Words of advice
polycounter lvl 11
I'm about six month's from graduating, and I'm sure there are many other people in my position who could use some advice from all the graduates who got jobs, or the people who have graduated but haven't found work yet. I'm mostly wondering if there is anything you wished you had known before you had graduated that you know now (besides honing your skills like crazy 
), or stuff you knew and wouldn't mind passing it along to others.
), or stuff you knew and wouldn't mind passing it along to others.
Replies
Realise that many/most places just don't reply at all, and communications can cease at any time, even after emails from them, or a phone interview, or even doing an art test for them.
Fire and forget seems to work ie. apply and then don't think much about it. If you get a reply, great.
Also remember that sometimes it just takes awhile to get a reply (a few months sometimes, or as others have said in a previous thread, a year later). So it can be very frustrating since you don't know if they weren't interested and didn't reply, or if they haven't actually looked at it yet.
Stay away from ropes or other things that can be fashioned into nooses, you may be tempted.
Stick with it, and keep improving while you are applying.
G'luck
If you are doing characters, good luck. Its extremely difficult to find entry level character work right now. I've been told I have a good character portfolio and skillset for an entry level job but so few people are hiring character artists its scary. The first job I got out of school is doing 3D buildings for the next-gen version of Microsoft maps, optimizing 500 polygon models and textures down to 200 polygons... yeah, a creative tour de force, you can imagine (pays quite well though). Round out a character portfolio with nice props as well. Lots of people don't start out in games right away for a number of reasons.
If you are doing environmental art or animation, lots of places seem to be hiring and if your portfolio is good it won't be a problem getting a job, I hear/assume.
Apply everywhere you can find, go through all the development studios listed on Gamasutra, IGDA, read through your Game Informers for studios, etc. Apply apply apply. I didn't realize how tedious and long it takes, figure a couple full days of work researching, writing cover letters, and assembling a good portfolio. If they have a phone number, follow up after a couple weeks and check up on your application, is recommended from tom sloper and common sense.
so few people are hiring character artists its scary.
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That really is not true. There are always a ton of companies looking for character artists, there is certainly no shortage of work. There is however, a shortage of *good* experienced character artists, and most companies don't want to take a gamble on entry level people for a very prominent aspect of their product. In current next gen production enviornments, devs don't have a lot of time to mentor junior artists and oversee every little thing they do, so they want people who can hit the ground running.
I realise that for aspiring character artists its a bit of a catch 22. My advice to students is to be exceptionally damn good, because having an outstanding portfolio will get you further than anything else you can possibly do in an attempt to break into the industry.
Do the applying thing as Prof said it as well, however make absolutely sure you are networking as much as you can at the same time, because you are more likely to get the job by knowing the right person than by being the lucky demo reel on the top of the stack.
Its extremely difficult to find entry level character work right now.
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Senior position openings are around a-plenty, yes. But no new college grad is going to be offered a senior level position even in the very unlikely situation where they really possess senior level art skills (as there is a lot more to a senior position than pure art skills but really good pure art skills/portfolio would probably mean they'll hook you anyway if your skills are really that exceptional). Companies aren't seeking entry level character artists right now. I don't know if the situation has always been like that though, so perhaps its just my limited perspective.
One more piece of advice: Focus on your art; I spent about 1/3 of my senior year actually doing character art because my senior thesis required me to learn so many new skills; ultimately I think this was well worthwhile but from a pure job/portfolio perspective, it definitely hurt me, as much of my character portfolio is from Summer 06 as I spent the next year doing minimal more character art relatively speaking as I had so much other stuff to do and learn, so I couldn't really show off my vastly improved skills from that character art time learning/practice.
Senior position openings are around a-plenty, yes. But no new college grad is going to be offered a senior level position even in the very unlikely situation where they really possess senior level art skills (as there is a lot more to a senior position than pure art skills but really good pure art skills/portfolio would probably mean they'll hook you anyway if your skills are really that exceptional). Companies aren't seeking entry level character artists right now.
