Making the Best Use of Animation Recruiters [The Animation Industry: Preparing for a Career - Unit07]

Making the Best Use of Animation Recruiters

07/02/25

Arroyo (2024)

Introduction

This blog post studies and researches how to use animation recruiters. Animation recruiters are individuals or agency's that build a pool of animation talent and connect them with studios that need that talent. It is very similar to an agent in the music/film industry and works best when you build a strong relationship with a recruiter that can help you progress through your career. The industry is very project driven meaning that you can often need to move between studios or jobs, therefore, building a strong relationship with a recruiter can help support you staying in work. This blog post will analyse lecture notes, research animation recruiters and reflect on the findings.

Lecture Notes

The notes from this week are taken from the blog post ‘Kevin Richards Explains the Role of Animation Recruiters - and How to Make Use of Them’ (Williams, 2022).

The role of an animation recruiter is essentially a middle-man that connects animators with animation studios that need talent. They are on the look our for new and upcoming talent and essentially work similar to an agent in the music/film industry. Their job is to understand your skills and put you forward for opportunities that match your skillset. 

Recruitment is a costly and time consuming process and animation studios often need people to start right away. Therefore, animation studios will work with recruiters that they trust to give them the correct type of talent. These are the main reasons a studio will take on board new animation talent :

  1. One of the safest hires for an animation studio is to take on an animator they have worked with previously who worked well with the studio and produced good outcomes. A studio may just hire someone for familiarity because the risk is lower than a new person that is more unknown. 
  2. The next most likely reason is hiring someone with good credentials and proven experience across the animation industry. You will have worked on multiple productions and numerous years of experience. This demonstrates you understand how to work in a studio environment.
  3. The last reason someone would take someone on board is because you have an outstanding showreel. Your work is the thing companies are interested in so demonstrating this is key to being considered for a position.
I also explored the article by Arroyo (2024) who explores what animation recruiters want you to know. 
  1. The first key point is obviously making sure your CV, cover letter and CV are in order. It emphasises that your C.V. should be straight forward and easy to access. I tried to make my C.V. super funky with artwork and perhaps this isn't the best approach. 
  2. It then goes on to ensure that you research the studio and the project you'll be working on so you can develop questions to ask during the interview. Whilst the studio is trying to find out about you in an interview it is also time for you to find out as much as you can to decide if it will be a good fit. 
  3. Next it explores the animation test which is a short animation test or project that studios give candidates to further assess suitability. The key advice here if for you to research the studio to understand the type of work they produce so that you can easily align with the studio. The studio is essentially trying to work out if you'll be able to hit the ground running. These often have short deadlines so you'll need to plan time effectively - this could be particularly challenging depending on your work and personal commitments.
  4. Another key aspect highlighted is understanding your monetary value. Salaries and rates can vary, however, you need to make sure you're well informed by researching, speaking with peers and mentors so that you understand how much you are worth.

Exploring Animation Recruiters and Recruitment Agencies

  1. Mustard Jobs (no date)
    1. Individuals looking for jobs :
      1. Focusses on supporting individuals finding the roles they need.
      2. Starting with a chat about you and your skills.
      3. Helps you to develop a CV, prepare for interviews and navigate incoming offers.
      4. Coordinate between you and the employer to help negotiate the best deal possible.
      5. Post- hire contact to check in that its going well.
    2. Studios looking for candidates :
      1. Essentially the opposite of above. Connecting talent with studios that need it.
    3. They have various ways of connecting with them, however, the best way appears to be through their website. They have separate phone lines for individuals and studios as well as an email contact option.
    4. In order for them to consider me I'd need to have the best version of my LinkedIn, CV and showreel ready to go as a starting point at least.

  2. Talent Outpost (no date)
    1. Also works with individuals and studios alike.
    2. Appears to specialise in helping you grow your career and move from one role to the next. It seems to focus around contract work and support you in job search. It gives the example that you're working overtime on a project and having little time to apply/look for jobs - essentially offering to solve this step for you.
    3. Mentions they work with unannounced roles and projects. This shows that studios often skip the job advertising step and go straight to recruitment and talent agencies.
    4. To connect with these it has a simple 'Join our talent network' button. This enables you to apply for an expression of interest to start talking with the agency.
    5. In order to be a strong candidate for this I would review the application process and again ensure my LinkedIn, CV and showreel were the best they possibly could be.

