Help: Need advice on how to land a job
polycounter lvl 10
Hi everyone,
For the last 7 months Ive been trying to find work in gaming, motion graphics, advertisement, simulation, arch-viz and any other field that might have use of a 3D artist. So far I have not been successful. Below, I am posting my story so far, as well as links to my online presence.
I am hoping to gather some insight into what I may be doing wrong. Is my website slow, work subpar, Linkedin picture creeptastic, resume unreadable, do my posts on LinkedIn and my blog make me sound like a jerk? Any and all feedback on how I could change my approach to searching for a job would be greatly appreciated.
Ive been interested in becoming a game artist from a very early age and some of you may have seen some of my work here on polycount.
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Ive been working on mods and games in my spare time since UT 2k3 came with a PLE of maya. In 2007 I decided to get serious and attended a computer animation bachelors degree. 2009 I completed it, scoring highest in my class. During production of my reel, I worked so many hours and the exhaustion was so extensive that my wife had to help me walk up the stairs. Here's the result:
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But I was proud of my work and my achievements and hoped all that hard work would help me get a job in the field I loved. I started sending out resumes, connecting with people on LinkedIn and even went to GDC. The feedback I got at GDC was that they like my work but I needed experience to be considered. A year passed and there was almost zero interest, there was an art test from Valve and one from Naughty Dog but I wasnt ready yet. Eventually by recommendation from a teacher at the university I attended, I got hired by a start-up developer doing serious games.
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Unfortunately 3 years later, the company had to shut down and I moved from the US back to Switzerland. With over 20 shipped titles, lead artist and project management under my belt I expected to find something without major difficulties. After all, now I had over 3 years of experience and an extensive network of contacts to fall back on.
I started living on LinkedIn, browsing job sites, studio specific newsletters and applying to any gaming related job I could find. 7 months later and I have nothing to show for it, not a single call back, interview or art test I need to refocus and reconsider my approach. I would be really grateful for any info on what I could change.
Here's a link to my website: http://www.g-cg.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastiangiannoulatos
Cheers,
Sebastian
For the last 7 months Ive been trying to find work in gaming, motion graphics, advertisement, simulation, arch-viz and any other field that might have use of a 3D artist. So far I have not been successful. Below, I am posting my story so far, as well as links to my online presence.
I am hoping to gather some insight into what I may be doing wrong. Is my website slow, work subpar, Linkedin picture creeptastic, resume unreadable, do my posts on LinkedIn and my blog make me sound like a jerk? Any and all feedback on how I could change my approach to searching for a job would be greatly appreciated.
Ive been interested in becoming a game artist from a very early age and some of you may have seen some of my work here on polycount.
[vv]91905881[/vv]
Ive been working on mods and games in my spare time since UT 2k3 came with a PLE of maya. In 2007 I decided to get serious and attended a computer animation bachelors degree. 2009 I completed it, scoring highest in my class. During production of my reel, I worked so many hours and the exhaustion was so extensive that my wife had to help me walk up the stairs. Here's the result:
[vv]8110223[/vv]
But I was proud of my work and my achievements and hoped all that hard work would help me get a job in the field I loved. I started sending out resumes, connecting with people on LinkedIn and even went to GDC. The feedback I got at GDC was that they like my work but I needed experience to be considered. A year passed and there was almost zero interest, there was an art test from Valve and one from Naughty Dog but I wasnt ready yet. Eventually by recommendation from a teacher at the university I attended, I got hired by a start-up developer doing serious games.
[vv]69670670[/vv]
Unfortunately 3 years later, the company had to shut down and I moved from the US back to Switzerland. With over 20 shipped titles, lead artist and project management under my belt I expected to find something without major difficulties. After all, now I had over 3 years of experience and an extensive network of contacts to fall back on.
I started living on LinkedIn, browsing job sites, studio specific newsletters and applying to any gaming related job I could find. 7 months later and I have nothing to show for it, not a single call back, interview or art test I need to refocus and reconsider my approach. I would be really grateful for any info on what I could change.
