One Day, One Internship » animation

Watercooler

Willy Franzen — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:45:19 +0000

Early in the recession it seemed as though the video game industry would never be affected. Traditional game publishers were busy selling their wares to the unemployed and hiring to keep churning out games—so there were plenty of internships in video games. Things seem to have slowed down over the past year, but I think it’s more about a change in the games that people play than macroeconomic conditions. Facebook and the iPhone have created new markets for cheap and free (ad-supported) games to gain a lot of traction. There are a ton of gaming upstarts entering the market, and traditional publishers are changing the platforms that they develop on. One of the upstarts is Watercooler, a Redwood City, CA based social games developer that has already reached “over 25 million application installations.” The company started as a network of online fan communities focused on sports and TV, but they’ve switched focus and used their “social product expertise to create innovative and engaging social games.”

Hang at the Watercooler

Watercooler’s games include Kingdoms of Camelot, Fantasy Football, $20K Football Challenge, 2010 Bracket Challenge, and Epic Goal. I haven’t played any of them, but they certainly look like they could be pretty addictive (and that’s exactly what social gaming companies want). Watercooler has already raised $9.5 million in venture capital, so they’re certainly in a growth stage. This is also becomes evident when you look at their Jobs page. They have a ton of positions open, and there are plenty that might be appropriate for new or recent grads, although there is only one internship posted. It’s for a User Experience Intern, and there’s no word on whether it’s paid or not. I’d imagine that Watercooler might offer other internships in the future, so don’t be afraid to reach out to them and ask about opportunities if UX isn’t your thing.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you played any Watercooler games.

DreamBox Learning

Willy Franzen — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:46:53 +0000

Have you told your friends about One Day, One Internship? Share us on Facebook and Like Us too (apparently Facebook has moved away from Fans and now prefers “Liking”).

Yesterday I came across a New York Times article about how Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix, recently donated money to a non-profit called Charter School Growth Fund so that they could acquire online education startup DreamBox Learning, which creates web-based games to teach elementary school students math skills. As far as I can tell, the Bellevue, WA based startup will remain a for-profit entity even though it will be owned by a non-profit fund. Along with the donation Reed Hastings also invested $10 million into DreamBox to help them expand the number of subjects that they cover and to reach more schools with their software. You have to think that a large portion of that investment will be spent on hiring new people in the not so distant future.

Join the Dream Team

I love the online education market. I think it’s going to be an extremely exciting and profitable place to work for at least the next decade, and that’s why I’m part of it (have you seen Found Your Career?). What DreamBox Learning is doing reminds me a lot of Reasoning Mind, which is a non-profit that develops online math learning software and curricula. There’s plenty of room in the market for both, and I imagine there’s room for even more considering the level of math education in our country these days. It’s awesome to see someone with the track record of Reed Hastings putting so much into such an important project, and if you want to join him, you should check out DreamBox Learning’s Careers page. Right now they don’t have any internships posted, but I did find that a few Northwestern CS majors have interned with them in the past. There may not be any specific positions to apply for, but you can reach out to them at jobs@dreambox.com to see what they might have in the future.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your feeling about online education?

Firstborn

Willy Franzen — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:33:59 +0000

Here’s another one from Fast Company’s list of “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies.” Firstborn is a New York City based digital agency with “a knack for hard-core programming most of its hipster colleagues can’t match.” By combining advertising smarts with a firm grasp on technology, they’re taking the art of advertising to the next level. Firstborn claims major clients like Ford, SoBe, Aflac, and Wrigley. But they’re not just making commercials. They’re creating interactive experiences that combine branding initiatives with user generated content. Firstborn has been around since 1997, so they’re not new to this Internet thing. That’s why they’re the ones putting out the kind of stuff that gets true ad geeks really excited. Beyond Firstborn’s portfolio, you can also get a more in depth look at how they work by going through their case studies.

Be Firstborn

I could keep yapping about Firstborn, but if you really want to get to know them, you should look at their work. Then you should check out this video that they made for their internship program. It’ll give you a look at what it’s like to work at Firstborn and what they expect from interns. (If you’re a subscriber, you’ll have to click through to see the video.)

Like what you saw? Then you should check out Internships at Firstborn. Right now they’re looking for interns in Software Development, 3D Motion Design, and Design. The positions are paid and last 3-8 months. You can find application instruction on the individual postings.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Firstborn’s portfolio?