  3. Aardvark Swift (no date)
    1. This is a recruitment agency that specialises in game recruitment, including game animation.
    2. I've met this company numerous times at events like Animex and other games networking events in the local area. 
    3. Their website leads their passion for games as their unique selling point, therefore, if you're looking for work in games then these are one of the best recruiters to go for, particularly in the U.K.
    4. They also explain that:
      1. You're 4 times more likely to find the right job with them.
      2. If you both agree to work together they aim to give you a list of opportunities within 24hours.
      3. 92% of candidates are happy 1 year later.
    5. They position themselves for experienced and fresh game developers alike. They have a specific section for graduates and they do a lot of work with graduates through talks and competitions like 'Search for a Star'.
    6. They advertise job listings on their webpage as well, which not all recruitment agencies do.
    7. They have a 'join us' button to connect with them and start a conversation. There are also various other methods such as submitting a CV and registering under their graduate recruitment schemes.

I've also done a search through LinkedIn and found a plethora of Animation specialist recruiters. A lot of these are part of groups on LinkedIn which often post about various job opportunities. Therefore, it is possible that you could connect with some of these specialist recruiters in order to start building a relationship. This would be opposed to sending a general email to the company/recruiter and targeting a specific hiring recruiter that focusses on your discipline.

Upon reflection of this research it seems like there are a range of opportunities that you could go for and these could support you in finding your first role and across your career as you might move from project to project. This sounds particularly appealing from a freelance perspective to achieve a more flexible working location and still working on a range of projects. This could help ensure that you're not constantly looking for work as well as doing work - the recruiter could help fill in these gaps. Furthermore, it would make sense to talk to a recruiter and decide whether they are going to be the best match for you - this could be the challenging part. Whilst applying to loads of jobs can be good, if you sign up with multiple agencies it could cause problems - especially if 2 recruiters put you forward for the same role!

Conclusion

I've worked with recruiters in the past (Pre-COVID) and I don't think I fully understood how to use them optimally. I think the key is to understanding the types of roles you want to go for and then working with a recruiter that specialises in these roles. If you can work together to grow your career and move from role to role then you will both benefit as they support you in connecting you with the right studios. If you cast your net wide with recruiters it's going to quickly become confusing and it would work much better if you're working with one recruiter specifically to get you the best opportunities. 

Recruiters seem more important now that remote working is more common. Particularly when looking to work on a freelance/remote basis - recruiters could connect you with studios around the globe to increase your opportunities. The initial interview you have with a recruiter is important to understand if you're a good fit and if they're going to be able to connect you with the right opportunities. Some people are looking to uproot their life and work in person whereas others may prefer a more flexible approach to work.

Recruiters benefit the whole industry by allowing recruiters to build a pool of talent that studios rely on. This in turn benefits candidates by removing some of the need to be constantly searching for your next opportunity which allows you to focus on your current role. There are range of different recruiters that have different specialisms so it is important to decide which recruiter is going to serve your best interests.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Understand the role of recruiters in the animation industry and how they can support your career.
  2. Learn strategies to effectively connect with and leverage recruiters.
  3. Reflect on the importance of building a professional network and maintaining strong relationships.

Reference List

  1. Aardvark Swift (no date) Driven by Games, Fueled by Talent. Available at: https://www.aswift.com/?source=bing.com (Accessed 7th February 2025).
  2. Arroyo, R. (2024) Tips Learned from Animation Recruiters. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tips-learned-from-animation-recruiters-ianimate-lease/ (Accessed: Day Month Year)
  3. Mustard Jobs (no date) Planning your next move?. Available at: https://www.mustardjobs.co.uk/candidates/ (Accessed 7th February 2025).
  4. Talent Outpost (no date) The Right People When You Need Them.. Available at: https://www.talent-outpost.com/ (Accessed 7th February 2025).
  5. Williams, A. (2022) ‘Kevin Richards Explains the Role of Animation Recruiters - and How to Make Use of Them’, Animation Apprentice, 26th September [Blog]. Available at https://animationapprentice.blogspot.com/2022/09/kevin-richards-explains-role-of.html (Accessed 7th February 2025).

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