Jon Reilly – Inner Freak Creative Director/Founder

Our third lecture was from Jon Reilly, an artist who has not only worked on games, but also on popular movies like Thor 2 and Skyfall. He focused the talk on his work and his journey through games to film and how the two helped him get where he is.

The main point, however, was the work he did outside of his job role and how in doing this, he could work on whatever he wanted. This report will talk about this and how employers will look at applicants when looking to fill a vacant position.

Work for the Job You Want

One of the first things Jon got across to us early on is that we, as soon-to-be graduates, will very likely get a job working on things we don’t necessarily want to work on. He told us about the start of his career in film, where he really wanted to create character art, but it was his job to model the set buildings, with no room for expansion. This isn’t as bad as it sounds, but if you really want to work on something specific outside of your role, you have to push yourself for it.

Jon then moved onto the part of his story where the work he did at home let him gain the job role he wanted.

David Owen at IGN wrote an article (Owen, 2013) about whether a degree in video games was worth it, but a lot of focus was on what students should be doing outside of University. In the interview with Dr. Chris Child (see article), this was quoted: “What game companies want is someone who makes games as a hobby, so we encourage them to work outside of the coursework in their own time.”

I think everything Jon told us related directly to this, since he was talking to students, and it also covers actually getting a job rather than changing to a position you want. When graduates start looking for jobs after leaving University, there will be less job positions than people to fill them. Working in their spare time will allow them to show the creativity and skills that coursework couldn’t, it also shows more variation from the other students with the same work from the same course.

In conclusion, industry professionals agree that working outside of job roles/coursework is a great way to not only showcase talent, but also to get the ideal job. I can’t find any issue with this as I follow this advice myself with the work I do.

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References:

Owen, David. (2013) Is it Worth Doing a Degree in Video Games? [Online]. Available from: <http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/04/02/is-it-worth-doing-a-degree-in-video-games> [Accessed 21 February 2015].