Velan studios saga
polycounter
I wanted to share a recent experience that proves that hiring doesn't always come down to ones portfolio or profile and transparency in a company's standing and hiring process could be improved.
Its a challenging time in the industry so even if there's interest it may not necessarily mean that the company is actually hiring.
I know this sounds wild so here's my most recent experience with this to illustrate my dilemma.
When reading the chapter names it helps to play the title track of the mandalorian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcvxaviRwOAVelan Studios
Chapter 1
The nativity
Linkedin application
Position: Entry level character artist (realistic character art)
required exp: 3 to 5 years
Applied: Feb 5th
Rejected: Feb 8th
Portfolio: My portfolio had only the new khan character in addition to the stylized characters. My zhou yu character was the older iteration.
[Rejection email] 
Thank you for your interest in the Character Artist role. We have reviewed your application and we regret to inform you that it has not been selected for further consideration at this time. However, you might be just the right candidate for other roles here at Velan Studios! Please continue to keep an eye on our website for future opportunities that may be a better fit.
We wish you every success with your job search and thank you again for your interest in Velan Studios!
Velan Studios
Chapter 2
The Resurrection
Chapter 2
The Resurrection
Position: Senior character artist (realistic character art)
required exp: 5 to 7 years
Applied: Feb 22
Rejection ? : Feb 27
Recruiter couldn't get application into system, asked if I had applied previously to Velan Studios.
I answered that I had applied and been rejected for the entry level character artist role but seeing as I was now being assessed for the senior character artist role which wasn't available at the time, maybe that is why I was rejected for the entry level role.
I asked if there was any more info I could provide and was ghosted by recruiter 
Velan Studios
Chapter 3
The Exodus
Chapter 3
The Exodus
So that's what happened. 
Velan Studios
Chapter 4 :
The redemption?
to be continued...
Replies
I'm not really sure why this is, but its flexible atleast in my experience.
Like at EA, I was one of 5 people hired and we all have differences in required exp and portfolios and all of us were given the same art test, had interviews and were hired for base pay at associate character artist level.
Many people were hired arbitrarily, like I learned during internal meetups where artists would speak of their experiences that they were hired into art positions from QA because they happened to chat with a senior in the cafeteria.
Generally studios can be flexible with accomodating various levels of skill in candidates, but you can't expect them to be public about this, the usual approach is "we are always looking for the best talent"
Its necessary to say this for studio image and credibility which directly impacts shareholders.
Though atleast from the recent layoffs, its clear that talent only mattered when it was useful, some pretty incredible artists were given the chop.
Back at school I was told to calculate my years of experience to include my time at school, since game dev schools try to simulate actual studio environments.
I'm not sure what the consensus on this is by studios, from first hand experience, working at EA was identical to working with peers and game designers at george brown college, but I've seen people look negatively at game dev colleges saying they don't teach students correctly.
Atleast in toronto, the 10 game dev schools compete with each other and have connections in studios which help students get placements, so doing their program counts a lot towards being hired locally.
My game dev experience is 7 years, and professional experience doing characters would be 6, though not all characters made it into production.
Its why I assumed that they maybe rejected me for a junior position in favor of hiring me for a senior one.
Pandemic was a better time for hiring, I do hope there's more of a balance going forward.
I can see more hiring in outsourcing companies, which is probably the way to go since its cost effective for AAA studios looking to have more lean production teams.
And its true about feedback from studios being difficult to come by, i just don't feel that it comes down to the portfolio in every case.
What I can see is that most artists are trying to improve regardless of what the industry feels about their work which is a good sign.
Certainly can't expect Velan to go public about its troubles, I have witnessed companies hiring till the day they were liquidated, I think it has to do with how they are funded and how they appear to investors.
I've been variously considered as being associate and senior by a variety of metrics so I do what I can as opportunities arise.
This was one of those cases where I had a studio I applied for as junior approach me for a senior position and then proceed to liquidate half its workforce.
I had always assumed seniority to be portfolio + professional experience + game credits, but it seems to be a very flexible term and studios in general are unwilling to negotiate atleast if you're applying for the first time.
