Something awesome this way comes. I got's a new job!
polycounter lvl 17
Hey Polycounters,
Just thought I would share this with you guys as well it is quite bloggy I know, but maybe helpful or inspiring to someone out there. I wrote this up this morning on my facebook.
*********************
Incoming long braindumping post. Warning, probably wont make a lot of sense. Extra warning, make a cup of tea this is a long-ass post.
About 3-4 months ago Layna were battling with whether or not to return to the US.
I had a Job all lined up with a fantastic company but Layna didnt have anything lined up at all. We were looking for houses, working out how to send our animals and literally organizing moving internationally again along with trying
to figure out what Layna could do.
The biggest thing for us moving back to the US was Layna's healthcare costs. The sheer unknown of that meant there would *always* be this cloud of uncertainty hanging over us, and it was already clearly taking hold and effecting our ability to really be 100% confident moving forward.
Her condition is such that at any moment things could simply go down hill, usually involving significant costs. We are talking about thousands and thousands of dollars, even with healthcare, not a hundred bucks here or there every few months. It had the potential to literally wipe out / eat away our entire savings for the duration of our stay in the US.
Think about that for a second, beyond the immediate horror of the dollar figure, but that's a significant thing for any couple trying to get ahead and forge a life together. I already have many friends in the US writing about how its virtually impossible for them to own their own home in California and raise a family, and both work, throw on top of that a phenomenal health care expense and our chances of that happening is practically nil.
Here in NZ its practically free.
$5 for medication every couple of months and hospitalizations and medical care is free (something that is almost certain at some point).
The other thing I wasn't looking forward to about heading back, was that I've been moving every 9 - 18 months non stop since I was 22 / 23 that's 12 years now.
Multiple large international moves are a real drain. Things break / get damaged, things get lost and you kind of have to downsize, figure out a way to buy all new things again. NTSC / PAL means half my game/movie collection will no longer work. Cant take TV's and consoles back and forth as they don't work, its like being stuck in this cycle of constantly buy new things every few years. I have kind of been forced to be the ultimate consumer, (something I actually kind of hate to be)
(The creative industries kind of have a way of making you move around if you don't already live in the US or the UK where the number of companies is dense enough in order to keep you bouncing around in close proximity)
You almost never get this sense of being able to 'live'. Somethings always in boxes, it feels like a slightly more relaxed situation than living out of a suitcase, but only slightly.
At one point I've grown tired of living like that, I want a place to dig in, finally unpack all the toys and put them on shelves, have my art books out instead of boxed up - same for Layna.
The other consideration was the sheer cost of living. We would have been living in the greater LA area, almost certainly with a significant commute into Santa Monica in order to find something affordable and decent enough quality to even stay level with what we are comfortable with now, which isn't luxurious by any means, but comfortable. A yard for the dog meant a significant cost increase.
There were other things too, but mostly niggly.
So when we boiled it down, we essentially had:
1 of us had a good job.
High income.
Friends nearby.
But,
Much Higher cost of living.
Higher healthcare costs.
Longer uninspiring / frustrating commutes through a giant city.
Which kind of translates to maybe having more money depending on Laynas health, but less time for Layna and I overall. Not really a win?
The thing was, the alternative was to stay here in New Zealand and freelance which we could have. But once we talked about it, decided it was unfair on Layna to kind of 'rob' her of opportunities to work in-house with a team and have long term prospects for her. We could have stayed here and worked at a local company, but dreams, long term goals seemed somewhat restrictive - that was a downer too.
At that point we leaned on going back to the US anyway.
Then something amazing happened. We started watching the Hobbit Making of's and just dreaming / wondering what it would be like to work at Weta Workshop. We could stay here, alleviate the healthcare costs. We could find cheaper accommodation, be surrounded by inspirational landscapes. The commute to work would be short. Traffic is basically a non issue. More time for Layna and I and spending less money to do so. Sounds awesome.
One problem, how the fuck do we get jobs there?
