[MildManneredKid]

Like many aspiring artists/graphic designers/webdesigners that partake/view this BBS, I have many questions I would like answered. These questions will shed knowledge on people like me and others in the field allowing for a broader perspective, gaining firsthand insight as to how the career is. This shouldn't be a very long interview and I will ask for your name,date,title, position and place of employment for title. Thank you for your responces and take your time .

1.What was your career path from college to present?

2.How did you become interested in this field?

3.How did you find this job?

4.What is the typical background of college graduates that your employer hires?

5.Are there opportunities in this field for college graduates with no experience?

6.What is the typical career progression of individuals in this area?

7.What do you think is the most important skill that you need to do this job well?

8.What education, training, or skills did you bring to this position?

9.What are the major responsibilities of your position? Specific duties?

10.Do you know any related careers that use similar skills? What other careers are related to this field?

11.Are there any experiences, training, or skills that would best prepare me for this career?

12.What are the advantages and disadvantages of your career? Benefits and rewards? Risks?

13.What is the level of stress and pressure?

14.What do you like least and best about this job?

15.What are the time demands of your job?

16.What is the salary range for an entry position in this field?

17.What is the working environment like and what are the working conditions? What are the hours like?

18.How has technology impacted this field?

19.What is the opportunity for advancement?

20.What developments and changes have taken place in this field in the last five years?

21.Does this career require physical or mental work or both?

22.Does this career require you to work indoors or outdoors?

23.Where do most professionals in this field live? Is it region specific? Does it require travel?

24.What type of dress is required of people who work in this field?

25.Does this career require a routine?

26.Does this career require you to be a leader or a participant?

27.If you had to do it again, would you choose the same career?

28.Can you suggest anyone else that I could talk to about this career?

29.What advice do you have for pursuing this career?

Thanks again.
Ryan Lejarde

[StrangeFate]

ohh haven't answered any q/a's for ages

1.What was your career path from college to present?

Did 4 years as 'normal' grahic guy in a silkscreen printing company, then some year in a PC shop selling crap and doing some freelance game art and classic 2d stuff for some crappy fantasy/SF magazines until i got hired by Digital Extremes ...now i work fulltime from home.

2.How did you become interested in this field?

hmm i think if you like computers, games and art it will do it.

3.How did you find this job?

It found me.

4.What is the typical background of college graduates that your employer hires?

That's irrelevant, if you have the talent, can hold a wacom and read what stands on the screen you're the man!!

5.Are there opportunities in this field for college graduates with no experience?

THe same as with 100 fraduates. Experience is a must though 90% of the times, unless your skills are so glorious that they will take the time and money to fill you in.
Otherwise, there are hundreds of jobless pro's out there looking for a job too that will get rather hired.

6.What is the typical career progression of individuals in this area?

Most i know come from some game editing community, that's where most gather the needed experience/know how.

7.What do you think is the most important skill that you need to do this job well?

drawing, and being able to sit here 10 hours in a row without needing a break to eat (huge plus!).

8.What education, training, or skills did you bring to this position?

Education related to the field? none.
I could draw and paint, i think that did it.
Had enough game related stuff on my website to make my company think i had a clue about the stuff.

9.What are the major responsibilities of your position? Specific duties?

Mostly bg textures. They're 1024x1024 and verrry detailed/ornamented. Takes often 2-4 days to complete 1.
I've just started doing concept sketches for maps and since i'm starting max i should be modeling and skinning map objects soon ...mmm coooool.

10.Do you know any related careers that use similar skills? What other careers are related to this field?

buh!

11.Are there any experiences, training, or skills that would best prepare me for this career?

strong drawing/painting ...and some related work to show off.

12.What are the advantages and disadvantages of your career? Benefits and rewards? Risks?

Risks ? you can break your neck if you fall off the chair.
Benefits are neat bonusses after a project is done or important mailstones are completed.

disadvantages would be the insane hours (not that bad for me as i work from home) and that you can't go home and forget about the job. You're always involved with insane hours and your thoughts are mostly at work even when you're not there.

The main problem is that you can't sit down and be creative right there and then for the next 10 hours, so basically you think about your work in the freetime and realize it at work.

13.What is the level of stress and pressure?

somtimes none, sometimes a lot, very relative but if you like the job it doesn't really matter ...again, a lot more stressfree if you work from home.

14.What do you like least and best about this job?

Best is that i have a lot of freedom artwise, i usually get a theme to work on for the next half year and i can mostly do whatever i want with it.

Downsides are that you often work on the same project for YEARS and with time it can be tiresome plus, after a certain time it's hard to think of anything new.

15.What are the time demands of your job?

I mostly work normal hours at home, start somewhen around 2-4pm until 10pm-4am. I mostly work on weekends too, since i make free when i want it don't really hurts.
If you work in a company you might have to work up to 80 hours/week on crunchtimes.

16.What is the salary range for an entry position in this field?

Well, that's exactl(/&/*�I(/*&(/ERROR 301

17.What is the working environment like and what are the working conditions? What are the hours like?

Read above for the hours.
My environment is hmmm full of books (architecture, art, different cultures all with bigbig photos) and papers with sketches lying everywhere.
There's also seems to be a cat in the inventory ...funny i haven't feed anything for weeks hmmmm...

18.How has technology impacted this field?

It is still 'impacting' it atm. the change from lowres to highres and higher demands on all fields is happenning right now.

19.What is the opportunity for advancement?

eh ? to get further ? if you're good at your field learn new things. If you're not that good, improve it.
If you rock you'll be most likely allowed to learn whatever you want, the interest is even welcome.

20.What developments and changes have taken place in this field in the last five years?

5 years ago you filled something with colors and that was it. Still often that way today but changing.
Like said, hires is cool and there's a lot of artsy stuff you can do now. Basically you can paint real neat backrounds at a nice res and you're given the time for it too.

