I think it affects peoples decisions. Not in the "he's too old" kind of way. but, people tend to be hired on the "can we see ourselves getting along with this person?", so people tend to gravitate towards people their own age. People they can go grab a beer with. So, indirectly, I guess it can affect it? This also is just dependent on your personality though. You can be the perfect age and be a douche and you still wont be hired.
Somehow I missed your reply @adrxzero, but thanks for taking the time to give your thoughts there. Matches my expectations pretty well! An honest reply and a reminder to everyone: Network, network, network (and be good too)
Congratulations on your college experience and in your proactive approach to getting your foot in the door!
So to answer your questions:
1) I submitted my resume, but now what? Do I call to check the progress or do I just play the waiting game?
You now should allow the studio team to evaluate your application and determine a best fit, if you feel that you should reach out for an update on your application, I recommend doing so in a cordial email or other type of communication.
2) Would you happen to know what they look for in a 1st time QA applicant?
One of the best QA Leads I ever worked with told me the following regarding what he looks for in QA employees.
"I am looking for people who are devoted to games, that love them and live and breathe them... this will help motivate them when the work becomes tedious and might feel as a chore." Also he mentioned that a QA person most preferably needs to have a logical and inquisitive mind, as quality assurance you are responsible to fixing problems that are not obviously visible and your approach to solving these problems makes all the difference.
It is true that quality assurance is a way into the studio and gives you a higher chance to stay within the studio, but remember that you must make clear what your intentions are for a long term game industry role. As QA with programming experience, you will be able to use your engineering talent for a better understanding with engineering QA which will allow you to probably become an engineering qa specialist (something akin to an QA Embed), but is this what you want to be in the future? or do you want to eventually be a gameplay engineer or even a server engineer?
3) Does me being a full time student put me at a disadvantage?
Yes, unfortunately QA is a time intensive and demanding job that will require you to do overtime and if you wish to also do schooling on the side this will create issues with scheduling and project planning.
In this case I recommend outside QA providers, one that comes to mind would be Mobius Industries in Washington as an example. (most of these companies will require you to be local)
4) Where do I go from here if I do not get a call back/hired?
Keep on working to improve yourself and do not hesitate to apply again once you have more experience and knowledge. Also do not put all your eggs in one basket, and nothing is certain until you hear something. If you do not hear back in a certain amount of time then you are better off moving on.
Also UchihaKite do not worry about asking the same question again as each person's experience and reason for asking is different.
One thing candidates have offered me is to take on the burden of relocation for themselves, this is a noble gesture and very appreciated but not all companies are able to accept this. It is common company policy to relocate full time candidates, if this company is apprehensive to pay for relocation then there is not much you can do apart from reapplying at a later time when you are in the area, able to obtain a work visa, or offering to work remotely.
It is true that not needing a visa or being able to obtain an h1b visa is very helpful and does sweeten the deal as it allows the company to save on immigration and legal issues, but I am unfortunately not an immigration law expert so please seek legal advice when it comes to your specific visa and immigration needs. One option I can share is to take the long view approach... Be a part of the community, develop your skills, find work in whatever way you can, make yourself visible, and make yourself locally available to these companies you wish to work for.
Have a plan of action on how to get yourself to your dream job, take your work seriously, and gauge your skill appropriately. Please do not move yourself to a city for a chance at a job you are not ready for.
1: Showreels: Yay? Nay? To be a little more specific, I'm
mainly talking about static characters and environments on a turn table with
little to no movement going on other than the camera doing pans and dollies. My
tutors at uni were quite adamant on the necessity of having one which I found
to be rather surprising. I know most (top) portfolios don’t have one so I can
kind of make my own deduction here but I’d still like to hear your opinion on
this.
2: One particular topic that I’ve always found kind of
awkward is applying for a job at a company you’ve been denied from before. Let’s
say that Bobby had his application declined by Blizzard, but Bobby hits the gym
and produces AAA quality stuff in the next two months for his portfolio, can he
re-apply without his application getting automatically denied or something
along those lines? Let’s assume that Bobby’s stuff is really good and the only
concern is that he was denied before.
I’ve had people tell me “to wait 6-12 months” before re
applying for the same company which I found a bit arbitrary. You better believe
I don’t need 6 months to turn my portfolio around if I don’t have a job. So
should I wait politely or just apply when I feel I’m ready?