Sportvision

Willy Franzen — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:08:11 +0000

It’s Opening Day of the baseball season, and I’m thrilled that I’m looking at 6+ months of meaningful games for my favorite sport. Last night was disappointing in that the Yankees blew a solid lead in a sloppy game against the Red Sox, but even that can’t drown out my excitement about the hope brought by a new season. Along with a new season comes new technology. Television and online broadcasts are constantly getting better, and not just in quality. There are all kinds of new technological innovations that are making sports more fun to watch, and a lot of them are coming from Chicago based Sportvision. It all started with the FoxTrax “glowing” hockey puck (which was pretty much a miserable failure), but now we have things like the “virtual yellow 1st and Ten line™, KZone™ virtual strike zone, and the RACEf/x system on NASCAR broadcasts.” Each of these was created by Sportvision.

Are You Watching?

Sportvision is very much a technology company, but they also understand sports. They’ve been so successful with their innovation because they have a distinct model for creating new products. They look for aspects of the game that are “hard or impossible to see; happen a lot; and/or central to the understanding of the game or sport.” Then they use their technological prowess to find a way to overcome the challenges that an average fan has with the given aspect of the game in real-time. Maybe it’s strike zone recognition or knowing whether a football team should go for it on a fourth down (or maybe it’s inserting virtual advertising), but whatever it is, Sportsvision is consistently finding new ways to add value by layering things on top of the live action. It’s really cool stuff, and you’ve almost certainly seen it if you watch sports on tv. Sportvision has offices in Milwaukee, WI; Mountain View, CA; and Paris, France in addition to their headquarters in Chicago. They don’t mention internships on their Careers page, and the jobs that they have listed are mostly technical, but I was able to find an online résumé or two that indicated that Sportvision offered internships in the past. You’ll have to reach out to them and inquire if you’re interested.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What’s your favorite Sportvision technology?

Riot Games

Willy Franzen — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:04:14 +0000

Apparently my parents and sister have engaged in a never-ending series of online Scrabble games played via iPhone. I’m with my parents in Florida right now, and every five minutes they’re bugging each other to make the next move. It’s crazy. Free online gaming has hit the masses, and it isn’t pretty. There are tons of new online gaming companies, and while some are focusing on bringing new gamers to the market, others are more focused on gaining ground with serious gamers. Culver City, CA based Riot Games is a perfect example of the latter. They are behind League of Legends, a free online role-playing game that is set in an imaginative world. The game has been downloaded more than a million times, and Riot Games has received $20 million in venture capital investment based on the game. $8 million of that investment came from a Chinese gaming company that has a huge user base, so this is very much an international play.

Incite a Riot

The interesting thing about Riot Games and League of Legends is that the game is essentially console quality. It’s the type of game that serious gamer would pay to play, but it’s free. Riot Games’ business model is more akin to that of Zynga than that of Blizzard. What that means is that Riot Games makes League of Legends free to play, but they charge for in-game item purchases. It seems like a smart idea, and if it works, they’re going to have a huge leg up on the game makers who charge an upfront cost for their games. With all of the recent investment, Riot Games is growing its headcount rapidly. A quick look at their Internships page will show you that they have nearly a dozen opportunities for college students. These include positions like Art Intern, Game Effects Art Intern, Software/Build Engineer Intern, Community Intern, Game Design Intern – General & Usability Design, Game Design Intern – Core Gameplay, Sound Design Intern, Production Intern, and Development Intern. Although it doesn’t say so in the internship descriptions, I’m pretty sure that all of the positions are paid. You can apply e-mail and hopefully it’ll lead to an internship where you’ll enjoy perks like ninja nerf gun battles, full expense trips to the bathroom, and stock advice.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you played League of Legends?

R/GA

Willy Franzen — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:51:34 +0000

It’s hard to imagine that a film production company could morph into “a holistic interactive agency built for a digital world;” however, that’s exactly what New York City’s R/GA has done. Now, film production and advertising aren’t all that different, but it’s still a big psychological leap from one to the other. Moreover, not many companies are willing to take a huge risk and move where innovation takes them. R/GA embraces change. They’re also really freakin’ good at what they do. Their clients include Nike, Verizon, IBM, Target, Bank of America, and a bunch of other extremely well known companies. They also have the best corporate website built in Flash that I’ve ever seen. Everything about it works—I can actually give you links to specific pages. Beyond that, the site does a fantastic job of presenting R/GA’s brand. It’s packed with information and has fantastic videos (they obviously haven’t abandoned film production completely).

