If the company isn’t willing to train you for a month on their software, you’re not that valuable.
It means there was another equally (or possibly MORE) qualified candidate that already knew the software. Period.
This is the exact reason these companies get away with murder (long hours, underpay etc.) its a saturated market. If any company worth working for is not willing to train an employee regardless of industry you need to question if you should even want to work at that company.
This doesn’t even make sense. It IS a saturated market. That’s EXACTLY why you shouldn’t handicap yourself by not learning the industry standards. It’s one thing if you’re some kind of wild, “once-in-a-lifetime” artistic prodigy, but most folks … aren’t. Where I work, we primarily use AE, C4D, UE4 and Unity. Why on EARTH, would I hire someone who only knew Blender or Max when I have a full stack of resumes of equally skilled artists who already know C4D? Your way of thinking here just doesn’t make sense.
It’s thinking like this that creates these environments that gives all the power to a corporation. You are underselling your persona, your skills, your thought process, your ability to figure out solutions, your effect on other people, any company worth their salt knows this and would never let a true talent get away. If you think you didn’t get a job because you didn’t have their tools perfected, you need to re-evaluate your thinking.
Again, no. This is dangerously bad advice (UNLESS you’re that 1-in-a-million talent I mentioned earlier - then all bets are off). This is because, while every company values problem solving and all of the other traits you mention, they want the problems to be the normal, everyday problems we all deal with in this industry. They do NOT want the problem to be “I’m not sure how to tackle this because I don’t know the software yet”.
The advice that any software will help you learn so pick what you want is fine. The advice that any software will get you a job because a company should recognize your ability and just straight up train you is right out of the mid-to late 1990’s and borderline irresponsible IMO.
The unfortunate reality is that the market is very saturated (if I’m not mistaken, there are more people going to school for CG right now than there are actual positions in the field) and most of us (whether anyone wants to admit it or not) have similar skillsets and artistic abilities. So if you don’t know the software of the company you’re applying to, and you’re not a special snowflake style prodigy, you also aren’t getting that job. Period.
The only exception I can think of is the larger FX houses that have their own proprietary stuff that isn’t commercially available, but even then, they’re usually looking for industry standard knowledge as a base.