Week 1 Job Roles
This was us coming back into University and preparing to learning new things after the summer break. I was excited, yet very nervous because I didn’t really know what to expect most of the times.
We talked about job roles in animation. Job searching in general because we will have to look for jobs one day and preparing now is the right time.
Production management department which includes stuff like director and producer. Also, production coordinator or runner. We watched a couple videos of different job roles and people working inside those industries. Very interesting jobs and stories from different people. We then talked about the development department which includes a writer and a concept artist.
We then talked a little about a certain role in the pre-production department. Job roles that head of story, storyboard artist, character designer, modeller and background designer.
We then talked a lot about the production department and how many job roles it also has, and it surprised me because it has a lot.
Postproduction department is very interesting as well because you might think that it’s a department that evolves around finishing things, but a lot of it is still designing and creating as well.
We also got some links and useful information on finding a job inside different places and industries. We also got more websites that just focuses on finding jobs and we were told to check it out.
We were told to do some of the tasks after the class. We were told to do 3 of the tasks, which included us of researching things like the different job roles in the animation industry. It doesn’t have to be specifically animation industry we were told. So, we can research any industry we like or prefer.
Task 1
For the first task we were told to just go on the internet and research some of the jobs inside the animation industry and write down of the titles here below. Some of the jobs that I have found was the Graphic Designer and 3D modeller because I really find these job roles and very interesting. These job roles definitely have a lot of experience inside them and getting into something like that would definitely be rewarding.
Task 2
We were then told to look at some of the jobs in this industry again, except at the intern and the entry level positions. UX designer was the first one that I looked like since it would be a very unique job to do as well. Another interesting job title that I found was the Hard surface artist, which works with technical artists and animators to help them with coming up with solutions.
Task 3
The last task told us to look into a specific person and research them and write a little bit about their journey and how they are doing so far. I decided to research Ed Altorfer, because I really look up to him as a game designer and as a person. He is currently a principal UX Designer at Riot Games. It’s one of my favourite gaming companies in the world because they created League of Legends, which is still the most popular game after 10 years of being released. He is a user experience designer and a developer that varies across many industries. His speciality is user experience, which I think is really cool because he focused on satisfying customers and making the user experience as best as possible. He also works on things like prototyping, usability, branding and persona development.
I really love his previous work at other companies because it shows his progress and how far he had come. I really look up to him as a game designer and a role model because he is a really kind person, that loves his work and the passion that he holds for the gaming community. I can implement a lot of what I learn about him towards my work and jobs as I grow.
Week 2 Developing your CV
Today we started the class talking to our teacher and she said the class will be about learning more about your CV and looking for a job digitally. There are some studios that have descriptions about certain jobs that they have open. They usually do this when they are advertising. She said we can just use simple searches on google and usually that also just shows the most basic jobs. Some of the websites provide a lot of the jobs so it’s just the matter of researching.
If you don’t find a job in a particular company, you can always contact them directly and not worry about it. We answered a question on menti about if we have a cv or not and half of the people do, and half of the people don’t.
We then talked about the importance of the cv. It is very important, and it serves as advertisement and your portfolio. It is very useful revising your cv depending on the jobs that you are applying to. Start the cv with the headings. The first heading is the personal details like professional email address and mobile number is usually sufficient. Then linking your work with things like online portfolios and blogs that you have created previously. You can also link stuff like YouTube and your Linked in Profile.
Another section should be a personal or artist’s statement. Then you would include things like experience and course base projects. Published work is also very nice to have. Most recent education is plenty, so you don’t have to include things like A levels.
We then talked about some of the tips that you should have in the CV.
We then talked about the personal statement and why some of them might be bad and incorrect. We looked at a bad example of them and we can see that she doesn’t really provide any useful information and we don’t really know anything about this particular person. Their sentences are just not useful, and she also talks in the 3rd person, which is also very confusing. She also talked about what she would like to get out of it, but she doesn’t specify any of the things.
Then we looked at the examples of some of the good personal statements and we talked about why they are actually good. She is being very clear and she’s going straight to the point. She explains what she is interested in and what she can bring to the company if she did work there. This really gave a nice perspective on things when it comes to having good information that goes straight to the point.
