CV / Resume / Coverletter
polycounter lvl 12
Hi all hope every one having a great time in their lives 
.
So question for today as the job market is getting tougher and tougher for artists in general and most I am seeing going freelance (also linked to VFX crisis State side), what should one do to get his/her CV noticed into the company? I am seeing a lot of fuss about "Cover Letters" attached with your CV / Resume (as if rock solid Portfolio is not enough).
Could some industry professionals or people with experience shine more light onto this subject that if Cover letters are a must nowadays or just good CV with Strong Portfolio is enough.
Thank you
.So question for today as the job market is getting tougher and tougher for artists in general and most I am seeing going freelance (also linked to VFX crisis State side), what should one do to get his/her CV noticed into the company? I am seeing a lot of fuss about "Cover Letters" attached with your CV / Resume (as if rock solid Portfolio is not enough).
Could some industry professionals or people with experience shine more light onto this subject that if Cover letters are a must nowadays or just good CV with Strong Portfolio is enough.
Thank you
Replies
All I care about is the portfolio, and if that's good then the on-site.
If you do something really creative and awesome, it could definitely help stand out, but if you don't back that up with a strong portfolio it's a wasted effort.
IMO cover letters are a nice courtesy, but not required.
The stuff id put in one I just directly put in the email and attach my CV, while making sure a link is included to my portfolio and it's placed pretty high up on the email/cover letter.
Need serious professional advice like before
What can be done to make it more better? I feel content with this version.
[FONT="] Software Developer with Strong Technical skills and Desire to achieve Quality results, I have experience in Project Management, Creating media content for Computer Games, Websites, Print and Television.[/FONT]
[FONT="]My main interest is in Industrial Design and Games Development.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Work Experience [/FONT]
[FONT="]Lead 3D Artist 2011 Present[/FONT]
[FONT="]Xitol Softworks - Nottingham, United Kingdom [/FONT]
[FONT="]Responsible for producing models, textures and environments for a computer game known as ZONE. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Assigning tasks to my team and organising project data, for an independent web based developer Xitol. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Solve technical issues related to modularity, normal maps, textures and lighting in Unreal Development Kit. [/FONT]
[FONT="]I utilise modular texturing workflow to create models and environments faster without losing visual details.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Web Developer 2010 2012[/FONT]
[FONT="]United Home Stores - Glasgow, Scotland [/FONT]
[FONT="]Designed website layouts, web banners and edited pictures to comply with internet shopping guidelines. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Managed online shop at Amazon, E-bay and United Home Stores website, supervised warehouse team for maintaining stock and dispatching customer orders.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Increased sales by making user friendly customer oriented web design for online shopping and eye catching advertising banners, achieved Platinum Star E-Bay seller rating through team work.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Sales Assistant 2007 - 2010[/FONT]
[FONT="]Staples - Glasgow, Scotland [/FONT]
[FONT="]Delivered support for technology department by assisting and advising customers about Laptops, Computers, Printers and Software. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Sold highest number of business reward schemes to clients, offered top quality service at Copy and Print centre.[/FONT]
[FONT="]I efficiently processed high value transactions, supervised placement of promotional merchandise.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Next - Glasgow, Scotland [/FONT]
[FONT="]Started as a Christmas temporary staff for a month, during that short period my organisational skills were recognised as vital for company and my job contract was extended further. [/FONT]
[FONT="]I was responsible for maintenance of Home Furniture, the most demanding and difficult department at Next.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Enhanced my communication skills further by approaching customers and providing detailed product information, this action resulted in achieving weekly financial targets and excellent customer service rating for the Next.[/FONT]
[FONT="]3D Artist 2004 2006 [/FONT]
[FONT="]Arena Multimedia - Karachi, Pakistan [/FONT]
[FONT="]As an outstanding student well known for conscientiousness in the assigned tasks, I worked on creative projects as part of student work placement. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Directed commercial for Mamta Baby Care, project broadcasted on Pakistan Television PTV during prime time.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Selected by Pakistan Navy to create models for simulator and test the software for visual errors. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Developed architectural visualisations for E-soft, improved lighting and rendering workflow.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Autodesk 3Ds Max instructor, Taught basic lighting, rendering and materials to students. [/FONT]
[FONT="]Education [/FONT]
[FONT="]Higher National Diploma HND 3D Product Design 2011 2012 [/FONT]
