We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yifei Hou. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yifei below.
Yifei, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?
Drawing has always been a passionate thing for me, for me passion has always been the thing that takes over most of the time, burnout is rare, but it does exist. If I do feel burned out, usually I’ll just stop what I’m doing at hand unless the deadline comes, either way I’ll rely on resting to get my energy back or trying to draw my own work that has nothing relate with what school or work is about. I was once working on a portfolio for an application and I just kept crashing because of a jam, and that’s when I literally just chose to give myself a week’s vacation where I just played and didn’t think about anything during that time period.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m currently an illustration MFA student at Savannah College of art and Design, but it’s always been a dream of mine to be a game artist or concept designer, and it’s probably the most exciting news for me right now to be able to work on game-related projects and draw. I’ll be posting my work on artstation and my personal ins, running my own account, and hopefully one day I’ll have the chance to get into game industry!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
First of all, it’s the mindset, right? The mindset must be put in peace, in this situation where after studying art, graduates are unemployed, it’s very important to put the mindset in peace to learn more things to improve oneself. The second is some network, other people’s help and network is very important for the later into the society and work position, so it is best to go as early as possible to improve and find a network. The third is to love what you learn, if the current study is very painful, or suggest to find their own direction as soon as possible.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
So far, finding a job has been one of the toughest challenges for me. Because I want to enter the game industry, but now the industry’s winter period, even looking for an internship is much more difficult, and not to mention a position even thousands or tens of thousands of people to compete for a, this is very anxious for me!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artstation.com/yifeihou1127
- Instagram: yifeihou_shenyue
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yifei-hou1127/
