Interviews and SWOT tests

This week was spent doing some mock interviews. We were assigned a job at a studio that creates mobile games. Here I will record a few questions I think may be asked in interviews and my thoughts.

1) Why do you want to work for us?
- An answer to this should obviously be honest, show motivation and enthusiasm. I feel that it would be good to talk about what you know of the company, any knowledge of games ("oh I loved....)

2) What skills can you bring to the company?
- I feel it would be good to mention both technical skills as well as "people" skills as teamwork is a vital part of the industry.

3) What kind of animal would you be?
- For this question I would say a dolphin as they are energetic and work well as a team.

This made me learn a lot about myself and helped me know where I need to focus more. I found that I was knowledgeable about the area I wanted to go into however was not so aware of salary and hour expectations so I went ahead and looked into these.

Salary:
A lot of factors influence the salary expectations such as experience, job title and studio. I began to look at entry level positions such as junior artists as this is where I will be aiming to begin with. I found that salary ranged from 16k to 25k per year.

Hour expectations:
I am well aware of the expectation to crunch at key times in development but I am unaware of what is "normal" working hours for a 3D artist position. By looking at government laws and average working hours I found that you can not be forced to work more than 48 hours a week. This would on average be 9am - 6pm, 5 days a week.

For a bit of further personal development I conducted a SWOT analysis to help me understand even more what I need to work on.

Strengths:
Professional qualities - good teamwork skills, happy to voice opinions and listen to others, good knowledge of Maya, Photoshop, good problem solving skills, ability to work to deadlines

Weaknesses:
Not so good at - ZBrush, baking maps, lack of perseverance at times, procrastination

Opportunities:
How can I get noticed - game jams, networking, portfolio website

Threats:
Obstacles - failing degree, lack of motivation, competition

The main areas I need to work on for getting a job in the industry:
- Portfolio and skills
- Personal goals such as longer attention span and getting out of "slumps" where I am bored of a project

I feel these mock interviews were a good exercise in basic interview skills and what kind of questions will be asked however I will now need more practice at applying for a job where I know more about the company.

The Industry Around The World

This week we all spent time researching what the industry was like in different countries. My group was assigned Australia and New Zealand. We discovered that the industry in Australia is not very profitable at the moment. Most of the studios left in the country are mobile game developers and the only major AAA studios in the area are 2K and Nintendo. It is also very hard to get work in Australia due to the problems associated with getting visas. There are 3 month temporary visas but to get a full time visa you must go through a long application, assessment and have a guaranteed full time job in the country.

After seeing the other groups presentations, it was clear that the industry often centres in certain areas in a country. For example, Canada has a large number of studios in Vancouver and Seattle. The UK industry has a large number of studios in the South East of the country with many companies in and around London.

I took the time to look at www.gamedevmap.com where it can be clearly seen that the major areas for game development are the USA, UK and Europe.