Starting off, the interview stage is arguably the most important part of the entire job-seaking process. It's the breaking part for most people wishing to find employment due to anxiety, stress or lack of preparation.
Past Interviews
I have been to two interviews prior. One for DHL and one for Strawdog. Starting with the Strawdog interview;
With the Strawdog interview, it was basically set in a worst case scenario. I was given less than 24 hours to prepare for it whilst dealing with multiple work deadlines. Alongside this I had to purchase a set of smart-casual clothing and find a working tablet/ laptop, both items I did not own. Turning up to the interview, I was fully prepared and felt very little in terms of stress once the process began. I was told on multiple occasions that it wasn't an interview but I still treated it as such. As the job was for UI design, there was next to no hope for me to find employment in this area but i still treated it professionally and recieved a lot of feedback on my current work, ensuring i could take a lot back from the process.
With DHL, it seemed a lot more basic. As I entered the office, I spoke to my employer indepthly about the job role, how i could excell and what was expected from me. The interviewer was a very polite man and very easy to talk to, making it the lowest stress interview I could imagine. As it wasn't an artist job, it relied entirely on my A-levels and GCSEs. I had to fill in a 50 question multiple choice questionnaire in 20 minutes but it seemed very straight forward, covering basic GCSE knowledge areas. This functioned as my summer job and was very good experience for team-building.
Preparation for the Game Industry
With the industry still being in its infancy, we've been warned that we'll be laid off at least one job/ get fired across our career. This may sound depressing but as we build up our experience and become better at our areas of expertise, the chance of this will be greatly diminished.
Outside of work ,we should always be improving our skillsets and portfolios in preperation for a worst case scenario that may never happen but it'll help greatly in future proofing our careers. Even if your portfolio is never needed again, its always good to expand your horizon and learn new software packages.
Approaching the Interview
Your state of mind going in to the interview is incredibly important. If you approach the scene with the mindset that you believe you're going to fail, your confidence will be destroyed for the entire process and the employer will most definitely pick up on this. Try to convince yourself that the job is yours for the taking but try to avoid looking over-confident, as a junior artist this could give the employer the entirely wrong impression. Just try to relax, see the interviewer as a normal human being, treat his/ her role with respect and try to stay positive.
Interview anxiety is something i personally suffer from greatly. I have a lot of issues sleeping the night before and overthink every aspect of the interview up until it physically happens. This involves running mental risk analysis's over every step and evaluating both the worst and best case scenarios. The stress from this makes me pace and entirely removes and possibility of relaxation from the final 24 hours up to the event.
This derives mostly from being brought up to be very business minded. I try to fully evaluate every decision, taking in to consideration every feasible scenario as one simple mistake could have disastrous consequences when it comes down to property development, evaluating a property before purchase and estimating/ organizing repairs/ renovations so the tenants are given the best possible start-point. Treat the tenants with respect, provide them with a nice home, be understanding over areas such as rent payments and property damage and you can be left with a secure line of profit. Its very difficult for a tenant to be dis-respectful to a property if they believe they've hit gold with a respectable landlord although some may attempt to take advantage of their landlord so direct contact is still not advised. Estate agents should serve as middle men for communication purposes but even these can be quite hit or miss so you have to incredibly careful. Even more so when originally viewing properties as many of the people you meet could be anything from con-artists to pleasant, genuine human beings. This makes you fairly un-trusting.
With this mindset its very difficult to stay in an entirely positive mindset and keeps you on high alert around people such as possible employers. Just a bit of background to give context and a breakdown to the mindset I have going in to interviews. Quite annoyingly, as i enter an interview room or look at a job position, I seem to put myself in the employers position and try to evaluate who would be the best position for the job and have the highest probability of enriching the company as a whole. With this I will never see myself as a viable option for job placements when there are far more talented people available that could take the company a much larger jump forward. I want to see the best quality product created. If me being on that team could sacrifice that, i'll find it very hard believing im the one for the job.
Its a very self destruction mindset for someone looking for a junior job position and basically anyone outside of owning their own business. As i don't believe it's possible to change this mindset after 20 years the only real option is to push myself in ability until i truely believe I can add enough to a team to be a worthwhile investment.
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