Researching Jobs and explaining why

For the past 10 years it has been my dream to one day be involved in a job that involves some form of creative output, in this case drawing. In my spare time, a very large chunk of my spare time i practice drawing, i draw almost every day and i'm constantly trying to improve my style. My main area of drawing is concept art of my own creations, such as soldiers, assassins, tanks, landscapes and many more things. I hope that one day i can move into designing and creating concept art for mainly games, i would love nothing more than to see my own creation come to life in a game. The spare time i don't use doing work or drawing i play a lot of games, and i have always been heavily influenced by them, where gaming has become more a casual time passing activity over the past 10 years i have always been more of a hardcore gamer and have amounted over 300 games. This leads me to the company i would one day like to apply to, a company that as created (in my opinion) one of the most influential games of all time which is Half-Life. The company that made this game is called VALVe a small company based in Seattle, it was founded in 1996 by Gabe Newell, a former programmer for Microsoft. I chose this company to apply to because they're not a big corporate giant that love the crunch numbers (EA) they give people that work there the chance to show what they can do without fear of liquidating or merging teams. As a Concept artist it would be my job to sit with the early development team and we would discuss where the game is set, when it is set, what the games story is about and so on. I would then take all this information and draw up character concepts, landscape concepts, weapon concepts and other things. Those ideas would then be evaluated taken back for reworking then evaluated some more. This is what i would love to do with my life, i wouldn't care if i got payed 2 pound an hour for it because i would just love doing it.

http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/

This is the valve link to there company, and this is the Job description i am applying for:

"Artist

We’re looking for versatile, self-directed artists who have experience in 2D character and world design and enjoy working in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. Your folio should, above all, demonstrate originality, an ability to iterate, and an understanding of color and form. It should also reflect a solid understanding of anatomy and painting, and contain examples that show your awareness and appreciation of Valve’s various Intellectual Properties.

Duties:

• Integrate into a multi-disciplinary team (6-8 people) and continually produce useful concept design based on the group’s collective conversations and decisions.
• Iterate quickly and submit work that solves problems rather than creates them.
• Self-manage and also be aware of the needs and requirements of those around you.
• Generate ideas and use 2D/3D work to communicate those ideas to the team.

Requirements:

• Working knowledge of 3D packages such as ZBrush, Mudbox, SketchUp, etc.
• Communication skills that allow you to describe your process maturely and succinctly
• Ability to change gears quickly when needed"