I finished preparing my CV and portfolio and decided on the position and direction I wanted to apply for, so I was able to submit my CV. I selected the companies I wanted to apply to and focused on the ones I preferred the most, as well as making large-scale submissions to increase my chances of success and to gain interview experience.

After selecting the companies I was interested in, I focused on understanding the background and projects of the companies I interviewed with to help me answer the questions better in the interview and to show my understanding and familiarity with the companies. At the same time, it is important to show the interviewer my core skills and uniqueness, such as my experience in 2D character design and stop-motion animation. Emphasising my flexibility in adapting to different projects and environments and managing different design styles will give the interviewer a more comprehensive understanding of my abilities.

Secondly, an interview is not only a chance to present yourself, but also a good opportunity to learn more about the company and the team. Actively interacting with the interviewer and asking questions about the company’s culture, teamwork and project process will give me a clearer idea of whether I am suitable for the job and whether I fit in with the company’s philosophy and values.

During my interviews, many companies would ask for on-site demonstrations or analyses of past works, so it is also important to expect what questions the interviewer might mention and be well prepared to ensure that I can clearly talk about my creative thinking, technical details and problem solving methods during the interview, and also avoid getting nervous when encountering interview questions because of lack of preparation.

Sometimes, in addition to focusing on demonstrating professional skills, you should also demonstrate other skills, such as teamwork, communication skills and project management skills. You can prepare some specific project examples to illustrate your teamwork and communication skills.

In the next journal I will analyse my experiences and feelings specifically when interviewing companies.

According to the previous self-assessment and CV making, I have a clearer view of my ability and interest, because considering to increase the chances of job hunting by submitting a sea of projects, I will organise and plan my animation portfolio, which should be able to reflect my ability in character and stop-motion production.

I have summarised some of my experiences and shortcomings in the production of my portfolio as follows:

Firstly, I have to choose the right works, the portfolio should focus on quality while including different types and styles of works, and select the most excellent and typical works, so that I can stand out in the huge amount of works, in my portfolio shows a variety of different project types and styles such as, 2D Character Design, Stop Motion Animation, Short Films, Storyboards, Character Turning and so on. Secondly the portfolio should be up to date and show my current skills and style.

Next create a concise cover containing my name, contact details. In the portfolio I arrange my work by category or project, character design, set design, storyboarding, 2D animation, sand animation and stop motion animation, making sure that each section is clearly and organically presented.

Thirdly making sure that all images and videos are of high quality and not pixelated or blurred, also using a uniform colour palette to go with the typography. My portfolio mainly uses black and beige colours, visual uniformity increases the comfort level of the viewer.

Based on my subsequent interview experience and chatting with the interviewer, I realised that I did not have a good description of the project in my portfolio, such as the background of the creation, the software used, technical details and the characters. It may make the interviewer more difficult to interpret in terms of understanding my workflow and thinking. As well as I didn’t add a table of contents at the very beginning to make it easy for the viewer to quickly find the section they are interested in.

In the final part I added the beginning state of my Graduation project and some daily exercises, and after that I will update my portfolio regularly as the project progresses. Make sure it always shows the latest and greatest.