I went to a talk by a woman who works at Pixar - apparently they use some terrible ancient program that is hell to learn and use but it's such a part of their production pipeline/workflow that everyone has to learn it. I think most companies are like that in that they have an established pipeline and have already chosen Pshop, Maya or whatever as their production standard.

If you're going for a job at Company X, I guess the best thing to do is check what programs they use beforehand and customise your interview/portfolio with that knowlege in mind.

However, if you're going for a compositing job it shouldn't matter that you generated some 3D material in Poser as long as the compositing kicks arse. It did sound like the interviewer had issues with Poser.

Anyway, Human Resourses/Hirers & Firers are always big on Degrees, Skill Sets, Experience etc as evidenced on paper rather than end results I've found, rather than "what you can do with what you've got" - I think hiring creative people is always a bit of a risk and having a good Paper Trail covers their butts if they make a bad hiring decision.

As someone else said, those sorts of rules don't seem to apply to freelancing - that's where they seem to go on results, not what fancy program/equipment you use.

Agreed also that there is a certain "Stock " Poser look that outrages me if I see it make print...I think some graphic designers pop out quick illustrations with it when facing a nasty deadline - not much different to hitting a stock-photography archive in a similar situation I guess - appart from the skill-level of the stock material on display.

Cheers