Job Hunting question

pangarang · May 2008

Hey guys!

I'm currently job hunting right now, and I hear that it's useful to update the companies you apply to when you add new material to your portfolio. I'm just wondering how you guys do it. Do you just write an email that says

"hi, this is so and so, i just made some updates to my portfolio, feel free to check it out!"

Or do you just re-apply for the position if it's one month down the road? I can see that some companies would like it while others might look upon it as harassment but how do you predict how they will react? Or do you phone in and ask first?

I've just made some major change to my website and I'm constantly adding new material all the time, so I'm just wondering how I'd go about notifying the companies I've applied to without spamming them.

Thanks in advance.

bounchfx · May 2008

I think a lot of companies may find it annoying as hell to have people chiming in left and right, considering the volume of applications most get. However if you feel the change is noteworthy enough... I'm gonna go ahead with reapply later down the road. I'm not an expert on this though. Self discretion until you get more replies here

doc rob · May 2008

I'd say every 3-6 months is perfectly acceptable. Just use common sense - does the new material put you in a brand new light? If not, they're probably not going to reconsider you and they might ignore you the next time when you DO have all new material down the road.

Mark Dygert · May 2008

I don't think its harassment, you're letting them know you're active and that your interested. It gets you portfolio back in front, in case it was shuffled to the back.

The only possible red flag it might send up is if you don't change enough and what you had previously wasn't what they where looking for. You want to make sure they say;
"Hey I remember this guy, and wow this new stuff is great and he finished off those WIP's!".
Not
"Oh yeah I've seen all of this before, when is he going to finish those WIP's? PASS, again".

I like the changes you've made. But I think you need more. If you're going for a character artist position, you'll need a few non obscured faces.

Charcacters:
- The Warrior has some wonky anatomy and the face is obscured so I'm not sure how accurately you can model a face.
- The WIP head shows promise but its a WIP and has been for a while.

- The skater has cartoonish proportions, baggy cloths and again, an obscured face. It looks good but doesn't speak to your understanding of anatomy.

- The Step Sister looks good, but then the UV layout makes me wonder. The face takes up more space then the dress. The fidelity of the dress looks to suffer because of it, and the face details aren't really being noticed.

Props:
- Destroyed building. Lots of right angles and sharp crisp corners. A lot can be done with only a few extra polys to round and rough out this prop. No wire view, no textures, booo.

- Rock crusher, is a good prop, a little low poly and lacking in fine details Could a normal map be used or maybe painting right into the diffuse would help? I think the texture is a bit of a let down as it looks photosourced and doesn't really play to the details, that should be there. It looks uniquely unwrapped but the materials don't blend between the pieces and it looks like AO wasn't added.

- Warehouse, another good prop but the textures kind of let it down. Kind of messy and the mess doesn't make sense in a few places. Normally up near the roof line there is kind of a protected zone. Rain and grit don't fly up under roof and get the walls dirty up there, so it looks odd when dirt marks run the entire length of the building.

- Train car, same crits as the rock crusher. Lack of AO, pieces don't seem to blend.

- Glass/Bottle. The background photo is horribly pixelated. If its meant to impress it does the opposite.

Environments:
- Or should I say, environment. Not bad, but its still a WIP and takes up 3 more thumb slots then it should.

Keep up the good work, you're improving!

TheWinterLord · May 2008

I think a employer would like to see some texture flats, like how well did you UV and so on.
Yup keep it up and good luck!

pangarang · May 2008

@ bounchfx - What you're saying makes sense. One of the companies I followed up with awhile back said to keep them in the loop with whatever updates I make. I'm assuming they meant major updates that would make them re-evaluate me and considering it takes a good 1-3 months to finish a new project, an update notification upon project completion seems like the best way to go.

@doc rob - absolutely right. I wouldn't think companies would be rushing to know when you're done modeling, when you're done texturing. Just when you're completely DONE, lol. 3-6 month updates couldn't possibly be considered spamming.

@ Vic - I appreciate the full, well rounded feedback! You have no idea how valuable it was to me (or maybe you do) so I thank you for the time you've taken to look over each piece carefully, and for your encouragement as well! I will definitely make sure I keep your critiques in mind while I finish off the remaining WIPs.

@The Winter Lord - yes, unfortunately I haven't taken proper time to include UV snapshots of my models. I'll need to do that too, thanks for reminding me.

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