Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/225858
EDUCATION In addition, the DigiPen career services team arranges for "Company Days" almost every week throughout the semester, during which game and animation studios visit the campus and discuss their hiring needs and procedures. Annually, DigiPen hosts a career fair for graduating students, where they can showcase their work to invited guests looking to hire. Typically held in the spring, the career fair this past year featured 82 graduating students (from all DigiPen's degree programs) showcasing their work to 134 employers from 50 companies on the West Coast. Internships further give students a leg up in the hiring process. "Our internship opportunities offer employers the chance to try a DigiPen artist on for size, but even more importantly, it gives the artist a good opportunity to see how well they are internship fair, and two screenings in the SVA Theater of the students' work. SVA also actively submits students' work to festivals, and this past year alone, SVA Computer Art had eight projects at SIGGRAPH LA, including one in the Electronic Theater and four at SIGGRAPH Asia. In addition, the school boasted a finalist in the College Television Awards, the Student Academy Awards, and at the Cannes Film Festival. According to McIntosh, the SVA faculty comprises working professionals only. This gives the motivated student an opportunity to move quickly into industry positions within the growing New York community that features companies such as Framestore NY, Molecule, Look FX, Nathan Love, Curious Pictures, and Psyop NY. The school is particularly fortunate to have Blue Sky Studios as a neighbor and longtime ally of the program, he adds. West Coast studios regularly visit SVA Computer Art, and this past year they included ILM, DreamWorks, Sony Imageworks, and Pixar. During the past four years, the school has provided interns to Pixar's prestigious PUP program as well as animation internships. "In this industry, there have been busy years and slow years, and we have consistently seen our students be competitive and successful, says " McIntosh. Southern Hospitality ■ DIGIPEN HELPS students with job search strategies. able to fit into a real production environment, says Yan. "While " this does not guarantee that the employer will hire them full time (though many do), this normally gives the artist a certain level of confidence while searching for their first position. " The Industry and Career Services (ICS) department at Ex'pression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville, California, provides one-on-one career guidance and counseling to help better prepare its graduates to compete in the job market. Some of the services include: organizing networking opportunities, on-campus interviews, and events such as workshops and lectures featuring industry professionals. The school also looks for internships and job opportunities, and conducts reel reviews and provides feedback on resumes and cover letters. There are advantages to be had for students, as well, at the four-year New York City-based School of Visual Arts (SVA). "One great advantage of being in New York City is that our students have great internship opportunities, and often their first working opportunities come as early as the freshman and sophomore years, says John McIntosh, chair of the college's Computer " Art, Computer Animation, and Visual Effects Department. SVA Computer Art hosts yearly portfolio nights, its own 34 ■ CGW Novem ber / Dec em ber 2013 Savannah College of Art and Design's (SCAD's) Career and Alumni Services hosts a long list of recruiters quarterly and annually who visit the campuses, interview students, provide a presentation about their company, and sit in on classes to critique presentations or bring an artist along to do a workshop. "Often recruiters send 'emergency' e-mails that require a 24-hour turnaround for a hire, says Tina O'Hailey, dean of the SCAD School of Digital " M edia. "For requests that are less urgent, employers can use the college's central online job website to find students or alumni for full-time, part-time, and freelance work and internships. " At the annual SCAD Career Fair in Savannah, Georgia, this year, 118 employers lined up to meet 2,000 SCAD students. Separately, the number of companies conducting individual visits to SCAD Savannah has increased 75 percent since last year, according to O'Hailey, and by 90 percent since the 2010 – 2011 academic year. In Atlanta, the school turns the career fair on its head with a reverse event called "Out to Launch, " where students occupy the booths and employers visit them. She notes that Animation in Atlanta had 100 percent job/ internship placement from the participants at Out to Launch. "Unique relationships with industry leaders also provide a pipeline to employment opportunities. For example, through SCAD's long-standing relationship with DreamWorks Animation, more than a dozen SCAD student and alumni visual effects artists came to work on the blockbuster film Rise of the Guardians, O'Hailey says. "