Professionals, how common is remote work post-Covid? (What kind of jobs allow for work from home?)

jiggywattart

From what I've heard, typically prop art is the best way to enter the industry and it's flexible since it's freelance from home.

I've heard a lot of workplaces are adopting remote work after covid this year. Curious if anyone could share their feeling of the direction it's headed because while I'm likely focusing on prop art, my main goal is to do environment art.

Eric Chadwick

Remote work is a lot more common now.

However as an entry-level freelancer you'll be competing with extremely low-cost freelancers from countries where the cost of living is very low. You really can't compete with that.

Your best bet to enter the game dev industry is to target a salaried job at a studio, and work your ass off to get it, Learn the ropes from the inside for a few years. Then you'll be able to offer yourself as a skilled freelancer, and able to command a livable wage.

Be warned, making it as a freelancer is much much harder than making it in a salaried position. Taxes, healthcare, making contacts, sales/promotion, client management, etc. are all done on your own. There are exceptions of course, but mostly it's really hard.

A bunch of helpful resources here:

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Freelance

And how to get into a studio:

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Game_Industry

oglu

Its not post covid. 

jiggywattart

Eric Chadwick said:

Remote work is a lot more common now.

However as an entry-level freelancer you'll be competing with extremely low-cost freelancers from countries where the cost of living is very low. You really can't compete with that.

Your best bet to enter the game dev industry is to target a salaried job at a studio, and work your ass off to get it, Learn the ropes from the inside for a few years. Then you'll be able to offer yourself as a skilled freelancer, and able to command a livable wage.

Thanks for the insight. I'll likely follow your advice, but a significant reason for me is that I have a health condition that makes it difficult to work in normal workplace environments.

In your opinion, would it be likely in-house studios would accommodate entry-level employees to work remotely? 

oglu said:

Its not post covid. 

yeah sorry, I meant it to be "as a consequence of covid"

Eric Chadwick

It's unlikely an entry level position would be allowed as fully remote. Bunch of reasons: communication is more difficult, inexperienced workers often lack the discipline to stay focused on their own, company culture is easiest to absorb in person, security protocols are more difficult in a distributed workforce, etc.