It was 4 to 5 some odd years ago that I first got into the Animation Industry with no formal training to speak of. It never occurred to me that it could end, that I would want it to end, and that I would have to look for work so soon in my Career. I was fortunate to be able to land an animation job soon there after but swore I would never be as terribly unprepared as I was that year.


What do you do when you’re a lousy student or you have a lousy professor?

Didn’t pay attention in class? Did the bare minimum required of you? Questioned how any of this would be of any use to you? Yeah I was a bad student too… for the most part. I never challenged myself until I started work and this was only because I felt so behind my peers. I realize now that even the lame classes such as Art History and Introduction to Design actually do serve a purpose. So if you’re a bad student, spend the summer being a good student. EVERYTHING is important.

Reality check: Once schools out, you’re expected to provide professional quality work. You’re expected to know your tools and if you don’t you will be expected to learn them on your own time and all expenses paid out of your own pocket. Only if you’re an actual asset to the company will your employer pay to have you upgraded, and in this economy I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Your professor had his/her favourites? Certain teachers pets monopolized class time to make the class all about them? Teacher would rather tell you ‘figure it out yourself’ then actually help you? Yeah bad student though I was, I love technology and loved to mess with various programs. To have to spend an outrageous amount of money on a course only to be told to ‘Figure it out myself’ is infuriating.

Unfortunately, there’s not much that you can do about a bad teacher. You can report him/her to the dean, which gets results sometimes. But it all comes down to you. How much extra are you willing to push? How much more time are you willing to spend to learn your craft? He/she may not help you, but I’m sure your peers will. Make friends, network, and learn from others.

Reality check: Even a so-called Master doesn’t know everything. A good Master will take life drawing classes when ever he/she can. A Master will enrol in extra classes to update skills that might be falling behind. He/she will talk to his/her peers and learn what they know. If they’re new, he/she will learn what is being taught in school. Life is journey, you never stop learning.


Job Fairs and Recruiters

Uh Oh! Someone needs people now! And you find out about it through a friend of a friend who just happens to be the friend of the teacher’s pet who knew two months ago that this company was going to be here for two full days looking for employees. Sounds fair doesn’t it?

It’s not always the teachers. Sometimes schools themselves will snub certain companies, or the very idea of employing students before they graduate. That piece of paper means money for the college. They rarely have the best interest of the student at heart. Education is a business and don’t you forget it.

So what do you do?

Start preparing in your second year. Prepared to be screwed over by the people who are supposed to be looking out for you, by the very same people who need you to get work to make their numbers look good (As personal experience when they tell you that 80% of all student in said course were employed, we not necessarily employed in their respective fields. My working in telemarketing for 3 months made me a successfully hired individual that boosted their success rate – keep that in mind).

I’d say pour yourself 100% into your work, but realistically… School projects are boring and every one else is going to be showing them off to prospective employers. Everything will have the same look and same kind of flare. Water bottle design? Try looking at 32 different water bottles and tell me that you can stay interested. It’s the same idea with anything else. You want to learn from your course but you don’t want to present what everyone else is doing. However, if it’s a really good piece keep it – you’re going to need 20-30 pieces anyway.

For you animators out there or where there’s a need for a demo reel: Compile something. Anything! And make sure you leave it in a format that is easily editable. I recently made my demo in After Effects. I kept all my raw files, plus the project file itself, so if ever I want to add more stills or change the length of the animations I can easily see to it.

The point is to have something ready for when your teacher mentions the night before that “oh by the way there’s a studio coming in at 9am and will be seeing people. Sign up here if you’re interested.” At least you have something to show and if you’ve got something better it’ll only take a few hours to update as opposed to a whole night. You’ll be fresh as a daisy in the morning where your peers will be on their 4th wind or on the 100th red bull… yeah we can tell.

Enough about the school stuff – lets get to the meat of the project!

Resume/CV: Remember that you’re in a creative field – make sure that your resume reflects that. If you’re a Designer make sure the resume looks like a Designer designed it. Illustrator, Comic Book Artists, Animator, it doesn’t matter! Make sure it reflects what field you belong in and that it can demonstrate your personality. These minor details help separate you from the rest.