The self-defeatist within quickly tells us we aren't good enough, especially compared to the sheer overwhelming experience, skill and talent that resonates in that place.
Somewhat defeated, we continue to work during our day jobs at Grinding Gear Games, and freelance at night for various clientele around the world. Watching more making of's and just being moved to tears at the dedication to their respective crafts. It's where we want to be.
My parents come for a visit and soon after and we plan a secret trip to Hobbiton. We drive down and see the set with my parents and had a pint in the green dragon inn. Unbelievable.
Layna takes the ticket stubs, and puts them under our pillows. We sleep with them right there, hoping to somehow wake up and find magically that some weta toothfairy replaced the stubs with contracts to work at Weta Workshop.
Extreme measures.
We finally get to the end of the making of's for Desolation of Smaug and I get up from the couch and basically go 'fuck this I'm going to apply!'
Before I could even do that though I head over to my linked in, and right there / randomly (serendipitously?) on the front page was a high ranking weta workshop person.
I reach out to him at almost midnight, with an enormous post basically like this one listing our entire situation followed by a link to Layna & I's work.
I sent it off, then realized how stupid it was. DAMNIT! I'm an idiot! I've just ruined our chances!! I cant undo sending an email.
5 min later, a response. At almost Midnight.
It was vague, but oddly positive. Because it was almost midnight, It was short, think something along the lines of 'We should talk more in the coming days, there may be a chance to get something going, your timing is oddly perfect but absolutely horrible at the same time'.
Days went by, no response. I kept emailing. Every time thinking I'm being a dick.
Then another response.
'Lets get you guys on the phone'
Excitement levels rising. Breathing intensifies.
The phonecall happens.
It's positive.
Then nothing for about 3 weeks straight. The agonizing wait. I cant even tell you how agonizing. But Weta had deadlines, people where busy. I still persisted, being annoying. I'm such a dick. I felt like i was slaughtering our chances, you know, being 'that guy' I reach out to Richard Taylor directly. I never felt like such a douchebag in my entire life but i figured, I'm going balls deep here, if this doesn't work out. Then so be it.
I get a response from his assistant, assuring me that if people
have promised to get back to me, they will. But there are *very* busy right now and it may take some time.
More agonizing wait time goes past a couple of weeks I think. We basically give up. It was a pretty sad time to be honest.
Then out of the blue an email requesting time to setup a phone interview for us BOTH with department heads. I respond immediately saying I will fly us down so we can interview in person. I don't care about the costs, have to make it happen as good as it possibly can.
We find ourselves flying to Wellington from Auckland (1 hour flight ) on the one and only day in the past 3 months or so that a ridiculous storm blows through RIGHT when we are landing.
The plane is basically spiraling toward the ground. I think we are going to die. I'm about to be sick. I grab the sick bag and basically start puking into it. I feel horrible, but we land safely. Props to the Pilot on a job well done that was a nightmare landing, cheers go up in the cabin. (The storm disappeared an hour later to be sunny and warm again).
We pick up the last damned rental car available in the whole place after being rejected by 7 rental car places, and I hit the pharmacy to get something, anything to settle this motion sickness down. We drive to Weta Workshop I'm still feeling like utter shit, but we get into the interview. We walk into weta workshop and its like I felt home. Like I'd known these guys all my life somehow. There's 0 level of uncomfortability.
The interview goes well and they definitely liked the tenacity and initiative that was shown from our end to meet face to face and being persistent with emails etc.
About 2 months more of agonizing wait. We assume we didn't get the jobs.
Sadness sinks in again. We begin preparing to move overseas to the US because our original move date was approaching and only about a month away, It's not so bad, the alternative position and company is fantastic!
By no means a BAD choice. Things could absolutely be soooo much worse.
So,I need to start organizing the sale of my car and other big items etc.
Then, an email arrives in my inbox one afternoon, confirming out of nowhere that I got the job, and that Layna would also be considered for a position in the future providing all goes well.
WTF.
WTF.
Let this sink in for a second.
WTF.
What was only speculation, thought, dream, hope. Is now real. Strange wet droplets emerged from some unknown place on my face.
