy and the Wii, they capture non-gamers and bring them into the gaming space.”

Working part-time in a sweet shop while he took a master’s degree in conflict, security and human rights, he says it sparked a run of “dream jobs.”

He laughed: “I’ve been a bit jammy with my job selection so far!

“I worked in Choccywoccydoodah in Brighton, which has sadly closed down now, in the cafe there.

“People sampled cakes, chocolates, milkshakes, and I occasionally hosted hen parties in the boudoir.”

Landing another sweetshop job after the first one closed, he was then made redundant in February 2020.

But when he could not get to London to sign a contract with a firm selling software in early March 2020, he feared his luck was running out.

“A few weeks later I was told they wouldn’t be hiring me – so I had to find myself a new job,” he said.

Undeterred, Jay signed up to graduate agencies looking for general work – and spotted his current “made to measure” role.

He said: “This one email hit my inbox saying, ‘Do you love video games? Do you want to work for a company specialising in them?’

“I was like, ‘Well yeah, of course, I do’. I applied straight away and went through the whole process.”

The job was with Stakester, a gaming platform allowing players to compete against friends and strangers for cash and prizes – for small amounts of money, as an entry fee, ranging from $2.50 (£1.79) to $20 (£14.30).

It offers games ranging from UFC 4 and FIFA 21 to Call of Duty and League of Legends, as well as real-life games such as pool, golf, chess and table tennis, and is both web and app-based.

Jay said: “I’m normally quite reserved about my love for gaming, as screaming, ‘I love video games’ for most people, probably says that you live in your mum’s basement and you don’t have a social life!”

He continued: “But this application gave me the chance to let everyone know the knowledge I’ve accumulated over a decade of playing games. I really wore my heart on my sleeve.

“I thought, I might never get another chance to do something this cool.”

Asked to explain what his favourite game was, he submitted a detailed application explaining why Metal Gear, a series of Japanese action-adventure games dating back to the 1980s, is the “best thing ever”.

Stunned when he was asked to a meeting with two of the company’s head honchos, he said: “I fully expected to get rejected, but I got an email asking if I wanted to have a meeting with the heads of product and marketing.

“I was over the moon. I’d never thought you could speak about gaming in a job application and get hired – it was a really amazing moment.”

His first day, in June 2020, was an equally “pinch-me” experience for Jay – who was sent a new high-tech gaming system to use for work.

Working flexi-time and currently home-based, he said: “My first day was all remote and a really different experience.

“Everyone at the company was really nice. They sent me a brand-new gaming laptop – which costs a pretty penny. I’ve got a light-up keyboard and everything.

“Even the CEO took the time to ring me and I spent the day taking calls. I got to know everyone and to understand what I was doing.”

Jay added: “People were asking me, ‘Tell me what games we should have’ and ‘Where should we go from here?’”

Employed to test out games for the platform, Jay is still mind-blown at getting instant access to brand new releases, such as NBA2K21 and Madden 21.

“The first game I tested out was FIFA 21,” he said.

He continued: “Day one, I had a copy sent to my house through Amazon Prime – which was an amazing feeling.

“Normally I’d go and queue up for a new game and now someone is sending it to my door free of charge and I get to play it for hours on end – and get paid.”

A typical day for Jay now means getting up and attending the company-wide morning meeting remotely, before gaming for a while in the morning, then breaking up the day with some outdoor activity.

“I like to go skateboarding or mountain biking for a while to get some exercise,” he said.

“The CEO even gave everyone an Apple watch to track their steps, with the reward of a European getaway for the team with the most activity.

“Sometimes it’s got me playing a game and jogging at the same time on the spot to try and increase my step count!”

Paid considerably more than he was at the sweetshop, as well as loving his new role, Jay feels it has set him on a fabulous new career path.

He said: “There are so many areas now I could go into. I have to critically look at the games and draw conclusions and communicate these.

“It really does unlock the doors to multiple paths within the gaming industry.”

And he added: “To anyone else, I’d advise them just to get involved and wear your heart on your sleeve. You just need to get your foot in the door, and you’ve got to start somewhere.

“My job is a combination of playtesting and analysis of game mechanics – but for me, this is just an expression of 20 years of knowledge and love for gaming.

“This role is fantastic. Who’d have thought that being out of work when the pandemic hit would end up landing me the perfect job?”