Enroll at R/GA University

Everything that I’ve come across related to R/GA has impressed me. Their website. Their client list. Their portfolio. And even their Jobs page (powered by Jobvite—ok, I can’t link directly to the jobs, but the site is still very easy to use). Oh yeah, and don’t forget R/GA University. It’s R/GA’s take on continuing education for employees, and it includes six pillars: Professional Development, Industry Trends, Leadership Development, Inside R/GA, R/GA and You, and Work + Life Balance. They “believe that the broad base of courses piques curiosity and encourages people to try new things. And ultimately makes people more well rounded and better at their jobs.” Sounds like a great place to intern and learn on the job, huh? The only thing that disappointed me about R/GA is that they don’t have an internships page. They definitely have an internship program (proof: here, here, and here). I’m not sure if they take Fall interns, but they seem to offer paid internships in all kinds of different areas. Your best bet to find out more might just be submitting a resume through their Jobs page and seeing what happens (or you could always try LinkedIn for some networking).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you impressed with R/GA?

Activision

Willy Franzen — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:58:30 +0000

As we noted when we featured Blizzard’s entry level jobs on One Day, One Job, video game sales tend to do really well when unemployment is high. Although looking for internships can be frustrating, and buying a Wii/Xbox 360/PS3 and camping out in your parents’ basement for the summer may seem like a good idea, it’s not. That’s why Jason Seiden and I are announcing our 21 day online job search training course today. It’s called Found Your Career, and it’s open for enrollment. We’re offering an introductory price to the first 100 students to sign up, so get in before the price goes up. It’s a great way to put all of that video gaming energy to good use (and it’s much more affordable). The course is intended for entry level job seekers, but all of the lessons apply just as much for interns. Another way to put that energy to use is by considering internships with Santa Monica, CA based Activision, the company that is behind Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and many more games. Video games are hot now, but now’s not the time to hone your expert level skills on Guitar Hero, it’s time to hone your internship search approach by developing new skills and focusing on industries that are still growing in tough times.

Internship Hero

You’ll know that “You Rock!” when you land an internship. Until then, you’re playing a game called Internship Hero. If I was to go any further with this metaphor (that people who have never played Guitar Hero won’t get), I’d say that the current level/song is “Activision.” Anyway, Activision makes extremely popular video games, and video games in general are really popular right now. You can find out plenty about the company on their About and Investor Relations pages. You may notice that the company is now known as Activision | Blizzard because the two companies have joined forces, but since they both generally operate separately, we’re featuring their internships separately. Activision does have a University Relations page, but it only has basic information on internships. That means that you’re going to have to browse through Activision’s job listings to get the scoop on their internships. We also can’t link to the specific job listings because of the way Activision’s Applicant Tracking System is set up. Here are the postings to look for: Software Engineer Intern (Maine), Scripter Intern (San Francisco), IT Intern (Santa Monica), Investor Relations Intern (Santa Monica), Interactive Marketing Intern (Santa Monica), Environmental Art Intern (San Francisco), and Animator Intern (San Francisco). You can apply for these internships from the Activision site, and although there’s no mention of whether the internships are paid or not, I have a hunch that they are.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you going to enroll in Found Your Career?

Blue Sky Studios

Willy Franzen — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:40:14 +0000

This weekend my Dad e-mailed me about a company that had just moved to Connecticut (where I’m originally from). Connecticut has been working hard to attract the movie industry to the state – they even have what is called a “Hollywood East Task Force” in Hartford – so it’s big news when a company like Blue Sky Studios makes a move to Connecticut because they’ve been bribed by tax credits. It certainly brings a lot of jobs (and internships) to Connecticut (even though New York loses just as many.) As interesting as it is that Connecticut is trying to become “Hollywood East,” it’s not nearly as interesting as what Blue Sky Studios does. They “pioneer creatively superior photo-realistic, high-resolution, computer-generated character animation for the feature film, television and entertainment industries.” Put more simply, they’re behind feature films like Ice Age, Horton Hears a Who, and Robots, and some pretty cool shorts too.

Live in Blue Sky Country

If you want to work in Animation or Production, there are few, if any, better place to start than Blue Sky Studios. In fact, Blue Sky Country has a comprehensive FAQ on how to break into the industry. Whether you’re interested in a job with Blue Sky or at another animation house, this will tell you everything that you need to do (from high school all the way through college and beyond) to groom yourself to get a job in the Animation industry. That’s a great place to start, but if you’ve already checked off a few things on the list, then it might be time to take a look at Blue Sky Studios’ Internships (or to subscribe to their Jobs and Internships RSS feed). Blue Sky Studios has a Production Assistant Internship program that is already filled for the spring, but will need interns for the summer. Interns at Blue Sky Studios typically do “production database updates, spreadsheet generation, set-up of visual components for various meetings, scanning various forms of artwork, and taking notes during meetings and director rounds.” It’s an awesome opportunity to get hands on experience and to build relationships in the Animation industry. They offer both full and part-time internships, and full-time interns can work up to 40 hours per week in the summer (30 hours per week at other times of the year). There’s no mention of whether the internships are paid on Blue Sky’s site, but from what we’ve read elsewhere, it does seem that they pay interns. The application deadline for this summer is April 17th, so you have plenty of time to “email your resume, cover letter, and two letters of recommendation from faculty members at your institution to intern_resumes@blueskystudios.com.” Make sure that your resume includes your computer software knowledge and your cover letter does an excellent job of telling them why you wish to intern at Blue Sky and why they should award you the internship.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which of Blue Sky’s movies is your favorite?