At EA most of my coworkers were surprised to hear that I was hired as an associate looking at my PPR. (portfolio - profile - resume)
Hello - to be perfectly honest, if you indeed told them that ... you sent them a red flag right there. There is absolutely nothing wrong with re-applying to a position later (after having collected more new work to show of course), or even, applying for a newly opened higher position (also with new work to show). But it's not up to the applicant to theorize on why the rejection happened (and obviously they would have told you if your hypothesis was indeed correct).
The point of the above isn't to be harsh or anything - job seeking is hard. But i think it's always best to just stick to what matters rather than theorizing. Heck, even applying to the senior pos after being rejected from the junior one could be okay-ish, as a bit of a hail mary gamble I guess ? But no need to theorize if it doesn't go through IMHO, since by definition it isn't supposed to.
As always with language, it's good to not attempt to squeeze ones' own guesses into what a loose label may mean. It's perfectly possible that they are looking for both senior people (demonstrating high art skills as well as good leadership), as well as excellent skilled people (demonstrating high art/production skills, but who don't have the desire or experience to lead) to build a small team - yet ended up somewhat badly phrasing it with a "entry level VS senior" dichotomy. They don't have the obligation to hire someone out of school. And after all, there is no wording for "regular" artist (even though, amusingly enough, the wording "regular artist" is indeed jokingly used, informally
And if anything, stating a required 5 years of experience is probably a decent way for a studio to clarify things. And of course they'll be more than happy to hire someone with no inhouse experience at all for the job anyways - if said applicant can demonstrate flexibility and skills. Like for instance by participating in modding efforts, the Steam Workshop, and with a portfolio showing skills and dedication.
Of course it will depend on the flexibility of the recruiter receiving/filtering the application too. But when applying to a place requiring "5 years of experience", It'd say it's up to the applicant to demonstrate what they can do to fit the bill if they don't have litterally these 5 years of employment to show. After all, having 5 years of studio experience doesn't guarantee to get in either.
"they were hired into art positions from QA because they happened to chat with a senior in the cafeteria"
Well, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that *if* they demonstrated all the required skills.
The recruiter approached me for the senior role after the rejection for the junior role and said I'd be a good fit for the senior position.
I assumed that they were aware of my rejection for the entry level role.
But it seems like they were clueless about it.
I'm not sure what the recruiter made of what I answered since they didn't reply after and I haven't heard from them since.
It does seem that Velan's system blocks a candidates reapplication if they've been rejected for any role.
Its different from other studios that keep your candidate profile in their system, so they can apply it automatically as openings become available.
At Velan a rejected application seems to be blacklisted across all roles.
Like if I apply for QA at Velan and get rejected, I'm bascially eliminated for all roles for an indeterminate time.
And this is odd since the rejection letter does ask to reapply as other roles become available but it seems the system rejects reapplications, perhaps the old application is applied to a position at a different level, but this doesn't make any sense.
With the position the studio is in now, I suppose it doesn't matter.
Interestingly they didn't, but they did make a good coffee using the coffee machine lol
EA was accomodating enough to give them the position with no portfolio, they demonstrated the skill required about 6-8 months into the position, and they were willing to let the candidate learn on the job.
I'm not entirely sure how they budgeted for this, but EA is very pro tech art and automation so I assume its possible to accomodate pretty much anyone so long as they can open the program and learn to use the tools in 6-8 months.
And I can't say that the bar for character art is the same across projects, they absolutely aren't looking for Keos Mason quality from prospective candidates, or atleast I'm not sure what kind of salary they would have to pay for that level of work in house, outsourcing it is far cheaper.
Many studios also consider other factors (such as DEI) that impact their budget and allow for more flexibility in accomodating candidates regardless of their skill.
Not sure about what impact this has on the game's quality, but they seemed to have managed so far.
Well, honestly you don't have to worry *at all* about that kind of stuff. First because it contributes to the unhealthy theorizing that doesn't help you practically in any way ; and secondly, if a studio led by morons prefers to hire based on skin color or genitalia as opposed to skill, then you probably don't want to work there anyways ... (of course that's easier said than done when jobhunting, but then it goes back to the first point : worrying about it doesn't help anyways).