Reasons I'm going to delete your email (As an employer)
greentooth
I get a lot of email from potential candidates; And for the life of me I try to respond to every one, even when the emails are awful. As part of a conscious effort to take back my personal time from people who shoot off an email without thinking, I've decided to just start deleting useless inquiries.
The reason I bother posting about this is because I'm sure lots of people (students/recent grads) here are applying for positions at many studios, and these are some of the reasons you're not hearing back.
The reason I bother posting about this is because I'm sure lots of people (students/recent grads) here are applying for positions at many studios, and these are some of the reasons you're not hearing back.
I'm going to keep updating this list, and I encourage others who have this experience to contribute.
Here are the Reasons I'm going to delete your email (As an employer)
- You didn't include a portfolio link
- You are profoundly unqualified for the job and you know it. (check out your competition here: http://www.Artstation.com)
- You are profoundly unqualified for the job and you DON'T know it, which means you don't care to know the state of your art.
- You bad-mouth other studios. (I have zero interest in hearing you talk shit about other people - you do it to them, you'll do it to me)
- You do strange stuff with the text (Too small, too big, weird colors)
- Asking if I have "any" positions available. ("Any" is not a position at my studio, what job do you want? Artist, coder, writer, etc ?)
- You write a novel.
Replies
Template:
When you know what jobs they have availableExample 1:
Hi, I'm Peter Kojesta,
Example 2:
When you're not sure what jobs they have availableHi, I'm Peter Kojesta,
:Thumbsup::
As a recruiter, I can certainly relate! Thank you for bringing up this problem and sharing excellent solutions.
I noticed the line for games worked on in the template. Do you have any suggestions for someone trying to break into the industry and hasn't worked on any games yet? I only have experience at an advertising agency.
My Cover Letters are pretty similar to this but I add one more paragraph explaining why I'm interested in this company, which projects that they made catch my eye and basically praising them and another paragraph explaining why I'm passionate about this industry, my childhood dreams, my favourite games, bla bla bla. Both of them are around 3-4 lines.
Is this actually doing me any favour? Should I stop glorifying both them and me and keep a simple CL like this template? On one hand, less is more and on the other hand I feel it's a little cold and direct. I heard companies likes to pick persons not robots and it's good to show your personality but it's also true that the recruiter recieves gargantual amounts of emails and probably gives a s*** about my dreams or why I liked the company.
I'm a little bit confused
I'm curious about this as well. Perhaps its different with applications to outsourcing companies that are more concerned with the artwork you're putting out for them to sell rather than knowing you as a person prior to hiring you? (Bizarre way to judge a candidate but maybe in this line it applies, since game development (especially artwise) can be rather cookie cutter as far as AAA goes in several cases)
I personally would value reading more into a candidates background since its a person I'm working with not a robot.
That said I am wondering if cover letters are necessary for reapplications, since they do keep them on file (I think) unless of course there's more info to add to your application.
Some companies are better at managing this over others.
I've heard that a lot of cover letters seen as "cookie cutter" may not get the same amount of attention and hence may not lead to an interview.
But there are so many factors that influence getting work. Most times you just have to keep going and making art despite all the bs.
Honestly everything is speculation at this point. even the quality of your artwork in several cases.
Competent recruiters and clients do however make smarter choices and often see potential beyond what is expected of you.
Another issue with lofty paragraphs about the developer and your dreams is that you're probably copy/pasting it into every email you're sending out, and you ARE going to slip up and forget to replace a studio name at some point. I get those all the time, Someone forgot to change "Ubisoft" to "Exis" and it reads as disingenuous.
People don't read your whole email, so the more stuff you add unrelated to the pertinent points, the more they will skim/skip/maybe not read. If you do want to include a one line bit of "flair", just say something like: "I enjoy your work and I'd like to be part of your team".
The overriding theme is to just keep it simple and professional, and then be a good person in follow-ups and interviews.
Thank you so much for bringing this up and sharing your insight.
I always struggle about writing the intro about myself. (stealing the template for sure)
Thank you again.
How much do employers care about your education in this industry,
Is your Portfolio the only thing that matters?
On the other hand, if a student were to contact me (a mid-level artist, mind you, not a lead or HR person who gets overwhelmed by emails) with a specific request for feedback or technical help, I'd be happy to provide it. And if they worked their ass off to improve their work based on my critique, I'd remember that. If they kept the dialogue open over the course of several months, without getting annoyingly pushy, I might go to my supervisor and see if we could put aside a bit of money to bring them in for an internship for the summer.
