Advice about switching from a big company to a new company in a senior role
Hello everyone,
I wanted to ask for some advice from those of you in lead roles or art direction roles about an opportunity that I have recently been fortunate to have access to.
I'm currently a senior artist at a big company that is secure, has enough funding, but doesn't allow fully remote work and I'm in the process of looking for a fully remote senior role.
I've been offered a fully remote senior role at a new company, that would also require me to set up a complete art pipeline beside my daily tasks. I would be starting as a sole senior artist in my discipline, with other artists to be hired in the future, if needed.
The offered pay is quite good, but I'm a bit worried that their release timeline is short and the role responsibilities seem to be for a lead artist, not a senior one. I'm also worried about the stress & overtime the role would bring and about the chances that the game might not be successful, or not even release in these uncertain times with massive competition from other big studios. I would also be doing these things on my own for a while, until they find other hires and there would be a lot to learn about the different connected disciplines.
What I'm asking is, is it worth exchanging a secure, non-stressful position for a better paying remote one at a new company, but with a lot more responsibility and uncertainty at the beginning of a world recession? How have your new company experiences been in the past, were they successful, did you manage to release your game & generate profits? What did you learn from working in a new team with lots of responsibilities?
Thanks!
Replies
"their release timeline is short and the role responsibilities seem to be for a lead artist, not a senior one."
Sounds pretty bad imo, short release timeline means there will be crunch. You also dont know for how long you will be on your own.
Personally I rather make a bit less money and have no stress then the other way around.
I agree with Zi0 , new company with a short release timeline does not sound appealing at all to me. Almost every studio I have seen out there is open for remote, might be preferable to hold off until a better opportunity comes along.
Thanks for your replies, everyone. Yes, that's what I was thinking, it seems too stressful an endeavor.
I guess the search goes on.
From my brief experience, studios might miscalculate the deadlines. After all, they all tell you the optimistic scenario. Those benefits come with heavy baggage. I've seen senior artists doing 200+ hours per month in a start up to keep up
Establishing the art pipeline would probably mean you'll also be having a lot of meetings with all most other departments in order to find a middle ground between art / automation / gameplay. That will be setting back the creation of the levels and the assets, plus all the exploration that needs to be done in what works and what not?
I'm not in such position yet but I think the only reason I would make that switch would be if I was a mid level artist wanting to push upwards, or if I wanted to have that freedom for the style.