We talked about the visually elements of the CV and ways of making it look more appealing and professional. The layout and the formatting of the CV should have colours and should be professional, but do not overdo it. Make sure everything is balanced.
Integrating images in the CV is also a good way to show case your skills and your designs. You can always put these inside there as long as you’re not cluttering the page. Being consistent is very important because you don’t want it to look messy.
We then talked about actually starting the CV and how you should manage where everything goes. Making sure that everything fits in well. Content should fit the job requirement, so you always have to keep adjusting depending on the job you’re applying for. Don’t use templates because they can usually tell, and they would rather see your personality through your own layout of the template. She told us to look at some of the good examples of the CV’s to get a feel of what is needed.
We then look at some of the professional CV’s and how different people layout their work and skills. Some of the work we looked at, it was very fitting, and it also looked very professional. It didn’t look cluttered and everything was spaced out perfectly.
She told us to look at some of the links she has posted and look at some of the CV’s posted and just get a feel of what you might want to do. She mentioned that some of them might be too creative so don’t be scared or overwhelmed.
Then we looked at some of the prototypes online that were made for people to look at and review. You can also open it if you’re interested in using it for your CV. This is because you can take some of the inspiration and then design your CV as well. We looked at some of the video CV’s made on YouTube, which was very interesting because I never really seen one before, so it was nice to see how people usually go about it.
She then gave us the link with all of the examples of the CV’s that we can look at to get more variety and understanding.
This gave us a really good understanding and examples of what the future employers might be looking for. It’s supposed to be nice to look at and include the most important parts of the job that you are applying for.
Then we watched more examples of this CV’s and we talked about what we might want to include in ours and depending on what we decide to do after.
The task for week 2 is researching a job role and develop a mock-up CV for this task as a starting point. We can use all the information that was provided today. Look at all the other CV’s to get you started.
These are the only things I had that were close to a CV, so I had to research quite a bit and get working on a modern simple good looking CV. I was inspired by all the examples that we had shown so I wanted to make mine look modern and good as well.
When researching examples reflect on things like what do you like about the specific examples that you have chosen to do for your CV. Think about if the design of your CV tells the person reading about what you do. What are the things you would do differently and how? Then reflect on things like what makes a good CV. Then what should your CV include, so I want to make sure that I keep reflecting back to these lessons to get the best CV possible.
This information will influence my work a lot because i want to make sure that i am producing the best quality work that i can.
We were told to go into the groups and start working on our CV’s for the day.
At 12 pm we had Kathy gives us a talk about searching for a job and talked about digital searching. Today was about communicating in the digital word and we used the menti to do some exercises, which really made it fun for all of us while learning so much at the same time.
This is just one of the examples we looked at when talking and communicating when it comes to doing digital searching for jobs.
These were some of the questions we had to answer after watching the slides and I found this really interesting to me because we got to engage with the presenter and she would be able to question us on what we pick and why. It just opened up a lot of good conversations with the whole class throughout and everyone got a better understand of each other as well.
We talked about how we actually got to this century and what happened throughout all the centuries. We can see that there is massive acceleration at the technological side of the industry and the world itself. People tend to lose jobs because of the whole revolutions because they get scared. Things like white collar jobs got really affected because of the revolution as well. We talked about the things we use daily like marketplace and search engines to find things out or to learn stuff. We talked about the YouTube communication and how there is multiple users all the time for multiple reasons.
I watched a couple video on the gaming industry itself and how hard it can be to get into it especially at a time like this. It is very insightful since it let’s you know the main part of getting in and the struggles you might face.
We then talked about the emerging digital workplace and how you might want to approach things like that. We talked about the effect of covid and working from home. The output of the hours that sometimes are required while working online because you are managing yourself. We talked about software that we can use while working as a group. Then we talked about using social media and how often do you use it for connecting with other people. It’s about how you communicate because you have the personal side of things. We mention the attention span of the average human so when using the digital communication, you need to be careful since people tend to lose the attention.
