Hey everyone, I'm new to the gaming industry, looking for work as a concept artist (really anything in the art department). I'm really gunning for an in-house job somewhere but i have little experience. I worked at a gaming company for about 8 months, they made slot games and such but I was let go when they were bought and merged with another company.

In any case I'm really trying to nail down what I need to do in order to lock up an in house job and any advice would be really appreciated. My portfolio is here https://luminousboy.carbonmade.com/. And my Resume is here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-sCb2_yijrBEq7eb1oYvfqtENREf7Bi6W66_ICzfkcM/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks for your time guys

Hello. There's a lot of industry-related information here:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Game_Industry

Unfortunately In-House concept art positions are very rare to find I tend to find. Some companies with 50-100 employees sometimes only have 1 perhaps 2 concept artists, so it's not often positions open up. A lot of concept art is being outsourced to art companies like http://atomhawk.com/
You may find a better chance finding a concept art job in places like that, than in a games company. That does mean you will get to work on loads of different projects, both film, games, commercials and so on.

As I am not a concept artist, I could be mistaken though.

Unfortunately In-House concept art positions are very rare to find I tend to find. Some companies with 50-100 employees sometimes only have 1 perhaps 2 concept artists, so it's not often positions open up. A lot of concept art is being outsourced to art companies like http://atomhawk.com/
You may find a better chance finding a concept art job in places like that, than in a games company. That does mean you will get to work on loads of different projects, both film, games, commercials and so on.

As I am not a concept artist, I could be mistaken though.

Hey! Thanks for the info. I definitely am aware of concept art gigs being more project to project or contract based. The outsource companies are definitely something I want to look into. I just haven't seen that many of them. A long with atomhawk I really only know two others. But I'm looking really for any sort of 2D work, so not necessarily concept art but promotional, marketing, touch up, etc.

Im not an artist but I would guess that you ought to study the implementation of art assets in games, and dont limit yourself to working only in the concept stage. Also, you might want to try and get some work on an indie game, or even contribute something to a mod for the sake of your CV. Have a look at the Unreal Paper 2D engine tutorial series on youtube - it will show you how to make sprite animations from your art. At the very least, you could design an interactive portfolio this way.