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Azural91
01-10-2011, 02:34 PM
I'm not sure where exactly to post this, but I think this is the best place, sorry if I'm wrong!

Ok so.. Hi I'm Craig. I'm an Animation Ba(Hons) Student at The University of Huddersfield in the UK (Yes! The one with Patrick Stewart as Chancellor!). I'm currently in the second year of a 4 year course. Next year (Academic Year 2011-12) I am required to find a work placement in the industry. The idea of this year is for students to gain work experience that will help a great deal when we come to job searching after our degrees, not only this, but University tells us that 80% of students that take this Sandwich year option finish their 1/1's!

At the moment I'm looking at companies both in the UK and US that I would love to work for, there's quite a few! The problem I'm having is how to go about contacting the companies. I attended a Seminar at the Bradford Animation Festival by Paul Mendoza of Pixar, at this festival I was lucky enough to talk to Paul afterwards, following this I was told by my lecturer to send a follow up email, the problem I had was contacting Pixar! I send an email and I get a automated message back saying my email wont be received as they filter everything.

I'm worried about this happening when I try to contact companies regarding work placements, would it be better to send something via physical post? Or should I just email them and cross my fingers?

Also I'm thinking of linking/writing the URL of my website at the bottom of the email/letter so they can access my portfolio quickly. Is this the right thing to do? And sorry to be cheeky, but could you guys take a quick look at my site to see if anything needs improving?

My Website! (http://www.craigreaney.com)

I'm sorry for all the questions and walls of text, its just something thats beginning to worry me and we're not getting much support from University regarding work placements. :banghead:

Thanks All
Craig :thumbsup:
leigh
01-10-2011, 02:41 PM
You're unlikely to be able to get into a US studio unless you already hold US citizenship. This is because a work placement would require a work visa, and it's very unlikely for a studio to go through the hassle of sponsoring and petitioning for a work permit for a student on a temporary work placement. Furthermore, even if you found a studio that would do it, you'd need a degree to qualify for the H-1B visa anyway, but you haven't finished your course yet. Alternatively you could investigate the possibility of qualifying for a J-1 visa, but once again, you'd have to find a studio that would be willing to sponsor this visa for you. For an inexperienced student, the reality is that you'd have a hard time finding one to do this for you, especially when you consider that US studios that do accept work placement internships already have a large pool of US students to draw from.

As for UK studios, you can almost always find contact links for HR on their websites. Just send emails to those. And yep, including a link to your website would be okay. Sorry but I don't have time to check your site myself at this moment!
Azural91
01-10-2011, 02:46 PM
Oh Right! I'll definitely narrow my search to the UK.

Sorry but I don't have time to check your site myself at this moment!

No worries, thanks a load Leigh for the info! Greatly appreciated!

Time to get writing some emails it would seem! :thumbsup:
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