I apologized profusely for how many times I emailed and pestered them showing new artwork, making new pieces in attempt to woo them, they reply basically saying that it wasn't bothersome, it showed you wanted this bad.
Tenacity is after all the highest most important thing to Richard Taylor, moreso than talent or skill.
Now, we live in a beautiful place, 10 min to work. Cost of living went down, I filled up my car with gas and its lasted 3 weeks and I still have more than half of a tank due to everything being so close by. I'm surrounded by talent that dwarf's everything I have accomplished in my career.
I thought maybe I was okay at doing what I've been doing for the last 11-12 years until I saw what these guys and girls are doing. Now I'm constantly telling myself 'You know nothing Jon *coughSnowcough* Troy'
Truly humbling.
Now for Layna to keep hammering at her craft, get in there and join me and allllll will be ultimate in the world.
Somewhere in the middle of that I had to launch Remi-7. A ball of stress in an of itself, I didn't want it to be a nightmare and make a dogs breakfast of my first figure!
Things are finally falling into place, but we made it. I can't believe it, but we made it. Thinking back to those months where we watching the making of's thinking, we cant do this. And now we are doing this.
So, the thing that i re-affirmed to msyelf about all this is, just keep doing it. There's no better substitute for getting what you want, than ensuring you are moving towards it every single day. Even if its small and seemingly insignificant - that's infinitely better than nothing at all.
I don't really know why I wanted to share this, but hopefully in a sea of quick one liner updates of social media, that this read is worth something to someone.
Lots of love, your pal,
Haz.
P.S A pic of the view from quite literally outside our home. Yup we live right across from this grassy verge where I took this photo. I drive about 7 - 10 minutes around that mountain to get to work!
Just thought I would share this with you guys as well it is quite bloggy I know, but maybe helpful or inspiring to someone out there. I wrote this up this morning on my facebook.
*********************
Incoming long braindumping post. Warning, probably wont make a lot of sense. Extra warning, make a cup of tea this is a long-ass post.
About 3-4 months ago Layna were battling with whether or not to return to the US.
I had a Job all lined up with a fantastic company but Layna didnt have anything lined up at all. We were looking for houses, working out how to send our animals and literally organizing moving internationally again along with trying
to figure out what Layna could do.
The biggest thing for us moving back to the US was Layna's healthcare costs. The sheer unknown of that meant there would *always* be this cloud of uncertainty hanging over us, and it was already clearly taking hold and effecting our ability to really be 100% confident moving forward.
Her condition is such that at any moment things could simply go down hill, usually involving significant costs. We are talking about thousands and thousands of dollars, even with healthcare, not a hundred bucks here or there every few months. It had the potential to literally wipe out / eat away our entire savings for the duration of our stay in the US.
Think about that for a second, beyond the immediate horror of the dollar figure, but that's a significant thing for any couple trying to get ahead and forge a life together. I already have many friends in the US writing about how its virtually impossible for them to own their own home in California and raise a family, and both work, throw on top of that a phenomenal health care expense and our chances of that happening is practically nil.
Here in NZ its practically free.
$5 for medication every couple of months and hospitalizations and medical care is free (something that is almost certain at some point).
The other thing I wasn't looking forward to about heading back, was that I've been moving every 9 - 18 months non stop since I was 22 / 23 that's 12 years now.
Multiple large international moves are a real drain. Things break / get damaged, things get lost and you kind of have to downsize, figure out a way to buy all new things again. NTSC / PAL means half my game/movie collection will no longer work. Cant take TV's and consoles back and forth as they don't work, its like being stuck in this cycle of constantly buy new things every few years. I have kind of been forced to be the ultimate consumer, (something I actually kind of hate to be)
(The creative industries kind of have a way of making you move around if you don't already live in the US or the UK where the number of companies is dense enough in order to keep you bouncing around in close proximity)
You almost never get this sense of being able to 'live'. Somethings always in boxes, it feels like a slightly more relaxed situation than living out of a suitcase, but only slightly.
