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How long did it take to find your first job in the gaming industry?

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  • oglu
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    oglu polycount lvl 666

    From the first idea to get hired i took me 7 years. A lot of work and disbelief inbetween.

  • Neox
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    Neox godlike master sticky

    man i hope you don't regret it, considering how long it took all of us to get you out of you hobby and into the job :P

  • oglu
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    oglu polycount lvl 666

    Sometimes i wish i could be a gardener. Just planting flowers and driving a lawn mower. And looking at butterfies and bees.

  • Neox
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    Neox godlike master sticky

    if thats what you wanna do, go for it :)

  • fdfxd2
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    fdfxd2 interpolator

    Freelancing gig? 3 years. Real job as an on-site salaried 3D artist in a company? 8 years.

    In my defence, I live in a country with no CG industry and not a lot of companies would relocate for a junior position.

  • Mr_Nova
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    Mr_Nova polycounter lvl 4

    Man seeing some of the posts in relation to time taken already, I feel relieved. I'm only 3 years (almost 4) in and still chugging along figuring it all out until I get it eventually.

  • Fabi_G
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    Fabi_G high dynamic range

    Took me about 3 month to find employment as a 3d artist for Games. This was after finishing studies and working two years as indie dev and struggling as green freelancer.

    After not hearing back for some time after turning in an art test, I asked about the status of application and I got invited for job interview for a different project. From this experience, I guess sometimes applications can get forgotten/stuck.

    Edit: From idea to work on games to get there took me around 15 years (doing it on the side, becoming overwhelmed and starting again multiple times)

  • Meloncov
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    Meloncov greentooth

    Three-ish years of part-time practice in high school, four years of art school, three-ish years of freelance for indie games making incredibly little money, another three years doing 3D art at a marketing company. So thirteen years from starting to study until my first full-time position in games, though my first job was mid-level, not junior.

    Definitely a few mistakes I made along the way that resulted in it taking that long. Not specializing enough early on was the biggest one.

  • Larry
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    Larry interpolator

    From the moment I quit my job to learn 3d, it took me 4 years to build my portfolio, then moved to another country where 3d studios are, I took 6 months to learn the language then got 5 months of internship at a game studio before I got a contract from another studio (language was not needed after all)

  • Ruz
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    Ruz insane polycounter

    about 5 years tbh

  • Seal40k
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    Seal40k polycounter lvl 7

    3 1/2 years from first opening a 3D programm.

  • chien
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    chien polycounter lvl 14

    i was only able to enter a company when they looking for replacement or 2nd choice artist

  • poopipe
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    poopipe grand marshal polycounter


    12 years between finishing university and my first games job.

    I came in as a senior after leading teams in other industries

  • Alex_J
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    Alex_J grand marshal polycounter

    was the original post deleted?


    it appears blank to me. I've seen this happen a few times - a post is blank. And a couple times I got tagged that somebody responded to me, but the response is either blank or not there at all.

    Just asking because maybe it is a bug or did original poster just delete their content?

  • poopipe
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    poopipe grand marshal polycounter

    Blank here too. I assume the title said it all

  • Biomag
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    Biomag sublime tool

    I was utterly lucky in the beginning - a little bit over half a year since I first opened up a 3d programm to a solid job that actually paid my bills (but it was a small studio, supported by a Casino app developer so don't take this as sign of me being good). I left the studio after two years to actually make some progress and it took me 2 more years of polishing my skills to get a job in the 'real' gaming industry in an outsource studio. A year later I found myself in a AAA-studio.

  • Taylor Brown
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    Taylor Brown ngon master

    I think it took me about 18 months from from zero artististic / 3D knowledge to being a contract outsource artist. Then a couple years more to hit AAA.

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