Peer Feedback
It's been around eight weeks since we began this blog talking about our professional development, mainly with how we should take our careers in the future and being warned about the positives and negatives about working in the industry. But now for this week, we went to some of our class peers to show each other's blogs for peer reviews to see what we're doing well and how we could improve on it; alongside our tutor's feedback. But, another task for us to do was to talk about what careers we wish to do for when we all leave university and get jobs in the industry; again, to compare and contrast with one another.
For me, I asked two class peers of mine; James and Emily, for their feedback and where they're aiming to go career wise. Not just to get two different perspectives on my blog, but also to see if there is a difference between the jobs people apply for based on their gender identity and compare it to myself.
My feedback on their blogs
James' Blog
James' blog has a simplistic layout which can work very well as it allows the information and images to take the rental focus on the blog. It also goes into a lot more detail than mine to be honest, such as putting the physical tasks (the CVs and cover letters for example) in links to Google Docs, putting in resources he used for his research and even a blog post talking about his experience with a Masterclass presentation from Aardman Academy which was very detailed and really stood out to me.
However, there are some negatives with the blog; the main one is how the large amount of detail makes the page length really long which might cause it to not load correctly or take ages to read if the reader has slow internet. Plus, the layout with everything being on the left and leaving empty space on the right made it look a bit cramped; but this is more of a wordpress design that I have noticed so this is more of a preference compliment than one targeted to James.
Emily's
Blog
Emily's blog while also being made with WordPress, is formatted in a simple list with every week having it's own post; connected to a button where it would take the reader to the full blog post of the week since you would have a preview on the main menu.
I like this blog slightly better than James' since it's formatted in a way that makes it easier for people to navigate the blog and the individual pages for each week avoids the endless scrolling and cramped format negatives I had with James' blog. Plus, the fact her blog also features the ability to comment on the blog itself allows for more interaction and allow more people to help out with one another.
But, one point I could make to help Emily improve her blog is to not be afraid to go into more detail of her own words; as a lot of the information was taken straight from our tutors notes and words; so I feel like a bit more original writing should help make the blog feel like her own work.
Their feedback on my blog
James - "The blog and its format are well written and structured in a chronological order. I do like the fact it’s easily accessible via clicking and title links.
It does well at organising what you have learned with each week, developing on information set out in previous weeks, especially with the beginning and its focus on CV and cover letter information, setting out how your knowledge improved with the research and later Peer Review with the Tutor.
To improve you could feature links to websites or sources of information, that way the reader can establish their own research and have some capacity to know where your own information might come from. But this is not a necessity!"
Emily - In Emily's feedback towards my blog, she said she enjoyed how consistent my artist CV and portfolio website were visually and how it was still professional but stood out against the formal CV. But she did give a few tips and advice for the two paths on the week we talked about career paths; such as what to include in my portfolio to give me a better chance of being hired at a studio (life drawings, experimentations of different mediums, etc) and how to build my presence online as a content creator if I were to go down as a freelancer (get social media such as Twitter and Youtube, how to present myself online to get a connection with followers, etc
From this feedback, my blog is going very well as people have enjoyed the layout of my work with each week having it's own page linked to a button as it allows the work to be easily accessed and help them to find the subjects they want to read on the most. Now, with James' advice, I didn't know this might have been needed for this blog and I have been referencing some of the sources I have been using for the research: referencing the website I used to find the average payment of a animator for week 6. But since it might take a while to go back through the past few weeks to put in the resources, and that my tutor didn't mention anything about it in his feedback; I'm just going to continue the process I'm working with at the moment.
As for Emily's feedback, I heavily understand it as my paths did feel a bit vague but this mainly because it was a base for how I would go through the next few years; however things are different now as I'm aiming for a Master's Degree in Storyboarding/Character Designing after university. But, I will take her advice into consideration as I build up my portfolios/identity on the internet. Currently, I do have a decent following on the social media website Devaintart that I have built up during the past five years, although it is more for personal/fan art and not professional work; and I have plans on getting other social media platforms like TikTok and Youtube eventually, but I don't have any plans on showing my face as a freelancer/brand thanks to past experiences.
Their career goals for the future
James - "I'm hoping to enter as a runner for Aardman or another company that specialised in stopmotion!
I would pick that job as making designing and shooting stopmotion film is what i have always found enjoyable, also a runner position is a pathway upward to animating, creating or designing for the company. Lastly a runner position is regarded as entry level and will be the most secure in a job finding situation"
Emily - "I want to be a 3D character animator. I have wanted this role since year 2 of our university course. I've come to really like 3D and found that I am always excited to learn more about it. I find animating characters really fun, tailoring how they move and emote for each different character is really interesting. I love watching animation with really expressive character animation so that's a big reason I was drawn to it. I hope to become a good enough character animator that I could start animating some of my own characters and projects."
These two different responses to my question show how different a person's dream job and perspective on their future career paths can be thanks to their gender identity. James talked about how he plans to enter the industry as a runner for a studio focusing on stop motion such as Aardman, wanting to work with the designs, making and animating of the stop motion puppets since he loves doing that naturally; while Emily with her love of how animated characters can show their emotions with detailed expressions and body language; hopes to be a 3D character animator with the main goal of starting her own project once she gets good enough at animating. These two examples show how different people can think about their future career paths; the more feminine minded people like Emily, goes down their career path with more emotional passion and optimism in mind; while people like James focus on what's more realistic and picks a career for the practical perks and enjoyment, making their mindset more masculine.
And hey, their answers slightly contrast with my dream future career goal; as while James and Emily aspire to be production animators in a medium that feature 3D models while I'm more aiming for a pre-production role that focuses on 2D artwork. But, all three of us have the same reason with why we went down this career field, because we realised we loved those job roles thanks to our experiences at college and university by doing those roles for various projects we've done.