Application Response Time

barnesy

I do apologize if this is the 461st job search related thread!

I finished my University studies around 2 weeks ago and since then I have been actively seeking employment.

I have read countless articles on "Breaking into the games industry" and I have been inspired by peoples stories about overcoming adversity.

Now I find myself in that same position. I am in need of some guidance and tips regarding the application process as day by day I am getting slightly more caveman.

I have applied to many UK based companies(20+) within the last 2 weeks and only 1 of them has got back to me so far, which was a no.

How long would you fellow Polycounters wait for a response to a job application before either abandoning hope, or re-applying?

Many of the positions are still advertised which makes me wonder A - Have I not got the job and they haven't had the time to email me? B- Are they waiting for a certain number of applicants? C- Are they creating an art test? or D- Are they not really that bothered about filling the vacancy and are waiting for the God of 3D to apply?

Any tips or advice that could help cure the insanity would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Jason Young

All of the above are often true. You might get a rejection email/letter months from now. I wouldn't bother re-applying to those places until you've created more work.

Best thing you can do is not get mentally hung up on the applications process, and focus your energy on improving. Eventually you'll start hearing back from more places, receiving more art tests, etc.

yodude87

yea, ive applied to 6 or 7 companies between the UK and some other places... for me relocation is not a problem at all

but up to now, only one replied back, and it was a no too. waiting for those other replies its been like two weeks or more... the most important thing is not give up hope, and keep improving... eventually youll get there. WE'll get there

matthewjvia

I've had companies respond to me months after an application. It can depend on a lot of things. They may have a time frame to accept applications before they review any of them, maybe they have a milestone coming and everyone is busy, etc. I had one company that had a job posted and the only HR person was on maternity leave. I had an interview with one company 3 months ago and never heard back only to find out recently that the job was just put on hold while they're moving to a new building. I had another studio that took nearly 2 months to review my art test.

One thing that helps me have a little peace of mind about it is to use Google Analytics on my site. It's not perfect, but if you know what studios you've applied to and where they are, you can at least get an idea if someone is looking. It's not super reliable, but it's better than never hearing back and having no clue.

Just focus on your portfolio and try not to drive yourself crazy. Good luck!

walreu

Calling to the company like a week after you have send the application asking if they recieved it and talking about it is a good habit too. That way you can get to more personal contact with them and the chances are that they might remember you better the next time.

Kwramm

non replies are the default. Usually the options for your application are toss (pick some bad/mediocre art from deviantart and you know those applications)/ file / forward. Unless a studio is searching desperately for talent, the time till they get back to you is a month. (my personal record: a rejection post-card from Capcom 6 months later)

When your art is totally newbish, expect no replies. If your art is good but just not what they need you'll usually get a no, or "we'll keep you in mind" response. If your art is absolutely stunning, they'll hire you right away

some places have to deal with hundreds of applications and mailing an answer costs time/money. Most studios I've seen have only a few HR people who do pretty much everything and are in my experience usually busy to breaking point. Even though it's rude to just ignore applicants, they have more important things to do than writing rejection letters to everyone.
You're not doing them a favor either calling 2 weeks after submission.

Even though you never hear of some places, in 99% they do get your application. When to reapply to those places you never hear of? When you have better artwork.

Sending out your first resumes and folios and the wait is probably the toughest thing for most new artists. But hang in there. If you're good then it's just a matter of time - try to stay afloat financially and work on your skills.

walreu

Well at least here in Finland it matters if you call. But that's because our studios are smaller.
I agree it doesn't really matter if you call to Ubisoft Montreal..

JO420

I hate to say it but responses times can be so damn random in this industry,for the most part i give it 3 weeks or so and then i get it out of my mind. In my experience,the companies that have hired me have called me within this time frame.


Unfortunately there is no real standards in terms of professionalism in this industry, so the quality of HR and speed of HR will vary in each company.

Eric Chadwick

More sage advice if you want to do some reading.
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryGameIndustry#Job_Searching

In particular...
Ten Tips for the Interview Follow Up - by Carole Martin
How to avoid a non-response after your interview.