Here's a link to my website: http://www.g-cg.com/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastiangiannoulatos
Cheers,
Sebastian
Replies
Maybe you looking for the wrong jobs in the wrong place, maybe look for junior stuff like I've been trying too
For example, it sounds like it took you over 3 years to finish your simple Lagoon scene?
@Skyline5gtr, I'm not targeting senior positions or anything, lol
I'd be happy with entry level. Best of luck to both of us
@Tobbo, it was recommended to do that by a recruiter but I agree, I'm not a big fan of it either. I'll take it out.
That said, I'd slim down your portfolio considerably.
Take e.g. the madison avenue square, pick a few(like three or four) assets and polish them to the best of your abilities and present them on the first page.
(The way it is right now is ok, too, it's just a few clicks away, but the images are way too many. Decide what you want to show, don't let people wade through heaps of stuff.)
Don't separate texture-sheets and asset, don't separate the flythrough from the scene. Right now you have tons of images and the content is scattered over several screens.
If you apply for entry level positions, your resume might confuse potential employers. Those lead and art director positions are valuable experience, but they might question how well you integrate into their team and why you are applying for an entry level position in the first place.
I wouldn't list all those projects separately, especially if they are not really relevant to the job you are applying for right now.
But then again I don't know jack about resumes.
Also I'm a bit confused why you describe Basel to be located at the heart of Switzerland.
Your About me in the resume also reads like you are looking for off site freelance work and want to run the project yourself.
Maybe consider to do separate portfolios for game and viz work.
(I wouldn't show the viz work to a game studio. )
I think you could benefit from trimming some of the information out. Don't tell me about your process, show me the results.
I think in the modern day of the games industry, it's important to talk about technical budgeting since many games end up pushing hardware to their limit. Many people can create incredible environments that aren't necessarily "game-ready" so I think it's important to show a potential employer that you can make a kickass environment without making everything a 4K texture and by showing clean wires of meshes that are properly optimized.
Of course, I'm not the most experienced person here so I would suggest waiting for some more responses before making any changes lol.
I'd like to wish you the best of luck finding a job, your work is quite inspiring and I'm sure you'll land a nice position somewhere soon!
It's a bit underwhelming.
So in the future I would suggest working on some individual "hero" assets or a smaller scene and really push the quality on those as far as possible.
http://www.g-cg.com/wp-content/uploads/Props_00153664b453d817.jpg
http://www.scotthomer.co.uk/finished_work/lectern/book_low_final_1000.jpg
http://www.g-cg.com/wp-content/uploads/Props_00953664b555d209.jpg
http://static.squarespace.com/static/51893a61e4b0c9fc9cb8b84e/t/52a102f3e4b0b777d9e1425d/1386283767482/truck_test.jpg?format=1500w
These are 2 quick comparisons, you don't have to go do a book or a car, just wanted to illustrate that there is a good amount of progress you can make in that area.
The presentation of your single assets is lacking. (The presentation of the square as a whole is nice but that won't matter depending on the role you are applying for.)
The light seems pretty diffuse and washed out most of the time and is not suited to show the normals or materials. The materials and shaders generally seem to need more work.
This might be partly because of the presentation or perhaps because you display them outside of the intended engine(just a guess) but at first sight the individual assets don't leave a good impression and they are what most potential employers will be looking for.
As a side note some of the music seems a bit off key. (I noticed it at the end of the 2009 reel.) Might be no big deal, might throw some people off,if they have come that far, maybe even subconsciously.
edit: basically what joeriv is saying. Also the cage of your car looks a bit wasteful and unclean. (I also noticed some wavy normals in the viz-reel, but then, again, I wouldn't show that to any game company for various reasons.
So for the majority I hear I need to step up my game and just make less environments and more high quality props.
I should/will also remove the 'about me' section on the resume and condense the job/project descriptions in the experience section.
I will also be trying a completely different layout and posting both versions for comparison.
@Noren, I will correct the geographical snafu to properly reflect the location of Basel
I'm a little confused as to what to do about the individual project pages.
I hear so much conflicting information and try to reconcile and incorporate all of it, that's probably why my page is such a mess.
