Thursday, August 7, 2014
Monday, March 10, 2014
back with a vengeance
So a lot has happened since my last post. I'll try to summarize it so your not falling asleep over there.
January 2013 = all time low. unemployed and animation mentor drop out. why you ask? well, I decided that maya animation while fascinating to try and master was not my true passion. Animation is yes, but I am 1000 x happier drawing than working in Maya...fact. So I was back to the drawing board and for a brief time had a job that equivocated to working at hooters...as I said. all time low.
March 2013 = landed a summer job working @ yale at a summer program for the arts and technology...but what to do in the meantime...well, through my good old craigslist searches I found and landed a job working at a publishing company in Princeton that specialized in year books. I learned a lot, got promoted within a month to a management position. I learned quickly and worked hard. Downsides were the hours, the commute, the pay, and the lack of creative work. Perks were pizza for overtime, paid overtime, a beer machine next to a coffee machine, the young atmosphere, and the experience of working in publishing. That and I played laser tag with everybody at our production season kick off event. While I was hoping they would offer me full time employment in the creative department after a while I realized I needed something else. More creative than yearbooks.
June 2013 = Sure enough, I got scouted by a creative recruiter from NYC (thanks onward search) and hooked up with a job in my area and in a pharma based marketing branch. Initially they interviewed me for a position that was 3-6 months in length as a studio artist building e-books and interactive media. They ended up not hiring me for that because my lack of experience in it...*though I bet if they knew then I'd be doing that now they would of kept me around longer* They wanted to to help them edit and revamp an updated campaign for a drug, so I did that instead. I had to milk it because the edits were so fast and I was almost two efficient. Had I not been given a temp position, I woulda gotten it done in two to three days. I made it drag on for two weeks so I at least got a decent pay check and got to learn some more. It was only a few weeks till my Yale job any who, so it was good to keep busy. The pay was AMAZING, the work was effortless, but still, I yearned for a challenge.
June 2013-August 2013 = ask me how I ended up an assistant director/ health and safety coordinator I have no idea...but more or less I was a nurse and another set of eyes. A den mother of sorts, making sure the kids were having fun and safe. I got to go on all the field trips to NYC and the Museum of the Moving image, and seeing kids half my age doing what I wanted to do for a living was enough motivation for me. The perks of this job was, it was 90% down time, I just had to be on call, so I had a lot of time to search for jobs, and do mock ups to get interviews. I also tried to pick up any fun tips from my co-workers who were all very versed in media and apps. The kids were for the most part very well behaved, some with some really serious medical issues, but I felt kinda cool that I was able to be maternal. wooh!
August 2013 = So while at Yale, I had four job interviews, three of which were in one week. One of them was for a fashion label as a junior designer, one was at a small publishing house for an internship, another was for an ad agency, or two, and the last was for a pharma based media company (which is where I am not happily). Out of all of those, I had two offers...they were legitimate and nice, but I went with scimed because of the company culture, the location, everything felt right to me. And it is right...I have been there since September and I love what I do. I get to story board, animate, and design games/ ebooks. Its my dream come true and I have never been happier
January 2013 = all time high, not only am I still loving my company, I have made some good impressions I believe. Our main client loved the design of my game, another prospective client we landed because of an interactive animated parable I created, and now I am working on some really exciting projects in addition I have been taking classes at the good old Society of Illustrators and continue to my develop my work. :) I now reside in manhattan and love everything about it (minus cost of living). But its worth it.
moral of the story: hi. my name is courtney. and I will continue to be an artist no matter what all time lows I hit, I will keep trying. And everybody else should too.
January 2013 = all time low. unemployed and animation mentor drop out. why you ask? well, I decided that maya animation while fascinating to try and master was not my true passion. Animation is yes, but I am 1000 x happier drawing than working in Maya...fact. So I was back to the drawing board and for a brief time had a job that equivocated to working at hooters...as I said. all time low.
March 2013 = landed a summer job working @ yale at a summer program for the arts and technology...but what to do in the meantime...well, through my good old craigslist searches I found and landed a job working at a publishing company in Princeton that specialized in year books. I learned a lot, got promoted within a month to a management position. I learned quickly and worked hard. Downsides were the hours, the commute, the pay, and the lack of creative work. Perks were pizza for overtime, paid overtime, a beer machine next to a coffee machine, the young atmosphere, and the experience of working in publishing. That and I played laser tag with everybody at our production season kick off event. While I was hoping they would offer me full time employment in the creative department after a while I realized I needed something else. More creative than yearbooks.
June 2013 = Sure enough, I got scouted by a creative recruiter from NYC (thanks onward search) and hooked up with a job in my area and in a pharma based marketing branch. Initially they interviewed me for a position that was 3-6 months in length as a studio artist building e-books and interactive media. They ended up not hiring me for that because my lack of experience in it...*though I bet if they knew then I'd be doing that now they would of kept me around longer* They wanted to to help them edit and revamp an updated campaign for a drug, so I did that instead. I had to milk it because the edits were so fast and I was almost two efficient. Had I not been given a temp position, I woulda gotten it done in two to three days. I made it drag on for two weeks so I at least got a decent pay check and got to learn some more. It was only a few weeks till my Yale job any who, so it was good to keep busy. The pay was AMAZING, the work was effortless, but still, I yearned for a challenge.
June 2013-August 2013 = ask me how I ended up an assistant director/ health and safety coordinator I have no idea...but more or less I was a nurse and another set of eyes. A den mother of sorts, making sure the kids were having fun and safe. I got to go on all the field trips to NYC and the Museum of the Moving image, and seeing kids half my age doing what I wanted to do for a living was enough motivation for me. The perks of this job was, it was 90% down time, I just had to be on call, so I had a lot of time to search for jobs, and do mock ups to get interviews. I also tried to pick up any fun tips from my co-workers who were all very versed in media and apps. The kids were for the most part very well behaved, some with some really serious medical issues, but I felt kinda cool that I was able to be maternal. wooh!
August 2013 = So while at Yale, I had four job interviews, three of which were in one week. One of them was for a fashion label as a junior designer, one was at a small publishing house for an internship, another was for an ad agency, or two, and the last was for a pharma based media company (which is where I am not happily). Out of all of those, I had two offers...they were legitimate and nice, but I went with scimed because of the company culture, the location, everything felt right to me. And it is right...I have been there since September and I love what I do. I get to story board, animate, and design games/ ebooks. Its my dream come true and I have never been happier
January 2013 = all time high, not only am I still loving my company, I have made some good impressions I believe. Our main client loved the design of my game, another prospective client we landed because of an interactive animated parable I created, and now I am working on some really exciting projects in addition I have been taking classes at the good old Society of Illustrators and continue to my develop my work. :) I now reside in manhattan and love everything about it (minus cost of living). But its worth it.
moral of the story: hi. my name is courtney. and I will continue to be an artist no matter what all time lows I hit, I will keep trying. And everybody else should too.
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