Your employment is not totally limited by your location,
some studios are open to having you work remotely. Also most studios do not
cover relocation costs if you are to be part time or contract employee, this
means that your relocation will be on you if this is the case. Please continue
applying to jobs and leave it to the company to see if they can relocate you.
It is unfortunate that you are seeing a high number of people
with a negative experience. Every studio faces its own unique hardships and
obstacles, if the studio has a negative company culture then it will create an environment
that will inspire people to write bad reviews. It is far more common for people
to leave a comment if they are stressed than if they are happy at their job.
The programming field is not over saturated, if anything
there is a serious demand for good programmers. Companies are beholden to
create a great work environment and benefits for employees to incentivize their
commitment to the project and studio.
Hello. Is software experience relevant? That is, between two candidates, one with an awesome portfolio where he made use of non-industry-standard software (like some weird ass open source tools), and another with a not so great portfolio but with experience with industry software (Photoshop, Maya etc.) which one is more likely to be called for an interview?
Absolutely the answer needs to be "Not at all",
the only problem is: is it true in your studio?
It is illegal to base your hiring decision on a candidate's
age, it is about hiring the best person for the job. A studio needs to realize that a diverse workforce is a strong workforce, all
candidates bring different strengths to a team and a company should not hold
themselves back by filtering for age.
Slipsius really is on point on what happens in some studios,
this happens either subconsciously or on purpose, but it is the job of the HR
team and Hiring Managers (Leads) to not fall into this behavior.
For Prime8's second question:
"Do people who come from other industries even stand
any realistic chance? Most jobs require education and or experience in the game
industry even for entry level jobs."
There are many other industries that overlap ours: advertising,
film, big tech, etc. I have lost count
on how often I have hired from other industries into a "serious"
gaming studio, so to truly answer your question: the issue is if the person is
devoted to games and if this person is capable of completing the job.
why do you guys email me and tell me my portfolio looks great, and then ask me for my resume... which is clearly available on the portfolio you've just looked at?
yeah same beef with what @almighty_gir said - the amount of times I get approached with a 'perfect' role after being found in their database only to receive the usual, "could you send us your CV" which is then followed by another email asking for portfolio... surely the fact that my profile was found ticked the right boxes for the role and the fact that my portfolio is on the 3rd line of my CV would suffice
I guess it all depends on the agency but pretty much of all them have play out this way
Why ask for portfolio/resume? Artists grant private access to more artwork. Or want to tailor the art to the job. Same with the resume, tailor it to the job.
Though you would think recruiters would say as much instead of repeating boilerplate, and thus giving the impression of not giving a fuck.
@adrxzero experience and age are not the same thing. Basing any part of your hiring decision on a candidate's age is illegal in the UK, and I'm pretty sure it's actually illegal to ask them what their age is too. That is the point I was making.
I have applied for nearing 500 jobs in 3D which I am suited for. It has been 7 years since I decided to start my career in 3D but it seems like my applications wont even go past HR/Hiring Manager looking at them. Of those applications I have actually made it to the interview step twice (once I got the job and worked there for 6 months before the studio went bust) the other time the recruiter said they were looking for someone with a different skillset (Applied as an artist and got a QA interview). I don't want to come across as a victim but I have either been seriously unfortunate with finding work in games or there are whispers that I shouldn't get hired. Do you have any advice for someone in my situation? I have limited connections to people who work in the industry and I cant find work if every rejection cites lack of experience. Check my portfolio to see if there is anything which is a glaring problem http://toku.website
@TOKU your portfolio kind of seems all over the place, it'll probably be beneficial for you to post a thread in 3D Art Showcase & Crit and title it portfolio crit or something a like and get peoples opinions there
You are very correct, it is illegal to base the hiring of
any person on their age and I need to add that into my entry. I have also changed
my entry to clarify my language regarding age and experience.
@CandyStripes05 Thanks I will make a thread this week, Someone has offered to review and crit my folio which will be a good step to making changes which will get me hired.
It is awesome that you are here answering questions. I'm a Character Animator working out of NYC doing mainly commercials and short films, but I got into animation for gaming and have been looking to break into it. Most of the time I find myself applying on sites, I find myself wondering a few things...