>Its a 50/50 toss up between 'every environment needs a flythrough' and 'never ever EVER show a flythrough, people only want screenshots', lol
That's why currently the flythroughs are just linked to, in case anyone cares to see them.
Would you suggest I move each flythrough to the project page and do away with the video section entirely?
At college they told us to have a page with beauty shots and another for the breakdown. Would you suggest I do away with the write-up altogether, merge everything related to a project to one page and just pack the information into the screenshots?
Would you have the model and its maps on one screenshot?
Thank you for all the feedback so far
Cheers
Here's how I would order your home page:
- Core Drilling, because it's your most impressive, professional piece. (Make sure it's labeled as such.)
- Division
- Aberdean
- Typhoon Lagoon
- Warehouse
Pretty much everything else is a tossup, you might even just take it all out.Unless a project was made impressively quickly, e.g. a month, don't mention how long it took you. The description for Typhoon Lagoon in particular is really shooting it in the foot.
The write-ups overall are fine, especially since you don't have to click through them. If nothing else, you want them there to explain your contribution on team projects. Just make sure you don't write anything that can shoot the project in the foot. (Unless a project was completed in an impressive amount of time, don't mention how long it took.)
Some of the images take a REALLY long time to load. Make sure they're sized correctly for the gallery, and that in photoshop, you use "Save for Web". You've got so many screen shots for each piece that I don't think you really need fly-throughs. You cal always just embed them in the descriptions though.
This isn't true for every project, but I think you could make the biggest improvements in your lighting. Some scenes look really flat because the lighting and shadows are basically greyscale.
Nice work though, especially the Division fan art and Aberdeen. (Aberdeen and the Warehouse would benefit from some more colorful lighting.)
I'd say it doesn't matter how exactly you do it, as long as it's easily accessible.
I remember seeing a taxi in your individual asset section, then some other stuff and then the texture-flats for the taxi. (Or something like that.)
Having it in one picture is not strictly necessary but it could help if people want to download stuff. (But that's more common sense than some kind of holy portfolio rules.)
Over the weekend I did a lot of work on everything.
To kick things off, I redid the resume, removing the about me section and most mentions of lead and project work (if anyone is interested I can always mention that in an interview).
New:
http://www.g-cg.com/resume/
Old:
http://www.g-cg.com/13-2/
Please let me know what you think.
Left to do:
I will redo all project pages.
They will be structured similar to many other portfolio sites where you have 4-6 large images in the main column (no more viewer or carousel) followed by 2-4 breakdown images, the flythroughs and the project description.
I'm in the process of rewriting the about me page, making it clearer that i don't think i'm only interested in senior level work or for that matter thinking that i'd be good enough for it to begin with.
I'll be completely removing the video gallery page as all content there will be absorbed into the project pages.
Questions
Should I separate the 3 serious games projects into their own pages?
Should I merge the About Me and Contact pages?
Should I keep the existing layout of widescreen buttons?
Alternatively I kinda like this setup, but it'd would make the shots smaller and I'm not sure its a good idea for environments:
http://www.jamestaylorart.com/index.php
The photo is a nice touch.
(I think I read somewhere that you shouldn't add a photo to an actual application in some countries. Same might go for age, marital status etc. I don't really think it's relevant to an online presence, just mentioning it.)
-Should I separate the 3 serious games projects into their own pages?
If you want to emphasize this part of your work you could do that.
But like said, I wouldn't send a visualization heavy portfolio to a game company and vice versa. They might be willing to look for the actual skills behind the project, but chances are it's a disadvantage.
I think this depends on the studio, and the actual quality of vis work. I on a whim, applied to a studio with a vis based portfolio (had a few game pieces in there but 75% of it was vis work) and I was successful in both landing an interview and being offered the role.
If this was in the US, I wouldn't include it but I've been told that for Switzerland and Germany it's a must have. The primary markets I'm interested in tough are Sweden and the UK so I'm not sure about them.
Does my sim work really count as vis?
I always thought that serious games, counted as games, lol
All those environments where first person interactive experiences in unity with people walking around in the world and manipulating a ton of stuff. Some where even multiplayer.
