Struggling to find internships in London, UK.
polycounter lvl 5
Hey all,
I hope all you are doing well.
I am graduating in a week and I am looking for an internship for the past year. I have literally e-mailed every studio in London and I always get an answer that they are not looking for interns or they don't space. I am just wondering if everyone has shared a similar experience? I do not have any experience, however I always try to write really encouraging e-mails about my passion and how motivated I am. Does anyone have any tips or ideas what I could do in order to gain some experience?
Thanks
I hope all you are doing well.
I am graduating in a week and I am looking for an internship for the past year. I have literally e-mailed every studio in London and I always get an answer that they are not looking for interns or they don't space. I am just wondering if everyone has shared a similar experience? I do not have any experience, however I always try to write really encouraging e-mails about my passion and how motivated I am. Does anyone have any tips or ideas what I could do in order to gain some experience?
Thanks
Replies
So basically you need to be at a junior level for a studio to offer their time, not sure what your problem might be since there is no link to your portfolio though.
Writing too much about motivation and passion usually does nothing or might even be seen as you trying to make up for what you lack portfolio wise.
But if you're sitting next to other developers and making the same art, why not just call it a job at that point? Just about every person who applies to a studio manually wouldn't also try internships if it meant increasing their chances for the same outcome of working there.
I know that I am still a long way away from being a developer level and I thought that even being around artist, looking at the way they work would help me. I wouldn't mind being a runner if I can get be in that environment and learn from it.
The biggest mindset shift i think would help you is switch from looking to what you can take/get and focus on what you can give.
Right now you are looking at an internship as an opportunity or shortcut at getting plugged into a studio and soaking up other peoples knowledge for your benefit. This is how 99% of most people looking to intern think and there is almost no value in this for a studio. Everything in life is a value proposition and it just isnt in a studios favor to hire interns most of the time.
When people say “oh ill get coffee and make art, i just wanna learn!” I dont think they have thought it through. A studio can hire someone to stock the coffee for minimum wage, and that person wont be tapping into the time of people worth 30-50+ dollars an hour. Ironically by working for free, you actually end up costing the studio a lot more than a minimum wage runner/coffee guy (ive never really even seen people hired for those jobs besides actual in studio coffee shops). The numbers get even worse if its a paid internship.
Not only that but you are asking to take away from more senior artists time to be managed, have your work critiqued, spend a couple weeks onboarding and getting you up to speed with the tools and pipeline and then at the end of the day, potentially them having to fix or re-do junior level work. And alll that investment for a 3-6 month internship and then you are gone? Its much easier for a studio to invest 50-100k in a mid to senior artist they know will hit the ground running and make them back their investment. Its not just a money thing, its also a time thing.
its just a losing business proposition for studios to hire interns. Now dont get me wrong, some still do, but the portfolios ive seen of people saying they just completed an internship are usually way above junior/entry level. Because at that point its a lot easier to see them as a deal/bargain of an asset to the team in terms of a time/output value prop. Those artists probably could have gotten a paid jr position at a less prestigious studio but were smart enought to sacrifice 3-6 months pay or non intern level pay for a long term gain of a position at a really baller studio that will elevate their career. In that example, the value prop is win/win for both parties.
almost good enough or junior level art is not really able to cut it these days. Your work needs to be AAA quality. So to loop back around to my initial statement, your best time investment right now would be making more portfolio work. Right now its just not at a level that will get your hired easily. And intern work you wouldnt be able to show thanks to NDAs for a long time anyways so it probably wouldnt help your end goal as much as you think at this point. You would still have to make new art with whatever skills you learn during the internship in your own time.
Just focus in getting good and making it a stupidly easy descision for a studio to hire you at an entry level salary and think they are getting a huge bargain. It will make your life easier in the long run. Gary V talks about how if you look to give 51% of the value and get 49% in any situation, you will never struggle in life for money or friends. Give rather than take and you will win.
internships are usually the very first step into any industry. yes there are shit internships where you carry the coffee, but that shouldn't be the norm. usually mandatory internships happen either during studies as part of the education or directly after to get the first foot in the door. as an employee (if paid) its a good first look to see if this field would actually be for you. as an employer it is usually always an investment with little to no return (yes there are asshole studios who ride a cheap labor intern wave, they usually come and go, as this is not very sustainable), but to build up a junior, to find out if that person is a good match, an internship is a pretty good tool.
ideally in an internship you can be integrated in a production, see all the stuff around you, learn which parts interest or suityou the most and make this your goal.
here you also have mandatory school internships, which is like the very very first possibility to check things out in the working world. they usually last 2 weeks and ideally help you understand better how a field you are interested in works for you.