I was wondering if any of you out there have any experience working in the creative industry in Madrid? I am an illustrator/designer/web designer currently looking to lep from my current job as a web designer to more creative work that might be more graphic oriented or dealing with animation or tv commercials. I have found many places like BUS animation, Zinkia, and Konkretestudios, but I really cannot get any of them respind to my resume. I have tried nahdn delivering and am now sending directly through infojobs.net...
I guess I am ultimately looking for some kind of trick or secret backdoor to the industry here but just dont know where to look.
Any thoughts or advise?
Thankyou in advance,
saludos,
scott
"Fella said, We must never forget we are Human. And, as humans, we must dream." <br />-SPANISH PRISONER, David Mamet
Posts: 25 | Location: Riverside, California - Ahora Madrid | Registered: 25 January 2004
I guess I am ultimately looking for some kind of trick or secret backdoor to the industry here but just dont know where to look.
it is not that you don't know where to look, such door does not exist
if you are from cali, i would recommend you try to freelance or work for a u.s.a. based design firm. it is work that you can do while living abroad via the internet and the industry in the states has many more ops. and pays a LOT better than here in spain.
i dropped out of the search many moons ago when i was looking for web design work.
granted i was not a very good designer but Rolans who is an AWESOME designer also has had his own struggle here with the industry.
I have had pretty good luck selling design work on http://www.elance.com. There is also contractedwork.com and more. But in my opinion elance is the best.
I am going to look into freelancing for via interent for some US based places. However, as I continue to send resumes to studios and such...do you think it is a good idea in this culture to follow up with a phone call after a couple of weeks. I mean...I really feel like most of these places will never call me back anyways...but I would at least like to check some places off my list and feel a little bit of closure...as not to waste more time.
From the few interviews I have had so far...I have gotten the feeling that if you do not have the tool or exact skill that a company is looking for in that exact moment...then they do not want to take a chance. Maybe being more focused in one or two skills is a better road?
cheers,
scott
"Fella said, We must never forget we are Human. And, as humans, we must dream." <br />-SPANISH PRISONER, David Mamet
Posts: 25 | Location: Riverside, California - Ahora Madrid | Registered: 25 January 2004
Yeah the key is selling. Unfortunately a lot of creative people are not good salesman, as is evidenced by all those starving artists out there.
My biggest problem with eLance is that you end up competing against spamming Indian firms that innundate every job posting with "We'll do it for less!" replies. That plus the fee to sign up just to bid for jobs has totally put me off eLance.
Infojobs.net is not much better. You have to respond to just about every advertisement that comes anywhere close to your skill sets, remove any mention of past salaries, and NOT put too much on the CV otherwise it'll scare people off. Plus having a photo on the CV is recommended.
That said, I have yet to get any decent work in over 2 years from Infojobs having posted to almost a hundred offers. I've had a few interviews and they've all been pretty positive, some I was sure I would be chosen, and yet all I've managed is a few piddling contracts here and there for next to nothing.
So, pretty discouraging but the teaching fills in the gaps (at least when you're not screwed over by some English class provider) until something better comes along.
Oh... and exaggerate on the CV. Apparently everyone does almost to the point of bald-face lying. Took a course in graphic design back in your freshman year? Skilled graphic designer. Did a webpage for a friend in PHP? Experienced PHP developer. And so on...
What gets me is that the quality of the work coming out of these places is so far below that which I'm used to and yet when I show these people high quality stuff it doesn't seem to make an impact or get me hired.
Strange.
- Roland
Posts: 289 | Location: Madrid via DC via Mexico via ... | Registered: 01 August 2003
and to back Roland up here, he is VERY talented in design so there is no justification for his not getting any decent work in over 2 years from infojobs.
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