1. What is looked at first, reels/resume/Cover Letter? My feeling is it would be reel.
2. All of my work is freelance, work that tends to last as short as a month or as long as 2 months. When I fill out online applications I put 5-7 places of employment lasting for short beats of time and I find myself afraid that it looks like I can't last at a studio despite the fact that its the actual length of the contract. Is that True or do recruiters/HR generally get that?
3. What is a good heading/objective for Resumes and Cover Letters. I try to tailor them specifically for the studio to which I apply.
Out of curiosity, your LinkedIn says you went to the Art Institute (I did too!) for Game Art and Design. But your first job out of school was as a recruiter, not as an artist or designer. How did that work?
What do you think of art schools and those who come out of them? Are there any specific schools that you try to steer clear of when you sift through resumes?
Hello there, I'm a 3d artist trying to get into the gaming industry cause i really love video games and i want to give something to the industry i love, I want a career at creating video games. But i live in Uganda and was taught basic 3d design by a British 3d course that was in Uganda for 3 years only and they stopped teaching us, we weren't taught much. So i did some more research online to continue my 3d knowledge and found out i needed to learn more cause there were alot of things tha we werent taught at school like games engines, mapping for games and the list goes on. So, i have learned a lot and built some art pieces from unreal engine and want to apply for a job at a games studio. But the problem is i have no experience in the field cause there are literally no companies in Uganda that do game design nor any form of 3D, better yet Africa. And i have seen job posting that say they need an experienced person to work for a certain company. So how do i get my self a good video game design job when i lack the experience.
Sorry if this was already asked i may have missed it with all the replies haha, but just wondering how much would it improve your chances of landing a job if you are willing to move just about anywhere for finding a job? (given you have a decent portfolio of course.)
Showreels are super time consuming for recruiters and art
leads, we would much rather have high definition images that we can break down
and delve into. The times showreels are necessary is when you are showing an
animation, vfx, shaders, or anything that requires to be seen in motion. It is unfortunate that your tutors at uni are
steadfast regarding having a showreel, maybe they have their own reasoning and
they have bosses that are asking them to provide this as proof of their work.
This topic is covered in detail on a recent GDC talk by art leads from
Irrational, Bungie, Epic, and others. Here is the link: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022096/Killer-Portfolio-or-Portfolio-Killer
Your second question is a good one and here is what common
wisdom has shown me: You should reapply when you are ready and have new killer
work to show, have new work that shows you hit that gym so hard that they will
fast track your employment! Make sure you do squats and never miss leg day, they
are the foundation for your bodybuilding dream.
Being familiar with industry standard software is important,
even if you do not prefer to use it, even if you prefer to model in blender you
should still have working knowledge of Maya and 3ds max. If you are an artist
trying to be in the industry you should be familiar with the tools that your
industry uses. It is true that learning all sorts of software will allow you to
have an upper hand, this will hopefully allow you to keep up to date with new
software and adapt to plug-ins, internal pipeline tools, or mods efficiently.
Knowing fundamentals is very important, but you do have a
better edge when you can pick up and use software that company utilizes.
Hello,Alejandro! Thank you for sharing info. I want to try for Junior Concept Artist in Glu Russian department,but I have already some experience in gamedev and I am currently working with some indie teams as 2D concept artist.And since you have worked in Glu,could you tell more about this position,please? Generally ,I am confused about 1 thing,there is mandatory requirement for art degree and they won`t consider candidates without degree......>_> How serious is this statement?
What can an applicant expect from a phone interview after having done an art test for a stuido? What kind of questions will they ask, what would they like to here/not to hear?
There could be many reasons, but it ultimately comes down to
the recruiter's ability to understand the technology and their ability to cordially interact with the industry as a whole. As a recruiter it
is way more time effective to use boilerplate language and minimal interaction with
the mass quantities of candidates you are reaching out to, this is unfortunate
because this behavior does not foster a long term positive relationship.
I also agree with Eric, a recruiter would normally ask you
to tailor your resume to the job before said recruiter would show it to the
hiring manager, take advantage of this opportunity so you can really shine in the eyes of the leads.
My PC rig is normally burdened with
at least 60+ open chrome tabs, each one with a different candidate and random
information I have found about their work. So to answer your question over 50 a
day for sure, I look at an untold amount of resumes and portfolios each day. Especially
in art, I have to find styles, talent ability, work ethics, and other candidate
qualities that fit the search criteria.
