S.W.O.T. ANALYSIS AND S.M.A.R.T. TARGETS

S.W.O.T. stands for

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

S.W.O.T analyses help to accomplish long term tasks , help’s to establish self-awareness of our own weakness , and build strategy in order to achieve goal.

So my current goal is to become a game designer and start my own game studio. It’s quite a task to b honest , and will require all devotion for it.

S.W.O.T. analyses is 4 questions I need to answer in order to  start analyzing my situation more clearly

Strengths- what are my current strengths compared to others , what makes me stronger then others

Weaknesses -what are my relative weaknesses compared to others

Opportunities -how I can use my opportunities to their fool potential

Threats -what threads I will encounter during achieving my goal

So I personal answers to this questions:

Strength – being relentless in doing what I want to do , hardworking , desire to find creative and affective solution to every problem.

Weaknesses – horrible knowledge of English , being outsider can cause problems sometimes , no local contacts

Opportunities –proof by hard working that I’m a good worker , show that I’m a good and reliable person.

Threats-keeping my English in level it is currently is , keep staying home.

Now using this , I can build S.M.A.R.T. targets

S.M.A.R.T. stands for:

Specific – identify your target clearly and how you would recognize if/when it has

been achieved

Manageable – within the situation in which you are working

Achievable – that is within your reach

Relevant – to your situation and professional development needs

Time related – so that there is a commitment to review progress and avoid

slippage 

Or so what I can clearly see , just only by taking care of my English studying will allow me to solve most of my problems. What I need now is to male myself organized to study it regularly and keep on improving it.

Cover Letter

Valeriso Tsoumpas

48 Bayswater Road , First Floor

Plymouth

United Kingdom

Valer20071@gmail.com

Mobile No: 447790477061

Skype: terminatorvaler

Dear Tim Johnson

I want really hard to become part of Epic Games as a 3d designer, responsible for modeling 3d , in game objects for the best company existing right now.

I have spent more than 7 years working with 3d studio Max for different projects , and a have managed to achieve results , that’s made my those who saw them go wow. I have not just studied modeling throw books , but established skills that I see mostly among professionals. While I prefer quality above all else in my works , work speed is something I always pushed to the limits. Thanks for combinations of this two modeling is a field , where I’m competitive even with professionals.

When I look at your games I can see quality and love for details in every single model , from most important to barely noticeable. This is absolutely my way of working , and that’s why I feel that Epic Games is where a man like me belongs to.

If you are interested in getting a 3d modeler,  that in just several years of experience will become one of the best in your team then please contact me using any contacts details I had listed above , any time you like.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes

Valerios Tsoumpas

Writing a Cover Letter

Writing a cover letter is no less important than a CV in most cases. Most companies want to see your cover letter, so to broad up chances of getting a job, anyone should pay enough attention to it. First what is a cover letter and why so many companies want it?

Job seekers frequently send a cover letter along with their curriculum vitae or application for employment as a way of introducing themselves to potential employers and explaining their suitability for the desired position. Employers may look for individualized and thoughtfully written cover letters as one method of screening out applicants who are not sufficiently interested in their position or who lack necessary basic skills.

So a good cover letter is one more guaranty that you can get a job , and in any industry extra chances is more than a good reason to take it.

First what cover letter must have and what it should avoid having in it:

                It must be short, about half of a A4 page

                It must free of all grammar mistakes

                Free of all spelling mistakes

                Incredibly clear

                You must feel like art of minimalism was applied to it

                You must look really confident in it, like you are already hav this job

                You must show that you are aware what this company is famous for

                Show that you over impressed with an idea of working there

                Show that you know the name of whom going to read your cover letter

                Do not threat them directly

                Yet show that you even know where they live

                All logical stuff

Step one: write Dear [insert name of your employer here]

Step two: write what you want from him

Step three: Write a paragraph in where you tell: why you want to work in this company and why you think you are worthy to be chosen for this position.

Step four: Final paragraph should have thing like: what you going to after getting the job , how happy they are going to be when they will see you in action.

Step five: write all contact information again and don’t forget to add respectful closing statement in the end.

Examples:

 

                

My CV

Valeriso Tsoumpas

48 Bayswater Road , First Floor

Plymouth

United Kingdom

Valer20071@gmail.com

Mobile No: 447790477061

Skype: terminatorvaler

Career Objective: Looking for a position of a game designer, where I will have some freedom to accomplish my ideas in games I’ll be working on. Ability to develop innovating and profitable games.

Professional Experience:

ILogos: two month working experience as a 3d modeler for browser game, quite job due to educational reasons.