We then talked about how we get distracted before doing something and how we use our mobile phones. We were told to take more breaks when you’re using media and try to keep your technology out of the room while you sleep. Digital addiction is real and taking as many breaks as possible can be very important. We were told to consider different distractions and just enjoy life a little bit. Generic communication skills and being able to choose what you can do is very important. Be careful with what you say online because it’s all written, and you never really know if someone finds its offensive.
We then watched a video of Eilish speaking about communication skills and how to use them in the workplace or just in general because they are very important for connecting with people. We talked about listening and the communication and listening to others and others listening to you.
We then looked at the communications styles and a lot of it depends on the situations and the people you’re talking with. Sertive style is using the least, but very nice to use. You know your limits and having your things. Aggressive style is when the person thinks their opinions are always right. Then being passive, but actually acting aggressive and people who behave that way usually feel powerless. Submissive style where the person feels that the opinions of other people are more important. Avoiding conflict and tend to try to please people. Manipulating style where people are good at manipulating and controlling people they are talking to.
Then we started concluding the presentation that we talked about throughout and it was really entertaining and fun to be a part of. We need to be able to manage the technology and not let it take over our life’s. We also talked about digital escape room which seemed very interesting.
We then played more menti for some of the questions. We answered the same questions that we did at the very start of the presentation, but it’s at the end of the presentations and we have learned so much more today. And the last question was about if we found the presentation useful, which I did at least because there was so much useful information.
It was a very fun presentation about digital communication, and she explained everything so perfectly. I had a good time and learned a lot. I think I want to go deeper into the digital communication industry/sector as far as being the one explaining it to other people. For the homework I have worked on my CV and tried to figure out some of the things that I could include in the CV. It was fun trying to figure out the things to say on your CV or how you might want to say those things. I wanted to make sure that I am still making it pretty modern, so it is nice to look at. I want to include the most important parts, but I also want to make sure that I don’t over crowd it either.
So this is my completed CV that I have done while studying on how I should be doing it so it looks modern and very nice to look at.
I am very proud of what I was able to come up with because It looks simple, modern and really good. I took a lot of inspiration from previous students that had the similar layout, but i liked it so much I wanted to try to do this for my CV as well.
I really like how it ended up because I did struggle with placing everything right and where I want everything on the page to be. I also only wanted it to be a single page because it is not distracting and just nice to look at.
I also looked at couple of Riot Games employers and their feedback on what makes a good information CV. It was really interesting implementing some of their feedback.
I contacted Ed on twitter because he is the one I choose to research the most and look into the company that he works for, which is Riot Games. I was so happy to see that he replies to me. I talked to him about his his role at riot a little more, which is Principal UX Designer. He told me that he manages people and he has to make sure that people are as happy as they can be when it comes to different designs.
He mentioned that he has worked on many things including Game Controls, Game Huds, Production and UI design. I was really interested because these sounded like something I would love to be doing in the future. This role of UX designer, because you get to work on games and help people as well. He is working for one of my favourite gaming companies and my favourite games as well. So this role is was just perfect for me to research and look into.
He said the way he work is by always having a schedule and spacing everything out. He said his workflow has to be always moving to make sure that he’s satisfied with himself and the project, so he’s always working. This is something I want to do myself now because it seems like it is working out for him pretty well. He is working hard, but also managing his simple hobbies like playing games.
He didn’t have a CV to show me for we were talking, but he did give me some pointers like making the information relevant and easy to see. He also mentioned that the design should be simple, yet modern. So I made my CV look like that in the end. It came from researching his job role and the lessons I had throughout.
So he influenced my work and he makes me motivated and to work harder every day because I want to be like him one day. And his workflow will definitely be implemented into mine because I love how he does everything when it comes to work.
Week 3 Communicating in a Digital World
We talked about what we are going to be doing today and who we will be talking to as well. We are going to be talking to Rebecca from last year that gave us the presentation on Japanese animation last year that was pretty good. She said that this country is really good when it comes to studying because it’s a little easier than other countries in the world.
We started working on menti application as well while working on a couple of questions that Rebecca was asking us about. What we actually thought about the word master and what does it make us think. Then we discussed a little about the word master again and where you are able to use the word like that or how do you achieve it. How can you improve your employment or developing your personal interests in specific industries because It is pretty important for us to learn these things.
