What are your main struggles when it comes to getting a job in the games industry?

YF_Sticks

Hello everyone,

Currently, I am trying to help students who want to get into the games industry and I'm doing some research. It can be a tough process and the more we all can support each other, the better!

So my main questions to you are:

- As a student (at Uni or self-taught), what are the 2 biggest issues you're dealing with when it comes to getting a job?
- Regarding your education, what would you wish for more than anything else?

Thanks so much in advance - Looking forward to reading your answers!

TheGabmeister

Hello. I'm not a student, but I have mentored 3D environment art students in the past. Below are 2 things they shared with me. These might be true only in my region, Southeast Asia.

1. Industry workflows. In my region, there is a shortage of skilled artists with AAA experience who are willing to teach in university. I think this is because these artists are already fully loaded with tasks. This means that the available instructors, who are not yet veterans, teach only the basics. An example is an instructor teaching how to use Substance Painter and Designer. but not teaching how to create trim sheets, texture atlases, and packed textures.
2. Instructors requiring students to make things that are not that important. I've seen students who were required to create and use their own portfolio website even though everybody here agrees that we should all use ArtStation. Moreover, there are students who are required to create demo reels even though a video format is not the most suitable for showcasing their portfolio. The students should instead spend time on the things that really matter.

The two issues above are perhaps just a few of the things that hampers students from landing a job.

Ashervisalis

The 2 main reasons I have not yet scored a job;

1) A surplus of artists who are better than me.
2) Need experience.

Obviously as time goes on, I become a better artist. The biggest influence in the quality of my art so far is joining a community and receiving guidance throughout each project. I also feel that non-3D related art classes would have helped my art get that wow factor a bit earlier, as my earlier work was missing the 'artistic' value. Now I'm at the point where I feel my art is good enough to score a junior role, and I've moved onto the "your art is neat, but we're looking for someone with more experience" phase of not being able to get a job.

p.s. I am self taught.

JEmerson

Following is from a non-student.

1. I am self taught, with exception to a mentorship, married, and have a career already. Disregarding the state of my portfolio (which is the primary barrier), the largest barrier I encounter on a daily basis is simply time management. Working full time in another career, it is difficult to come home and do everything I need to do (exercise, cook, eat, clean, spend time with my family) and work on my craft. That is not time I am willing to trade.

2. The second issue that I deal with is finding a job in a locale that will work with my wife's career as well as maintain or improve our quality of life. As she is the primary earner already, and I do not anticipate that changing, it is important that she have opportunity to advance as well. This generally aligns with the major metro's in the USA on job opportunities, but the quality of life remains the issue. In my professional life I am a budget manager of a city, so I run the numbers; it is not pretty based on the pay bands prior to negotiation. It may be more tenable for a young person with no family or dependents and high mobility, as the barriers to capitalize on opportunity may be lower to some extent. Regardless, I keep chipping away at improving with intent to career transition.

3. Regarding education, there seem to be a large volume of options available - with mixed results and availability. I have found that mentorship and challenges are great because of the high probability of valuable feedback and generally low comparable cost. However, a great many tutorials are about the tool, and not necessarily about developing your artistic eye. That, to me, is a problem. There are plenty of opportunities to work on that, and students should utilize those.

4. The thing I would wish more for is time and legacy. Time to concentrate and hone your craft farther than what your professors ask of you. The world is large and often unforgiving, so use your time wisely. Legacy is the mentorship, values, and training that are passed onto the next generation of artists. Companies must be willing to invest in their people, not a game room and free beer to blow off steam. Leads, Seniors, and Directors should be trained (professionally) in management to reduce friction and provide those opportunities for their teams to do their best work and to grow. Both of these show up in the classroom and mentorship wherein Leads, etc. . . are given the opportunity to continue developing their management skills and pass on their legacies (positive ones) to those upcoming. From an outside perspective, the high turnover and burnout in the industry creates a perceptibly weak industry. I think this has shown up, often dramatically, in the news this year alone. So invest in yourself and your people, that includes and centers around education opportunities, formal and informal.

zachagreg

Was once a student at a university but I dropped out to start a job in 3D. So I've got experience with both the university world and being self-taught, they kind of relate to each other.

1. I would say currently the thing keeping me out of getting a job specifically in the game industry is both not applying for enough jobs as well as lack of top notch quality work. In university it was 100% that my work was not reaching the bar needed to get in.

2. For my university education the biggest need for me was meaningful and worthwhile critique as well as relevant knowledge and assignments. As TheGabmeister pointed, out the irrelevant "portfolio" assignments waste months of school time. Speaking from my experience only of course but this was coupled with tepid meaningless critiques that didn't serve a purpose more than formality. Along with being taught out of date and sometimes blatantly incorrect things about game production and game art.

For self-taught I think the biggest hurdle is just finding exactly what you want to specialize in and not letting other interesting things grab your attention and take you away from your goal. There is so much good knowledge online, as well as bad, so trying to hone in on the most important bits is sometimes difficult. So more areas like artstation and gumroad for tutorials that can centralize based upon topics would be helpful in my opinion.

YF_Sticks

@TheGabmeister Thanks for sharing that! I think they are very universal as I read those a lot from different people.

@Ashervisalis Thanks! I'm self-taught as well. It takes time (and a bit of luck of course)

@Sigmafie I agree man. Time Management is a big factor when it comes to learning this stuff. Especially when you have a job on the side. I started working on it on the side next to my full-time job. Had the ability to quit my job after a while and go fully into 3D. Appreciate your answer mate. 

@zachagreg It can really be a numbers game I feel. Mostly if you don't get any replies, it's mainly your portfolio. Once you can really focus on a specific topic, you're good to go and really go all in on that one craft. That's mostly when there is a lot of progress. Good luck man! Thank you for the answer.

Spag_Eddy

YF_Sticks said:

- As a student (at Uni or self-taught), what are the 2 biggest issues you're dealing with when it comes to getting a job?

- Self-taught and Living in L.A. for a year now. I've come to realize, after months and months of rejection, that there is a lot of competition, and most of that competition is just simply aeons better than me. Nothing I can do but keep chipping away, and keep growing as an artist.

- Lack of any sort of network. I really don't know anyone out here, and thus I am a complete unknown. I'm sure I could easily improve this situation by attending meet-ups and whatnot, I just haven't. I really need to just get my ass out there and shake a few hands over a pumpkin-spice ale already!

garcellano

- 1) I graduated 10 years ago, in animation, and I switched over to Environment Art at some point. But, back then, I tried to crank out other animations, outside of what was assigned during school/college. 2) It might be the side projects or the experience, or who you know. I did focus testing/play testing at a game studio nearby where I was, a year before I graduated, and I guess that kind of helped landing me an internship for an agency, on a flash game, and then later at Sony San Diego around the area (in San Diego, CA, in the US).

- What I wished back then was probably someone to lay it down on what to focus on more, or what was out there. I was probably ignorant or naive at the time, going for animations. I ended up graduating on a degree with animations, but after my internship ended at Sony San Diego, I switched over to environment art. This was around late 2009. There weren't that many animation gigs at the time, and I wasn't willing to move that far from the city. I ended up jumping on remote/freelance gigs, and grabbing whatever was closest to games or 3D in the area (in the vfx world, a whole different story).

YF_Sticks

@Spag_Eddy Thanks for your honest answer man. I can recommend you to join some discord servers. there are a lot of good 3D discords out there and you can get involved more into the community

@garcellano It can be hard to find what you want to do. Personally, I was unsure if I want to be an Env Artist, Weapon Artist, Prop Artist etc etc haha. You know the drill. Appreciate your answer!