Attach a page or two called dump/tare sheet that demonstrate a fair portion of your range by showing off smaller versions of your work. Save your best for your portfolio, use good quality stuff but not your best. This is meant to be used as your hook. If you have a large enough selection of good work, try not to use duplicates. Meaning if you have a website don’t use everything that you have there, don’t use everything in your printed portfolio either because then you’ll have nothing to show. Vary it up a bit. Always leave room for your client or employer to see something new and you always want to WOW them with your portfolio (Regardless the format).

What format should your resume/CV be in?

Not as hard a question as you would think, and the answer is PDF. It’s widely read and easily accessible. You’d think the same with jpegs, but I’ve had clients who couldn’t read jpegs (it had something to with company policy – because you know we all like to look at porn while at the office). And then there’s the difference between doc and Wdoc, and there’s docx, and so on and so forth. If your employer just happens to not have the right version to read your resume guess where it’s going to go? That’s right, trash bin. Your PDF include your resume and your tare sheets (make sure your tare sheets fit on the same size paper as your resume).

Anyone I mail out to I have a habit of sending a physical copy as well – including my demo reel and maybe a couple more pages of different tare sheet, this way they can see something new and it reminds them that I still exist. It also shows persistence, which is apparently a quality worth having.

At any given time I have 2-3 resumes and portfolios (this will be repeated in the portfolio section as well). I have one for Web Design, Concept work and Illustration, Animation, and 3D – all depending on what’s out there and I hate having to set up stuff in a hurry. It looks rushed and you’ll be at higher risk for error…like some really stupid spelling mistake ex: teh instead of the.

Yes, gear toward your employer but don’t sell yourself short. These are skills and attributes that make you a valuable asset, boast but be humble. Ask friends and family and co-workers to help better define you. Look at their resumes for help or inspiration. Ever have one of those friends that quit their job and seem to end up with a new one the following day? Take a look at his resume! And get interview practice from that guy. He might not do well with an actual career but he can obviously get his foot in the door and that’s all you need.

Now I’m not going to bother with what to put in or in what order, there’s plenty of help for resumes on-line.

Website: Keep simple, keep it creative, and make sure that it's easy to navigate. Common resolution is 800 x 600 this is what you design for. You can design for 1200 x 800 but you risk the scroll on the horizontal thing that generally looks pretty horrible. Update regularly.

Don't use flash - it's nice if you're applying for a flash job - but if you want to do a flash site project included in the web portfolio, but don't make it THE web portfolio. A lot of people apparently still have issues with flash and their version updating can be a real pain and thus a turn off. Employers and Clients don’t generally go the extra mile.

Printed Portfolio: You don't need huge portfolio pieces to impress your employer. In fact large bulky portfolios are often a sign of an amateur. My portfolio ranges from 8.5 x 11 to 11x14 pieces and are placed in transparent sleeves in a portfolio case. I used to have this huge bulky carrying case which was just impossible to bring anywhere and I felt just like how I looked – an amateur. I also hate setting things up for print, so I avoid it as often as I can. I’d sooner switch out one piece for another rather than have to reprint the whole thing all over. It’s also more cost effective. On average you want 20 to 30 pieces.

On the upside, printed portfolios can take a variety of forms, from art books to pamphlets, demo reel, etc. Have a look around I’m sure that something can inspire you. It's not uncommon to set up for various specialties; having 2-3 portfolios will save you a ton of work in the long run.

What do I put into my Portfolio?

That’s actually a hard question and tends to vary from Employer to Employer, and even varies based on the position that you’re seeking to fill. Which is why research is so important, sometimes prospective employers will list what they want to see in your portfolio and if they want or expect to see a demo reel. Every industry has a different set of requirements.

Graphic Design: Generally want to see Layouts, Typography, Packaging, and Logos. They don’t much care for fine art or life drawing. Packaging of your initial portfolio is important.