We answered a bunch of questions for Rebecca to do with master’s degree and some interesting topics as well. There were so many interesting questions that gave us more insight on the master’s degrees and how much they are now and how much they might be in the future.
We looked at bunch of celebrities and we were asked to look at them and say if you think that they have masters in something just from looking at them. It was quite interesting because you would never know these kinds of things about celebrities. Some of the richest people in the world don’t have masters so it’s not like it’s the only option. We talked a little more about masters and if we are thinking about on doing a masters at some point.
We talked about game design master and it’s the most interesting one for me because I would possibly want to get game design Master done at some point. It would give me a lot of experience and techniques. You don’t have to be experienced in computer skills coming into something like game design masters.
When we think of doctor we think of nurses and everything helping people with medical issues all the time. Anyone that has the Dr title always has a PhD. Masters had a lot more technical stuff and PhD is a lot more reading. We then answered more questions about what skills we might need to study PhD and what you might need to cope through it. You sign a contract, and you don’t need to work outside the university. You can get paid between some of the money and do some of the stuff. You can help out people around you when doing PhD because they always need help, and you get paid.
Rebecca didn’t have a lot of time left to finish the presentation for us, so she just showed us a YouTube video on career guidance and the realistic aspects of it.
We talked a little about placements and how fun and useful they always turn out to be all the time because they offer you a lot of things. She also talked a little about her creating writing PhD and how it went for her in Queens. Her experience seemed like it was really nice and very useful.
Then we worked a little on our CV and polished it a little so it becomes more professional and healthier because as long as we keep on stabbing at it little by little, we can come up with something amazing at the end. It’s important to think positively all the time when doing anything when it comes to professional practise. She recommends doing stuff in our second year and researching different paths.
We then ended the talk about discussing different topics and laughing at some of the things people have found out while being in the world of PhD.
We then had a talk with Cathy, and she talked to us about uncertainty and how do you deal with it later on in the studies or work. We also worked on the future of work. The AI and how it will evolve in the future as well. We did some of the exercises on the jobs that might suffer in the future when we are talking about AI and robotics. Office and admin roles would definitely be heavily affected by things like AI because of how easy it could take over the sector. We found out that almost 100 thousand jobs could be created by AI by the end of 2030 because of how important they will be.
The jobs that don’t even exist yet will probably be occupied by children that are in primary school right now. That is a very interesting fact for sure these days and it’s kind of scary that you think about it. This is because we don’t really know where the AI will take us in the near future and what kind of jobs we might have.
In the future it will be a lot about the velocity of change and how fast the people will be able to adapt because of Covid 19. The issues that the virus brought will stay for a long time and maybe won’t go away for a long time because it’s very unpredictable. It is very desperate at the moment everywhere around the world so it’s really hard to say anything about logistics and what might happen later on.
Everything is very uncertain, but not everything is a black picture as Cathy mentioned. She said it’s like shades of grey. It causes a lot of anxiety because there are many things you are not able to control because of the whole situation. There is just nothing we can do except to wait and be patient.
We talked about different social coping strategies, physical coping strategies and emotional coping strategies.
She then talked a little bit about skills and what you might need to have when it comes to work. Especially when you’re uncertain about everything that is happening. Technology has helped us over to more distributed working environment so we can work from home as best as possible.
Skills needed, resilient really good communication skills, having a good understanding in your technical environments and getting to the point is key when it comes to the work industry because it’s completely different. Embracing chance is also very important. They will expect flexible work plans. The ability to learn and relearn particular subject and relearn.
Failure is seemed like a negative thing. It never is because it always seen as a first attempt in learning. Do not be embarrassed with them and instead keep doing it until you succeed. This is your learning process. Every success has a lot of failures behind it, so nobody makes it the first time. It’s about not giving up and keep working at it. Failure it’s just the part of the journey and its nothing to be sad about.
This is something that have been said and it stuck with me, really changes my perspective on all of the things I do now. I don’t have to bash myself, as long as I try my best. This is going to be helping me a lot with the upcoming work because I am looking forward to learning.
