Critical Appraisal
Virtual networks unity had a focus on how we are willing to approach our career after the BA, by giving us 360 knowledge of what is required when applying for new jobs & what is the career path that will suit us best.
It will also guide us through our final undergraduate exhibition showcase, from the planning to the promotion of the event.
This unit is the extension of mapping virtual practice from year 2, where we were introduced to professional CV & creating a digital identity.
During the first week we have been focusing on which digital identity, aesthetic we prefer for our social media, in particular Instagram. Instagram is the leading social platform to showcase work nowadays, with a strong visual language. We all researched few profiles of artists that we liked and listed why we like their style.
My professional Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anitaxrvisual/
Having a professional Instagram is really handy as it is easy to share, and people can have a general overlook to our works just in few seconds and crate a general idea of your likings and style. I personally like to have a professional Instagram that showcases just my work, treating it more as an archive. To make it more personal I would add personal achievements or recognition achieved, (as pictures) to make it less more familiar.
CV
Our second focus during week 1 was updating our CV. To enter the work industry, it is fundamental to have an updated CV with work experiences that showcase our best hard and soft skills. We had a group session brainstorming our soft and hard skills.
As soft skills are intended personality traits that can be an asset in a work environment, while hard skills are software knowledge.
For my CV I decided to visualize it into 2 columns:
On the left, all my general details, including website link, location, phone number, email address (a new email address just for profession related emails) study experience, soft skills hard skills and language knowledge.
On the right, I listed the main work experiences I had from the most important to the least.
Cover letter
Important when sending the CV is always to write down a cover letter. cover letters are an introduction to who we are, what is shorty our career and academing experience and why we would be the right fit for the job.
Cover letters should always be quite personal and focused on the specific job request, which means that cover letter templates are not always the right choice. Although I think that a common scheme can be followed:
- short personal presentation
- synthetic work experience that showcases your skill set
- why you would like the job
- what you can offer to the job (with extra skills/soft skills)
Website
Having a website is vital as an artist as it works as a sort of visual online CV. I decided to build mine with Editor X (a Wix domain) because the interface is easy and free. I already built my website for Mapping virtual practice last year, therefore for this unit I applied the advices given and updated my website.
website link: https://anitaghaffa.editorx.io/anita-ghaffarian
it is dived in:
- home: showreel video
- projects: menu with my project with video and short description
- about: sort of small presentation and showing skills and work experience
- contact social media links, email
I focused on updating project videos and finalizing the showreel and also on the project window
Portfolio
We have been required to provide an online portfolio for the unit. The website works as a portfolio.
Showreel
For the showreel we have been asked to make it 2,3 mins long. I will be using DaVinci resolve to edit it and recording of game plays and building process of my works. For the showreel I opted for a strong visual language, using music and colour palette. I added a filter all along the video to merge all different videos and making it smoother. I worked on each singular short video first, by tweaking the speed, making it faster in the process and slower when showing the final results. I had fun making the showreel, although it required me quite a but of time to go through my past projects, recording small videos and editing them.
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zz0HFtz-aM
Understanding our career path
During the unit we have spent a significant amount of time understanding what we like doing, what is the role we would lie to have in the XR industry. We had a Padlet board where we wrote down what we enjoy doing in our work and which industries are available for this kind of skills.
I personally really enjoy 3D modelling, especially individual objects rather than environments, and also I have been practicing more texturing lately which I like doing as it make the 3d object more complete. This helped me out to understand better what I liked the most during my BA and in which area I want to develop further my skill asset.
Values & CAF
Value & CAF it is a workshop run by Zoë Tynan-Campbell from UAL, focused on:
- To introduce reflection and reflexivity as part of your practice
- To understand your values and your value
- To be able to articulate your attributes effectively
- To leverage your skills and value for success in your career or practice
We reflected on professional, personal values. For values it meant our morals, ethics, drivers and motivation.
To start with: ” what are our top priorities and deal breakers”.
I found this really interesting as I put myself in the perspective of seeing myself and interests first rather than the job opportunity. I was always treating every job advert as it was my only occasion without really considering that I might not like the actual join duties.
I really enjoyed doing the creative type test to see how my creative personality is and relates to work and others. alfter that we used Deck of Characters cards to build our own character.
Reflecting on how we approach our creative work, really helps figure it out, our thinking process during the realization of a new work, what we need in order to succeed. It was important because even if we are not sure which career path we want to pursue exactly, still the way we manage our work, soft skills and ethics tell a lot about the way we envision our career and our main priorities which could be given for granted. It can feel overwhelming sometimes starting new projects, due to the amount of work and the short periods given. This workshop was useful and practical to break down a project and understand where I can start working on it, by taking each task individually, analyzing and going step by step instead in the way I feel most comfortable with.
Overall, this unit has prepared me for my first steps into the industry, making me more confident in showing my work, by preparing the projects I have in a more professional way, creating a strong digital presence. I understood how important is nowadays to have these assets as the industry is focused on social media presence, and having visual and easy to access online content is fundamental.