Animation: Life drawing, layouts, character design + demo showing the principles of Animation

Comics: Character variations, Backgrounds, layout, 3 sequential pages

Everything else is just a variation of these things. Some require more of one thing than the other. I had once seen one company that had asked to do a full comic based on one of their scripts. Having these basic items all as a strong base in your portfolio will compliment what other pieces you may need to add in the future.


Looking for work

Don’t count on the job bank. I’ve only seen 1 creative posting in 4years. There are places online similar to a job bank where you can look, but they tend to be specialized such as the Animation Network, and you only hear about such places from people who in the field. The best way is to keep a record of such places as you look, even when you’re not looking. Listen to what people in your field are talking about, where they’re applying, where they had worked in the past. Keep tabs on your friends, because they are the surest and easiest way to get your foot in the door.

So you’ve found a bunch of places and submitted stellar work and now you’re just waiting on a call back. Sometime (more often than not in fact), they’re not going to be bothered to get back to you. It’s rude but that seems to be the way business people work, get used to it. It also might be a way to weed out the weak, to pawn off people who really couldn’t be bothered with the job anyway.

Personally I have a two week rule before I call them up or email them and ask about my resume. Generally I get “sorry, you have great work but we’re at full capacity. Maybe some other time.” Or “we’ll keep you on record,” which for me is the equivalent of a slap in the face. I don’t know why, though I suspect that it had something to do with the last time I was told that I actually saw them throw my resume out. This is not necessarily true of all places. Which is why I advise following up with questions.

- If there’s a weakness in my portfolio? (meaning I need to know what’s wrong with it so that I can fix it and make a stronger portfolio)

- When’s a good time to see about work? (Sometime companies hire only at a certain time of the year. My former employer for one seemed to always be hiring in April. Sending a resume in June really wouldn’t help.)

- Keep in touch. Send a resume every 3-6 months just to remind them that that you’re alive and still interested.

- Ask about work flow and various departments that you could potentially work in. It’s the difference between studying a whole package to an advanced level or just one portion. If you know that you’ll be on a team of people, you can at least focus on the area that you would like. Ex: Layout Artist Vs Colourist. Can you imagine if you had to do a whole comic on your own – you’d have to be strong in all areas to be able to make something that’s passable.

Interviews: Don’t be arrogant and don’t refer to yourself in the third person. After all you are asking them for work – even if they did contact you first. I don’t mean that you have to kiss up. Boast but be humble.

After the Interview: Okay so you didn’t get the job. The Do’s of the job hunt remain the same, but here’s some added advice about rejection. DON’T send a letter that insults the company that didn’t hire you. I think it’s even worse when you don’t leave a name and forwarding address. Believe it or not, based on your interview, we do actually have a fairly good idea as to who this threatening letter belongs to, and though writing said letter might make you feel better, sending it out will not likely get you hired … ever, because now you look pathetic.

As a gentle reminder Companies are run by people to, people who talk to one another. You not only just screwed yourself with that one company but with many others until you decide to mature. Even then you might want to consider a career change. So go ahead write the letter, but for the love of God, DON’T send it.


Reality about the industry:

At this point I can only talk about the Animation industry. This is a field where you have to love it to do it. Its work weeks are insanely long with very little appreciation from the top guys. In fact from their perspective you can never do anything right. It’s kind of like working for your parents.

The Creative Industry is contract based. Contracts last between 6-9 months. If you want full time you have to put in years with a company first and even then there aren’t any guarantees. Some companies will promise you the moon and swear that you’ll have long term prospects with said company. That’s nice but it’s a pipe dream. You can expect to be laid off for a few months every year, unless you have additional skill sets that can help the production. The fact of the matter if they’re saying maybe they might have work for you two months before your contract is due to end, get your stuff together and start banging on some doors. Maybe is NOT a guarantee. Look out for yourself first, because I promise you the company you work for is doing the same for themselves.

There a few rare gems out there actually run by creative people (and not business men thinking that they’re creative, looking to make the next Pixar).



This is everything that you need to know as a student or newbie to the creative industry. So on that note, Good luck.