You are profoundly unqualified for the job and you DON'T know it.
Any advice for my particular case ? I have been applying for 2 years and i only got 1 art test from an AAA company in an eastern EU country.
Although my works were worse back then, the situation at least for now hasn't changed much.
I don't mind leaving my country for various reasons but the problem is that i get rejected at the CV screening stage even at indie studios or non game companies.
I'm currently working as a freelance alongside my full time job and i have been doing it for 2 years more or less but it seems that it doens't really matters for companies. I mean maybe if i had famous titles under my belt that would be a different story but in that case i would stay as a freelancer.
Lot of variability in what constitutes a killer portfolio, and I've worked with people with considerable experience that just plain suck because their in studio experience does not translate well to what a freelance outsourcing studio wants, that is, if it actually knows what it wants.
To be honest there are recruiters that would go with that they consider to be a safer bet. The logic behind going for someone with experience also comes down to extending your own network even if it ultimately doesn't work out that way.
Its a bizarre situation where a lot of people talk highly of where they work, only to drop the companies when something better comes along, but not everyone is like this and many do value a long term arrangement.
In AAA, you usually only work on a part of an assigned model in most cases. Maybe you would have more responsibility in the future but many times you may have to move over to another studio for them.
For a freelancer you are expected to do more, in the end I wouldn't stress too much about they're rejecting you especially if they are willing to pass over you without actually consulting with you first, something they rarely have time for given how many of these places work.
These firms service AAA companies and I can't really say that all of them are absolutely stellar/killer in what they deliver if the experience of a colleague who works as a model checker is any indication. (utter shite require a fat lot of cleanup)
I would suggest that as you better your portfolio for yourself, do look for opportunities in industries that require 3D but are more concerned with what you can do for them given what they have currently than how much of a superstar you are.
Like Arch viz, medical simulation, defense etc, even sculpting for miniatures, board games, tutorials, animation VFX studios, print media and concept work to build an online presence that reflects well on you.
And networking does certainly help, in your case perhaps heading to GDC or local game develoipment meetups might be a good way to meet people.
With regards to your portfolio, you seem to have mix of materials and props, I would try to focus on one or the other.
You could look into Dekogon since they do props.
Regarding my works I usually make environments and hero models like hard surface objects or hero props.
The materials are usually made for sales but I think that it falls everything into the environment art category except for hard surface.
I know that some people want to work for X company so they only make artworks of that particular style or fan art of their games but I couldn't enjoy doing that all day.
I started doing CG because I wanted to express myself and create what's on my mind so having a portfolio of only let's say blizzard works wouldn't suite my tastes.
I appreciate your feedback though.
But that's not the point. I can get rid of them without any problem is if the cause that is preventing me from getting a job.
What i mean is all the stuff that i make except the hard surface models, falls into the environment art category ( props, terrains and indoor env ) From what i know and read from job posts an env. artist is someone that makes full environments so: props and the full composition from 0.
Is that what you mean ? That i must have only full environments or only props ?
Or you were referring to the settings of a particular scene ex. only sci-fi, only fantasy, only realistic and so on. Or maybe the art style because i do both realistic and anime ?
But many artists make artworks with different art styles, is it a bad thing for companies ?
I realized that i lost the focus over these years. I started out doing environments in both realistic and anime style. After that i found out about hard surface design and that i enjoyed that too. Then from time to time i get requests from followers on YouTube to make "X" thing that are usually weapons so if they look good i also place them in the portfolio. And to conclude I also make terrains/landscapes but i suppose that this falls into the environments category.
In the last year i thinked a lot about what artistic path should i follow and i realized that i was shifting more and more towards works that resembled Cornelius Dammrich. Environments with a surreal, fantasy or sci-fi feeling to them, with a lots of details ( hardsurface also ) that tells some kind of story.
Very artistic if you ask me. It reminds me why i started doing CG in the first place.
https://www.artstation.com/zomtech
Of course there are other artists like him but he is the first that came to my mind.
I'll take some time off and think about my next steps. I'm only sure about one thing at the moment, that i'll keep doing both realistic and anime styles artworks. For all the rest i need to think about it.
Thanks again.