To find the best possible
candidate, I have to not only find out a candidate's on-paper work experience,
but I have to get the best possible understanding of their culture fit for my
studio before I speak to them. With this number of portfolio views, you can see
why recruiters and hiring managers make the case for efficient navigation of
portfolios and reels.
@adrxzero, I see! Also explains why I typically receive no reply at all. Always interesting to get a sense of what happens on the other side. How much time do you typically have to find a, or a list of candidates? Or in other words, how long before a suitable candidate is found? Days? Weeks? As long as it takes? I typically see same listing for weeks at a time, even months... assuming 50/day; that's quite a lot of applications.
Should I include work history on my resume if it has no connection to the game industry? For example, I've worked at a warehouse distribution center and call center for the past few months as well as running a 3d print hub, should I include this on my resume? The only "industry experience" I have is being a co-owner of a indie game studio that didn't make it very far and that was a few years ago.
Just in case you are in this very situation, I will answer this question now.
If a studio has moved forward with your art test that means that they believe you have the technical know-how to be a productive contributor to the team.
Now they will want to speak to you about your process. That is how you approach your work, what was your thought process and execution for your art test and other pieces on your portfolio, they will also want to know about your personality and determine your strengths as an artist so they may understand how to best integrate you into the team.
To prepare for this interview it is good for you to have a clear mental picture of how you developed your art pieces from concept to completion, be prepared to speak about the difficulties you encountered and how you overcame them, also speak to your strengths and speak to how you overcome your shortcomings. These questions generally have no right or wrong answers, they are trying to determine how you would fit the current team dynamic, so try to be yourself.
In short they want to know who you are and how you approach your work.
I have one more question (thanks again for even doing this thread!). Recently I had the chance to talk to a few HR persons of a somewhat bigger studio here in Germany, and they said they prefer somewhat "designed" CVs/Cover letters for the artistic jobs (meaning it should be nice to look at, but of course readability is still the most important thing) which makes total sense for me. What I was wondering, are CVs and stuff still being printed out, which means using a darker template (which I think is more pleasent to look at) could be a disadvantage because it costs them more ink? Might be a really stupid question, but I have been thinking a lot about this recently
Should I include work history on my resume if it has no connection to the game industry? For example, I've worked at a warehouse distribution center and call center for the past few months as well as running a 3d print hub, should I include this on my resume? The only "industry experience" I have is being a co-owner of a indie game studio that didn't make it very far and that was a few years ago.
I'm also curious about this, or rather how best to include / frame these kind of jobs. I'm coming up on a full decade of working for a screen printing company (seasonal during college/uni, then full-time for last 4 years). My role is generally processing customer artwork for print and preparing mockups. It's the only job I've had since school.
With the description of my responsibilities, should I just focus on describing any (relevant) transferable skills that I can tie to a gaming pipeline? Rather than the skills/responsibilities that may be 'significant' to current job, that just won't cross over to another industry? If that makes sense. Basically whether it's an actual description of your current role, or focus on the smaller skills/responsibilities that could relate to your potential role.
Here's a question that's riffing off ARKARIA a bit, its something I've heard from HR people in the sales and entertainment industry. Do recruiters try to avoid hiring people of color? I've heard its easier to fire a Caucasian person than someone of color because of legal issues that can easily come up i.e. race issues. What are recruiters thinking, if I choose not to disclose my ethnicity in applications. I'm Latino, and this is something that demotivates me.
I am sorry that your job search experience has been so rough, also that bait and switch was unfair in my opinion.
If you try and try again but still see no results, your best solution is to change your approach. When faced with this situation, it sounds like the answer was within and I am glad that @CandyStripes05 was able to give you such spot on feedback. (Good job dude)
I just found this thread, and I'm kind of kicking myself (Need to check general more often!)
I've been looking for a position within the Industry for over a year now and have found no luck at all in getting an artist position. I did have a 4 month stint working with Creative Assembly in their QA department but have found it hasn't added a whole lot to my hireability, which I can understand I guess.