[FONT="]City of Glasgow College - Glasgow, Scotland [/FONT]
[FONT="]BSc Internet Software Development 2007 2009 [/FONT]
[FONT="]Glasgow Caledonian University - Glasgow, Scotland [/FONT]
[FONT="]BSc Multimedia 2004 2006 [/FONT]
[FONT="]Arena Multimedia - Karachi, Pakistan [/FONT]
[FONT="]Key Skills[/FONT]
[FONT="]Proficient in content creation for Computer Games, 2D / 3D Art, Websites, Television and Print Media [/FONT]
[FONT="]Extensive knowledge of Lighting, Rendering, Texturing, Perspective and Global Illumination[/FONT]
[FONT="]Adaptive to change, give attention to detail, self-learning 2D / 3D graphics software[/FONT]
[FONT="]Ability to come up with original concepts and ideas and illustrate them[/FONT]
[FONT="]Focus on achieving targets, either individually or as part of a team[/FONT]
[FONT="]Excellent in communicating with others and project management[/FONT]
[FONT="]Capable of computer hardware maintenance and installation[/FONT]
[FONT="]Practical experience in marketing and retail[/FONT]
[FONT="]Achievements[/FONT]
[FONT="]First prize winner, twice in 3D animation and modelling category at digital art exhibitions[/FONT]
[FONT="]Award for best workshop on modelling, materials and lighting in Autodesk 3Ds Max [/FONT]
[FONT="]Promoted to team captain for an online gaming community in United Kingdom [/FONT]
[FONT="]Information Technology Certificate for completing six month training course[/FONT]
[FONT="]Best performance award at www.cgramp.com computer arts community[/FONT]
[FONT="]Autodesk 3Ds Max Professional Certificate from Arena Multimedia [/FONT]
[FONT="]Personal Interests[/FONT]
[FONT="]Learning about new cultures and broadening my knowledge of the world[/FONT]
[FONT="]Sharing my knowledge with other artists [/FONT]
[FONT="]Building and painting scale models[/FONT]
You may also want to mention the tools you used at the specific job. Again, not sure if that's important in this industry, but in software development, I found it beneficial to mention what program language, and/or tools I used at the position
You say you can't get your foot in the door, but your most recent job is as a Lead 3D Artist?
Anyways, here is my critique:
Right off the bat - why are seemingly random words capitalized in the first thing people will read? This immediately sends a non-professional message. Additionally, it does not give a clear indication of what position you are looking for. Industrial Design and Game Development covers an awful lot of territory, and you start off calling yourself a Software Developer, which is equally vague. When hiring, I am looking at minimum 20 of these things a day. I need to know immediately what you are and what you want to do.
[FONT="]"Responsible for producing models, textures and environments"[/FONT] - since this is separated out from models and textures, do you mean designing the layout and gameplay for the environments? If so, specify.
"[FONT="]I utilise modular texturing workflow to create models and environments faster without losing visual details." I'm not sure what this means. You will have examples of this on your portfolio explaining what it is?
Staples, Next. Lose the descriptions. Nice to know you can hold down a job, but they're not really relevant to me hiring you as a game artist.
Stop specifically referring to them as Computer Games - why limit yourself to one platform, just say video games.
"[/FONT][FONT="][FONT="]Extensive knowledge of Lighting, Rendering, Texturing, Perspective and Global Illumination" The first three make sense, perspective is a basic art tenant, and GI is part of Lighting. Drop those last two.
As notman says, point out what programs you've used. Can you use Maya? or do you prefer Max? How long have you been using Photoshop?[/FONT]
[/FONT]
As everybody knows, portfolio is king. The cover letter should be brief and should be unique. Cover letters are usually just your introduction email when you apply so it's important to be yourself instead of going down the default route that so many people seem to do. People often make their introduction so lengthy that anyone reading it will just stop after the first sentence.
It might be an idea to separate your work experience and your professional (or related) experience. If you are a games artist who has some experience then you should be able to drop older jobs from your CV, especially if they are no longer relevant to your future career. If you wish to keep them (and they are old jobs) then make sure they have less information about what the role was. It is very important to consider the hierarchy of information when it comes to your CV. You currently have 7 lines which describe your job at Next but only 4 lines describing your current role. I know it's easy to feel protective over your past work experience but at some point in the future they will be replaced by better things and those are things which you should elaborate on. Keep in mind that you can always have an extensive breakdown of your past experience on your LinkedIn and include a link to that on your CV - this clears up your CV for the things which are entirely relevant.
Everything appears to be quite wordy. I know that everyone has an opinion on this but I prefer ones which are succinct. Instead of using full sentences I found it a lot more useful to use bullet-points; making the information easier to read in bite-size snippets/chunks. If you have ever been to games networking events then you will find out quickly that people will never read your CV if it's too wordy and they're even less likely to look if it's longer than a page. Pitch yourself using the least amount of words in order to have greater impact.
