followup job emails (about sending them)

Nizza_waaarg

so about 2 weeks ago (give or take) i redid my folio and sent off a bunch of emails to every game company (i think) in aus. So far i've gotten back about 4 negatives, 2 of which from the same company tho, the second one being from the art director their who said i got mad skillz but no positions (after the automatic no from the ceo or whatev)... still a big confidence boost to me =D

Anyway, i was thinking i should try sending off some more mails after a couple more days or 1 more week has passed. Dunno if this is a good idea or not, don't want to come off as spamming these places if that makes sense.
On the other hand I might just need heaps more skill before being ready, so maybe trying again in a year or so might be safer... :shifty:


Tho i did just read this on kotaku au yesterday which is giving me the feeling alot of these mails might be ending up nowhere (bad time to be looking for a job)
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/11/rumour-layoffs-hit-krome-studios/

Mark Dygert

I suggest sending out an update with a link to some hot new piece you just finished. That way you're not just pestering but also driving them to go look at your stuff again. If you're fresh out of hot new pieces think about revisiting an old piece you never finished, or maybe burn some some midnight oil and crank out something fantastic.

It is a hard time to be looking for work you're right. Not just because the down turn is finally hitting our industry but being this close to the end of the year some places might not be hiring again until they figure out their budgets for next year which may depend on how well their games sell this holiday season. This is sort of a the normal seasonal pre end of the year "lets make our numbers look good by hacking away at our overhead" that naturally happens to all of us this time of year, but then toss in a lot of companies that depended on bigger publishers who did some stupid things to make themselves artificially rich... well you end with a really bad mess...

Your stuff is great! But I get the feeling from the way your portfolio is structured you would prefer character art and would sink down to enviro art if you had to. You might want to even the playing field a bit and go for anything thats out there. I know when we're hiring enviro artists we want someone who isn't looking to just pay the bills until their dream job opens up, we want someone who actually digs enviro art.

Considering there could be a lot more enviro artists positions open than character artists and other places might feel the same way you might want to level the playing field?

I'm not sure if that's how you feel about it or not, but that's the vibe I get from the way your portfolio is structured.

Slum

with a folio like yours, and what I hear about the AU game industry, i'd suggest figuring out how to move to the US or UK.

Muzzoid

Yeah you are right there isn't much as far as work goes right now.

You are also looking right at the time when a lot of uni's have graduates looking for work, and you are also going up against all the guys that got laid off from Krome and Pandemic. ( I've heard the number of Krome layoffs is as high as 70 from other people).

Another thing is that most companies around here don't actually need current gen character artists. Hell we really only have one triple a studio about, which is 2k down in canberra. (From one of the guys that rocked up to sketch group it sounds like a pretty sweet place to work at btw.)

It might be an idea to pad out your portfolio with some cutesy things and some low poly work. it might not what you want to do, but really what you need is a foot in the industry.

Also did you see this?

http://www.gamedevmap.com/

Just so you dont miss anything.

All i can say is i don't know how the hell i managed to land a job around this time O_O. But i wish you the best of luck, it might just take a bit of time to land something good.

P.s. i would put in a good word for you at work but i haven't officially started yet.

Nizza_waaarg

vig: cool post man. Good idea on the specific link for new updates.
Good points on the latching on to anything i can get, too. I really do like doing enviro art, just not as much as chars i think. Might be an idea to show both a little more equally, i agree (site restructure, i really gotta learn html for a proper site )

slum: hehe, yeah i keep hearing moving outta aus would be a smart move. Only prob is i haven't finished my degree yet (i keep deffereing semesters as it gets in the way of my proper 3d studies... yeah that's right :poly141:), i hear the uk could work tho, commonwealth country and all that.

Muzz: good point on the low poly thing. Unfortunatley it's somthing i've only just started to understand properly (the texture painting bit)... i'm kinda anal about getting somthing learnt well enough before... doing anything with it really, which could mean waiting it out quite a bit longer.
and i heard half brick is doing quite well despite everything :P (let me know if they ever start doing anything that mentions normal maps )


Cheers for the help gais, i'll prolly try one more time with a couple of changes to my stuff... failing which, a friend recommended i try film 3d stuff... the place that did happy feet and 300 is pretty close to my house (i just call it a day after doing my high poly, yeah? :P)

Emil Mujanovic

It has been really tough in Australia this last year trying to find new work, especially trying to find good work. With the lack of quality studios here as well as the lack of open studios (with all the lay-offs and studio closures recently).
Don't be too dis-heartened if you don't hear back from these studios, as there are tonnes of artists looking for work but nowhere near enough positions to accommodate them all. Which is why I'm looking to re-locate to the US, not that it's going to be much easier as there are dozens of talented guys here on Polycount that are still looking for work.

I'll just echo Vig's suggestion, update them with new work, a bit like a thread bump. Reminding them that you're still there and still looking for work.
Just don't give up, keep pimping your folio and you'll land something.
Best of luck, mate.

Andreas

Consider the UK as well...what with Australia being commonwealth...maybe you could get the red tape stuff sorted easier than moving to the states to work.

You have a degree, yes?

achmedthesnake

- yeah man, now is a especially bad time to look, as there's a influx of recently graduated uni doods finishing up and looking to swamp the workplace - i've recently compromised my soul and gone for a hospitality job to pay the wages while i continue personal 3d work - hang in there...

Yozora

Its never a "good time" to look. Those graduates will continue to be your "competition" all throughout the year, every year. And their numbers stack faster than game art job opportunities open up.

Nizza_waaarg

cheers for the replies guys, feeling a bit better about the current situation (well better and worse :P)
Just redid my site, and started up a new char, ill see if i can wrap it up in time for an email/folio 'bump' ^__^

Had a look at the uk, looks like it'd be easier if i finished my degree first, but seems if i get a job sorted before going there it's 20x easier to get a work visa.

And yeah, at least around feb or march most other dudes are gonna be back in uni and might be easier to look around. Really don't wanna go back to working at kmart or retail again
Still looking around for the 3d film equivalant of polycount, somthing vaguley related to 3d would be cool =D

cheers again dudes, back to teh sculpting board

Elhrrah

Ironically, I just received a similar email from a guy in Brisbane; if only I had the cash.

I'd fully recommend the email double-tap; if it works on zombies it should work on potential employers. While someone might ignore or not notice an email if they get it once, getting that email again after a week or two will usually catch their eye. Even if it is to yell at you for spamming their inbox.

Having something new and shiny to strengthen that second email is also a good idea; in effect, you'll look better each time they see you.