Job application advice

[sherifelshorbagy]

Hi professionals ! please I need some serious advice in my case.

I applied for a job, and here is the conversation that I had with the director.

Suddenly the conversation stopped; I do not know the reason; am I rejected or will there be a step in the future? and if I am rejected; is that because of some particular thing I said?

Thank you so much in advance.

[Nic H]

It sounds suspicious. The pricing question is pretty unusual as is the separation of still image artists and animation artists. It would be rare in arch vis to have the two of these as distinct roles. The way the email is worded also suggests the people you are dealing with are not professionals.

 

Doing a test image is pretty standard practice when applying for arch vis however.

 

As an aside I would really look at improving you cover letter to include something about your skills, interests, experience and most importantly why you would like to work for a particular studio and why you may be suited to the job. We get lots of applications that are just folios with no explanation of what they are sending or why - unless they are absolutely amazing they get deleted.

[James Vella]

Just from an outsiders point of view, as well as being in the position of hiring staff for architecture, I can tell you my opinion;

 

3 months is too long for an animation - period. Im going to guess it was under 1 minute. As a solo artist, producing animations at a photo quality level - our general turnaround is about 30 seconds per week. Ofcourse you need to model, place, light, texture, setup cameras all that jazz, but the client will be expecting to see updates to the storyboard/animatic/final daily - if not every second day.

[sherifelshorbagy]

Thank you Sir James Vella. By the way this was Vizform studio in Australia! However I told the director that I worked on some other jobs beside this animation, as well as some delay in the project's schedule itself. Maybe I should have told him the pure period. But with that they are not coming back to me again ?

[sherifelshorbagy]

Thank you so much for your advice. But my resume does include a profile ( skills, experience,etc.. )

[James Vella]

Yes good idea. Tell them how long it would take u now, 9-5 full time. I cringe when someone tells me this part was hard, this broke, this needed testing.... pitch it like a salesman, easy to do, when do u need it? Then work out how ur gonna get it done in time or how many extra people u need

[sherifelshorbagy]

Yeah I got your point, ok will give it another try and send them. Sir James thank you so much, really appreciate.

[James Vella]

You are welcome. Can we see the animation ?

[sherifelshorbagy]

Sure ! but please take into consider that it is my first professional commissioned animation

and sure all your comments and criticism are welcome

Edited July 11, 2016 by sherifelshorbagy

[adrianlombardo]

Animation looks technically pretty good. Plenty to learn about aesthetics/composition/lighting, which is also good, it takes time.

 

As others have noted, especially James - speed is very important for professional work. In architecture school I could spend two weeks on a huge panoramic rendering. Today I can do about the same work in two days, or 3/4 as good in one day. This is very important for the firm, but was never stressed at school.

Remember that dozens of other professionals on many fields are working simultaneously, and the project only moves as fast as the slowest person. The artists (at least here) are never expected to be the slower ones.

Newly graduated artists too often worry about details and forget about streamlining. Making sure to learn your program well and the most important shortcuts, cutting down rendering time, not using unnecessarily high resolutions, getting good texture/item libraries at your fingertips, anything that will help you mass produce. Always ask yourself how you could spend some time now that will save you more time later. The client usually doesn't care whether that palm tree is perfect, that reflection right or this texture has high enough resolution - he just wants the result to look flashy/stunning/authentic/whatever his taste and for the cost to be 5,000 USD rather than 10,000 USD.

[James Vella]

While there is a few areas you could have improved on (mainly lighting, gamma, camera movement looks a bit robotic) the overall quality is great, impressive output for your first animation well done! I can see your going to be one to look out for

[sherifelshorbagy]

Thank you guys for all these comments and tips. I sent the director again, but he did not reply. Anyway as it all a self learning process to me; this could be the reason behind that delay. If I could not make it to any leading studio in about one year, I will apply for a CG architecture university.

[himanshuchoudhary]

Thank you guys for all these comments and tips. I sent the director again, but he did not reply. Anyway as it all a self learning process to me; this could be the reason behind that delay. If I could not make it to any leading studio in about one year, I will apply for a CG architecture university.

 

Hey Sherif,

I am sure its not because of the self learning process or any of those sorts. I have been self taught and have been working in quite a few decent studios since last 4 years. One problem i could think of is the visa process which the studios have to go through now a days has become way more tedious than when i was making a move(presuming you will need a working visa - me being an indian citizen need one here in CZ). You might have noticed that increasing number of studios already ask you for a valid working permit, and there are only a handful of them willing to offer sponsorship.

Other experienced members could throw some light on this and maybe it could be helpful.

 

Hope it works out for you! Cheers

[sherifelshorbagy]

Thank you Himamshu Choudhary. One more thing I am worried about. I wrote in my resume that I am self employed for about one year. Will this be a negative sign that will decrease my chance to be hired ? as they might prefer someone who has been already familiar with companies environment throughout his whole career.

[Scott Schroeder]

I wouldn't worry about putting self employed. The small negative that you may face for not have worked inside an office team is far outweighed by the huge positives that you can meet deadlines on your own, you are responsible for every aspect of the job, you must stay organized, etc, etc etc and on and on.

[sherifelshorbagy]

Thank you Sir Scott. By the way what do think of this http://www.masterad.it/ is it really useful and can get me on the right track ?