Do I have to apply as an intern?

[TheBladeRoden]

So I graduated with my Bachelor's in Multimedia in 2007. Since then I've been sending my resumes, applications, portfolio's, and demoreels for various video editing, graphic design, and 3D modeler positions at different companies, but they will rarely ever write back to even give me an interview.

Even though I've already graduated from college, do I still need to apply for an internship first and only hope to be promoted from within to get a salary with benefits position at these companies?

[Armanguy]

It always helps to apply to some internships. Thats the one upside about attending school you are eligible for internships unlike me that has to work like a dog to even get noticed :P

Oh i wish i could have an internship :P Anyways work on your portfolio a bit more and apply to some internship as right now you don't have anything thats eye catching to really give you a edge over people that have a little more experience.

[Talon]

I think a lot of the radio silence stems from your portfolio. To be brutally honest - it needs a hell of a lot of work.

I went there to see what your work was like and I've just spent 2 minutes clicking on links trying to see yout work. So far, I've been taken to 4 different sites. Only one of these had any sort of image there for me to see (CGTalk Portfolio). If I was an employer, I'd have given up after clicking 2 links and not seeing any of your work and moved on to the next portfolio.

It needs to be brought together - all the content must be on your site, not elsewhere. And you need to sort out the navigation - it's confusing. I want to be able to click portfolio and see all of your work on the screen infront of me (infact, I don't even want to have to do that - I want to click the link to your folio and the first page I see should have all of your work there).

This is pretty much standard reading for anyone who's building a portfolio.

[Ghostscape]

Having a homepage that doesn't make it easy to get to your work (why are you linking to your cg talk portfolio instead of hosting the images on your website?) doesn't help, and the fact that the work isn't stellar doesn't help, either.

Talon is right, read the Jon Jones article and look at other people's portfolios, especially the ones for people you respect and are well-known in the industry.

[UberInuka]

I completely agree with Talon's post you need to make your portfolio site so much simpler then that, literally like 1-2 click and bam portfolio, hell you could just have it on the main page right there, that will get attention, and make sure its only your BEST work to truly show that you have a grasp of your skill, there is a post on here by Diegio on building a portfolio

http://www.game-artist.net/forums/tu...portfolio.html


Talon i like your portfolio =D it looks very nice

[TheBladeRoden]

Yeah, the portfolio is kind of crappy, but it doesn't even get to that point most of the time, I can't even get them to respond to just a resume and cover letter.

http://students.uww.edu/rodenja10/resume2.doc

[Cryrid]

I can't even get them to respond to just a resume and cover letter.

That could be a reason right there: you're pretty much fishing without a lure/bait.

Throw your URL somewhere on the resume, on your signature (if you email it to them), and try to send them a demo reel if you physically can. If you just send a resume and cover letter with no examples of your work, they might not bother with it at all as it would just be wasting their time (they're bound to have a pile of actual portfolios/reels waiting for review, and they aren't going to go out of their way to hunt down yours). Make sure they see a juicy worm, and they're more likely to bite.

As for the resume itself, I'd shorten it to two pages to give them less to read (if you're applying for an art position, they probably don't need to know you were a custodian six years ago). Maybe group the Related Skills bullets so that all the Adobe products are together, as well as the Macromedia ones.

[Talon]

Originally Posted by TheBladeRoden

Yeah, the portfolio is kind of crappy, but it doesn't even get to that point most of the time, I can't even get them to respond to just a resume and cover letter.

Bingo.

Any application that arrives at our company without a portfolio or link gets completely ignored. Why should we bother responding to you just to get a link to your folio when there's a list of other applications sat there all with links in their application email? Always, always link to your folio in your application. There should be a link in your CV, too.

Companies won't give a flying **** about your CV or your cover letter until they've been impressed with the work you've got in your portfolio. There's no point in spending time reading it if you can't do the work you're applying for. If they like your folio, then they'll read up on you.

Then you make it doubly hard for them by making your portfolio confusing. So if they actually get to the point where you link them to your folio, they can't find anything and give up then, rather than after the first email.



You're really shooting yourself in the foot twice. Always imagine that the company only cares first and foremost about the work you've done and the work you can do. Design your portfolio to that end (put all of your work on the very first page and have it nicely laid out) and write your job apps to that end (succinct with a prominent link to your folio).

[Jonathan]

On my site I had, it was simple a 1-page solution, made in just a couple of hours with the 1and1 website builder. I put all of my main stuff on the main page, so once someone visited my site, they saw my work thus far, and there were a few other tabs where they could see more, less-important stuff. It got me the job, and it was easy to browse, easy to update, etc.

Also remember, ONLY put your best, most-recent stuff on there. Remove any old stuff, remove things that show where you USED to be as an artist, as the only thing you want to show is where you are NOW as an artist. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and your portfolio is only as strong as it's weakest piece of artwork.

[Jedah]

Take a look at these portfolio designs:

Andrew Harrington Environment Artist

tb3d_home

The Portfolio of Clark Morissaint

Notice how on all of them their work is either on the front page, or a link to their gallery / 3d artwork is very obvious and not hidden amongst a bunch of other links. It only takes a split second to be able to tell were you need to go to see what they have done.

The basic rule of thumb I've gotten from a lot of people and employers is that it should never take more then 2 "clicks" to see your work. Meaning it should only be one link at most before they can see at the very least a bunch of thumbnails ( linked to large images ) that showcase your work.

It should be either Home page->Gallery or have your work directly on your front page.

In your case...I could only find one link leading to another link that led to some portfolio on CGartist. This is no good.