When Are VFX companies hiring?

[ngiassullo]

Hey everyone,
What time of year are VFX companies hiring the most? I notice that there are ebbs and flows through out the year.

[Alex Jenyon]

It's quite area specific, and based on what projects crewing up / winding down in the local studios at any particular time. LA is probably going to have slightly different 'cycles' to London. It's also going to be based on department (i.e. if you are looking for animation work in a city where a large anim-based show has just wrapped, you are going to be competing with another 100 or so people temporarily out of work at the same time).

That said, the biggest VFX heavy shows tend to be released in summer. They will therefore be delivered a few months before that, and a studio might work on a show for 8-10 months (although this can vary wildly, and R&D might be done in advance). Since Christmas and the middle of everyone's summer holidays are not the best time to sort out new hires, slightly more recruiting might be done in Autumn (i.e. NOW) than at other times of year. That's only a hunch, though - I don't have any actual data.

AJ

[Suirebit]

Generally speaking, most of the recruiting is done in spring and autumn.

[nickmarshallvfx]

Yeah, I would say now is as good a time as any. Most facilities would prefer to have people from early in the production to avoid that 'oh god we hired them to help finish a project on schedule and they cant do the work to standard!' scenario. Now is the time where a lot of productions are kicking off, and its probably pretty good from now until April really...

[ngiassullo]

Awesome, thanx guys for clarifying this.