New way to send a cover letter

your work should stand for itself, if it doesnt no amount of distractions will change this.

What could anyone possibly say in a cover letter that will set them apart?

"Hi, I am bob, I love making games and people who make them, I need a job to pay my rent. I found out that you guys need somebody to do what I can do, so please hire me because I love all the games you guys make."

However, somebody out there will think this is original and will possibly give you an interview because of it, but, do these people really know what to look for in hiring or are they just frustrated at the lack of creativity in their job?

This is a really cool idea and I heartily endorse any effort to go above and beyond the norm when it comes to applying for creative positions. However these should be seen as nice touches, not anything that'll make the difference between you getting the job or not.

For example as a designer I put a lot of work into the aesthetic presentation of my resume and portfolio, but that was more to show I put care into what I make rather than me thinking "This will totally get me the job the moment they see how sweet this looks". As long as you keep that in mind stuff like this is great. Just don't spend too much time on it as you'll run into diminishing returns.

Another thing to remember is it's often recruiters rather than actual employers who are first hit with covering letters, resumes, and portfolios; and they aren't particularly interested in stuff like this. They're essentially just seeking out buzz words that they think will make you an applicant worth passing onto the employer. Therefore it's essential you do the basics really well and don't expect a fancy video and portfolio to excuse a shitty-looking resume thrown together in 10 minutes in Word.

You could introduce the video in the first paragraph of your cover letter and/or home page of your portfolio as a 'more digestible version of the following'. But accept that some employers just won't watch it, just like some will take a fleeting glance at your portfolio's first page or two before deciding you're fit for an interview. Dudes are busy.

Then comes the real meat and potatoes: impressing them with your personality. The most epic portfolio and associated materials in the world won't help you if you can't convince them that you're a pleasure to work with within 10 minutes. Fortunately artists often have fantastic personalities, but I've seen many developers over the years experience incredible frustration because despite having the skills they just can't seem to get a great job. Reason: they're awkward as fuck.

Quote from insta

A employer is never going to hire a less skilled worker because of his/her coverletter, even though it runs at 28 fps and has stereo audio. Any time not spent on the actual content of the portfolio is pretty much wasted. IMHO~

You will find that getting someone to even look at your portfolio/cv is the first hurdle. Especially when someone is blasting through 100 of them, anything that makes you stand out is good. It goes without saying that the portfolio work has to be good, but spending time on your cover letter is not a bad idea.If you aren't spending atleast 2 days writing/reviewing it, you are doing it wrong. Spamming out cover letters is a sure fire way of getting completely ignored when it comes to applications.

It's a nice idea and it'll make you stand out. My worry would be though that there are too many unknowns to doing something like this.

Will the HR or person you've sent this to have headphones? Or are certain sites blocked by their firewall? Something to consider.

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A employer is never going to hire a less skilled worker because of his/her coverletter, even though it runs at 28 fps and has stereo audio. Any time not spent on the actual content of the portfolio is pretty much wasted. IMHO~

I disagree. This shows initiative and the ability to think outside of the box, which any employer should look for (and hold in higher regard than the ability to create wonderful barrels and airplanes in a 3d tool as these things can be learned fairly quickly compared to thinking outside the box which is really fucking hard).

It shows that you are willing to go the extra step, but it doesn't show off your abilities. Well, some of your models can be seen in the video, but you are not applying for a position as a video designer. Remember that guy who coded an adventure game ABOUT a job interview for an internship at Doublefine? THAT was cool. Don't get me wrong, I think you're doing far more than the average applicant and I'd feel humbled if I worked at Telltale. But the others have a fair point about the demonstration of your skills, which is - by far - the most important.

but isn't that what the portfolio is for? I thought the cover letter was kind of more like something brief to make them motivated to look at your work.

You're probably right. Usually cover letters don't go that far, but since we're talking about "how to go beyond the ordinary cover letter": why just focus on the fluff and not back it up from the first second? Re-building a level/area from a Telltale game and adding signs that say "Hi! I'm Neil and I'd love to work at Telltale" (for example) would definitely grab their attention.

But maybe that's a little too much work Depends on how bad you want the job. BTW. Anybody from Telltale HR reading this?

Quote from NeilJones313

Yea that's how I was looking at it I didn't want to spend 2 - 3 weeks rebuilding a level and modeling non stop and then still not get the job. While making that video only took a couple hours.

You obviously don't want the job badly enough then!

Employers often want a guy who already know how to do art for the project they are doing so he can jump right into production without spending any time for formation;

Say if they hire for a medieval fantasy project, having medieval stuff in your book will definitely be a plus

Same thing with graphic quality, if it's a realistic next gen AAA, and you did some, you have a bonus; if it's for a cartoony style and you already made some cool hand painted textures that a bonus too.

If you are near and can relocate easily, it helps

If the theme of your work is irrelevant, but the quality is so outstanding compared to the other portfolios, that helps too.

So basically know yourself, know what the company is doing, and adapt your work to what they are looking for (or choose the right company and project which is making the same stuff you have in your folio ).

The personality of the candidate usually comes after that, especially for env grunt artist roles, you just have to be friendly and not being a dick, which shouldn't be too hard Although if that is for a full time position and they plan on keeping you for a long time, it becomes more relevant because they need to make you fit in the team.

But don't lick their shoes, your supposed to work for them, not them graciously allowing you to live your "dream"; they don't deserve that

Nice idea, the main concerns have already been stated. The main one is accessibility (and yt URLs are not so friendly to type), so just have a backup plan.

Quote from NeilJones313

Well if they can look at a demo reel they should be able to view it

Big difference: a reel can be just watched, if you don't listen to your cover letter what does it conveys?

Since we are at it, I'd say you record the audio again because it seems you are wispering, while i'd expect a nice, bright voice if I have to listen to it.

Quote from insta

A employer is never going to hire a less skilled worker because of his/her coverletter, even though it runs at 28 fps and has stereo audio. Any time not spent on the actual content of the portfolio is pretty much wasted. IMHO~

Fair point, but the presumption here is about same quality portfolios and what would differentiate them. It is not that a couple of hours... or even a complete day of video editing, will make a difference in your modeling proficency.

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Also, won't it be embarrassing when the "similar videos" thingy on the side will show similar coverletters to competing companies?

One thing to be careful of for sure; you either do that for a single company or... make the videos private, guess it shouldn't pop-up in the "related" then. Otherwise you have to feed it via personal website.

There are many unknowns, it most likely has nothing to do with the format of your letter, I've noticed over the years that companies are particularly bad at replying to job applications, for a ton of reasons

Yeah, it happens. I suspect that Telltale has also been going through some changes recently as two of the key players (directors/designers of The Walking Dead) have just split off to start a new company. I've known one of them for years and it's a pretty big loss for them. I'm not sure how many of the original dudes are still there actually.

That's unfortunate, but that should motivate you to keep improving the portfolio.

You guys that are employed, do you know if your companies use software to filter applications? I've read a lot of big companies (in general, not limited to IT) do filter CVs by the number of keywords matching their parameters for a given job opening.