21.Does this career require physical or mental work or both?

MENTAL ...physical, hard to say, you just should be able to work twice as much if needed.

22.Does this career require you to work indoors or outdoors?

Normally indoors. Since i use some digital overlays to spice up the stuff i'm sometimes outside too hunting with the digicam.
In sommer i can go outside and do sektches at the sun ...

23.Where do most professionals in this field live? Is it region specific? Does it require travel?

I'm in Europe and i can tell that they don't live here.
Travel...usually not. In my case...if there's a horrible crunchtime or something very important to discuss i might have to fly over to canada for a week or a few months...

24.What type of dress is required of people who work in this field?

It should let you undress very quickly at any time.

25.Does this career require a routine?

hmmm you have your routines for the way you work but every project and/or segment of development might require new things from you.

26.Does this career require you to be a leader or a participant?

TEAM!

27.If you had to do it again, would you choose the same career?

I've been eyeballing lately at a career at McDonalds so i can't say for sure if i really would.

28.Can you suggest anyone else that I could talk to about this career?
http://www.godgames.com/ used to have the oracle where you could ask question that were answered by people in the industry, dunno if that all is still up. THe URL seems dead atm (?)

Other than that i think you'll always find someone from any art related industry HERE, at the great sijun forum.

29.What advice do you have for pursuing this career?

You should try to get the best out of you.
You can get a job in the industry pretty easy with some mediocre skills but you'll feel like participating in a marathon with a broken leg.

The team is very important, if you have to work with unmotivated and untalented retards then whatever cool thing you come up with it will look like shit once it goes through their hands

**edit: duh! i really wrote crap like 'mailstones' instead of milestones, can't bother re-reading it all.

[ November 05, 2001: Message edited by: StrangeFate ]

[Jezebel]

I guess this is where I confess what a lazy bum I am. That is waaaaay too much for me to read right now, and definitely too much for me to answer.

[MildManneredKid]

Great weve already got the ball rolling;
comon guys i've seen an impressive list of people who work for gaming companies, those who participate are in my debt! And if you use this forum at least do it for the great Dhabi himself!

Thanks again.

PS: Thanks Strangefate for keeping it informative and funny at the same time. Peace.

[Gort]

I didn't answer all of these, sorry!

1.What was your career path from college to present?
Graduated with a BFA in illustration; presently a Senior Interactive / Graphic Designer /Artist.

2.How did you become interested in this field?
Saw the growing trend in '95 and decided to start at least grooming myself along with it.

3.How did you find this job?
It was totally "who I knew". Some buddies I worked with at Bellsouth.net went on to start a business and asked me to come along.

4.What is the typical background of college graduates that your employer hires? Well of those we've interviewed and such, most are pretty well trained in the ramifications of proper design, but almost everyone is lacking in Human Computer Interaction; some have never even heard of it. Interactive web design is just that - interactive; it is not print, so in spite of the similarities of print vs web, there are some major differences.

5.Are there opportunities in this field for college graduates with no experience?
Sure, I've encountered newbie designers - with no experience in the industry - that have good, strong portfolios, and they might get hired; however, a designer that has performed within the contructs of a production environment is much more favorable.

6.What is the typical career progression of individuals in this area?
Depends on the individual. You can start off as a junior, move up and start micro-managing juniors, move on to Senior then associate directorship to director. Remember this; the higher up the chain you go, the less likely you'll be doing hands on work. I personally love doing the work; managment sucks - for me anyway.

7.What do you think is the most important skill that you need to do this job well?
Accepting when you're wrong or making and learning from mistakes - and accepting so gracefully and moving on. This is no place for overly-sensitive types. Pick yourself up, brush it off and get back in the saddle.

8.What education, training, or skills did you bring to this position?
Good design background with an emphasis in illustration. Being an illustrator has helped, because I create my own supporting graphics for my layouts and such. We play Quake, Half Life and Unreal Tournement here; it's our softball or golf; it acts as a glue that binds us all together (we play after work - of course, and only when there are slow downs in development).

9.What are the major responsibilities of your position? Specific duties?
Lordy - that's a big one...

10.Do you know any related careers that use similar skills? What other careers are related to this field?

11.Are there any experiences, training, or skills that would best prepare me for this career?

12.What are the advantages and disadvantages of your career? Benefits and rewards? Risks?

13.What is the level of stress and pressure?
Sometimes it's on, and sometimes it's off; you just have to learn to "hold your line" through it all

14.What do you like least and best about this job?
Marketing and sales people do not understand development; they go out and promise stuff that is nearly impossible to build within the promised time frame. They also give away free stuff that you just don't give away for free- it's too involved. They are developmentally ignorant.

15.What are the time demands of your job?
I haven't worked a 40 hour week in 2 years; my weeks are typically 45 - 50 hours.

16.What is the salary range for an entry position in this field?
Juniors can expect a low to high 40k annually. Some places I've seen even less - 38k to 40k.

19.What is the opportunity for advancement?

20.What developments and changes have taken place in this field in the last five years?

21.Does this career require physical or mental work or both?

22.Does this career require you to work indoors or outdoors?

23.Where do most professionals in this field live? Is it region specific? Does it require travel?
I'm in Atlanta and been here ever since.

24.What type of dress is required of people who work in this field?
Casual but clean. Fridays are super casual - weather permitting and within reason.

25.Does this career require a routine?

26.Does this career require you to be a leader or a participant?
Where I am it requires both.

27.If you had to do it again, would you choose the same career?
Oooooo...hmmm...good question. I might do it again, but there are lots of thing I would do differently if given the chance.

29.What advice do you have for pursuing this career?
PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE in sharpening your skills!

[ November 05, 2001: Message edited by: Tom Carter ]