As a recruiter, I expected a deluge of resumes from professionals in gaming companies after the Indian government banned real money gaming (RMG) recently. But that didn’t really happen. In fact, the number of online gaming workers on the lookout for new jobs has stayed constant in the last few years.

Specialist skills

There is a reason why there is no panic or mass layoffs. Most employees in this industry are in technology roles. As product industry experts, most of them can be easily absorbed into other tech companies in India, which cumulatively employ over 1.5 million developers, or the large ecosystem of Indian start-ups, or the 12 gaming global capability centres (GCCs). With over one lakh tech jobs open in India at any given time, the best of IT professionals will eventually find jobs. About 30 per cent of the employees in the RMG industry are in highly skilled roles like sales, marketing, operations, and art and design. One would expect them to make an easy transition, considering these skills are transferable and in demand.

Rewards and risks

The online gaming industry had a good run, and many incumbents benefited from the regulatory loopholes for a considerable time. When demonetisation was announced, it fuelled many fintech companies’ growth and valuations. Crypto currencies have created multibillion-dollar companies overnight and saw many investors pocketing the upside. The good times don’t last and, in some cases, the geopolitical risk is mostly understated.

Think of the fintech and mobile companies that had significant Chinese connections and how they bore the brunt when relationship between the two countries froze. TikTok, which is valued around $330 billion, continues to face regulatory pressures in the US as national security issues are frequently flagged due to its Chinese parent, Byte Dance. But then, how do 7,000-odd employees find the strength to continue working for TikTok in the US? Some of it could be courage, and some economic logic. A March 2025 Oxford Economics report estimated that 3.1 million jobs in the US directly benefit from TikTok’s economic activity. These include creating content for TikTok or managing TikTok accounts. Another 1.6 million indirectly depend on TikTok, such as employees who benefit from the use of TikTok by their businesses, including marketing or sales teams using the platform for lead generation and customer engagement.

The hedge

We all know that 95 per cent of start-ups fail, but still more start-ups are founded. This financial year, already more than 78,000 new companies have been incorporated in India from April to July. For every start-up that didn’t take off, there are 119 unicorns in India, which employ 5.73 lakh people. Anybody who joins a new sector or start-up must go in with the reward-risk ratio in mind. I met an ex-colleague this week who said, “My start-up didn’t take off, so I am back in the job market. But, as a backup, we had ensured my wife was working in a well-paid job.”

Anyone who takes any career risk hedges it one way or the other. I remember trying to hire a sales head from a multinational a decade ago. She was drawing a salary of ₹26 lakh and asked for a ₹42 lakh per annum package. Her logic was that even if this move backfires, the money would buffer the bad move.

The dangerous jobs

If there are industries like crypto or gaming that can be affected by regulations, are there roles in enterprises that can be considered risky? Which jobs are prone to layoffs during bad times?

The popular belief is that revenue generating jobs protect themselves compared to support roles, which are the first to be axed. But there are plenty of people who want to take up stress-free support roles instead of high-pressure sales and operations. One should remember that the CEO’s role is the most vulnerable when any company underperforms.

We hear of many boards sacking their CEOs from time to time. But the aspiration to become a CEO never goes away. This also explains why entrepreneurs start companies despite knowing that most don’t succeed. All of us aspire to be among those five per cent successful founders who take their start-ups to IPO.

The optimists

When I took up a CXO role with a new employer who had sacked two of my predecessors in quick time, my well-wishers told me it could become a suicide mission. But I thought if it clicks, it will become my claim to fame. Every leader who joins a risky sector, a new start-up or takes on a turnaround assignment thinks on similar lines. The possibilities are mostly positive till they go wrong. But these leaders do ensure that the risks are not one-sided — they trade for lucrative pay/perks, titles, which can act as the hedge if the tenure goes south.

Similar is the case for joining a start-up early. Though the first few have to do all the grunt work and bear the initial stretch and struggles, they are also likely to earn the bragging rights if the company takes off later.

If we land well, then we can call ourselves pioneers, if not we can always blame the founders, sectors and the regulators for the debacle.

(Kamal Karanth is Co-founder of Xpheno, a specialist staffing company)

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Published on September 1, 2025