I chatted with Ed about communicating and how important it can be and he mentioned that, most of the time the work speaks for itself, contacting employers and communicating should be fairly simple.
Week 4 Talks from graduates – Rachel and Fiona
This morning Alec has given us a talk about different things that will be happening this morning. We will have two quest speakers talking to us about different paths and opportunities that they have taken after finishing university. He mentioned that they will share their journeys and experiences and how it went for them. I am really looking onward to this because it’s interesting to see what people do after finishing university.
Then while we waited for the quest speakers, we talked a lot about cats and how adorable they are.
The first person we had a talk with was Rachel Dixon and she talked about her own story and how she got to where she is now. She started at italic pig and she’s an animator. She hasn’t animated animating a year ago and she didn’t really know what she wanted to do after, and she didn’t really know a lot of stuff.
Storyboarding, and the essential stuff. She told us that she didn’t have identity and felt like her year 1 wasn’t good enough for a portfolio. She has been doing a lot of stuff all the time. It was a mashup of random things or a bunch of practises. Preparing for your placement year you have to shop a bit of a show reel. She told us a little around Northern Ireland placement scheme. She was lucky to get interviewed a lot of places at the time. If you are ever nervous for the interviews, don’t be because everyone is always nice and caring. It’s usually in your head most of the time.
She told us about her story and how she was left standing the last minute and became very frustrated. She had to start from scratch and started emailing a lot of people and studious around Belfast to try to get a placement somewhere. She got into a studio by a miracle and she immediately took it because she was desperate getting the experience done.
She talked about not underselling yourself because everyone is worth something all the time. Then she shared some of her work. What she learned was everything she learned in the course. She knew pretty little about modelling in her last year, and she watched everything happen, but it didn’t really know anything for sure. She said it’s okay not to know something because as long as you are pushing in your final year it will be okay. Final year was very stressful for her. She didn’t realise that everyone was already in teams already when she came back, and you should keep conversations open for your final year.
Show your best bits all the time, even if the work isn’t great throughout. Everything came full circle to her. She got into a little bad habit and the modelling has to be very neat and learned the correct ways of doing stuff. She showed us a trailer for the game she is working on as well, which was really fun to watch.
Don’t worry about where you are as an artist, it will fall into place at some point. Do it all and get confident in yourself on multiple things when it comes to an animation. She doesn’t recommend going either way, but she says it’s a good idea to know as much things as possible. You need to know where your works fits in and where other work fits in.
How to learn new things and new skills. You’re in new environment and sometimes you can’t really call Alec over to help you. It’s really scary when you don’t feel have the support anymore and what she said don’t worry and if there is something you really don’t know you seriously have to ask. Nobody will judge and ask and don’t be afraid. She will help and ask if we ever need any sort of help. It’s not your fault, reach out to someone who could help. Nobody would ever turn down helping someone.
I asked her a question in private and she answered so nicely, and I really appreciated it because it just gave me more insight on things. And I think it’s one of the first connections I have made myself, which is really important.
What if you don’t have a direction yet and you’re a generalist. Is there a way to develop a bunch of skills? She would recommend, giving yourself little small projects or working with local studios and start developing. Watch YouTube videos and learn the basic stuff, modelling, texturing, rigging. If you feel worried about not being able to do stuff, start simple and it’s sometimes hard learning simple and if you do, then it’s perfect.
This was such an amazing talk, and she was so nice to all of us with different advice and things she would like to see us learn.
Then we had a talk from Fiona McLaughlin. She is going to be talking about freelancing and creating your own studio. Even starting your own animation workshop.
She talked about graduating and that she created her own animation organisation at the end of the 2017. She moved away because she wanted a fresh start, and she was together with her partner to Berlin.
She was quite naïve when she started because she was asked a lot of questions. Then she got a work opportunity and she had one of the best freelance experience.
Week 5 Resilience and Wellbeing
We are having on the workshop about 2 certain things like resilience and wellbeing. The questions were about all of the learning outcomes of today’s class. These are some of the outcomes that we have looked at the start of the class.
