AnimA TV

Almost everybody has to write a job application at some point in his live. Annoyingly it is always the person who is receiving the application that inevitably has more experience with applications than the one who has written it.
This is the reason why it is important as job applicant to take everything into consideration because you will have only that one chance to make the first impression.

The company

Be informed

Find out what the company does, who you will be working with and who the person is who will handle your application. Be informed because it shows that you personally care about the people you are dealing with and that will make those people more likely to care about you.

Make sure that you fit the company/job profile

Most companies have a website with their portfolio. Therefore take the opportunity and check if the things they show are the things you find exciting. If you find a job advertisement, all the better for you.
All the information you find on the website should be noted as criteria so that you can make a prioritised list of all companies that come into question.
You can always try to get into a company via a different job or an internship and later change into the job of your dreams inside the company. But you should always show enthusiasm even in these entry jobs as you may just as well be demoted out of the company instead of being promoted into your dream job.

Tell them exactly what you want to do

It frequently happens that people applying for a job simply state that they want to work in the glamorous world of TV and cinema but don’t know what the specifically want to do or what they are good at. This is an absolute no-no as the interviewer will not have the possibility to judge you and your value for his company. Another problem is that a jack-of-all-trades will be difficult to place inside larger companies as many people will be experts at the stuff they do and you will be a good allrounder but nowhere near anywhere those people are.

Be a team-player

A company usually consists of many individual personalities that all work away at getting jobs done for clients. To be efficient at this the employees have to communicate with each other and work together as a team. If somebody acts as a lone wolf he will not be able to get his things done as he will have difficulties integrating his work into the works of others, even if he excells at the things he does. This will inevitably pull down the whole team.
The person in charge of human resources will not want to have this. He will look for people who will complement his team and make it strongen. It is therefore important that you can work as a team, contribute productivly and still take criticism and advice from colleagues and superiors positivly.

The job application

Physical presentation matters

Before the showreel is swallowed by the DVD player the job application has to make it past the desk of the human resources person. While the showreel would be the most interesting part of your application the rest should not fail to meet a certain presentation standard.
A piece of paper with handwriting on it may be more personal but it will not look very professional in the eyes of the recipient.
A standard job application folder that can be bought at every stationary shop, on the other hand, will have a similar effect. In an industry where creativity is a big part of the job this sort of application will not look very creative. This is the reason why it is important to get the formalities right for your cover letter, application and curriculum vitae and at the same time to be original and creative with your presentation so that you stand out of the crowd and that your application sticks in peoples minds.
At the same time you shouldn’t overdo it. The contents of your application should not be harder to reach than the gold in Fort Nox (this goes for the content of your package as well as the navigation in your DVD or website)

Write your name and address on everything you send

It can always happen that parts of your application get split up at your recipient. Your letter may get left somewhere on a desk while your DVD is screened in another room and then your disc gets mixed up with the DVDs from other applicants and nobody knows which showreel belonged to which sender (and you can’t always rely on the person to watch the DVD a second time until the end to check who made it).
That is why you should write your name, phone number, email address and just to be on the safe side your postal address on everything that you send.

Showreel

The first 15 seconds of your showreel have to convince

You will always be dealing with people with very busy people inside the media industry and they will very probably not have the time to watch a 10 minute movie that you send them. You will have to put your best work right at the beginning of your reel so that the person reviewing your application doesn’t have a chance to switch it off before your good stuff is shown because he isn’t convinced by the things he is seeing.
You can of course show more things later in the reel after you have won the reviewer over.

Don’t put poor examples into your reel

Poor examples will always pull down your showreel and can make a dent in the impression that you are making. Some people will even be looking specifically for mistakes or poorly realised examples. Therefore you shouldn’t give these people too much to find.

Clear out your showreel

Have you made lots of movies during your university time that you are really proud of? Always check if the still stand out and represent what you are capable of today. If they don’t then don’t hesitate to through them out. As stated previously, your should rather be short and precise.

