Valandar, just remember that adding more lights that only cast light won't add too much to render times. Its the shadow casting lights (especially omni lights) that will start to really lengthen render times. Some "basic" lighting set ups in order to get a natural feel, look like chaotic messes. Just try and put some…
100% absolutely take the job, you can always work on gamedev stuff as a hobby or as a contractor until the industry recovers. If it's a standard 40hr work week, that's a lot of off-time to improve and make something that you want to make, instead of someone telling you what to make. It won't hurt your chances at getting…
Your Occlusion falloff is the problem there. I usually used somewhere in between 100 and 200. I would play with it. 20 - 50 - 100. It depends on how much you want.
Alternatively, use the Deformation panel to resize your model up by 100 a few times, dynamesh, and resize back down by -100 the same amount if you want extra detail.