We talked about how hard things can get when it comes to learning and doing things. It’s important trying to deal with all of it and how is it that we deal with it. We will be dealing with the information for the first part of the class then we will take a break.
There is positive stress when it comes to gaming it’s a sharp kind of spike and its short term. In a longer term there is also stress when learning and getting on with things. Dealing with rejection is also hard to deal with so positive stress is definitely needed. Positive stress has a good balance, and it helps you a lot. There are many negative effects to the negative stress like tiredness. We then did a couple of questions on menti against that is something to do with emotions that stress creates.
Stress is really bad when it comes to digestive disorders. Then we did a small quiz on the mind tools website to see our statement score. The strong emotions that often affect your behaviour and how it affects the outcomes as well.
Building your resilience and taking back the control and there are always 3 steps. Take the stock and realise what is actually happening. Take control as well. It is very important when it comes to building it.
After the break we talked a little about the emotional intelligence and how it might affect you. After all the information about it we have decided to do a scavenger hunt where we had to look for the items around the maps. The point of the exercise is to get you under positive pressure.
We then did some breathing exercising and also some deep breathing. Then we talked a little bit. After this we want back to be doing some exercises on menti. It was very useful and calming and not something I have done before, and I have to say it was really nice. For the homework we were asked to access our own resilience and research some of the things that I would possibly to do release stress and get back on track. I found out that I don’t really have a way of doing it, which should probably change. This is so I could have a way of relieving stress as soon as possible and get back on the right track.
This was a very fun activity since it allowed us to see what kind of emotional maturity we have and how to improve it as well.
Week 6 Resilience and Wellbeing 2
This week we had a class with Cathy again on resilience and different things that happens when you use certain techniques. We talked about being able to take feedback and how we will deal with that feedback. Learning the feedback and taking it on board is very important. It allows you to improve way faster and become a better artist.
We did a lot of talking and a bunch of exercising with different methods when it comes to methods. We talked about pressure and how you might want to come about it later on in life because it can be very hard, but as long as you take right approaches to problems it should be okay.
Then we did some group work on benefits of certain things in the workplace and why they are benefits. This is because we did research and watched a video on how google did an experiment where they looked at millions of people and see how they act and behave in the workplace to make sure that the teamwork techniques work.
It’s a good thing when we communicate on discord and stuff because it makes us learn the right approaches and communication skills. Then we also talked a little about practical tips and how we can improve our moods. Things like kindness, exercise and food with drink.
We listened to Cathy talking about different stories she went through and how they all dealt with all of the issues. And she mentioned being grateful and just having gratitude helps a lot and provides people with assistance. We then wrote on the whiteboard the things that we are grateful for.
Then we proceeded to do some breathing exercises with Cathy, which are always helpful to just try out. Then after that we done some menti questions again, answering them for Cathy just to see how everyone got on. It was really such an enjoyable class again and it teaches you a lot every time.
Today we are doing a workshop on different kind of animations and we got to pick between two people that we can watch and learn from. I have decided to watch the Matthew Hamill because I thought it could be interesting and fun. He said he will be teaching us on how to animate in 3d, which could show us a lot of good ways doing it so I am excited. This advice always gives me so much confidence and interest as well.
You should always reference, that’s the number one thing. So, the proves is clicking on the camera and inserting image sequence. Then delete the frame and set it on 1 and also on the last frame of your sequence. And then making it linear in the graph editor so it doesn’t feel weird later on.
Get the poses perfectly the first time because it’s almost impossible to fix them later on. Posing is essential and before to doing or moving to anything else get the posing right or it’s going to cause problems later on. All of the poses should we on single key frames.
Think about your break downs. Hips and feet are always a good place to start with your animation. We just talked about the important parts of the animating when it comes to Maya and how you would come about doing it.
Advice for polishing is starting with feet and hips. And you can get proper spacing then it should be okay because everything follows the hips. I had to write all of the bits down because I feel like they were so true when you actually thought about them. I really learned a lot.
Week 8 Preparing for your interviews
This week we are starting to learn about interview skills and how it usually goes when you get called to an interview. We will be practising and learning some of the questions that usually get asked when you are inside an interview.
