Finding your Career Path

A student of mine recently asked me for career advice. She wrote:

"... I don't really think I'm capable of taking on the kind of work you do and I don't think I'd be good at it, but I also don't want to be lazy or use that as an excuse to avoid finding out what I would be happy doing and where I'd be most useful.  Is it possible to have a career outside of the main industry cities?  I've thought about getting an OK job and animate my ideas for film festival, but even that seems like it might be an excuse to avoid the fear of moving.  Is there a good way to figure out what industry I'd fit in best?"

The answer, is a resounding yes! It is no crime to be conflicted. To be sure, folks who know from day one exactly what they want to do in life are freaks of nature. Finding your path is a journey itself and there are a several good practices that will help you get there.

• The first rule is always pursue jobs that actively moves you closer to your goals. If the job you are doing has no component at least *related* to what you want to be doing, move on. There are multiple applications for art and animation. These articles discuss these possibilities:
• http://animation.about.com/od/otherindustries/Computer_Animation_in_Other_Industries.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_industries
• The second rule is always be honing your craft in a way that is practical. An example is choosing between charcoal sketching versus digital painting. Both activities improve your drawing ability, but only one has a practical application in the work place. You should always make use of the internet for tutorials. If you can afford $25 bucks a month, think about subscribing to http://www.lynda.com/
  
• Third, you should always know what employers are looking for. One of the exercises I give my students is they must look up a dozen or so job titles and note the requirements. This is your cheat sheet of what you need to be working on. For example, I searched for "flash" at indeed.com and it yielded a job ad that listed the following requirements:
  
• Qualifications/Skills/Abilities:
  
• Dedicated to producing high quality work  
• Concepting abilities  
• Collaboration 
• Digital portfolio
• Highly communicative 
• Consistently meets deadlines 
• Familiar with OSX 
• Advanced skills in Adobe Creative Suite   

So from this list, we can now know exactly what things to improve and work toward if lacking.

Finally, here are the best internship resources which you can take advantage of immediately:

• http://www.internmatch.com/
• http://www.linkedin.com/job/q-summer-intern-l-los-angeles-jobs
• http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=Internship+engineering&l=Los+Angeles%2C+CA
• http://www.vault.com/
• http://www.engineerjobs.com/jobs/computer-engineering/california/los-angeles.php?e=i

You must believe in yourself! I had no digital skills when I graduated. I worked 3 crappy jobs doing photoshop work before I landed a gig in video games. The key was avoiding jobs that *didn't* involve digital skills and knowing that I would eventually get where I wanted to be as long as I was actively working towards it. There is no magic bullet - it's a journey that will take time, but if you are persistent, you'll get there.

Get On Your Game Face

Visceral reactions are generally physical in nature and relate to a physical mastery of a problem. They are not part of the game, though your game face can give clues regarding why people play games.

To understand what I mean by game face, check out the video documentary "Immersion". In this piece, photographer Robbie Cooper shows just how focused young video-game players can be.

Nicole Lazarro did a study, "Why we play games" that focuses around the facial reactions of subjects playing games. She arrived at four clusters of key emotions represented by facial expressions of the player. Each Key is a reason people play and is a mechanism for emotion in a different aspect of the Player Experience.

•1. Hard Fun: Players like the opportunities for challenge, strategy, and problem solving. Their comments focus on the game’s challenge and strategic thinking and problem solving. This “Hard Fun” frequently generates emotions and experiences of Frustration, and Fiero.

•2. Easy Fun: Players enjoy intrigue and curiosity. Players become immersed in games when it absorbs their complete attention, or when it takes them on an exciting adventure. These Immersive game aspects are “Easy Fun” and generate emotions and experiences of  Wonder, Awe, and Mystery.

•3. Altered States: Players treasure the enjoyment from their internal experiences in reaction to the visceral, behavior, cognitive, and social properties. These players play for internal sensations such as Excitement or Relief from their thoughts and feelings.

•4. The People Factor: Players use games as mechanisms for social experiences. These players enjoy the emotions of Amusement, Schadenfreude, and Naches coming from the social experiences of competition, teamwork, as well as opportunity for social bonding and personal recognition that comes from playing with others.

The interesting takeaway from Lazarro's work is that one of the criteria for the study was that games studied must generate emotions without the help of a narrative. This underscores the primary difference between games and other forms of entertainment, which is that games do not need a narrative to create visceral emotions. In some cases, games create narratives where none previously existed.