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CAA Careers: Axis Studios give their top tips for getting your dream job



Axis Studios are an award-winning animation and VFX studio based in Glasgow, but with studios also in Bristol and London.  
Most recently, Axis have been working with Aardman on their latest stop-motion epic, 'Early Man'. Over the course of 13 months, Axis delivered 1,350 shots, including the film’s dramatic prologue, epic stadium shots, the moody badlands, lava, fire and water effects. 
Read more about their input HERE.


Axis share some advice on getting a job with them; they often have recruitment open days, so it's well worth keeping an eye on their blog, following them on Twitter, Facebook etc...

Jon Beeston, Head of Art gives this advice (advice which would be relevant at other recruitment events too!) -

1. Be prepared – Have a CV and business cards ready. We see hundreds of candidates at these events; it’s a great idea to leave a CV or business card so we have your details on hand.

2. Do your Homework - Research the companies you are intending to speak to, know their work and style. We don’t only want to see what you can do but if you will fit into the team or project. Our company culture is super important to us – take a look for yourself – HERE!

3. Look at our current vacancies – At Axis we’re always looking for new talent, it’s always useful to get an idea of what positions we’re looking to fill on our website. Sometimes we’re hiring for specific projects – right now we’re hiring for SyFy’s new adaptation of the graphic novel, Happy for instance.

4. Don’t show your portfolio on a mobile phone! – If you don’t have a laptop or tablet it’s worth investing in printing your portfolio. Showing your portfolio on your phone doesn’t show off your work. And if you do have a laptop or tablet, make sure it is charged.

5. Be well presented and polite – It isn’t just your portfolio you are presenting it is also yourself. Keep a smart appearance and remember, manners make the man, or woman, or person, or posthuman, or transpeciest…

6. Be sober – It might be obvious but you’d be surprised!

7. Be on time – If you have an allotted time slot be on time, it’s unprofessional and could cut into your time to present your work.

8. Don’t show work under NDA – You might have an amazing piece of work that you think could land you your next job, but under no circumstances put anything in your portfolio that you are not authorised to show. A studio’s relationship with a client is very important, if you are breaking a confidential agreement to showing us work then we cannot trust you to keep any agreement you sign with Axis. This will always go against you.

9. Be patient – We do our best to stick to allocated time slots, but sometimes, there’s a lot of ground to cover; if we’re talking to someone, don’t interrupt.

10. Be aware of the difference between recruitment and folio reviews – If we’re recruiting, we’re probably not doing folio reviews. Having said that, we’re usually happy to look and review if we have time.

11. Quality, quantity, consistency and if possible variety – If you can tackle a diversity of styles, subjects and genres with consistency, quality and quantity that’s great to see. So is excelling in one particular area. ‘T’ type people are great to see; a broad range of skills forming the cross bar on the T but then an ability to drill down and focus on one specialist area forms the vertical.

12. Focus your folio – Put the type of work that you’re primarily interested up front in your folio, followed by other areas of interest and any support material such as sketches etc. towards the rear.

13. Don’t tell us your failures – Pointing out where you think we’ve failed or where you could have done things ‘way better’ isn’t always a good way to start a conversation…

14. Be clear in your follow-up – When following up with us through email, be sure to put your name, the place where you spoke to us and the type of work you’re interested/position you’re applying for all in the subject line, that gives us context to your mail at a quick glance i.e. Jon Beeston – In the Hardware Store – Plumber.


15. Remember to breathe – yes, recruiting events can be daunting, but it’s important to remember to try and stay calm; if you pass out because you’re not breathing it really scares us!

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