Seeing as the only advice I can really give should be directed at young animators seeking to break into industry, I figured I should tailor these blog posts to such an audience. In this entry I hope I can provide us inexperienced enthusiasts with some interesting links/resources which I found very useful when seeking employment. These are listed with a short description below:
The Loop: http://www.theloop.com.au/
The loop is a place for you to upload your online portfolio. You can show a diverse array of your work and is a site where potential employers can view your profile, see what you're about and hopefully request to learn more about you. I've been offered freelance work through the loop and can first hand vouch for its effectiveness.
CG Reelworks: http://www.cgreelworks.com
This is a great site to showcase your reel to the world as well as other creatives and potential employers. Its dedicated solely to showing off reels from those within the cg industry and is worth adding your reel to. Of course i'd also recommend the ever popular YouTube and Vimeo but CG Reelworks gets credit for specialising solely on delivering your cg reel to those within industry.
CG Studio Map: http://www.cgstudiomap.com/
One of the hardest things when trying to break into the industry is just figuring out where all the studios are and what they're called. You cant apply anywhere if you don't know who to apply to right? This was one of my greatest worries when I started out as I would only hear of studios through word of mouth. This site aims to change that and present studios worldwide in a simple, clean and organised manner.
Digital Labourers Federation (DLF): http://www.dlf.org.au/
Although it looks a little retro in design, DLF provides those who register a plethora on emails detailing employment opportunities as well as useful knowledge and information passed around the forum. You can opt out of the extra emails and only hear about employment opportunities which is recommended unless you're willing to see your inbox fill up on a daily basis. I'd recommend filtering your DLF emails into a separate folder. It'll make a world of difference when trying to organise your inbox.
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
Finally I'm listing LinkedIn as a great resource to be a part of. This industry is most definitely about who you know and keeping up with all of your contacts is definitely a good idea. You'll really see the benefit of LinkedIn once you spend a bit of time in the industry and you're connections grow. Before you've gotten your foot in the door though, the ability to follow companies and see when they a recruiting is valuable enough. Keep it professional and keep it sensible and you'll definitely see the benefits of adding one more profile to a social networking site.
I hope someone finds these sites as valuable as I have and I'm sure I haven't even scratched the surface yet. In a competitive industry as this one we need all the help we can get and being proactive about your reel and online identity could be what pushes you over the edge. If not then I guess it couldn't hurt either, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment