Kick-ass Environment Artist Needed in Seattle

[kwshipman]

Hi LaurenMilan, I have a couple of questions for you if you can humor me.

I will be moving to Everett in a few months to attend Henry Cogswell College. Have you had many prospects from Henry Cogswell? Do you guys there at ArtSource do anything with internships? Also what is the employement level like in the seattle area for this field. I have heard that it is not so good right now. Do you guys do any recruiting at schools?

If you prefer you can reply via email if you want this thread, free of this stuff. Also, I can delete it if you would like.

Look forward to applying with you in a couple of years!

KW

[modeling-man]

Hey, I live in Seattle. From experience lemme just tell you the job market here sucks ass. Its horrible. Unless you know the recruiter that is hiring for the position...or know the brother of the managers wife at the local company you are applying to.

Most likely your resumes will be sent off to outer space.
Recruiting companies will not speak to you in person...and if you call to ask if they received the email with resume and attachment/url...chances are they will say they are too busy to respond, most of the time they will just tell you to email since they don't accept phone calls.

Plus, to me it seems a bunch of these recruiting firms don't know what they are supposed to be looking for...I read one that wanted someone with over 10 years ASP experience, Javascript, Mysql...as well have skills in Flash, Director, and Photoshop. THEN get this the job was JUST a contract position...hehe kinda funny considering ASP hasn't been around for 10 years.

Most of these positions are flooded with over a thousand resumes...so if you are just a student I'd suggest really beefing up your portfolio fast. The Dot bomb hit here HARD. My internship company Network Commerce is no more...over 200 employees when I was there...then my most recent company where I worked just laid off 6 people, and is now consolidating their office space and having the developers move in with the business offices.

As for Artsouce:
This Maya position has been up for a while at Artsource...I've checked it trust me. I'm taking a course in Maya just to apply for it. Starts in February so lets hope the position is still available. I know Max...but they don't want any Max people.

The news keeps saying its getting better but when Boeing lays off a couple thousand employees kinda makes it hard to believe.
Oh and Everett is a hell hole. I'd suggest living in North Seattle if you can and commuting....Everett is a sketchy place.

Anyways back to modeling. The job market might blow...but the coffee is great!
Take care.
-B

[kwshipman]

Thanks for the info. I am only living in everett untill I am through with school. My wife and I just need some place cheap to live untill I have real work, then I will be concerened with a better place(I would love to live in Belview(sp?) but I will go where ever there is work. And I had heard about Boing laying off hundreds in Everett(a friend of the family lives there). My wife wants to go into child care, heard that field suck up there right now too. Oh well, guess we will be poor.:shrug:

[modeling-man]

Ya Bellevue is a very nice place to live. Very $$$, no where near as pricey as Issaquah. I grew up in Issaquah so its really been interesting to see how much the eastside has grown. I'm poor as well. If you can hideout in school for a while do it...I took a modeling course at Seattle Central Community college ($325 a course cheapest in Seattle area), the teacher there is awesome...he worked at Sierra for a while. He is is teaching since he's now a family man and doesn't want to pull the hellish hours since its a new born. The course teaches you all the ins-outs of Game Modeling, I highly recommend this course.

BCC (Bellevue Community College) also has a Maya course available for $349 a course. This is what I will be taking in February...it will teach you animation and game modeling. All these courses are considered (continued learning) which means they are on the weekends...usually 9am-3pm. For one course its 3-4 classes (so 3 saturdays...basically a month of your time). Its a really good buy considering my stupid 4 year degree in "New Media" never even taught us 3D and cost me 20K. Of which I'll be paying off for another 10 years. (bitter? Not really...I found my longtime g-friend there:))

Here are the links if you are interested:

Seattle Central Community College (Max 4.3 will be teaching Maya soon) Jason is the teacher...and is a really cool guy.
http://at-campus.net/sccc/index.html?schedule=3/18.html
Bellevue Community College (Maya courses...starts in February)
http://at-campus.net/bccsched/index.html?schedule=output/category_769.htm

Perhaps I'll see you at the BCC classes?
If not here's my URL.
www.subshape.com
Feel free to email if you have anymore questions.

The models on the site are what I was able to do during the class.
I'll be posting some new ones very soon.
Best of luck to you
-B

[Rhid1en]

The market up here is tough right now, especially with all the schools teaching 3d these days, it's getting really competitive. I highly suggest downloading a learning addition of Maya and Max to just start playing around with.
Working with recruiters, can be difficult at times, but I've had interviews threw them. Just be sure to ask some specific questions pre-interview, been shuffled off to a couple now thru recruiters being told they were 3d positions, to find out half way thru that it was a 2d position. Not only do you feel like an ass talking about modeling techniques the whole time, but also you're just wasting both of your time, thus making the interviewing process even more painful.
Good luck, hope you enjoy the wild world of 3d!

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