Career options

franman

I'm looking for a stable career that is heavily on creativity/design with some technicality (such as programming).

What are my career options?

A bit about myself; I'm from Toronto, Ontario, Canada; I've had academic experience in 3D animation and 3D art for video games (graduated in 2008 and 2009) as well as computer programming (graduated in 2016).  Despite my experience in 3D art, my modeling skills are still not at a professional level.  For programming, I struggled a lot with it.

If anyone can provide a list of stable careers with the following criterias mentioned above that would be great.

JordanN

After the 2008 market crash, I'm hesitant to say stable careers exists. With the rise of taxes, property costs etc, employers (in all industries) are just not taking risks in who they hire. They just want to cut costs at every corner so that means hiring people with enough skills hoping that they don't demand more money. What happens to them if they balk is not their problem, since they can either pull up a list of 500 people waiting in line to be hired, or just lay off everyone and start anew.

The only exception I can think of is government, but the problem with government jobs is they're really damn hard to get into to.

Andreicus

Unfortunately stability with a decent paid job is heavily dependant on the country you are in and also from your skills obviously.

I live in Italy and here the unemployment rate is over 11 % and the youth unemployment ( 16-30 years old ) is 40 %, companies want overqualified people ( master degree ) with 3-4 years of experience to do jobs that would require a high school diploma and even if you meet those criteria you will earn as much as everyone else and with the average italian salary if you live on your own you will spend all your money just to sustain yourself ( so you can't buy cool stuff, you can't travel, you can't afford other things and so on ).
The only exceptions are governemnt jobs because unless the country goes bust ( pratically impossible ) you will have a secure job until retirement.

I don't know how the situation is in Canada but if you have the possibility i advise you to move to a country where the economy is solid and where public services are good ( in Italy they sucks for example ).
I know that some old classmates of some of my friends went in other European countries like Amsterdam in Netherlands or Berlin in Germany where the average salary is higher and the unemployement rate is quite low ( in Germany is 3 % for example ), they have a high school diploma in IT.

Also here in Europe the most stable jobs are considered the ones in IT or medical field, maybe is the same for Canada.

That is just my personal experience, maybe it's not what you was looking for but hope it helped anyway.

garcellano

Hey @franman we graduated just around the same time, 2009 for me.
I'd say if you can, be open to taking jobs that aren't exactly close to what you want, but something relative or similar. Like educational games or military simulations, maybe film/commercial/tv, or something that's close to what you focus on.

sacboi

Nowadays in most cases whether profession or fixed wage employment you'd be hard pressed pinning down a role that'll provide (as mentioned above, outside of landing a government related position) some level of long term stable permanence.

Here in Australia for example the 2008 GFC barely registered the seismic negitive impacts felt elsewhere. Ranked second behind Switzerland in terms of per capita generated revenue with a 1.2 trillion USD GDP plus 8.4 trillion USD sovereign wealth also currently running at 2.5 per cent economic growth and 5.6 per cent unemployment rate. However despite the rosy financial picture it goes without saying those in low to middle income jobs are still feeling the pinch just like many people living in other developed economies.

So in answer to your question I'd suggest research TV commercial work, Archviz and/or graphic design, since 3D content has increasingly made inroads over recent years into these professions alone.

NikhilR

Stability in game development and most other competitive positions depends on the value you bring to a company. Sure you might get your foot in the door, but staying in the job will require you to keep up-to-date on new software, processes and industry trends.

As an creative person, or rather person looking for creative expression, I would say that regardless of what the job is or whatever its stability keep pushing your craft and staying relevant.
You could pm/post your most recent portfolio or work for further input if you like.

franman

I want to know information on AutoCAD and Revit.

1. Is getting a career in this kind of field is as highly competitive as getting a 3d modeling career in a game studio?
2. I may plan on going back to school to study part-time in Seneca's AutoCAD program; they also include Revit in the later parts of their curriculum.
3. I'm also curious if there are game level designers that have experience using AutoCAD and/or Revit that may have benefit their level design skills?