At one point I've grown tired of living like that, I want a place to dig in, finally unpack all the toys and put them on shelves, have my art books out instead of boxed up - same for Layna.
The other consideration was the sheer cost of living. We would have been living in the greater LA area, almost certainly with a significant commute into Santa Monica in order to find something affordable and decent enough quality to even stay level with what we are comfortable with now, which isn't luxurious by any means, but comfortable. A yard for the dog meant a significant cost increase.
There were other things too, but mostly niggly.
So when we boiled it down, we essentially had:
1 of us had a good job.
High income.
Friends nearby.
But,
Much Higher cost of living.
Higher healthcare costs.
Longer uninspiring / frustrating commutes through a giant city.
Which kind of translates to maybe having more money depending on Laynas health, but less time for Layna and I overall. Not really a win?
The thing was, the alternative was to stay here in New Zealand and freelance which we could have. But once we talked about it, decided it was unfair on Layna to kind of 'rob' her of opportunities to work in-house with a team and have long term prospects for her. We could have stayed here and worked at a local company, but dreams, long term goals seemed somewhat restrictive - that was a downer too.
At that point we leaned on going back to the US anyway.
Then something amazing happened. We started watching the Hobbit Making of's and just dreaming / wondering what it would be like to work at Weta Workshop. We could stay here, alleviate the healthcare costs. We could find cheaper accommodation, be surrounded by inspirational landscapes. The commute to work would be short. Traffic is basically a non issue. More time for Layna and I and spending less money to do so. Sounds awesome.
One problem, how the fuck do we get jobs there?
The self-defeatist within quickly tells us we aren't good enough, especially compared to the sheer overwhelming experience, skill and talent that resonates in that place.
Somewhat defeated, we continue to work during our day jobs at Grinding Gear Games, and freelance at night for various clientele around the world. Watching more making of's and just being moved to tears at the dedication to their respective crafts. It's where we want to be.
My parents come for a visit and soon after and we plan a secret trip to Hobbiton. We drive down and see the set with my parents and had a pint in the green dragon inn. Unbelievable.
Layna takes the ticket stubs, and puts them under our pillows. We sleep with them right there, hoping to somehow wake up and find magically that some weta toothfairy replaced the stubs with contracts to work at Weta Workshop.
Extreme measures.
We finally get to the end of the making of's for Desolation of Smaug and I get up from the couch and basically go 'fuck this I'm going to apply!'
Before I could even do that though I head over to my linked in, and right there / randomly (serendipitously?) on the front page was a high ranking weta workshop person.
I reach out to him at almost midnight, with an enormous post basically like this one listing our entire situation followed by a link to Layna & I's work.
I sent it off, then realized how stupid it was. DAMNIT! I'm an idiot! I've just ruined our chances!! I cant undo sending an email.
5 min later, a response. At almost Midnight.
It was vague, but oddly positive. Because it was almost midnight, It was short, think something along the lines of 'We should talk more in the coming days, there may be a chance to get something going, your timing is oddly perfect but absolutely horrible at the same time'.
Days went by, no response. I kept emailing. Every time thinking I'm being a dick.
Then another response.
'Lets get you guys on the phone'
Excitement levels rising. Breathing intensifies.
The phonecall happens.
It's positive.
Then nothing for about 3 weeks straight. The agonizing wait. I cant even tell you how agonizing. But Weta had deadlines, people where busy. I still persisted, being annoying. I'm such a dick. I felt like i was slaughtering our chances, you know, being 'that guy' I reach out to Richard Taylor directly. I never felt like such a douchebag in my entire life but i figured, I'm going balls deep here, if this doesn't work out. Then so be it.
I get a response from his assistant, assuring me that if people
have promised to get back to me, they will. But there are *very* busy right now and it may take some time.
More agonizing wait time goes past a couple of weeks I think. We basically give up. It was a pretty sad time to be honest.
Then out of the blue an email requesting time to setup a phone interview for us BOTH with department heads. I respond immediately saying I will fly us down so we can interview in person. I don't care about the costs, have to make it happen as good as it possibly can.
