Hi guys, lets talk about something little bit funny. I guess everybody has some experiences with Human resources, in this case, at Pixar.
I would be appreciated If somebody who has experiences with applying at Pixar post some comments here. When did you apply? How far did you get? Have you had any interviews? How many times have you applied? and what do you think about HR itself.
I guess most of you, who has applied got email like: "Thank you for submitting your resume and/or demo reel for the “position” at Pixar. We are unable to utilize your skill set at this time. Please feel free to check our website periodically and apply to future positions of interest. "
Most of my friends are good as hell in what they are doing, but as you can see, it doesn’t matter how good you are, you failed 
)
HR will never tell you what is wrong, or what they are missing in your resume. So, at this point, most of the artist are confused and they don’t know what to improve. Internship is for kids and students, but what about 35 yrs old artist with 15 yrs of experiences in commercials or games. You can even make your own short film, but you will still fail. Some other friends used to say: “You will never get a job at Pixar, IF you don’t have any experiences in film business!” Guys, isn’t selfish? games and films go same way, high poly modeling, textures, rigs etc. Artists can do same quality models as they could see in movies and they will fail just because Avatar isn’t in their resume? )) Other people used to say: “You have to start in small film studio and then get into the big one.” Guys, what a stupid advice, every small studio wants to get same work quality, sometimes even better, as the big studios, so they have same requirements! There is no different and at small studios, you have to do even more work, because they have less people and they don’t have separate departments. For example: My friends work at tv commercials, and each of them, has to know everything till finalizing… OK… let me know what do you think guys…
Cousin, I am in the same boat. However I don’t think it is HR that is driving that. My guess, absolute SPECULATION just to be clear is that your submissions do through several screenings, American Idol style. It probably takes less that a minute for each level to tell if you’ve “got it.” How many levels there are I have no idea. I’ll guess again that out of the thousands that have the guts to apply, all but one get that form email.
Politics and “I know this guy” probably do play a part. I refuse to belive that Pixar would not hire the perfect artist just because they don’t have any credits. I think they don’t hire an awesome artist because they do not know how to properly format thier submissions, immediately broadcasting “I can’t follow directions!,” and they try to create some glitzy, graphic designed package. Pixar folks don’t care about all that, or a huge portfolio of stills. You’ve got thirty seconds at best.
Just remember why we are doing this.
With apologies to President Kennedy;
We choose to be animators and storytellers. We choose to be animators and storytellers in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
Keep the faith cousin, and maybe you and I will work sisde by side someday soon!
…nice reply, thanks for that.
My friend is storyboard artist, and he applied at Disney, he has passed two interviews but he hasn’t passed the last one, they choose somebody else ) Also, this is how some studios work, before they will post any job opportunities, they go and ask formal co-workers if they know somebody who could be suitable for them. The Most rarely seen job opportunity on Pixar’s website is the character or environment modeler. I think its because of that, or they just use people from the internship. What that means? close doors for people who doesn’t have any relatives or close friends at Pixar. ) This is not just at Pixar, its almost everywhere. You lucky or not )
Althought I had applied for an internship I thought Id share my interview experience anyways. I do not have any contacts at Pixar and so I got by with my portfolio ( I had sent a huge portfolio of stills and artwork + a short demo real) and my resume. Althought I do not have any profesionnal experience in 3D, the HR felt my background was still a major asset.
Since I do not living in the US, I had to go throught a phone interview. Was on the speaker phone with one HR and 4 technical directors at the same time. I was pretty nervous and I gotta say it was not my best interview ever but was not my worst either.
In the end, they chose someone else. I have reaplied once since but did not get a call back.
Can you tell us what kind of questions you have got? How long it took? How do you feel about this frustrating process? Thank you
I was a bit annoyed about how long the process was: overall from the dealine to apply to the day they made their decision: 1 month and a half. But Im still proud I made it far =)
Interview was about 10 minutes (and of course we had a phone appointment) with the usual questions about my work experience, education, why I want to work for Pixar, and the lead TD ask about 3 times if I had any questions for him, I guess I should have prepared some since it seemed reaaaal important but I only had question regarding the recrutment process which where directed at the HR lady,. Ah well when the nerves get the best of you! They also asked me which work if my book/real I was the most proud of.
I have friends at Pixar, one is Producer, other TD and other Animator, but it doesn’t matter how many people you know or If they are your close friends, it doesn’t change anything at all. The process of recruiting people has a rules, which everybody has to follow. Different would be If you know CEO or Directors, that would help you a lot, otherwise, your chance to get at Pixar is 50/50. Can you image how hard it must be to work there, If the recruiting process is so difficult? It seems to me like, everybody makes a smile in front of the camera, but the work environment doesn’t have to go that well 