I'm going to describe my journey through this mainly so those in the future can possibly know what might happen!
I apply to jobs in my field almost every day. (I want to work somewhere related to art!! I GOTTA.) I saw that LucasFilms Industrial Light and Magic had an opening for a personal assistant. It was a job that I looked at and thought to myself, "There's no way I'm going to get this."
You've seen my portfolio so you can already kind of get the idea how different my art is from what is seen in Star Wars. However, they were looking for a personal assistant, someone who could take calls and run errands and take notes during meetings, organize schedules, etc. I've done lots of that when I was at school as an assistant student employee staff, RA, and student life student assistant. So I applied because you never know, right?
That was back in January. Two weeks ago I checked my e-mail and noticed they wanted a phone call interview. At first I couldn't even remember what the job was until I looked up my application, haha. So it was definitely a pleasant surprise!
The phone call interview was personal and basic. There were typical questions like 'What about this job interested you?" and "Are you willing to relocate?" and then other questions regarding my application. What REALLY got me was the fact that I was chosen not only based on my resume and cover letter, but also WHAT WAS ON MY WEBSITE. It was crazy! My cartoons and graphic arts? For your lighting and rendering studio?
I would have to, embarrassingly, admit that the question that stumped me the most was her asking, 'Why did you chose LucasFilms?"
It's not that I wasn't interested in working there, but I was moreso interested in the personal assistant job than LucasFilms! Is that silly? Also, at the time I was just applying EVERYWHERE, but I couldn't just say that along with, "I don't know, I just want a job!" But I answered with what I honestly believed, which I think worked for then.
Four days later I had a webcam interview with art director David Nakabayashi, senior manager Jen Coronado, and production manager Alex Gustaveson. I was to download BlueJeans, which is Disney's Skype, basically. They gave me a pin and I waited at 3:30.
The interview was very quick! It was already scheduled to be about a half hour but mine only lasted about 20 minutes. The first thing I was asked was, "When did you start designing?" which was weird to me because I'm an illustrator, not a designer. It threw me off thinking they thought I was someone else. Whoops!
Then I was asked, "What makes you right for this job?" "What's your overall goal in life?" "Do you like comicbooks or movies more?" "What's your favorite movie?" "Did you like Spiderverse?" "Do you work well quickly and under pressure?" "Do you have experience in 3D?" "Are you willing to relocate?" And other questions about pictures on my portfolio. And then explaining what the job was and the difficulty of it, just because it is very intense!
Most of it was me talking, though. I felt kind of bad because it felt like what I was saying was too much or uninteresting. But I had to tell myself that they were probably interviewing their 100th person that day and were just tired at that point. I know how that is.
I was told I wouldn't hear from them for another few months. So while waiting I guess I will just apply to more jobs!
Although getting the job would be cool, what was more interesting to me was the fact that i was there actually talking to the art directors! I was able to talk about movies with David Nakabayashi! I asked questions to Alex Gustaveson, and he told me he liked my animations! I was interviewed and questioned by Jen Coronado! That's what was more exciting to me. Even if it doesn't go anywhere, it still makes me feel cool to have talked to professionals about my life. It felt like my own 20 minutes of fame.
Well there's that! That was my entire experience. For now, I wait! Stay tuned for a possible update :)
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