Applying for a Technical Artist Job // Skills, Offers, CV

We're witnessing an unprecedented spike in Tech Art job offers now. Let's browse available job ads to find required skills, common points, expectations.
I took a closer look at a dozen of current game dev job offerings for Technical Artists. I refreshed a competency map I drawn back in 2018. Browsing the offers, I put a check mark on each skill if it showed up in the job ad. The most popular ones?
- Educating artists internally
- Making tools, mostly for 3D content creation software
- Optimization

As for the CV tips:
- Put your contact data, please. Your PDF will circulate in the local network, between leads etc.
- Searchable, clean text on white (printable) background. No JPGs.
- Include as many keywords as possible. Of course only if you legitimately used this stuff. Companies use filtering software to promote the CVs that match the requirements
- Specify, in a headline, who do you want to be. Not necessarily your current position, but the immediate next step (e.g. Technical Artist – Shaders, Materials)
- Don't be afraid to include courses in the Education section
- Cover letter doesn't have to be a full A4 sheet, yet it's necessary. Just a few sentences. The most important thing? What would you bring and why this company.

Let me know after the video if you have any other questions. Also feel free to share your job hunt experience

[enamnoeki]

Thank you for this video! Appreciate you putting in the time to help this way.

[stuGrimson]

I just went through some interviewing for senior roles, this is spot on. Great channel, I’m signing up to the Patreon right now!

On the point of setting expectations, this is very valuable for both parties. For example, if you absolutely hate rigging, make sure to talk to the recruiter about it (constructively). If you have interest in an area, but maybe don’t have experience, say why it interests you. One big one for me was: if you get a question about something you don’t have direct experience with, be honest, but try and find a parallel equivalency that may relate to what they’re looking for. “I have not done that specifically in X, but here’s what I did in Y and I think it correlates.” Never lie. Ever.

Most interviews will have a round with the engineering team. Do not let this be a huge worry, but do make sure to touch up on some basics beforehand. Understand what a class is. Get into some vector math (dot, cross, maybe even some matrices stuff). Not many ever made me white board, but some tech companies (especially those working on VR) will, but the expectation is that you have at least some basic knowledge of loops, lists, sorting, etc. A ton of tool building is reducing redundancy, not rewriting an OS haha.

[FranciscoSciaraffia]

As a Sr TA interested in looking for a Job after 3 years of working for the same company, this was an amazing reminder on how to do things right. Awesome!

[hasindepalma]

Thank you for all this very important information!

[charbavito-dev]

Brilhiant. Thank you so much. I'm a very Begginer in Tech Art and I'll follow your advices, I really apreciate your help. Thanks a milion. <3

[mtimothy]

Ooo, rodak i techart! Dziękuję przyjacielu <3

[SimonD]

you do amazing job Oskar ! keep it up ! one of the best tech art themed yt channel ive seen ! tons of info and even complicated topics presented in beginner friendly way

[bradyjdesign]

Your youtube channel is one of the best, keep it up. For tech art I have learned a lot here!

Thank you very much for your valuable time, you cleared up many doubts, I don't have a job, but when I get it I swear to return for your patreon, I would like to return the great help you gave me.

[midorayo]

so the main thing i do in the company i am currently working in is environment art with some asset creation (such as walls with doorways and windows for interiors), communication with the 3d and 2d art team, Shaders/Materials, VFX, Lighting, level design and researching new tools to add into the workflow of the team .... for our opinion which should i focus more on, i want to really specialize in shaders and VFXs maybe things like destruction and deformation systems .. or should i focus on getting better skills in blender and 3d modeling (even tho the team already has 3d artists) .. I never manually rigged and white painted a character so i know i should learn this skill ... i know quite alot about optimizing game art since i've worked on multiple mobile games using both unity and unreal

[MegaMitrandir]

and what about middle tech artist and junior? ))

[darksidegirl]

But wait a second. The tree trunk is not a job for a technical artist, it's a job for a modeller / a lighter. I wouldn't even show the wireframe. That's for an artist's job. Why are you showing that? to have additional content to show that you have a good eye for art?

I don't think those ticks are right, really. I don't really care if they ask for that, because most of the job offers have no idea what they are asking for. I always reject jobs that ask for animation / modelling / rigging skills. That's a completely different type of job.