Applying for a job...

SnowGhost · Jul 2010

In your guys experience, what does "work experience" encompass when applying for a job in the industry? Does only professional paid work count? Can I put on my application non-paid modding experience (such as specific mod teams?)

I'm just curious because Blizzard makes you fill out a online application that asks for work experience, but otherwise does not ask for skills or any other sort of experience. Of course these would be listed in my resume but I doubt their HR looks through every one they get.

Should I be worried about not having any related work experience in my application (sans resume), or is it only used as a first line of defense to weed out people who can't keep a job down - if you know what I mean.

DrunkShaman · Aug 2010

If the work experience requires you to put the experience related to the job posting. Regardless of paid/non paid work that you have done so far. You should put it there.

Blizzard and other big game studios would prefer someone who have atleast 1-3 years of work experience related to the job posting.

Otherwise; if they failed to find anyone, they would prefer someone with none-6 months worth of experience.

Really depends on the Employer and your luck, Dedication, and passion for that job posting.

/2cents

parasyte7 · Aug 2010

It really depends on the job you are applying for. We look for heavy experience in senior and lead applicants (as well as amazing artwork). With that being said, for associate or mid level positions, experience becomes a little less important. We have hired many artists right out of school, from art contests and the mod community. Actually, we hired an artist on the StarCraft 2 team that had no formal art training at all. He created some cool little SHMUP game that had some great design and 3d art. Things like this help you get noticed.

For Blizzard Entertainment specifically, please include a link to your portfolio when filling out your application. I do review every artist that applies to Blizzard Entertainment and having a link rather than me opening up a resume to get that information does help streamline the process.

Lastly, when applying for a position at a company like Blizzard Entertainment, please have some relevant samples. We want to see lots of hand painted/stylized assets that show you are competent in this type of art creation. Blizzard Entertainment specific samples also help show the Art Directors you are passionate about the company/games.

I hope this helps and good luck on your job search.

SnowGhost · Aug 2010

Its actually an associate level design position. I added a link to my portfolio, though there are not any work samples to download (as in completed maps) because the galaxy editor for starcraft 2 has only just been released (I played with the beta version though and did what I could.) There are of course several pics of my work though.

In truth I wasn't really ready to submit the application but I did on accident. I know I can withdraw it if I wanted to though but I figured what the heck I might as well ( I was a bit afraid to.) So now I'm left scrambling to fix things before Monday.

Thanks for the input guys its been a great help to me.

**I decided to go ahead and withdraw my submission while I still can. I want to add more relevant work (like completed SC2 maps!) to my portfolio first. I think I was getting ahead of myself a bit there.

Applying for a job...

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