A few days ago, I came across a new platform that lists 3D animation job offers in a simple and straightforward way.
In a world where LinkedIn reigns supreme in our field, a clear, efficient, and regularly updated website was sorely missing. That’s where CartoonRecruit.com steps in.
Curious, I wondered who could be passionate (or crazy) enough to dedicate themselves to such meticulous monitoring of animation job openings and what their motivations were.
I had the chance to chat with Mike Schnier, the person behind this bold initiative.
What motivated you to create CartoonRecruit.com?
I write about the animation industry for my day job. And I’m deeply fascinated by the infrastructure of the internet. I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but I think I started working on what would become CartoonRecruit.com in bits and pieces since the pandemic started.
Everyone seemed to be picking up new skills in 2020, since there was precious little else to do, and I taught myself a little bit of programming. It was just the very basics of Python, Javascript, HTML and CSS. I had a janky version of my system on a Raspberry Pi server set up to monitor studio career pages, but I had no concept for how to turn it into a platform of my own. It was just texting me alerts.
A radicalizing moment for me was when I was trying to look up information on a popular fan wiki. I needed something or other from a table. The website covered that table with an autoplaying video ad, which was also placed on top of all the other obnoxious ads plastering the website. I think there were ads in-line between words. At that moment, the social contract of using a website felt like it was no longer in balance. I was trying to get kilobytes of text and was served gigabytes of unwanted video. It’s ridiculous!
After that frustration, I saw that nearly every website I visited was like that. Including animation job directories. Many would even force artists to click through an unnecessary copy of the actual studio’s job post in order to serve them even more ads. It seems to be standard practice.
I thought I could build a better website, even if it would be less profitable than a bad website. I just felt that looking for your next job shouldn’t feel less safe than searching for PlayStation ROMs.
Was there a specific need in the industry that you aimed to address with this platform?
I’m surprised that someone else didn’t beat me to the punch. Cartoon Brew wrote in 2020 that the best job directory in the animation industry was a spreadsheet — which is an ambitious project, maintained by Chris Mayne in his spare time. The thing is, the animation industry is a $400 billion industry in a good year. It genuinely surprised me that five years later I hadn’t seen anyone else build a website that didn’t live in a Google Doc. And I realized that I had most of a job directory ready to go.
It’s common for artists in the animation industry to get hired on at a studio for just one production. When their work on that production ends, the job ends with it. I feel that it’s a missed opportunity for studios to retain talent. But the takeaway is every artist in our industry needs good tools for finding their next production, because everyone always needs a next production. I hope that my website, or blog, or LinkedIn page connects people to opportunities they otherwise might not have found.
What are the main challenges you face in keeping a job board for the animation industry up to date?
Job titles are not always consistent studio-to-studio, which makes searches difficult. Not everyone agrees on how terms are defined, especially between countries. Are workers “remote” or “connected?” Is it useful to label a job as “Remote” if the artist has to be located in Toronto for a tax credit?
Careers pages are all structured differently. I need to figure out how the site works to monitor it effectively. And if a studio changes the structure of a career page, it usually breaks my system. My tracking system has to be custom for each studio, so there’s quite a bit of maintenance involved.
Another challenge is time. I built these Rube Goldberg systems which collect the links and header text for me, but I still need to read, review and edit every job post that goes on my website. I’ve built the most efficient workflow I can possibly make, but there is no generative AI in my stack. As a result, there will always be an inefficient human bottleneck on my site. It’s me!
How do you choose which job postings to feature? Do you have specific criteria to ensure their quality and relevance?
Relevance is admittedly a judgement call on my end. I want to feature as many legitimate animation jobs I can possibly find. Initially I was only looking for jobs at animation studios, but the industry is still in a downturn and those roles are few and far between. I expanded my project to include roles in game development and VFX. I typically list jobs which are directly involved in or support an animation or asset creation pipeline in some form of media, but I will occasionally feature an interesting job which doesn’t strictly fit that criteria.
In terms of quality, I avoid any posts which ask artists to work for free or at unsustainably low rates. That includes spec work, contests and unpaid internships. I also don’t include posts which mention generative AI. I fundamentally don’t believe that generative AI can do an artist’s job and feel that it’s a waste of everyone’s time to pretend that a brainless algorithm can think for you.
I also only speak English, which limits what I can post on my site. This is a shame on my part, because there are truly amazing animation communities outside of the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and Australia. I would like nothing more than for Estonian artists to shamelessly copy my website for job posts in the Estonian animation industry.
How do you interact with animation studios and recruiters to enrich the content on CartoonRecruit.com? Have you developed any particular partnerships?
I am currently setting up interviews for CartoonRecruit.com’s blog. Because every animation studio is different — specializing in certain kinds projects — a portfolio that gets you in the door with a studio best known for an anime-style action series probably won't work with a studio focusing on preschool content.
General advice can be useful, but I want to host interviews with recruiters which help artists apply to a very particular kind of studio. I want to find those points where the advice is quite different studio-to-studio.
At the same time, my project is still in its early days. If a studio wanted to sponsor me, I do have a few ideas for what I could do with a budget.
What dreams or goals do you have for CartoonRecruit in the coming years?
I want to build the best job directory that I can, because this really is a labour of love. To be radically transparent, I spent about $350 on equipment, hosting, and business registration. At the time of writing, I have earned a grand total of $0.77. I would be shocked if I made any meaningful profit from my website over the next two years.
Everything you see on my website is what I am capable of doing with no external funding. If I ever get my hands on any kind of budget — Katzenberg, please return my emails — I would want to host a series exploring how different kinds of artists get hired at studios. I would only do that kind of project if I had a budget to pay guest experts for their time, as I wouldn't ask artists to show up on camera for exposure.
With the recent challenges in the animation industry, do you see any encouraging signs for the future of recruitment?
I tell my blog readers to keep an eye out for when studios hire senior roles. Even if you’re not ready to be the animation director yourself, the animation director might hire you next. And I’ve seen a handful of studios begin to hire for those senior roles. Fingers crossed?
What advice would you give to animation artists using CartoonRecruit.com to find their next job?
My best piece of advice, to artists looking for their next productions, is to share links to job posts with colleagues who are also looking for work. If you help your friends get hired, they might help you too.
My second best piece of advice is bookmarking job searches. Every search on CartoonRecruit.com generates a URL that you can save and check in on. For example, this is a search URL for jobs tagged with Toon Boom Harmony. I post new jobs every day, usually within 24 hours of a studio updating their career page, so if you check for new jobs once a week you should see new posts.
For young animators just starting their careers, what tools or resources would you recommend, besides CartoonRecruit.com, to help them break into the industry?
This is more of a technique than a specific tool. Artists should always research opportunities before applying. The process doesn't have to be exhaustive, you don’t need to case the joint, but you should know what you are applying for and how your skills connect with that role
Read the job description twice. Visit the studio's main website. Look at the projects that the studio developed or contributed to recently. Does the first 10 seconds of your animation reel demonstrate without question that you can do that kind of work — or at least have the potential to?
At the end of the day, what you are trying to do is grab an overworked recruiter's attention and show them that you can do the job. Having interviewed recruiters in the past, they will tell you that the majority of artists applying do not demonstrate that kind of focus. If you can show that you understand the assignment, you have an opportunity to stand out.
Mike, thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions and to share those great pieces of advice!
Let's wish you all the best with CartoonRecruit.com, and we'll definitely keep a close eye on it as great updates are coming in the future!
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