Speaking of other forms of internet communication, let’s talk about email.  Specifically, about emails you send to try and get a job.  There are a few things we’ve seen at the office recently that seem like they should be obvious, but apparently need to be repeated.

1.  When sending an email, spell your name correctly in the subject line.  I felt bad for this guy–he did everything else pretty right, but obviously was at the point where he’d typed the same thing so many times it didn’t look like a real word anymore.  He had spelled his name one way in his resume and the body of the email, but it was spelled wrong in the subject.  Typing fatigue for sure.

2.  When sending an email, try to spell things correctly. People in the industry do often have notoriously bad spelling, but when you’re applying you should make it as easy as possible for the person reading your email to understand it.  When we have to puzzle out spellings of words it doesn’t endear you to us.

3.  Don’t send out mass-emails. Yes, you’re applying to a lot of places.  We understand that.  But for the love of corndogs, don’t leave fifty emails in the “to” line on your application.  We can see those. When the “to” field of the email is longer than the email itself, it’s unprofessional.  It also makes us laugh a lot.  Do yourself a favor.  Email all those companies separately, and try to tailor your cover letter to each company.  It will make you look much more professional and appealing.

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In completely different news, I wrote my very first knitting pattern and published it online!  It’s for socks.  For all four of you people who read this and like knitting, here is the pattern.

TwinkleTwinkleLittleSocks

If you do knit it, please let me know!  I’d be excited to see it.

Also, here is some eye candy of yarn I dyed myself.

Purple hand-dyed yarn.

It was a lot of fun to do!

Damn my professionalism.

Anyway, let’s say that you’re an artist, and you’ve been applying to studios for a while but you haven’t heard anything back.  What are you doing wrong?  What can you do to improve your chances?

1.  Take a good, hard look at your portfolio.  Is it up to industry standards? If you can’t tell whether or not your portfolio is up to snuff, ask for advice and feedback from others online.  I have seen people apply and apply and apply with modeling skills that are poor and texturing skills that are nonexistent.  If your work isn’t good enough, you will just not be hired.  There is nothing wrong with admitting you’re bad at something and choosing to do something else.  I don’t mean give up, I mean know your limits.  I originally wanted to be an animator.  I wanted to work for Pixar!  I had grand dreams of bringing characters to life.  Then it turned out that I really, really suck at animating.  I didn’t like it, I didn’t find it rewarding and I was bad at it.  I decided then and there that animation wasn’t for me, and that I would focus on 3-d modeling instead.  I’ve never looked back.

2.  Start getting your name out there in places other than your application.  There are a lot of excellent forums for digital art.  Pick a distinctive username and start posting.  Give feedback on other posters’ work and seek feedback on your own.  Participate in contests.  Get your work associated with your username and use that username everywhere.  Industry professionals post on those boards, too, and there’s a possibility the next time you apply someone will say, “Hey, that’s FizzTheCarbonated’s work.  She’s always friendly and helpful on the CGChat forums.  We should bring her in.”

3.  Take another look at your website.  If it’s clunky, uses outdated technology and is hard to navigate, your work might be rejected before it’s even seen.  You might not be applying for a web design position, but your website is a reflection on your art.  It needs to be easy to navigate and attractive, or you might get rejected out of hand.

4.  Don’t be picky!  I know people who didn’t want to work for a studio where they wouldn’t get to do fantasy art, or people who only wanted to do character modeling.  When you’re just starting out, you really can’t be choosy about what jobs you want to take.  My philosophy was, “If I get a job modeling cardboard boxes, I will model the best damn cardboard boxes I can!”  (I have, to date, modeled over 15 different forms of cardboard boxes.)  Once you have some skills and experience under your belt, you’re going to be in a much better place when it comes to seeking your dream job.

5.  Type professionally on your website and resume, and in any professional emails to a studio.  Once you’re hired, you can pretty much throw grammar to the wind (but please…  Don’t.  Please.) but when you’re seeking an interview you need to be as easy to understand as possible.  You want these people to give you a job, so treat them with respect.  Once you know them you can be more informal, but leave the text abbreviations and l33tspeak out when you’re jobseeking.  This should go without saying, but some people still screw it up.

That’s it for today!  I can ignore the siren call of the 360 no longer.  I think I’ll call her Vera.

2.  Apply.

Oh, wait, that’s advice everyone has probably heard before, and it’s not advice that’s terribly useful, is it?  Well, the actual, useful advice I have takes a lot longer.  It’s not two steps.  It’s not even five steps.  In fact, I’m not even sure how many steps it is.  It’ll probably take more than one blog post.  Maybe more than two.  Let’s find out together!

How To Get Into The Video Game Industry For Normal People

1.  Figure out what part of the industry you’re interested in.  Getting into programming is different from getting into art.  Getting into design is completely different.  Don’t forget the other aspects of the job!  Studios need marketing, producers, office managers, quality assurance testers, and all kinds of other unsung employees.  If you don’t want to program, have no art skills and can’t design, there are still jobs in the industry for you.  They just won’t be in programming, art or design.

2.  Once you know what you’re interested in, DEVELOP A PORTFOLIO.  Yes, that did require caps and bold.  No one will hire you without a portfolio.  You can’t just show up at a studio and say, “Hey, I promise I’m really awesome!” and expect to get a job.  You will need to demonstrate that you will be a useful employee and that you have the skills required of the position.

3.  That portfolio I mentioned?  Put it online.  Paper portfolios can be useful in person, when one is discussing things in an interview setting.  But to get to that interview, your portfolio needs to be available immediately when you apply to a studio.  There’s usually more than one person who will evaluate your work before deciding to bring you in for an interview, and if only one person can view your portfolio at a time…  That will be a problem.  It can be a problem that will keep you from getting an interview–remember, this studio doesn’t need you.  You want to make yourself as attractive and enticing to them as possible, and making your portfolio easily accessible is part of that.

4.  Only put your best work in your portfolio.  It is better to have a small but solid collection of work than to have some great stuff, some good stuff and some “meh” stuff.  Putting in one subpar piece of work can bring the entire impression of your application down a few notches.  Which would you rather be remembered as?  “That was the one with the five really good meshes,” or “That was the one with the five good meshes and then that kinda ugly frog thing.”  You want to show that you can do good work, not that you can do a lot of work.  In the industry, someone who does a lot of subpar work quickly means that the other employees will spend a lot of time cleaning up after that person.  Don’t be that person.

5.  Start applying.

This is just the beginning, the basics, of how to get a job in the industry.  Stay tuned for Part Two, where I will discuss some techniques for artists in particular!