Oh and if anyone wants to chime in to add something you are all welcome even if you are not an HR.
This is what I think Alex meant by asking "Are you that guy?"
From what I noticed if you create a portfolio with high quality art work then you should not have a problem with getting a job abroad in Europe for instance.
Again I'm not trying to be mean and good luck!
As a first job sure it does pay to follow the piper if you know what a studio wants and more importantly it knows it too.
As an artist you should just keep going forward with your development and create a brand for yourself.
A good example of artistic extremes is Robert Crumb (very NSFW), if he filed an application to a studio for a 2D artist position with his "portfolio" well, I'd like to be there when they view it lol.
But he doesn't need them, he has his audience on his side despite how controversial his art might be.
Also a word about that comparison above,
With where you are in your portfolio, you can get work, sure it may not be in the studios the others can get work, but it can be meaningful.
As an artist you should aspire to better your work either way.
And knowing what @Alex Javor wants for his environments currently, its more about evaluating the artist on more than just the first impression from his portfolio of work.
It is a fact though unfortunately that a lot of recruiters (especially if they aren't trained in recruiting for the pipelines their studios use) can jump the gun on a candidate because of this first impression, totally disregarding other aspects of his profile.
Its a corporate thing.
Honestly as far as AAA development goes, so long as you have the basics down and a decent body of work, you can usually do the job given how they have their pipelines set up.
Even if its devolved to a popularity contest online, not every artist has the means or the rate to work in studio especially if it requires relocation.
This thread is for this employer, you could take it as best practice but there's no guarantees it will get you work outside of this studio.
1. Besides what ZiO pointed out, your portfolio shows a lack of understanding of optimization. Looking at your wrieframes I would expect 50-75% of your edges can be deleted. So you either don't understand how to build efficient meshes for games or - far worse because in the first case you can be taught - you don't care about it. If you don't optimize don't show the wireframe - why would you emphasize a mistake?
2. Materials for Marmorset. I get it if you want to put them out there for others to use, but its nothing that belongs in your portfolio (separate your private portfolio and the one you use for applications). Most game artists use Marmorset, but it has nothing to do with game dev beyond its baking options. No recruiting artist will check them as a reason for hire you as they can't be used in the game. They might check it to see if you have an artistic eye, but already under the suspicion that you lack understanding for game dev because you should have Substance Designer work up there or showing materials in UE4, Unity 3D,... or another engine.
3. Your props lack the high end presentation. The presentation is a bit too bland and not memorable enough (looking especially at the priestess staff, swords and throne). My usual advice will be repeated again - sorry for that
Thanks for the feedback. I'll just reply to some of the points that @Biomag pointed out:
1) You are perfectly right that they could be optimized more. The fact is that if it's a personal project and i know that i'll do a close up render of a model i tend to avoid super low poly meshes where a circle looks more like an octagon. But yes probably by doing that i'm harming myself. I'll get rid of them and leave only the props renderings in the case of that artwork.
2) I don't usually put my works for sale in my portfolio. They are in their specific store page. The Marmoset materials are an exception because i was thinking that it could show some shaders creation skills because the parameters are the same ones that you find in other rendering softwares. I'm re-ordering my portfolio so i'll get rid of them.
@NikhilR
The illustrator that you mentioned reminds me of Kim Jung Gi. He doesn't draw grotesque characters but he likes to draw let's say...very erotic...stuff from time to time and in an interview the journalist asked "Why do you draw genitalia ?" and he answered with "Well, because they are there" lol
ad 1) I'm not someone who cares too much about optimization in a portfolio. It's not the right place for it except if you are trying to get a job working with really low poly stuff. Optimization completely depends on the game so chasing imaginary goals in portfolios at the expanse of quality doesn't make too much sense. BUT if you are not optimizing stuff, don't show the wireframe. To make it more obvlous - you wouldn't turn on the wireframe on a sculpt, right?
Still applying as a junior it makes sense to have 'sensible' (instead of overly optimized) wireframes in there and to show them to prove to the recruiters they don't have to worry about you knowing it.
So in your case for example, even if its just a shader with the same sliders, I would ask myself not knowing you - do you know that? Have you ever seen/used an engine? Do you understand the performance cost of your shader?
By you doing the same thing in a real time engine I wouldn't even have to bother questioning you - which actually would just have me skip your portfolio for the next guy that has this stuff in there.