Greetings all!

  Just wanted to share with all of you a few thoughts from recent events with me. Without going into too much detail, just want to encourage everyone to participate in all our challenges.

  Recently I applied for a job with a very good company doing software development, as many of you will remember I am a programmer. During the application process I placed a link to my gallery here at Renderosity, and specifically to Glass Challenge entry from earlier this year. 

(http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1412738&member).

I got hired and wow! I found it to be far more than I expected, all in a good way.

A week later I found that they had visited the gallery and were impressed (I had not expected them to). Even though the gallery link was a small thing in the section of the application for listing what hobbies I do, I used it as a tool to help separate me from other applicants.

So, I just wanted to share with you all that no matter how slight you feel your art works are, or that no one outside of the 3D community will bother with computer rendered art, or whatever, don't over look what you can do in the galleries here. It's an asset you have, don't take it for granted. Take it seriously because you never know if it can help separate you from the crowd.

Congrats on your new job!! Yeah, i put the link anywhere i can, you never one who will see it!! And MORE ENTRIES for the challenges!!

Serious congrats!

Congrats!

Superb idea, and congratulations.

I've used Bryce two or three times a year in my work.  They actually paid for a copy. We always need some kind of illustration or cut-away of a process. An actual picture of what you are trying to make or do goes a lot farther toward getting money than just a paragraph or sketch. I can think of at least three proposals that were successful for getting new money and a dozen or so reports that I used a Bryce picture in.

When my daughter graduated from high school she got one of the four $5000 scholarships given away. One of the big selling points was the art honor’s society. This is a school club that paints buildings around town. They did teddy bears on the nursery for the local battered women’s shelter among other projects.

There are lots of candidates with 4.0 grades going for every worthwhile job around. People who just get the grades and nothing else lack the breadth to go outside the box for solutions. We have lots of people at my work that are also alpine climbers and skiers, lily breeders, scuba divers, potters, and even a Brycer. You’d be surprised how many times the solution comes from one of those sources instead of school.

Congratulations!!! :) I've got 3D Rendering and Composing Music on my resume, you never know when the person revewing you're resume might Like 3D graphics or Composing Music etc..

It will for sure give you the edge.

well, it's also a double-edged sword. I read an article recently of people losing jobs for giving out, say, myspace web sites to their employers, and finding some of their opinions getting them in hot water.

Not to discourage anyone from entering the contests...;)

well done D.A.M. Thats good news indeed! more power to you.!

Congratulations on the new job.  I never thought about the implication of saving the accolades of a forum challenge. 

Now my question is how can one retrieve the past awards?  Link to the challenge archives at the top of this page takes you to a list but not any postings or results.

Never mind.  I found the thread in archives.

Interesting, I figured that my 3d stuff is irrelevent from what I can do as a programmer.
Have seen stuff about hobbies on some employment forms but I always skip it.

Have also seen articles about prospective employers checking out what you do online. If they see stuff about your latest drinking binge or how you like to skip work for surfing in your blog, they will not be amused. So my stuff may not be a good advert on what I could do. Staid and stodgy places like banks and financial companies may not like any of my stuff.

Not to argue with you, maybe you are right, I am not sure.

Yeah, it always helps to have as much good stuff about you as possible, incase someone does research you online. At least the good stuff could be more prominant. This is one reason why I really take as much care as I can of what material I am rendering/uploading. It's one reason why I am not intending to post any nudity in my gallery, not including what is already there. If anyone is going to think/consider me, I want them to be doing it in the best possible light. The way I see it, a good reputation is a good asset.

Does that interfere with what you want to do as an artist?
Can only post stuff that does not offend?

Supposed an event happened and you decided to do an artwork in protest against it, do you have to keep it at home so you do not offend a future employer?

By self censoring yourself you might be removing stuff that an employer might like. Maybe.

Not trying to argue just asking questions.
Thanks for the reply.

good debate shaping up here...
i work in a museum in a job that gets no closer to design than microsoft word clip art.
given my hobby of bryce etc. i applied for a job as a print designer which recently came up ( i did not think i had a chance since i had no formal design qualifications, but i wanted to know exactly what was required)
now get this:
out of 16 applicants, i made the final two on strength of my practical work, (i failed the techie stuff-who knew that the K inCMYK stood for black?)
as it turns out, one of the three members of the panel favoured me and i did not get the job..However, i now have been given a brief for  a freelance project and if it goes okay i will be used in the future!

Back to the point of this debate...after i had given the web address of my gallery here at Rendo...the panel looked closely at all my work  (this surprised me no end!)

and the image which took me through to the final two was: Nine out of Ten cats which i would have to say, i would have probably removed along with one or two others, had i thought my gallery was going to be taken into consideration for employment.

so take your own thoughts from this cautionary tale. why censor your own work if you created it in the first place? art (if i may be so bold) is and always has been a subjective thing. 
what some loathe...others love.. but that is part of the thrill i think and where would we be without independent opinions? :blink:

No, not at all. I think in my case what I post is who I am. Fortunately it just matches my own goals as well.

Suppose an event happened.... Who is to say that such an event hasn't already happened ;-)  Could you tell I was protesting or not in any of my uploads? For me, the stuff I do, it may often take more than one perspective to see a meaning. I really take the saying "a painting is worth a thousand words". What is one person's protest might not be another. Anyway, I am a student of classical Chinese painting, so what protests I do will often be in the manner of how the old Chinese artists and scholars did their protests, which sometimes could be rather subtile.

By self censoring.... No need to consider it self censorship. What you see in my gallery is what you get with me. Nothing hidden. It's a good reflection of what I like, who I am, what I appreciate. Anyway, everyone does self-censoring all the time, it's part of human nature to be cautious of what we say, who we say it to, what we wear, what we don't wear, what we eat, what we don't eat. So, in my opinion, nothing wrong in self--internal--censorship. What can be wrong is censorship from others.. external censorship. There is always exceptions, though, which is one reason for rules and law. Those things are a living practice of all forms of censorship--good and bad ones--in action.

Enjoyable questions. Good thinking stuff. Thanks for asking. :-)

What can be wrong is censorship from others.. external censorship.

agreed!

Great feedback donniemc0!