There were 14 visual effects and animation companies at Spark Fwd 2015’s job fair, and Zongguang (Timothy) Zhao planned to meet with recruiters from all 14.
This was despite the fact that Zhao, an effects compositor, already has a job with Vancouver’s Zoic Studios, one of the 14 companies at the event, held January 31 at Vancity Theatre.
“Most of the work you do as a compositor are three- or six-month contracts,” said the personable 31-year-old, whose work for Zoic runs until the end of April. “The job fair is a real hot spot to meet employers face to face.”
Zhao was among 653 prospective employees who attended the job fair, many of whom already had industry jobs.
As Vancouver becomes a hub for animation and visual effects (VFX), and with many big VFX companies opening studios here, the search for talent gets very competitive.
“We don’t feel a lot of competitive pressure from other industries like animation and video games, but we definitely experience it within the visual effects industry,” said Jim Ockey, recruiter for Image Engine, one of the busier interviewers at the job fair.
Ockey said that in casual five- or 10-minute conversations, he collects resumés and business cards and listens to job pitches.
Primarily, he wants to get a sense of the interviewees’ experience and how their personalities might fit the company. He rarely has time to view the person’s work, knowing he and others in the company can do that later online.
Image Engine has 200 employees and will add another 20 in the coming months.
Andrea Rempel, human resources manager with Vancouver animation company Atomic Cartoons, agrees that personality has a huge impact on the interviews.
If Atomic likes what it sees in a resumé or on a demo reel (many job fair attendees carried iPads or laptops for that purpose) and likes what it hears from the prospective employee, then the company will call that person for a formal interview.
Rempel said some of the company’s 240 employees – artists, programmers, production managers – were found at job fairs.
Rob Simmons, Atomic’s vice-president of finance and business affairs, said the competition in the VFX sector gets tougher every year as new studios open in the city.
“The talent pool is tightening,” said Simmons.
Moving Picture Co. (MPC), a large VFX company with eight studios, including one in Vancouver, had the longest lines of prospective employees at the fair.
Karen Lorena Parker, an artist and matte painting student, said this was because MPC hires many entry-level people coming out of film schools.
For his part, Zhao made the rounds carrying on animated conversations with recruiters and handing out handsome two-page resumés.
Unlike other job fair attendees, he didn’t bring an electronic device to show his work.
“The recruiters have to talk to hundreds of people. If they see something, they could forget it by the end of the day,” said Zhao, who expected to follow up with potential employers through LinkedIn.
“Once you get an interview, then that’s when you show your reel.” •