We find ourselves flying to Wellington from Auckland (1 hour flight ) on the one and only day in the past 3 months or so that a ridiculous storm blows through RIGHT when we are landing.
The plane is basically spiraling toward the ground. I think we are going to die. I'm about to be sick. I grab the sick bag and basically start puking into it. I feel horrible, but we land safely. Props to the Pilot on a job well done that was a nightmare landing, cheers go up in the cabin. (The storm disappeared an hour later to be sunny and warm again).
We pick up the last damned rental car available in the whole place after being rejected by 7 rental car places, and I hit the pharmacy to get something, anything to settle this motion sickness down. We drive to Weta Workshop I'm still feeling like utter shit, but we get into the interview. We walk into weta workshop and its like I felt home. Like I'd known these guys all my life somehow. There's 0 level of uncomfortability.
The interview goes well and they definitely liked the tenacity and initiative that was shown from our end to meet face to face and being persistent with emails etc.
About 2 months more of agonizing wait. We assume we didn't get the jobs.
Sadness sinks in again. We begin preparing to move overseas to the US because our original move date was approaching and only about a month away, It's not so bad, the alternative position and company is fantastic!
By no means a BAD choice. Things could absolutely be soooo much worse.
So,I need to start organizing the sale of my car and other big items etc.
Then, an email arrives in my inbox one afternoon, confirming out of nowhere that I got the job, and that Layna would also be considered for a position in the future providing all goes well.
WTF.
WTF.
Let this sink in for a second.
WTF.
What was only speculation, thought, dream, hope. Is now real. Strange wet droplets emerged from some unknown place on my face.
I apologized profusely for how many times I emailed and pestered them showing new artwork, making new pieces in attempt to woo them, they reply basically saying that it wasn't bothersome, it showed you wanted this bad.
Tenacity is after all the highest most important thing to Richard Taylor, moreso than talent or skill.
Now, we live in a beautiful place, 10 min to work. Cost of living went down, I filled up my car with gas and its lasted 3 weeks and I still have more than half of a tank due to everything being so close by. I'm surrounded by talent that dwarf's everything I have accomplished in my career.
I thought maybe I was okay at doing what I've been doing for the last 11-12 years until I saw what these guys and girls are doing. Now I'm constantly telling myself 'You know nothing Jon *coughSnowcough* Troy'
Truly humbling.
Now for Layna to keep hammering at her craft, get in there and join me and allllll will be ultimate in the world.
Somewhere in the middle of that I had to launch Remi-7. A ball of stress in an of itself, I didn't want it to be a nightmare and make a dogs breakfast of my first figure!
Things are finally falling into place, but we made it. I can't believe it, but we made it. Thinking back to those months where we watching the making of's thinking, we cant do this. And now we are doing this.
So, the thing that i re-affirmed to msyelf about all this is, just keep doing it. There's no better substitute for getting what you want, than ensuring you are moving towards it every single day. Even if its small and seemingly insignificant - that's infinitely better than nothing at all.
I don't really know why I wanted to share this, but hopefully in a sea of quick one liner updates of social media, that this read is worth something to someone.
Lots of love, your pal,
Haz.
P.S A pic of the view from quite literally outside our home. Yup we live right across from this grassy verge where I took this photo. I drive about 7 - 10 minutes around that mountain to get to work!
Replies
Congrats dude! Make them movies sexy!
Congrats!
A man becomes what he thinks about all day long.
That and not rape your wallet slower than slow internets.
Lamont: We don't have slow internet?! DO we ?!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_New_Zealand
I've heard complaints that New Zealand and Australia has pretty high ping and not many higher speed options.
Well done man.
Cheerio
Yup, even I would consider moving to NZ if that would be the case.
.. great story OP, truly lovely to hear all turned out well in the end!
Really enjoyed reading this- Wish you and yours all the best down over there!
Congrats and all the best for you two!
This was inspiring. Never give up! And a lot of luck to Layna!