My question is, while I've been focusing on applying to actual advertised positions, I'm starting to creep into speculative applications but I'm a bit of a loss as to how I should approach it. Just sending an email out of the blue essentially saying "I like you guys, I'd love to work for you" feels really weird and... intrusive I guess? Maybe that's not the right word.
What are your thoughts on Speculative applications and can you offer any advice to make myself stand out? If you could provide some feedback on my portfolio too that'd be amazing. I've been avoiding asking for feedback but it's the only way I'll improve as an artist and improve my chances in landing my dream job.
Auldbenkenobi said: If you could provide some feedback on my portfolio too that'd be amazing. I've been avoiding asking for feedback but it's the only way I'll improve as an artist
lol you're on polycount sir! post your portfolio in the crit section and get more then just one mans opinion on it! Also gets your name out there more.
In this industry networking is key.
**edit: also post the link to your portfolio in your comment if you do make a thread as some users hide signatures so they wouldn't be able to visit
I know this thread is not the freshest, but I have recently seen something on UX Reactions which visualizes one of the main problems with recruiters. No offense though.
I'm very close to someone who owns a specialised recruiting agency and what I noticed is that there are a lot of "unwritten" rules to getting hired.
Obviously skills are very important, however some hiring managers or business owners have some strange ways of hiring... for instance maybe they don't hire someone with strange sounding names, or for some reason they want a women in the position and not a man.
Many times the recruiters are looking for skills but on top of that somebody who fits in with the culture, which is kind of an unwritten rule. Does this happen to a degree in games?
It is very hard to find a Recruiter who really understands the needs of the Hiring Manager. Their face when they realize that you holistically understand their needs and want to give them someone that is not only a good technical fit but also a great culture fit is priceless.
Sorry if this was already asked i may have missed it with all the replies haha, but just wondering how much would it improve your chances of landing a job if you are willing to move just about anywhere for finding a job? (given you have a decent portfolio of course.)
It is essential for you to be open to relocation, you have to go where the jobs are. Even in the long term, new studios and teams spring up just about anywhere and it is up to you to follow your passion.
But if moving abroad, please be cautious and have a return strategy.
What should a young unexperienced artist do if a position asks for salary expectations for the application? Let´s say you have absolutely no idea what is the average salary for a 3D artist in a certain country and all information you can gather is "1500 - 4000€/month"?
Most businesses are bound by law to give you a fair salary
relative to your experience and competition, but there are always instances in
which protocol is not followed. Therefore it is up to you to be the keeper of
your own survival, you have to find out what you need to live and make sure that at
least that requirement is met by the hiring studio. Feel free to ask other artists this
question as it depends on the area and cost of living, from this information
gather a good realistic range for yourself.
Also understand that where you fall within a salary range is determined by
your skill and experience, so do not
expect to earn 10% over the salary band unless the team believes in you.
Here are some sites you can use to gather a range, but nothing beats asking others.
Hi Alejandro, thank you for your time i have a question: A beginner having a great portfolio with no experience whatsoever have a chance of getting hired from the game studio?
not sure if this questions has been answered since i didnt get a chance to read the entire thread.
I always wondered if such recruiters only looked for in-house positions only ? I been contacted by many recruiter contacting me specifically about certain positions, most of them in USA and some even in Germany, UK and France and few from Canada too. None of them have ever been freelance or off-site contract work positions. Do such recruiters ever look for off-site contractors ever ? If not, why not ?
Few studios are open to remote work, but as you have experienced so far, most teams only want people to join their organization in-house.
A big reason why studios require employees to work in house is because a company does not only hire you for your technical skill, it also hires you so you can actively provide your creative knowledge and insight to the team.
Another reason why studios prefer to have employees in-house is that software licenses are a cost prohibitive issue, the cost requirement is high and the sharing of studio proprietary tools, programs, and documentation makes working remotely a technical and legal hassle that they would prefer to avoid.
Replies
Sure no company would ever do that.
I'm curious still.
Congratulations on your college experience and in your proactive approach to getting your foot in the door!
So to answer your questions:
1) I submitted my resume, but now what? Do I call to check the progress or do I just play the waiting game?
You now should allow the studio team to evaluate your application and determine a best fit, if you feel that you should reach out for an update on your application, I recommend doing so in a cordial email or other type of communication.
2) Would you happen to know what they look for in a 1st time QA applicant?