Anhwho, here's the first reworked project page:
http://www.g-cg.com/115madisonavenue/
I removed all references to how long it took, kept the 6 best shots, expanded the information on the breakdowns and added the flythroughs into the same page.
Please let me know what you think
Cheers
you have some good assets and environments.
I would you recommend this thread: Your portfolio repels jobs
Like the others said you have some good stuff but your presentation is bad.
Also there is way to much text and info.. noone cares if you have some 13 years excel skills or you know skype. (in the games industry )
I would clean up your entire foliio - keep it very simple. Buy marmoset if you dont want to load everything into udk.
- show only a few good images - polish them like joeriv said.
- Cut all the text and "about me/blog/explain " stuff - just a short resume and a overview of your technical skills (dont include word or skype if i want to hire you as an professional artist - i think you bring all that skill with you
- less is more - go more for big pictures
- cut the breakdowns, give some inside texture sheets or just one shot how you did it, but nothing more.
Hope that helpes, also hope youre land a job soon - i know that feeling.
Cheers
I tentatively redid one of the pages to get a feel for everything you guys have been saying: http://www.g-cg.com/115madisonavenue/
Does that come close to what you where thinking?
I guess it's somewhere in between.
The main goal here seems to be the training, realistic measures and gear and not pretty visuals and atmosphere and all of that on a budget.
Most people will understand this, but not necessarily everyone.
On the other hand it shows you are familiar with the engine.
I like the reworked project page.
Maybe put the flythrough at the top, but as a smaller videolink, so people who are interested to see it can watch it right away and others can ignore it.
But that's not really important and personal preference.
Single assets should be bigger in the end.
(If you want you could also take some of the simulation assets you modeled and show them separately in its parent-project if they are done well. )
edit:
You could also show some highpoly models. (Sorry if I missed them.)
I don't think your portfolio is the problem here. In fact it's pretty awesome imo. The quality of individual assets could be better, so maybe make a few hero pieces. But other than that it should be quite easy to find a job.
I'd make the banner at the top a bit simpler and take out the image background.
How many applications have you actually sent out? I got 2 interviews out of maybe 50 applications. Though I was lucky enough to get the job on my first interview. Go on www.gamedevmap.com and apply to every place that interests you, regardless of whether they're currently hiring or not.
Also it does seem like you might have too much experience to be applying for an entry position.
Most of the textures for madison ave are sculpts but it's just bricks, blocks etc.
@komaokc, I sent out about 80 applications in the last 5 months.
But the feedback I got here about the messaging being off key will certainly help
Did you get something from an advertised position or did you just 'cold call'?
Hero assets:
I hear what you guys are saying and I'll be starting on something as soon as the site revamp is don't (Wednesday or Thursday)
I was thinking of turning it into a 3 part series: The past, present, and future of the sniper rifle.
I'd make a 1803 Harpers Fery Flintlock: http://www.instmiltech.com/shot-show-2013/
A british AS-50: http://blendblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/AS-50British-world.guns_.ru_.jpg
And a sci-fi sniper (though I haven't found a concept I liked yet)
What do you guys think of that idea?
Should it be something else?
Cheers
I feel you're not reaching full potential on your presentation in showcasing your work. It feels like your tweaking your 'personal' website into a 'portfolio - You should hire me' website and at the moment it feels like you're in the middle of both camps.
The tuts, wip, about me, blog are great and fine on your 'personal' website, but personally I would start afresh and create a new template for your serious 'give me a job' portfolio and make it clear and direct what you are capable of. (It's fine to keep what you have now, I'm just saying you have 2 versions)
The way I see it is you cater for your audience, so the AD, the lead artist who have limited time and see countless of portfolios so by thinking from their point of view it makes design choices easier from your end, ie. you need less mouse clicks, see the art quickly, some breakdown to show understanding of budgets etc.
You have some good work so you've done the hard work, just just need to present it better.
Smart from an efficiency point of view, but it would definitely help if you could demonstrate some solid SubD modeling skills and/or more advanced sculpts.
Rifles: Sounds good to me. If you pull that off in a high enough quality I'd decide from company to company if you really want to apply for a junior position.
