Jobs

I have found several possible companies to look at in terms of career. The first job in the Midlands and has been written for a studio called Serious Games who make simulators, training and education oriented games. This advert is a strange one as it gives very little information, no wages, no precise location, no idea of the project they are hiring for. I am personally reluctant to follow up with this advert based solely on the fact I have no firm idea on what I am doing and where I will be working and whether I will need to relocate for it. The good bit of this job is they don't ask for any industry experience which would be good as an entry level job and as the company make simulators my portfolio could contain lots of very accurate vehicles which should look very good to other future employers. They do however ask for VFX creation, I assume in After Effects and 3DS Max expertise, I don't know if that means solely Max or Maya as well as Max as well as V-ray knowledge and Unity experience, both of which I lack

The second advert I found was from FuturLab who create mostly platformer games largely for PlayStation. Currently the positions they have open are for either programmers, technical artists or senior 3D artists, none of which I am qualified for however they do encourage that people with impressive CV's email them along with a link to an online portfolio. One thing that did interest me, and not in the best way, was that under a heading saying Essential tips for sending your CV they ask to name drop one or more of their games which I think is a little unprofessional and a little bit redundant. It shouldn't matter if a potential employee is a fan of a certain game or not, or if they even enjoy playing games let alone the ones their potential employers make. However this isn't really a make or break point, just something I wanted to mention as it's the first company I have come across that asks you to name drop. Looking at the Senior 3D artist job it seems that want industry experience as well as excellent hard surface and soft surface modeling, rigging and animation skills. However because this is for a senior artist they are expected to be talented in all fields to oversee the various departments so many of the requirements wouldn't apply to me anyway as I want to focus solely on modeling.

Thirdly Studio Gobo who make Disney Infinity and have also assisted Codemasters on the Formula 1 series. The page I found was actually a Facebook book page dedicated to careers with Gobo where various jobs positions are posted along with a link to the official Studio Gobo website (or other job advertising sites) and an email address. This seems to be a good idea, using social media to reach a much larger audience of people who might not be looking for jobs at the moment, but will do in the future, it stays in peoples mind more than a blank job application on a website you would visit rarely. However sifting through them to find one you would like to do does take some time and there's no guarantee that they will post every single job opening so you would still need to check their site. Looking on their own site I found a generalist Maya animator but again it seems they want someone who has made a significant contribution to at least 2 published console titles as an animator so a junior role would probably be less restrictive on experience as a generalist would need to have a wide array of skills. I would guess it would be the same for a modeler however there are no jobs available currently.

The final opening I found was for a company based in Birmingham and makes games for casinos. This looks like the most promising as the application gives detail into the company and also the office the applicant would be working in which I think is a nice touch as it sounds like a nice place to work. They also don't require industry experience but do want experience with After Effects which is something I lack. I also lack experience creating UI's, 3D characters and 2D backgrounds and icons and motion graphics. I only have minimal experience creating characters and none with UI's, 2D backgrounds and motion graphics but as it is for casino games it is a job I would be hesitant to take however the experience and money as well as the location might persuade me.