Some of the questions that get asked about the actual role of the job or the opportunity. When it comes to salary, think about how valuable your skills are when it comes to these jobs. Don’t be afraid to negotiate when it comes to the salary because it depends on many factors on how much money you might want. Be flexible and never be afraid to negotiate.
Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years! They want to see if you are realistic and if you want to improve. I really like this question because I feel like it would throw someone off since it is a very interesting question.
Personal questions like what you do outside of work and how would a friend describe you. What’s the last thing you have watched or read. This was a very good question as well because I had to think about what my friends would actually say. And I would say they would all say loyal and trustworthy. And that I would never let anyone down to the best of my ability.
Then you should definitely ask questions when it comes to the end of the interview because the person that is talking to you wants you to ask questions because it makes you stand out a lot of the time.
I have watched a couple videos and mastering and preparing for your interviews, this one stood out the most because it was very simple, but also informative. I really enjoyed watching it.
This week was very eventful because we started preparing for our mock interviews because they were going to include a panel of 3 people and 1 of them was going to be a very important guest from a known company around Ireland. I am looking forward to this because it will teach us the most important part of the interview.
I will be preparing for the interview for a long time since I really want to nail it and get the most out of this mock interview. I want to find out the most that I can so then I would have much more experience when it comes to talking to other people when it comes to jobs.
This was a very good week as well because we got to prepare for our interviews that are coming up and preparing different questions with answers. There was a lot of questions on the brief that we looked at and just brainstormed about the answers that we would say as if we were in a middle of the interview.
I was also really shy before the interview day so I messaged Ed, who works at Riot Games. He told me to just relax and be myself and everything else usually falls into place. He said just practise and know what you’re talking about. He said you’re just talking to people that want to get to know you, so make sure you’re doing that.
I really needed the advice that he gave me and I am really glad he finds the time to message me and give me advice. He is really professional and a hardworking individual.
Week 9/10 Showreel and Portfolio Design
Today we had an amazing presentation on how to make an amazing portfolio or showreel for your assignments or future jobs. This is also the week that we will focusing on catching up with our CV’s and portfolios or anything that we might want to polish up.
This was a very good week as well because we got to prepare for our interviews that are coming up and preparing different questions with answers. There was a lot of questions on the brief that we looked at and just brainstormed about the answers that we would say as if we were in a middle of the interview.
We learned that we should focus on presenting your best work because that what the employer usually wants to see. Easy navigation should always be there as well so the person looking at it would enjoy doing it. Don’t clutter it up because you never want the employer to lose interest in it. I learned that it’s also important that you keep it up to date all the time since you end up getting more content that you could put in there.
We then looking at Aodhan’s portfolio, which was so nice to look at because he had his best work laid out perfectly across the screen.
It just looked amazing when we sat it so it was nice for him to show us through it and how he has placed all of his work.
They mentioned that it’s very important that you update and match your portfolio and CV when applying for different kind of jobs as well. This is because you need to make sure to include the work and the information that matters to the employer you’re going to be sending it to.
We then looked at a couple different people portfolios and how they have their worked laid out. This was very fun to look at because these people were professionals, so it was intriguing to see how they do it as of right now.
For my portfolio I have a very nice layout as well, which has different sections for different kind of content that people can access and view it without a problem.
We also talked a lot about CV and what the employers want to see most of the time. It has to be very clear and easy to understand. Must have contact information incase the employer has any other questions or just to get back to you. We learned that it should also include keywords so it is easier to search something up.
Usually updating your education to recent one is enough and you shouldn’t waste space on adding multiple places. I included a couple of them in my CV, but that’s because I want the employer to know.
Including your awards and achievements is also a really good idea, so the employers get a better idea of who you are and what your interests might be as well.
We were told to consider graphical and beautiful designs for our CV or Portfolios. All of this information leads into cover letters as well because you have to state relevant information and get straight to the point.
Different employers might be asking for different things to be sent over to them so you have to pay attention and see what the employers wants to see. For the showreel it should be from 30 second to 1 minute because employers usually have to look through many of them so you can’t waste time with long showreels. It will just distract them and It wont seem professional.