As you're an environment artist, I don't think there is much mileage in having 3 guns.
I would choose one of them and spent the time to make it awesome. So you tick the boxes for 'hero asset' with 'high poly' mesh and with PBR in marmoset2.
An additional hero piece could be environmental instead, like an ornate fountain or an interesting centre piece structure in a grand hotel lobby, etc.
Good idea on the environmental pieces, maybe I'll do something like that.
I have to admit that I am confused by not just your critique but by other posts before yours about the issue of 'too many clicks to get to the art'.
The way I see it the portfolio page is one rather large image per project, you click it and you get to more larger images from that same project.
That's the same way most other portfolios that are featured on polycount as good are set up (http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryPortfolio).
Should I do away with that system and have all projects on one page?
I'm not opposed to it, but I'm afraid if I do that, people would have to scroll quite a lot to see everything.
I am also not opposed to the idea of axing the Blog,Tutorial, Wip and About Me pages.
They are the result of talking to some recruiters and HR people that said they're important. Their reasoning was that by having the porfolio and resume pages first, someone under time pressure can just look at those. They said that once it reaches a hiring manager, they'll want to get a feel for me as a person and then they'd want to see the other sections.
Now, it is important to note that they where not from the game industry but from business and pharma.
So I value your input as someone who is indeed in the industry I am trying to break into and has experienced everything first hand.
I'm not trying to be combative, I'm just trying to understand and get it right.
if i have to click, wait for images to reload, scroll , then go back, click again its wasted time when you could have everything loaded. if you have way too many images, condense them into less images, i doubt that you cant put these : http://www.g-cg.com/wp-content/uploads/115_MadisonAve_Breakdown_002.jpg
and these
http://www.g-cg.com/wp-content/uploads/115_MadisonAve_Breakdown_001.jpg
on the same image, its a matter of beeing smart with the number of images you have.
"I'm not opposed to it, but I'm afraid if I do that, people would have to scroll quite a lot to see everything."
People are already doing that in your folio, with the added nuisance of more clicks.
"I am also not opposed to the idea of axing the Blog,Tutorial, Wip and About Me pages.
They are the result of talking to some recruiters and HR people that said they're important. Their reasoning was that by having the porfolio and resume pages first, someone under time pressure can just look at those. They said that once it reaches a hiring manager, they'll want to get a feel for me as a person and then they'd want to see the other sections."
Recruiters and HR people arent artists usually , just folio and resume with contact is enough , no BS "about me page" if they are interested in you they will ask about you.
I'll condense those two down to one then
Would you keep the tutorials page?
(Heads-up: optimizing all image sizes and re-uploading everything, the site is a mess and a lot of links broken right now)
It starts with your icon on polycount, is that the default yellow photoshop glow ?
The website header looks like a wordpress preset from 2005, just that its blurry, so it has to come from photoshop. You logo needs to be something special, or just use a nice font, something condensed or light, just something special, no cheesy effects.
http://www.dafont.com/roboto.font
Get some thin mixed with some regular or medium and youre set
The main problem is your lighting and shaders. The shaders look like you made them in 3DS in a very basic fashion or in Unity with standard shaders. Get cryengine or U4 and do your environments there, it just looks aged.
When you say that you got 20 shipped titles and bells and whistles, I do not see anything of that in your portfolio. Maybe I see some of these titles, I dont know, but I know that I do not see the presentation of someone that shipped 20 titles. The page needs to show competence itself, not only by the artworks.
Those text animations definitely need to go, they look cheesy and just drag the rest down. Get a unified presentation, something thats bold and memorable, that looks like competence (not implying the opposite, just saying)
Cut all the worst things and show only the best. Dont be afraid to touch up some assets you show. If you show it, then its actual and then you can work on them.
And as other say, you have to step up your quality of your meshes, do some nice highpolys and screen them, and do some hero props.
That was as straight forward as it goes, I hope it helps and wish you luck
Thank you for your comments.
I'll gladly work on the presentation of the titles and whatnot:)
What text animations are you referring to?
All content is back up and running, please let me know if you encounter any issues, missing/broken links etc.
Cheers