Applying for Work
As we're getting close to graduating this year and finishing our animation degrees, it felt right to look at what's next for the future with how to apply for jobs online through various different job websites. First we looked at websites to see which ones would be the best to use and also some websites that aren't so good in order to help us tell the difference between them so we don't end up using sites that waste our time which could have been used towards actual job chances.
Good Job sites
These sites are usually seen as good and professional due to their organisation and layout, featuring the company names and locations of where the job is to make the search go by much faster.
Some of these examples are:
- Aardvark Swift
- OPM Jobs
- CreativeHeads
Bad Job sites
On the other hand, job sites that are kind of bad for aspiring job hunters, especially those who are fresh out of graduation and are so in need for work that they'll take anything, even low paying or low quality jobs. These can easily be picked out due to the lack of major studio advertising jobs there.
Some examples of these websites include:
Mandy -
Indeed -
Freelancer -
But overall, sometimes the best place to look for jobs is through the professional social media website LinkedIn; as it's all in one place and since the website's layout is something similar to Facebook or twitter, it would be a much easier way to express who you are to fellow industry workers and to build up connections that can help you in the future when going to different companies.
Now, I currently don't have a LinkedIn account; mainly due to the fact that I've just been too busy with coursework to set one up. However, when I do get the chance to create and use an account on there, I would mainly use it to follow various studios that while yes would be mainstream, it'll still be the best way to find any news on upcoming studio projects and see if there's any available spots for new employees. But I'll more use LinkedIn as more of a social media for professionals, as I think I would be using the website to get more in contact with industry character designers and storyboard artists as I could get advice directly from them about what types of questions could be asked in a job interview and how I could improve my work from feedback.
But now we know where we can find various jobs, another thing we should keep an eye on is when a job is either for an internship or an graduate role; as while some people could easily confuse the two, there are some differences to help people tell them apart.
Internships
Internships are usually meant to give students during their course years more work experience to put on their CVs for future job applications. Some internships can lead into employment but that is usually a case by case situation and not a guarantee.
Most internship jobs are basically intern jobs where it's flexible to if a company would pay you or not; which is why it's usually a job best for while you're still in university rather than after you leave.
Graduate Roles
As for a Graduate Role job, they're basically jobs from large studios who bring in graduates who have a great understanding of the industry they're applying to work in based on their academic results. These jobs will also help the graduate bridge the gap of knowledge between what they learned in education and what they need to know in the industry; almost like mentoring before possibly joining the studio officially.
The job types these jobs have are also more varied as they allow you to experience different job roles before finding one you'd like to fully work at, but this just means that there's more pressure to do well in the course as it could effect your chances unlike the internship.