Next year we need a bigger room, heh.

The AM Birds of a Feather was all about networking and it was packed with current students, students on leave, graduates, and potential students. It was a small, hot, and crowded space but as usual our fearless leaders (Bobby, Shawn, and Carlos) kept the atmosphere fun with giveaways and demonstrations of how NOT to impress a studio recruiter. Robin Linn, a recruiter with Sony’s IPAX program, was the main speaker and he quickly and very honestly laid out general guidelines for getting a job in animation, what Sony is looking for, and his own personal preferences as a recruiter

Here are some of the points he made that I found interesting; I’m going to leave out some of the really obvious stuff, like using spell check on your resume:

• It is OK to call studios and ask who the recruiters are and which you should contact as a student. You don’t get extra points for figuring this out on your own and they will tell you.
• After attending a big event like Siggraph, wait about 2 weeks before contacting a recruiter you met or sending in a reel. They need some recuperation time, same as you.
• It is a recruiter’s job to get animators hired, so, although you obviously want to get along with them as best you can, don’t feel bad about (politely) contacting them more often and more aggressively than you might another animator. They are being paid to deal with you.
• Send a quick email about 2 weeks after sending in your reel just to make sure it arrived (Are you noticing the 2 week trend here?)
• Keep your reel design and business card simple but effective. The solution Robin recommended was to put a screenshot from you reel on both on your card and the dvd case as well as your information in black and white text.
• Your reel should have a cover screen with a play button. You don’t want the reviewers to miss your best work because your dvd started autoplaying before they were ready.
• Modeling is the phase of production that happens and wraps first, so it is helpful for modelers to have another skill like Lighting that occurs later down the pipeline. Other than that one exception, if you really want to work in a big studio and feel it would be the best place for you, specialize in one skill set.
• As long as shots you worked on with a team are well credited and clearly define what work you did, it is good to include them on your reel to show your ability to work with other artists.

Here is some of the more controversial points Robin made, i.e. points I have specifically heard other recruiters disagree with:

• Put your best work first
• Reapply as often as you have significantly improved work to show
• No one looks at life drawings, paintings, etc. when looking at your reel so leave it off (There was an audible gasp that went through the room when he said this)

Robin ended by encouraging us to contact him early and often- on Facebook, by phone, through email, etc. It was great of him to come and speak to us, and I hope he or someone else who was at the event will correct any errors I’ve made in putting these notes together.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Siggraph 08, animation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.