Blog 3 – Networking

Networking is the key to success, and this week we discussed some secret interview techniques to use while doing so. This subject ties in very well to our portfolio assignment, where we were intentionally going out of our way to try to network.

As a creative practitioner every interaction, online or not is essential and somewhere down the line could land you a career. Even when you aren’t going out of your way to, you are still networking and sometimes when you least expect it someone will reach out to you with an offer or a job. This happened to me during a dentist appointment, while the dentist had his fingers and tools in my mouth doing his thing he began to chat about his son and how he was into computers and games. Eventually he took them out and he offered to pay me to teach his son the basics of animating and creating characters.

Creative Networking (TheOdd1sOut, 2016)

YouTuber TheOdd1sOut animated his experiences with a challenge that he accepted; soon after many similar YouTubers such as Jaiden Animations and itsAlexClark also decided to accept the challenge and animate their experiences. In TheOdd1sOut’s case of networking, people reached out to him after he had done something, which reminded me after watching and listening to Laim Esler, that networking isn’t a chore, it can be fun too, and in fact that it should be an enjoyable experience.

Networking is essential for success, I will have to search for people to network with but people will also be searching for me. TheOdd1sOut did it in a fun and exciting way and it was much more effective and enjoyable than going searching over social media or at functions. In the future I’ll remember to simply try to get to know others in the industry and enjoy making new friends instead of making it another chore for myself.

 

References:

TheOdd1sOut. (2016). 7 Day Vegan Challenge Baby (solves all your problems). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGZQopQTkfA

Game Developers of Wellington. (2016). GDOW – Liam Esler on Getting a Job in Games “A Degree is not Enough”. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=33&v=j4Wa4lCVRGw