Naugat

I graduated last year and I'm still unemployed.

If you haven't signed on the dole yet, do it already. Join the club and get used to baked beans and poridge.

barnesy

Thanks for all of the comments, they have really helped.

Eric's links in particular were great and they have gave me so much to think about!

It is a good job that I like baked beans and porridge then lol

BlvdNights

I just got a rejection letter from a studio I applied at probably this time last year. It's all random. Response times can range from 1 hour to months.

wasabi

Going through the same experience here now...
I have been applying here and there and most of the time I get no response at all.
A couple of companies did sent me a very nice rejection mail and it took them about 1 week or 2.
One studio actually got back to me in 4 days and gave me an art test..
I finished the art test in a week and sent it back to them. From there I had to wait about 2 1/2 weeks more to hear that I FAILED!!!!! (but I really appreciated that they gave me a chance to take the art test...)

Keep applying and at the same time level up your folio.
That is the lesson I learned from this experience..

Habboi

Back when I left university I was in the same experience but after working with UDK for a year and getting some projects out there I managed to snag a job at a small company because they saw I had UDK experience and they needed it. After finishing with them I went back on the search and I've applied to tons of companies and I've noticed I receive a lot more replies now that I have experience in my CV.

So really it's all about finding a small company just to get that first experience to slap on your CV.

Also I looked at your portfolio and the content is good but you need so much more. I'd spend the next few months pushing out content. Finally it might help if you made something impressive that really grabs peoples attention. There's this video of a German castle in UDK that blows my balls off and I'm sure it'd get you hired if you made something as epic as that.

Good luck in the search.

stabbington

I've only recently got involved fully in recruiting at the studio I'm at, but if it helps anyone there's a few things I can relate...

The most common complaint I have is with people that write two line emails explaining nothing about themselves. Just a showreel link. If it in fact works. You would not believe the amount (literally the vast majority) of applicants who do not list their name, where they are, what they've worked on, checked that the links are correct. Nothing.

Then, the bulk of applicants are from inappropriate places or from the wrong discipline. 'Oh hey, I see you're advertising for in-house animator roles in London, but I don't want to move from Vanuatu and I'd really rather be doing lighting' Well, okay?

And then fifty percent of emails are outsourcing companies offering their services.

But by far the most unifying theme, is that most of the reels suck. I try to be as charitable as I can but there's a lot of crap to filter through. And this all takes a ton of time to go through, watch, sort, file, add to list, reply to mail.

As for responding back, all I can say is that (for smaller studios at least) the person you are emailing is likely trying to do their regular role at the same time. And there might be occasions where they've been trying to hire in people to try and cover crunch - on top of working crunch. And there may be chains of inter-company emails to approve, get showreels sent to relevant leads/directors for viewing and approval and back again. Which, again, on top of normal work, might cause unending delays.

After all the gruelling thousands of reels, we might have shortlisted five applicants and are waiting for them to get back to us. And we don't want to send out rejection letters to anyone until we know we've filled positions. But sometimes people never get back to you when you ask them in for an interview.

So you go back to the list and look again.

I do try my hardest to reply to everyone personally with some kind of feedback but I've ended up having to do it in my free time at home because there's just no time in my normal day. I can kinda see why so many places just don't get back at all. It's hours and hours of work trying to be clear and concise with people half way around the world with no command of English, or be encouraging to people with terrible portfolios.

The people I love most are the people that write a nice, clear, concise emails introducing themselves, telling me a tiny, little bit about themselves and their aims, their availabilty and location and provide a well marked and up-to-date portfolio. And that's about 1 in 100, for some unknown, crazy reason.

But I guess the golden rule is - be awesome! And patient. And apply everywhere you can. But mostly awesome.

HitmonInfinity

In my experience, if you don't hear back within a day or two, it's a no. All my successes were pretty quick replys.

Sukotto

@stabbington: I'm curious but would you prefer to have a cover letter attached or actually in the body of the email application? Trying to figure out what recruiters prefer

marks

The place I work at currently took over 3 months to get back to me. It's not always as quick as you think !!!

skankerzero

I often find that a big knife gets you quick replies from people.