Qualifications:

School Lingva XXI centaury B – A grades

BA degree in International Economics

Step Academy Graphic Design certificate

(Currently studding in Plymouth , Design for games course)

Skills:

Good skills in 3d max , Photoshop

Knowledge of using Zbrush , Mari , Mudbox , Maya

Aware of trends in game industry

Basic level of programing and digital painting

Knowledge of game development process

Creative

Disciplined during work

Knowledge of languages like: Russian , Ukrainian , English

Basic knowledge of languages like: Greek

Communicative

Basic knowledge of music theory

Hobbies:

Playing Guitar

Reading Books

Playing video and board games

Doing some experiments on game engines

Game related news and articles

Researching major political events

Writing a CV

To get any job most people had to write at least some sort of curriculum vitae or for short CV, getting a game design job will not be any different. Even more than that , a good CV is half of a success, yet lots of people doing it absolutely wrong. To avoid repeating other people mistakes one should star from understanding what is expected from a good CV , what is a good CV , what is bad CV and all the other small details.

 What is a CV:

CV is a document that contains jobs seeker employment history , education and qualifications in most shortest possible way. Usually only key words are included in a good CV. Also name , contact details and other details that may be useful for getting a job  should be included.  It is sent to job employer, who in case finds this CV good and a person behind this CV acceptable for the job will arrange a interview.

A short list of what CV must have:

                Details of a person

                Education

                Qualification

                Work experience

                Hobbies

                List of personal achievements

                Displayed level of skill

As was sad , CV must be as short as possible. Some people say that 1-2 pages is more than enough. I will stick to that. Job employers (as well as managers) are busy people. Knowing that can make  someone’s job search much easier. It was sad that if you can’t impress job employer with your CV in less than a minute it’s auto fail. Same goes for interview most of the time. 

Yet making some common mistake is even a better guarantee that you won’t get the job , such as:

                Horrible grammar

                Spelling

                Too long

                Too short

                Poor or no work history

                Lying

                No contact information

                Badly laid out

Also constantly updating CV when needed is a good idea. Some tips for making CV I heard:

                Making a different font for important information

                Writing important information in bold or italic

                Writing important information with bigger latters

                Separating CV in to sections for easier navigation

Couple of good examples for CV:

Choosing a profession

Our todays task was to figure out what job we want to take in game industry. There is ni mi just designers and progarammers doing games our days, there are way more specialized jibs in this industry.

So we were given a website were all professions are described much more accurately.

http://www.blitzgamesstudios.com/blitz_academy

In the jobs tab we can see most common jobs in this industry , what they do and what skills are expected from a person  choosing this carrier. Of course I expect there are even more carriers than that, but becoming a good artist will make any one good enough for concept artist , environment designer or even character designer.

So listed job roles in job roles tab are: Art , Animation , Audio , Game Design , Programing , Quality Assurance (QA)and Management. My primary goal is becoming a game designer. Making your ideas in to games is a dream job for me. I can expect it will be really tough to get in to this position, that this website states that clearly.

First this position requires you to work with other people, for many game developers who used to see them self as lonely wolfs , siting in their garage all day long that may be quite a shock. I personally don’t mind working with other as long as we have some sort of cooperation ,but that’s where the hard part begins . Making other people do what you want is not every ones talent , and making other people love your ideas is one more challenge.

On top of that designer must be aware of other roles. Be professional as a designer , but still know a little bit about every other carrier’s tasks. To be a little bit a programmer, an artist , musician and so on. This something a do believe I have already. A studied programing on Turbo Pascal, musical theory , art theory and tried every other little thing. I aware that I’m far from competitive in all of them , but knowing at least some basic terminology will make every me way more comfortable while talking with people from different carriers.

Another one is to know what to expect from the industry , when it is the right time to innovate or release something. It is even more important to know what ideas are good and what are bad. Many designers want to become a game designer because they want to make a remake of their favorite game. I even heard that some designers wanted to get in to game industry just to make a movie inside of their game. Those usually fail really hard in searching for job , without even realizing what they are doing wrong.

A true game designer first of all must be a walking game ideas generator and problem solver. He must have hundreds of thousands of perfect games in his head every day , but most of them will die before even being told to any one and for a good reason. As I sad designer must understand what game ideas are even worthy to deserve funding , and even after that half of them will die out long before the actual game release date.

The list can go forever, but it all leads in to being creative while being disciplined. It’s a hard position to take , I will try hard to get that position. After all those barriers are just to make game industry a better place , so only true designers will get a job.

Plan B will be becoming a 3d designer , just in case I fail in taking position above. I do believe I’m quite good in 3d modeling and I already have working experience, but for me it is a slavery and just another work as many others. So this plan is only in case something will go absolutely wrong.