Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/150396
many times these job seekers explain that they were let go (or their contracts not renewed) due to their big salaries. Digital Artist Management's Scanlon has seen the same thing. "Due to a lot of layoffs in late 2008 and early 2009, a lot of good, talented people have been unfortunate in Pixar tends to work with a fixed staff for its many projects, including the recently released film Up. ©2009 Disney/Pixar their circumstances," he says. And practicality and humility seem to be the order of the day. "Many of these people are willing to take half a step back in order to get a job," he says. Add the experienced workers to the usual throng of fresh-out-of-college job seekers, and you've got a larger-than-average overall pool. This can make a recruiter's job difficult, as EA's Nicola alluded to earlier in this article. Having a large applicant pool sometimes just makes the sorting process more timeconsuming, because studios still worry about overlooking great talent. As Pixar's Harbidge puts it: "We are finding that right now there are more candidates looking for their next opportunity. However, in the animated film industry, the work is cyclical. A candidate looking for work today may be in demand tomorrow. It is essential that we quickly assess and pursue attractive candidates so that another studio doesn't hire them first." 18 At Double Negative, the number of applicants from the US has been on the rise, Acock says. That may be an effect of the US economy, but she believes that the primary reason for this surge of interest is increased recognition that the UK is receiving from the industry in general, as well as to her company's recent far-ranging recruiting efforts. "As we are now able to be so competitive with large US studios work-wise, the UK is getting more and more recognition in this industry, and we have a high number of applications from senior artists in well-established US facilities," Acock says. "We're noticing that more and more people are coming over from the US, Australia, and New Zealand. For instance, we have hired more people on visas in the last quarter than we did throughout the whole of last year." Student Hires With all this talent looking for work, the picture might seem grim indeed for newbies fresh out of college, but not necessarily. Many studios are still hiring recent graduates, or if not hiring them outright, working with them to enhance their skills and their eventual hire-ability. Quite a number of studios have formal internship programs and long-standing relationships with animation schools. Pixar, for example, rarely hires someone full-time right out of college, according to Harbidge, but it does hire from within its internship program. "We have an extensive internship and resident program that is open to graduating students," Harbidge says. "For someone who is graduating, applying for our internship program is the best option for getting into Pixar."