We then discussed different kind of layouts and music that you could use when it comes to your showreels. It’s really interesting because I never played with sound in something like a showreel so testing it and trying it will be really fun.
When I did this it was really confusing at first because I couldn’t figure out the right placements for the actual track and how it should sound when going through the video.
I learned that every cover email or letter that you send it has to be personalized to each of the company as well. This is because they need to see that you have done your homework and that you know much more about the company than others.
We talked about the interviews and how we should act while we are in a middle of it as well. You always have to practise a couple days before and try to relax. Arriving early while also having confident pose is also when useful. Always bring your hard copies of any of the content that you want to share with them because you can rely on them having internet. You can either bring a laptop or any other device that has your work on it, something they could instantly just look at. Then for the dressing up part we learned that wearing something casual rather then wearing a suit is the best.
And the most important part is don’t forget to ask questions because employers love that every time.
We have looked at some potential questions we could ask the employer as well, so we could have them for our upcoming mock interview. Very interesting question that we could possibly implement.
We talked about networking places and opportunities we can look into in the future because there is a lot of places always looking for someone. We got advice on how to behave if we do end up getting a certain job, because getting the job is only the beginning. You have to work hard and keep taking feedback, while also learning always. Make sure to keep looking for opportunities and keep your head down when it comes to work. You wanna get the best experience possible.
We then got placement advice, we talked about that placement get you cash and you get to stand out of the crowd and get experience. You get to test so many things and then put all of the knowledge into your academic studies as well. Training and Development is the most important part I would say after today’s lessons, because you have to keep training and have to keep developing work skills. This will always help you so much.
We also discussed about skill sets and what do employers usually look for in a person. Some of these would be teamwork, organisation, confidence, motivation and ability to work under pressure. All of these are really good to have in the future because it makes employers satisfied.
Discussing about advice from other was also really useful to me because it just gives you and insight of the world out there and what people expect from you. One of the advices are is that don’t just do something because it’s easy, do something that you will want to do and something that makes you happy. That is the most important part.
Today was the day we did our interview and I thought it went fantastic. I wasn’t really nervous except for the first couple of minutes because I have never seen Greg before so I was a little nervous going into it. I have kept the right posture through out and talked confidently, I answered my questions properly and didn’t forget what I was saying even once. It was definitely challenging, but I think it went perfectly. I made sure to ask Greg questions to get him talking as well, because I wanted to show him that I am interested from where he’s from and I wanted to know more of how he does things when it comes to professional work place.
We discussed different things that he does and several constraint that he has to deal with because of Covid as well. So his insight was really nice to listen to and see how things get done.
I told them relevant information when asked and I was making sure that i go straight to the point. Doing it over the computer screen definitely has it challenges, but it also had its advantages so overall I really enjoyed the experience. It felt really nice to be in this professional setup and learn from professional like Greg and Yuan.
Week 11 and 12 One to One feedback tutorials
For the last few weeks, we have been focusing on the feedback that the lecturers have been giving us on the work that we have done so far when it comes to our assignment, which is really helpful because all of us are still learning and we make a lot of mistakes throughout everything that we are doing. Even thought we never stop learning.
So I have had my 1 on 1 talk with Aodhan, which was very useful and much needed for me. We discussed my CV, portfolio and cover email. So the advice that I was given is that In the future I should probably make the font bigger so it is easier to see and read as well. Just makes it so much better to look at.
I should focus on putting work experience at the very top and technical skills on the left, he said he thinks it would fit the most. Make sure to tie my soft skills into what ever I am applying for because that very important. He also said that I should always have confidence in the role I am applying and that I should say so in the cover email as well.
Making sure that the relevant information is also being prioritized with each of the cover email that you are sending out. And focusing on the work and 3D models that you have in your portfolio because the employer doesn’t want to see everything that you have in there.
It was a really nice talk, which gave me a lot of ideas and advice on how to improve my CV, portfolio and the cover email. Really thankful for all of the feedback and I will be implementing it throughout different career opportunities.
Mantas Macidulskas 