Justin Meisse

I discovered a quick way to get a rejection email: send an email saying you're under a time limit and need an answer by the end of the week!

stabbington

Sukotto - It always made sense to me for the cover letter to 'be' the email. It's the first thing that anyone will look at and there's always a chance someone'll skip over downloading an attachment if they're in a rush. But then again that's just me, a proper HR dept might be very different.

But like I say, even including a cover letter at all puts you way ahead of most folk!

Blaisoid

^ it also depends on country.
in Poland there's unfortunately a custom of sending a separate cover letter, and majority of companies require it that way.
Which is annoying because this kind of document is supposed to contain way more info than what you'd include in e-mail, leading to more dilemmas.

When i'm writing that shit i can't tell if it sounds too stiff, or if it's too long, or if something sounds like bragging, or if it's not unique enough,
or if my reasons for wanting to work at certain company sound too egoistic and trivial, and so on.
It's hard to convey what you're actually all about using written words.
"Don't read that crap. Call me instead." is what i'd actually like to write.

Ruz

Sending and email telling them that you only applied because you thought the standard of the art at the company was really poor, so you though you had more of a chance:)

you could send a horses head in a big envelope, but I fear the postage would be prohibitively expensive.

I did apply to one company and got a reply 5 months later and eventually regretted working there.

Kwramm

I like seeing cover letters. It adds a personal note and allows me to learn more about a candidate. You can talk about your past work, what drives you as an artist, where your inspiration comes from.
While most resumes are just bullet point lists of facts, the cover letter allows people to expand on that and make it more personal. And it's an easy way to show that you care about the impression you make.
Obviously if you use generic cover letter this can and will backfire.

But if you do the cover letter right it can be totally worth it.

PredatorGSR

walreu wrote: »

Calling to the company like a week after you have send the application asking if they recieved it and talking about it is a good habit too. That way you can get to more personal contact with them and the chances are that they might remember you better the next time.

We already had a multipage polycount thread about this topic a while back. Do NOT do this. It is not applicable to this industry.

stabbington

Blaisoid - That's true enough!

For the record, I'm talking only from my limited experience in the UK. Our cover letters seem to be no more than two or three paragraphs, so are very brief, and not much more than a little condensed hello with some personality and aims and a little knowledge of the job/studio in question and why you'd want to be there thrown in.

I think Kwramm hits the nail on the head, really.

But I guess that could be totally different elsewhere, so cultural differences might explain some of my more baffling applications...

PixelMasher

In my personal experience if a company does not get back to you within a couple days - a week, chances are they are not interested. every job I have gotten I was contacted back within a day or 2 and had an interview set up within a week.

Emailing them to see if they received your application can make you seem desperate, really these days the chance of them magically not getting your email when you apply directly to an account set up to receive applications is pretty slim. if you just don't hear back, yes they received it, and probably just thought you didnt fit the position. sounds rough but thats how this industry is.

My biggest recommendation is to network with people and dont apply though company websites, use linkedin, local events or people here on polycount to get your "in" at the company. really spruce up your linkedin profile, I found that to be invaluable, and am constantly being contacted on there. If your portfolio is solid, your resume is up to date and you work in a local hub where games are being made EX: Montreal, LA etc then you should have people contacting you if you are industry level.

its all about logistics, if you live near a studio they will probably want to hire locally instead of relocating people at a huge expense, so if you are living in the US and applying at UK studios and are a jr level artist, chances are they wont be willing to relocate you.

There are tons of reasons why you wont get a response back, but the main thing is to just keep improving your portfolio until people are chasing you down and wanting to interview you. never re-apply at a studio without a bunch of new higher quality artwork in your portfolio, show them drive and passion and that you have the ability to constantly improve your work.

Naugat

The concentrate on being awesome style of job finding is one I approve. But it's certainly not easy.

Having worked in studios before, it's frustrating when the structure and expertise they provide disappears and you're left paying rent 100 miles away. Sometimes you have to cut your loses, get a crappy job and do the best in whatever free time you have to make the dream happen. Sometimes the dream just isn't a priority.

Treat it as character building. You're the better artist if you slog it out.