Concentrate on showing examples of work that you are also applying for

If you are applying as a character animater then show a couple of walkcycles and several gestures. If you are applying as a modeler then can simply show some turntable animations of your models and wireframes of your meshes.
The people responsible will judge your work more in relation to the job they want to hire you for. You won’t have to create a big animation with intricate storyline and everything. If you already have something like that you can simply put selected shots of it into your reel that show those skills that are going to be required for the job. As a bonus you can always put the complete move at the end of the reel or as a seperate track.

No sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll

Imagine it is 10 o’clock in the moring, the mail has just arrived and your application is the first one that is reviewed. It may very possibly be a woman and she may have just poured herself her first cup of coffee to get awake properly. Do you think this person, who will be responsible for your career, will be thrilled to see a big breasted 3D amazon queen doing stretch workouts. Probably not.
The same thing goes for montages of your last student party. They only seldomly show yourself in a positive light, even if the editing is spot on.
Therefore: always have in mind who will be reviewing your application later on. (regarding the amazon queen: she would be ok if you were going the apply for a job at a gamescompany like Blizzard that specialises on this medieval theme)

Sound doesn’t matter

It is commonplace for showreels to be screened without sound. That’s the reasy why you should make sure that you don’t put more work into your sound and musik than you put into your pictures because the possibility is high that the sound will be switched off anyway.

State which parts were yours

Sooner or later it will happen that you will include stuff in your showreel that you didn’t do by yourself. You should therefore include a description in your application what you did on the specific shots or the viewer may get a false impression.

Don’t take credit for other peoples work

Never take credit for something that you didn’t do. Our industry is small and something like this is likely to get noticed some day and that will go down very bad on your reputation.

General

Don’t be annoying

Leave the person responsable enough time to have a look at your application. A week should be ok.
It doesn’t help if you call the person every day to ask how far your application has come. This will only make the person annoyed which in turn makes your chances at getting the job more difficult.

Hang in there

If the company currently doesn’t have any job vacancies this doesn’t mean that you don’t have a chance to get a job there some time in the future. It can pay off to apply again in regular intervals (after approx. 6 – 12 months for example). Not all companies will have an extensive application archive where they can find everybody that ever applied there. If you are extremely good they may contact you right away just to make sure you are on the team when the next job comes but not everybody is extremely good or able to present himself that way. In most cases the company may just take a couple of applications from the top of the pile that applied during the last months and that will have to be the moment where your application is fresh on that pile.
In addition to that you will always have the chance (or duty) to keep your application up to date with new information and footage to show your progress.

Get to know the people

Exibitions and conferences are good opportunities to get aquainted with people from the industry and from the company that you want to get into. This is of course especially a challenge if you are rather the more humble or shy type but it pays off in the end.
If you know the people and those people know your work then they can recommend you next time a job is vacant. For the company you are not an unknown variable and your chances getting the job are much better.

Watch your reputation

Beware, the same also works the other way around. If you behave badly towards others, especially in forums and blogs or people know you from other companies then this will also affect your chances. Possibly even more than any other factor in your application.
Again, the media industry isn’t that large and a lot of people know each other and will talk. This is very important to remember.

Don’t cling to your application

Companies usually receive many applications which is why it is simply out of a commercial point of view not possible to send everything they receive back to you. If you do send an application that you have to have back then include a self addressed envelope with postage payed. You may also contact the person in charge an arrange it that you can recollect your application in person.
It may still happen that you don’t get your application back, even if you included a self addressed envelope. Because of this you should never send original documents with your applications.
Another reason not to send originals would be that you cannot apply at several companies at the same time if you only have one set of documents.
If required you can always bring the originals with you when you get your job interview.

Send the application to the right company

It may be hard to believe but it regularly happens that applications appear where the covering letter is addressed at a different company. In addition to this beeing a very embarrassing mistake the company now also knows at which other company you are currently applying for a job.
Applying for a job is always a very time consuming and you have quite a job coordinating everything but you should make absolutely shure not to fumble on the last few steps by getting these simple things wrong.
Therefore check every part of your application before you send it out. The best thing is to make a checklist that you can tick off with every application. This way you will also reduce the risk of forgetting any documents in the heat of the moment.