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I'll let you in on some little industry secrets. Generally speaking, companies aren't *ever* going out of their way to seek 'entry level' people to do character work. As I said above, the dev teams just do not have time to babysit. The word 'senior' *can* (but not always) be used to sort out the wheat from the chaff, to get a higher standard of applicants. Entry level? Senior level? Unless were talking specifically about lead positions, that can sometimes be bs. Were talking about skill level, ability level in reality. Companies will hire college grad character artists sure, If they are very good.
If you are an exceptional character artist with a very good portfolio, then go ahead and apply for that senior position anyway. So sure, If hired you won't be on the same salary as someone who's shipped a few titles, and you wont be a 'senior' artist at the company but you've got your foot in the door.
It's not just about experience is my fundamental point, it's more about the quality of your work.
Post a lot of work here, get crits, give crits, and work your ass off to get better and better. Apply everywhere and don't give up or get discouraged when you get rejected.
Also, try not to let the pressure of "I need a job" rush your portfolio work, as hard as that is sometimes when the bills are piling up. Take your time and do good solid work, even if it takes a few weeks longer than you would have liked, it's better than applying with rushed half-assed work. Good luck.
I'll let you in on some little industry secrets. Generally speaking, companies aren't *ever* going out of their way to seek 'entry level' people to do character work. As I said above, the dev teams just do not have time to babysit. The word 'senior' *can* (but not always) be used to sort out the wheat from the chaff, to get a higher standard of applicants. Entry level? Senior level? Unless were talking specifically about lead positions, that can sometimes be bs. Were talking about skill level, ability level in reality. Companies will hire college grad character artists sure, If they are very good.
If you are an exceptional character artist with a very good portfolio, then go ahead and apply for that senior position anyway. So sure, If hired you won't be on the same salary as someone who's shipped a few titles, and you wont be a 'senior' artist at the company but you've got your foot in the door.
It's not just about experience is my fundamental point, it's more about the quality of your work.
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Gotta second what Daz is saying. A really good friend of mine just got a job as Senior Animator at a very large company and this is his first industry job. He is bad ass and they saw that and thats the job they had open and they gave it to him. While he's not getting the senior level pay in the end it's just a title and it's not a lead position.
If you have the skills and a company wants you they aren't gonna be like oh this dude hasn't got any shipped titles or what not. They are gonna pick you up.
Same goes for any job and the company might be more interested in hiring a bad ass entry level guy over a more seasoned vet with the same skills because they can afford to pay the new guy less then the vet.
quite often the art director knows what he is looking for and your work has to push the right buttons.
Took me about 5 years to get a job and if I had just had a bit of advice about what to concentrate on, i might have got in a bit sooner:)
There were very few courses when I graduated back in 1996, but coming from a background in illustration really helped in the long term.
I suppose you have to work fast in the industry, but just do the best work you can before applying, the speed will come in time.
I always look at the best work out there and compare my stuff with it.
Mine is always lacking in comparison and this stops me getting complacent.
Good luck
Also, don't avoid applying to places if they aren't advertising the position you are aiming for, apply anyway. Some places force you to apply through their website via "apply for this job" button on the positions they have, so that can be a dead end if your position isn't there. But most don't, so you can still apply to most companies.
Something I found useful was to have a notepad file and put the names of companies in a list (alphabetical order) and a link to their website (or job page on the site) beside it. As you find more companies, add them to the list.
Have a draft email saved that has your cover letter and resume attached, with link to your portfolio page. Then you just need to put the email address to send to, correct subject title (some places ask for specific things like a code for the position, which is on their site) and send. Then just put a mark before the company's name in your notepad file (put a couple of * myself).
This lets you keep track of where you have applied (and whatever else you might want to keep track of, such as putting a different mark to indicate if they are in a different country).