One of the best QA Leads I ever worked with told me the following regarding what he looks for in QA employees.
"I am looking for people who are devoted to games, that love them and live and breathe them... this will help motivate them when the work becomes tedious and might feel as a chore." Also he mentioned that a QA person most preferably needs to have a logical and inquisitive mind, as quality assurance you are responsible to fixing problems that are not obviously visible and your approach to solving these problems makes all the difference.
It is true that quality assurance is a way into the studio and gives you a higher chance to stay within the studio, but remember that you must make clear what your intentions are for a long term game industry role. As QA with programming experience, you will be able to use your engineering talent for a better understanding with engineering QA which will allow you to probably become an engineering qa specialist (something akin to an QA Embed), but is this what you want to be in the future? or do you want to eventually be a gameplay engineer or even a server engineer?
3) Does me being a full time student put me at a disadvantage?
Yes, unfortunately QA is a time intensive and demanding job that will require you to do overtime and if you wish to also do schooling on the side this will create issues with scheduling and project planning.
In this case I recommend outside QA providers, one that comes to mind would be Mobius Industries in Washington as an example. (most of these companies will require you to be local)
4) Where do I go from here if I do not get a call back/hired?
Keep on working to improve yourself and do not hesitate to apply again once you have more experience and knowledge. Also do not put all your eggs in one basket, and nothing is certain until you hear something. If you do not hear back in a certain amount of time then you are better off moving on.
Also UchihaKite do not worry about asking the same question again as each person's experience and reason for asking is different.
Good luck!
1: Showreels: Yay? Nay? To be a little more specific, I'm mainly talking about static characters and environments on a turn table with little to no movement going on other than the camera doing pans and dollies. My tutors at uni were quite adamant on the necessity of having one which I found to be rather surprising. I know most (top) portfolios don’t have one so I can kind of make my own deduction here but I’d still like to hear your opinion on this.
2: One particular topic that I’ve always found kind of awkward is applying for a job at a company you’ve been denied from before. Let’s say that Bobby had his application declined by Blizzard, but Bobby hits the gym and produces AAA quality stuff in the next two months for his portfolio, can he re-apply without his application getting automatically denied or something along those lines? Let’s assume that Bobby’s stuff is really good and the only concern is that he was denied before.
I’ve had people tell me “to wait 6-12 months” before re applying for the same company which I found a bit arbitrary. You better believe I don’t need 6 months to turn my portfolio around if I don’t have a job. So should I wait politely or just apply when I feel I’m ready?
Very helpful thread by the way, good stuff.
@ARKARIA
Your employment is not totally limited by your location, some studios are open to having you work remotely. Also most studios do not cover relocation costs if you are to be part time or contract employee, this means that your relocation will be on you if this is the case. Please continue applying to jobs and leave it to the company to see if they can relocate you.
It is unfortunate that you are seeing a high number of people with a negative experience. Every studio faces its own unique hardships and obstacles, if the studio has a negative company culture then it will create an environment that will inspire people to write bad reviews. It is far more common for people to leave a comment if they are stressed than if they are happy at their job.
The programming field is not over saturated, if anything there is a serious demand for good programmers. Companies are beholden to create a great work environment and benefits for employees to incentivize their commitment to the project and studio.
Is software experience relevant?
That is, between two candidates, one with an awesome portfolio where he made use of non-industry-standard software (like some weird ass open source tools), and another with a not so great portfolio but with experience with industry software (Photoshop, Maya etc.) which one is more likely to be called for an interview?
@Prime8, @Marks, @Hito, @Slipsius
Absolutely the answer needs to be "Not at all", the only problem is: is it true in your studio?
It is illegal to base your hiring decision on a candidate's age, it is about hiring the best person for the job. A studio needs to realize that a diverse workforce is a strong workforce, all candidates bring different strengths to a team and a company should not hold themselves back by filtering for age.
Slipsius really is on point on what happens in some studios, this happens either subconsciously or on purpose, but it is the job of the HR team and Hiring Managers (Leads) to not fall into this behavior.
For Prime8's second question:
"Do people who come from other industries even stand any realistic chance? Most jobs require education and or experience in the game industry even for entry level jobs."
