From the recruiters and other Pixar people I’ve talked to as well (granted that’s only about two and a half people), I think YeeItzNicki’s information is pretty accurate. It probably all varies depending on department (like I imagine that an animator’s animation reel carries a lot more weight than an editor’s edit reel), but the cover letter and resume are really important aspects of the application.
One current employee who I talked to put it like this, you can be guaranteed that there will be multiple highly qualified and talented people who apply to these postings, so when it comes down to just you or that other guy and both of your talents and potentials are measured to be the same, the real way to distinguish yourself is the cover letter. What’s your personality? How well do you know the company and the company culture? And most importantly, would you fit in, thrive, and contribute to that environment?
The guy who said that got in with an internship and now works there full time, and he’s really convinced that what got him the internship was his really personal cover letter. Granted again, the job he was applying for was more management, but I think that a strong cover letter is really essential to having them look at your portfolio/reel or whatever. In some ways I also wouldn’t be surprised if someone with young art skills and a great cover letter got picked over someone with more developed art skills who had a very generic cover letter. Pixar is a fun place! So they want to work with fun (and talented) people. Screening everyone by their cover letters/resumes doesn’t sound that out of the ordinary or strange to me either. Considering how many applications they get, they do need some way to filter out those applications that were done the night before or the people who don’t really understand what the job even entails.
Sorry for everyone who’s been rejected so far But yeah, perseverance is key! My friend’s friend apparently applied seven times until they were finally accepted so there’s still hope!
Any editorial interns out there? Feels like we’re always a rare bunch anyway, but still waiting to hear anything back.
Congrats @storyguy for passing the first stage! Good luck with the hard copy stage!
At the pixar master class that they offer in different locations all over the world, they said that they don’t even look at resumes of cover letters - they just look at portfolios and reels. And they said they didn’t care about the academic background (even though there are requirements for that in the description).
I don’t know… but I hope cover letter / resume did have something to do with it - just because those are easier to fix up for the future And considering that I seriously didn’t get a view on my portfolio (and I know the view counter is working), I really wonder about the process. Also, the only time that my pixar account got updated since the deadline happened at exactly the same time (hour and minute) that a rejection email arrived in my mailbox…
I want to know about the process so we can be more prepared for next year!! (just not gonna have this student status forever )
Also, have you noticed how many of the Dreamworks and Disney’s internships this year are asking for you to already have a US work visa authorization? …
Do we need to get a Visa from our own? or Pixar deliver visa for those who are accepted? (I’m a noob, sorry)
I heard that someone get reject by the USA because they ran out of Visa, so he couldn’t work as a storyboard artist at Dreamworks…
As far as I know, Pixar is able to sponsor your work visa. But for the other companies (ex. Dreamworks, Disney, Blue Sky, Laika), quite a few of their posts said “we are not able to sponsor international students” or “you need to provide proof of work eligibility in the US.”
So…
But I think for regular employment, not internships, all of them are able to sponsor visas. But yeah, the US government also has a certain number of those work visas available per year because all these other companies and businesses may need to sponsor some of their employees.
I’m from Canada and I wish there were more internship opportunities (in regards to visas) between Canada and the US
Just got my rejection letter for the Production Management internship. Best of luck for everyone still in the running! To everyone else: keep us updated on where you’ll be for the summer!
Just got an email from Matthew Luhn from story!! Almost fell out of my chair.
He said he was checking potential animation intern reels for fun & said he thought my reel looked great! Regardless what happens, that’s one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever received.
Fingers crossed it’s a good sign though! They must be sorting through the animation reels now!
I am not sure if it was sent to all or what! I was thoroughly surprised. I thought it interesting he sent it, considering he’s over the story internship and I’m an animation applicant.
I’m Matthew Luhn, story supervisor, and guy who leads the story internship at Pixar. I also occasionally check out potential animation intern reels for fun and wanted to pass along that your work looks great!
I know that a lot of the animation portfolios at Pixar that do get noticed have some element of story in them. With that said, I will be teaching story classes this summer on how to improve your storyboarding and story writing skills. This is a great class to help you increase your chances of landing a job or internship in the future. You can find my classes @ www.vanarts.com/masterclass/story/
I wish you the best, and look forward to one day working with you!
Best,
Matthew Luhn
Twitter: @matthewluhn"
The more I read it the less I like the wording. Doesn’t feel like good news in coming.
weird…it does sound very generic though so it doesn’t seem like you can make anything of it. Don’t worry too much about it though. Were there any updates to your status?
But then again if you think about it, he has no say in the animation internship process so he might have just sent this email somewhat randomly to get people to check out his class. No point in over thinking it.
But yeah, perseverance is key! My friend’s friend apparently applied seven times until they were finally accepted so there’s still hope!
Good luck with the hard copy stage!
And considering that I seriously didn’t get a view on my portfolio (and I know the view counter is working), I really wonder about the process. Also, the only time that my pixar account got updated since the deadline happened at exactly the same time (hour and minute) that a rejection email arrived in my mailbox… 
(just not gonna have this student status forever 
)