First thing you need is your name and your title. Next up should be your objective or a logline to summarise who you are. After that you can have a Personal section where you describe the things you already have at the start.
"Software Developer with Strong Technical skills and Desire to achieve Quality results, I have experience in Project Management, Creating media content for Computer Games, Websites, Print and Television.
My main interest is in Industrial Design and Games Development."
This confuses me, for the same reasons Sectaurs mentioned above. It makes you sound like you're a Producer, Programmer, Designer and a bunch of other things which can often be the sign of someone who doesn't know what they want but will take anything on offer - like how you get people who apply for an Art role and a QA role with the same CV. My advice would be to pick one area, what are you passionate about? Your most current role is 3D Art. You can be slightly vague and say something like 'I am a game artist with a focus on X'.
Your Achievements section gets a little sloppy and breaks up the flow. Keep a consistent format/layout for each thing you achieved. [Name/Company][Achievement], instead of '[Name] text text [Achievement], text [Company], [Location]' etc.
First off I do have Lead 3D Art job on my CV but it is unpaid volunteer work that is why i specify it is for "[FONT="]an independent web based developer Xitol."
Second one Software Developer is coming from my last degree i had, yet I am more into Design side of software , I had mention 3D Designer before and it felt vague too so I stick to my degree title. Guess it was bad idea.
Well we all know one CV dont fit all jobs you have to make several CVs specific to jobs. But if I lets say specify "Im a 3D Generalist or 3D modeller / Hard Surface modeller" will it not sound like I am restricting my ability and may put off an employer from hiring?
Also i put random words in Capital (this is the first time i tried ) so to make them stand out as key words people can see clearly.
As to what i really want to do as an artist, well it would be nice if some one can point a specific title for that.
I want to be part of hard surface modelling, lighting, animation and Design
Thank you all for feedback.
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Colloquially known as 'that rabble of demons that can hardly read and only have a tenuous grasp on the concept of time'.
Experiences might vary, ofcourse.
In other industries at least, they filter your cv/cover letter for certain buzzwords before they even read it (if they do).
I've had it happen that my cv was 'lost', and could I please email it to them again. Hnngh.
In fact, My previous job almost never happened because their HR guy was a fuckup. Right after saying I had the job and he'd send the contract over, it was suddenly 'Oh we're not hiring anymore. I guess that means you're out'.
Now, this was after the art director had seen my stuff and given everything the go ahead, but nevertheless the HR guy was still my sole contact. I was lucky I knew a polycounter that worked there (<3 polycount) or I would've just been shit out of luck!
"But if I lets say specify "Im a 3D Generalist or 3D modeller / Hard Surface modeller" will it not sound like I am restricting my ability and may put off an employer from hiring?"
Not really, as long as it's specific to the job you're applying to I don't really see an issue. Keep in mind in most places it will go directly to a HR department or someone with similar responsibilities and it's their job to filter out people.
Edit: Oops just saw MightyPea's post and they covered the same points!
Using Capitals is fine but I'd reserve them for subject areas like 'Project Management' over descriptions like 'Strong Technical' skills.
As for the title; you could always cover those things inside the cover letter or list them as interests but I'd keep your actual title as clear as possible; '3D Artist', 'Game Artist', 'Artist'. Like I said before, you can always throw in extra words if the job description mentions them.
Some studios may think you would expect to be in a lead position even if you are applying for a non-lead role.
Also you don't mention any people management skills in your current role. A lead can lead a team and managing other employees is very important to that role.
To be honest I think that your current "Lead" title might be hurting you a bit as it doesn't make sense that you had a 2 year placement doing 3D, then a 5 year gap as not being employed in 3D, then suddenly in 2011 you are made a lead. Leads usually have at least 5 years (many advertised positions ask for 8+) professional experience in a specific 3D role.
As a recruiter I would be put off by the big 5 year gap in your CV.
But if your portfolio was amazing I wouldn't be so put off.
Since this gap issue has come up HR people should know that as student you are not allowed to work full time and 3D art takes a huge amount of time for smallest of projects yet companies dont hire due to other Visa related reasons and UK policies.
Now that I am in Saudi Arab it makes things worse I guess. Cause job market aint good in UK and Saudi has not much scope in gaming...
haha. so true. my experience is with whatever they deem acceptable to filter down to me based on some arcane formula that probably involves the movements of the moon.
the most recent 3D job im doing is unpaid work should i mention it (3D artist (volunteer) ) or just leave that part for interview?
http://hk3f.blogspot.com/