Last year I attended the Interactive Stranger Things experience, meeting Seth Cover who’s entertainment design company Mycotoo created the experience. Talking to him about his work was inspiring and so I emailed him enquiring about possible summer opportunities this year. I asked about possible concept art/design roles.
This was a really useful experience in reaching out to those in the industry and in following up. It can be hard not to feel like a week or two of silence is a rejection but I now know how easy it is for an email to end up unread. Hence: the importance of following up.
I ended up with an interview in the form of a casual ‘meet and greet’ with Seth and Mycotoo’s creative lead Bonnie. Despite the term ‘meet and greet’ this was by far the most intimidating professional situation I have ever been in. I learnt how important it is to always have easy access to your portfolio as sometimes the hiring team is jumping in with no prior knowledge of you. This worked in my favour as I had it ready just in case and was able to take them through my work.
I was asked about my abilities art-wise:
- Can you storyboard?
- How fast can you sketch ideas?
- Can you paint still works?
- Can you adapt styles?
They seemed very busy and didn’t have a specific role in mind for me. I was asked to follow up in a month and I sent a thankyou email with my portfolio attached again to be safe.
Ultimately, I decided not to follow up after a month. The experience was really useful but I found myself not excited at the prospect of getting a role with them. I’m glad I went for it and reached out but found that maybe it wasn’t the best environment for me.