Interviews

So last week I got to do my first sit in interview session with Chris for the new batch of first years. It is something I always wanted to do just to see what the people where like. I'm the one usually talking to them about the course and sitting in front of them as my throat gets drier and i spurt out anything I can think about relating to the course. I often wonder how much of it am I wasting on people who wont get on the course. To my conclusion 90%, in the last two weeks of doing the interviews I have only witnessed one person good enough for the course. I was taken back at the work some people thought viable to bring to an interview. One guy with a few sheets of a life model that I 'm surprised I recognized as a woman with such a manly and out of proportion body. I am glad to have witnessed this because you have to interview 400 students and the percentage that are of decent quality is low. It has given me respect for what you have to put up with.

So with that in mind I dragged out the dust covered portfolio for when I applied. Going through the work I actually dunno if I would have said yes to let me on the course. The work was average, I hadn't done any life drawing, I had some experience in Max, UDK, Flash and GameMaker, but would that have qualified me? I find when you are doing the interviews you have to make quick judgement, sometimes the interviews don't last long and so you have to form opinions quite quickly on the work and the person who is in front of you. So as well as looking quality of work you are looking for a passionate individual who has done research and wants to be in the games industry. Not one of these people who think they are going to be playing games all day. The course is hard as we have a lot of learn in such a short period of time, and i try to emphasis this to people applying.

So did I come across better than my portfolio? I showed passion and i think that's what got me the place in uni and that passion still drives me through the hard times of this course. I still want to be in the games industry even though i have to work hard to get there but I will keep trying. So let me rephrase what I said earlier, I don't waste 90% of my time talking to people who won't get on I am giving valuable information to the 10% who do and I think that's worth my time. They are most often more passionate than me so if i can help them in any way to get the right course for them then I've done my job.