There are many other industries that overlap ours: advertising, film, big tech, etc. I have lost count on how often I have hired from other industries into a "serious" gaming studio, so to truly answer your question: the issue is if the person is devoted to games and if this person is capable of completing the job.
I guess it all depends on the agency but pretty much of all them have play out this way
and cheers for answers - has been a good insight
Though you would think recruiters would say as much instead of repeating boilerplate, and thus giving the impression of not giving a fuck.
@Marks
You are very correct, it is illegal to base the hiring of any person on their age and I need to add that into my entry. I have also changed my entry to clarify my language regarding age and experience.
Thanks I will make a thread this week, Someone has offered to review and crit my folio which will be a good step to making changes which will get me hired.
It is awesome that you are here answering questions. I'm a Character Animator working out of NYC doing mainly commercials and short films, but I got into animation for gaming and have been looking to break into it. Most of the time I find myself applying on sites, I find myself wondering a few things...
1. What is looked at first, reels/resume/Cover Letter? My feeling is it would be reel.
2. All of my work is freelance, work that tends to last as short as a month or as long as 2 months. When I fill out online applications I put 5-7 places of employment lasting for short beats of time and I find myself afraid that it looks like I can't last at a studio despite the fact that its the actual length of the contract. Is that True or do recruiters/HR generally get that?
3. What is a good heading/objective for Resumes and Cover Letters. I try to tailor them specifically for the studio to which I apply.
Thanks for your time!
Frank
What do you think of art schools and those who come out of them? Are there any specific schools that you try to steer clear of when you sift through resumes?
But the problem is i have no experience in the field cause there are literally no companies in Uganda that do game design nor any form of 3D, better yet Africa. And i have seen job posting that say they need an experienced person to work for a certain company.
So how do i get my self a good video game design job when i lack the experience.
@Bedrock
Showreels are super time consuming for recruiters and art leads, we would much rather have high definition images that we can break down and delve into. The times showreels are necessary is when you are showing an animation, vfx, shaders, or anything that requires to be seen in motion. It is unfortunate that your tutors at uni are steadfast regarding having a showreel, maybe they have their own reasoning and they have bosses that are asking them to provide this as proof of their work. This topic is covered in detail on a recent GDC talk by art leads from Irrational, Bungie, Epic, and others. Here is the link: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022096/Killer-Portfolio-or-Portfolio-Killer
Your second question is a good one and here is what common wisdom has shown me: You should reapply when you are ready and have new killer work to show, have new work that shows you hit that gym so hard that they will fast track your employment! Make sure you do squats and never miss leg day, they are the foundation for your bodybuilding dream.
Sun's out guns out Bedrock
@Kryzon
Being familiar with industry standard software is important, even if you do not prefer to use it, even if you prefer to model in blender you should still have working knowledge of Maya and 3ds max. If you are an artist trying to be in the industry you should be familiar with the tools that your industry uses. It is true that learning all sorts of software will allow you to have an upper hand, this will hopefully allow you to keep up to date with new software and adapt to plug-ins, internal pipeline tools, or mods efficiently.
Knowing fundamentals is very important, but you do have a better edge when you can pick up and use software that company utilizes.
I want to try for Junior Concept Artist in Glu Russian department,but I have already some experience in gamedev and I am currently working with some indie teams as 2D concept artist.And since you have worked in Glu,could you tell more about this position,please? Generally ,I am confused about 1 thing,there is mandatory requirement for art degree and they won`t consider candidates without degree......>_> How serious is this statement?
Thanks : )
Best regards.
@almighty_gir, @roboy, @Eric Chadwick
There could be many reasons, but it ultimately comes down to the recruiter's ability to understand the technology and their ability to cordially interact with the industry as a whole. As a recruiter it is way more time effective to use boilerplate language and minimal interaction with the mass quantities of candidates you are reaching out to, this is unfortunate because this behavior does not foster a long term positive relationship.
I also agree with Eric, a recruiter would normally ask you to tailor your resume to the job before said recruiter would show it to the hiring manager, take advantage of this opportunity so you can really shine in the eyes of the leads.
@Hito
My PC rig is normally burdened with at least 60+ open chrome tabs, each one with a different candidate and random information I have found about their work. So to answer your question over 50 a day for sure, I look at an untold amount of resumes and portfolios each day. Especially in art, I have to find styles, talent ability, work ethics, and other candidate qualities that fit the search criteria.
