My first application to Pixar

Last month I had the opportunity to apply to Pixar Animation Studios.  My career pursuits follow the discipline of 3D modeling (you can see my portfolio [HERE]).  I'm self-taught and thoroughly enjoy it.

I was not selected for the job.  This was a bummer for me, since I had worked really hard to get to where I was comfortable with the application, I had a professional referral from within the company, and he has also been mentoring me for the past couple of months.  He's been great, and one of the things he said to me was to take the experience as invaluable, even just for the process of submitting to Pixar.  I agree.  (He also said that his friend in recruiting told him that it was a senior modeling position, and so they were looking for a modeler with more experience.  When I knew that, I felt better.)

This is the most valuable job application I have ever submitted.  Let me tell you some of the cool things I learned:

1. Follow the critiques you get as closely as you can--I've gotten some excellent feedback from friends at Pixar, DreamWorks, Disney, and other major studios, and the same comments keep coming back to me, that they love how well I applied the critiques that they gave to me. 
2. Be proactive--Don't wait until the day the job opening is announced to prepare your application.  Create portfolios or pieces for your portfolio that would fit in the studios you most want to work in.  For instance, something that works really well for Disney Animation may not be the most appealing or applicable for submissions to Blizzard Entertainment.
3. Make goals--Try all different aspects of the areas you feel interested in and create a plan of how to get better.  Make goals to learn new things to help you be more proficient at what you're doing.  Use small steps to reach larger goals.  (see more on goals [HERE])
4. Consider how you might increase the appeal--Look at your models and think about what they're made out of.  What shape should it be?  How is it used?  Who uses it and where?  How does that affect how it looks?
5. Tell a story--Few things have greater appeal than a sense of story.  It brings characters to life, it livens environments, and gives purpose to props.
6. Don't take shortcuts--I have looked at a lot of demo reels that have tons of detail to describe different wrinkles in fabric, chips in wood or stone, hems in clothing, etc.  It takes time to make something production-ready.  Short-cutting it doesn't improve neither your chances at getting a job or your modeling skill.  The same goes for anything you do.

I'm sure I've learned loads more, and maybe I'll add more later, but that's it for now, folks.  I hope that was helpful to you on some level because those things will sure be helpful to me in the long-run.

Cheers!