Week Nineteen; Life Changing or Career Building?

I think the reason different companies want either experienced game artists/programmers or wanting individuals with a good art background depends on situation.
Some companies might be more pushed to meet their deadlines, in which case they might not have time to train up staff with the skill level they need for their games to work as they want it to.
Whereas companies that can afford and have time to take people on and train them up might end up with the sort of modeller/programmer that they want rather than possibly a generic modeller, and they can have exactly what they want in their staff.
Personally I’d much rather work in an environment where people are still being taught, given drawing lessons and such, rather than just left to do what they have to do.