To find the best possible candidate, I have to not only find out a candidate's on-paper work experience, but I have to get the best possible understanding of their culture fit for my studio before I speak to them. With this number of portfolio views, you can see why recruiters and hiring managers make the case for efficient navigation of portfolios and reels.
In short they want to know who you are and how you approach your work.
Recently I had the chance to talk to a few HR persons of a somewhat bigger studio here in Germany, and they said they prefer somewhat "designed" CVs/Cover letters for the artistic jobs (meaning it should be nice to look at, but of course readability is still the most important thing) which makes total sense for me.
What I was wondering, are CVs and stuff still being printed out, which means using a darker template (which I think is more pleasent to look at) could be a disadvantage because it costs them more ink?
Might be a really stupid question, but I have been thinking a lot about this recently
With the description of my responsibilities, should I just focus on describing any (relevant) transferable skills that I can tie to a gaming pipeline? Rather than the skills/responsibilities that may be 'significant' to current job, that just won't cross over to another industry? If that makes sense. Basically whether it's an actual description of your current role, or focus on the smaller skills/responsibilities that could relate to your potential role.
I am sorry that your job search experience has been so rough, also that bait and switch was unfair in my opinion.
If you try and try again but still see no results, your best solution is to change your approach. When faced with this situation, it sounds like the answer was within and I am glad that @CandyStripes05 was able to give you such spot on feedback. (Good job dude)
Good luck Toku!
I just found this thread, and I'm kind of kicking myself (Need to check general more often!)
I've been looking for a position within the Industry for over a year now and have found no luck at all in getting an artist position. I did have a 4 month stint working with Creative Assembly in their QA department but have found it hasn't added a whole lot to my hireability, which I can understand I guess.
My question is, while I've been focusing on applying to actual advertised positions, I'm starting to creep into speculative applications but I'm a bit of a loss as to how I should approach it. Just sending an email out of the blue essentially saying "I like you guys, I'd love to work for you" feels really weird and... intrusive I guess? Maybe that's not the right word.
What are your thoughts on Speculative applications and can you offer any advice to make myself stand out? If you could provide some feedback on my portfolio too that'd be amazing. I've been avoiding asking for feedback but it's the only way I'll improve as an artist and improve my chances in landing my dream job.
In this industry networking is key.
**edit: also post the link to your portfolio in your comment if you do make a thread as some users hide signatures so they wouldn't be able to visit
The job description I send to the recruiter:
The candidates the recruiter sends me:
Obviously skills are very important, however some hiring managers or business owners have some strange ways of hiring... for instance maybe they don't hire someone with strange sounding names, or for some reason they want a women in the position and not a man.
Many times the recruiters are looking for skills but on top of that somebody who fits in with the culture, which is kind of an unwritten rule. Does this happen to a degree in games?
It is very hard to find a Recruiter who really understands the needs of the Hiring Manager. Their face when they realize that you holistically understand their needs and want to give them someone that is not only a good technical fit but also a great culture fit is priceless.
It is essential for you to be open to relocation, you have to go where the jobs are. Even in the long term, new studios and teams spring up just about anywhere and it is up to you to follow your passion.
But if moving abroad, please be cautious and have a return strategy.
That´s really something I wonder about.
Most businesses are bound by law to give you a fair salary relative to your experience and competition, but there are always instances in which protocol is not followed. Therefore it is up to you to be the keeper of your own survival, you have to find out what you need to live and make sure that at least that requirement is met by the hiring studio. Feel free to ask other artists this question as it depends on the area and cost of living, from this information gather a good realistic range for yourself.
Also understand that where you fall within a salary range is determined by your skill and experience, so do not expect to earn 10% over the salary band unless the team believes in you.
Here are some sites you can use to gather a range, but nothing beats asking others.https://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm
http://salary.com/
A beginner having a great portfolio with no experience whatsoever have a chance of getting hired from the game studio?
I always wondered if such recruiters only looked for in-house positions only ?
I been contacted by many recruiter contacting me specifically about certain positions, most of them in USA and some even in Germany, UK and France and few from Canada too. None of them have ever been freelance or off-site contract work positions.
Do such recruiters ever look for off-site contractors ever ? If not, why not ?
Keep up the good work Mashru!