MediaStorm

Willy Franzen — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:52:41 +0000

Here at One Day, One Internship, we’re big on storytelling. The reason that we feature a new company every day is that a lot of companies aren’t very good at telling their own stories, and even if they are, there’s a good chance that you’ve never heard their stories. Brooklyn, NY based MediaStorm is one of those companies that excels at telling its own story – probably because their “principal aim is to usher in the next generation of multimedia storytelling by publishing social documentary projects incorporating photojournalism, interactivity, animation, audio and video for distribution across multiple media.” They’ve worked on some amazing projects that include Intended Consequences, a chronicle of the lives of Rwandan women who “were subjected to massive sexual violence, perpetrated by members of the infamous Hutu militia groups known as the Interahamwe,” and The Marlboro Marine, the story of a marine whose photograph became famous and how “tried to return to his previous life but found his nights haunted by images of war and his life fractured by depression.” MediaStorm seems to deal with a lot of heavy topics, but they certainly have mastered multimedia storytelling.

Take MediaStorm by Storm

MediaStorm was founded by Brian Storm in 2005, and in the few years since they’ve won quite a few awards. If you’re looking for an internship in a multimedia production studio and you’re especially interested in social causes, then an internship at MediaStorm might be the perfect place for you to spend a few months. They recently posted on their blog that they’re looking for Spring and Summer interns in multimedia production, design, motion graphics, and web development. They accept applications on a rolling basis for their Spring internships (so it’s not too late), but they have a February 15th deadline for applying to their Summer internship program. They’re flexible with start dates, and the internships are paid. They also are a relatively small company, so you should get a lot of hands on experience. If a few months at MediaStorm sounds like a good time to you, then email a resume, references and cover letter (discussing why you want to intern at MediaStorm and what you hope to get out of the experience) to careers@mediastorm.org. Be sure to include links to pieces you’ve produced/collaborated on (please indicate role in each), available start/end dates, hours/week available, and familiarity with Final Cut Pro, SoundTrack Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Aperture, Flash, and/or proficiency in other related programs.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Which of MediaStorm’s projects do you find most interesting?

DreamWorks

Willy Franzen — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:00:26 +0000

Unless you go to see fewer movies than I do, then you know about Dreamworks. On the animation side they’ve done Shrek, Antz, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar and more. On the film side they’ve done Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, American Beauty, Gladiator, Old School, Transformers, and many more. They make great movies, and they’ve been very successful. It’s no surprise considering they were started by media moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. If you don’t recognize their logo, then you probably shouldn’t be looking for a internship in the entertainment industry. An internship at DreamWorks is a dream come true for many college students, so let’s look at how you can land one.

Work Your Way to a Dream Internship

DreamWorks is separated into two somewhat separate businesses – DreamWorks Studios and DreamWorks Animation. They’re both recruiting interns right now, and they both have Flash websites that make it impossible for us to link to their Internships pages. On the DreamWorks Animation site, you need to click the “Company” button at the bottom of the page, and then select “Careers” to find information on internship. Here you will have two options – DWA Internships and PDI Internships. The DWA Internships are located in Glendale, CA and they have opportunities that were posted just a few weeks ago for Spring internships in Business Affairs, Consumer Products, Production, Production Tech, and R&D Software. If you’re applying for an artistic position, you should apply by mail to:

DreamWorks Animation
Recruiting Department
1000 Flower Street
Glendale, CA 91201
ATTN: Position name (or code if applicable)

To apply for a non-artistic position, you can send your resume and cover letter to internships@dreamworks.com.

The PDI Internship are located in Redwood City, CA and they have Spring offerings in HR and R&D Software. All of the internships are paid, and they require 16-24 hours per week of time commitment (40 hours per week in the summer). If you’re applying for an artistic position, you should apply by mail to:

PDI/DreamWorks
Recruiting Department
1800 Seaport Boulevard
Redwood City, CA 94063
ATTN: Position name (or code if applicable)

To apply for a non-artistic position, you can send your resume and cover letter to internships@pdi.com.

In addition to these internships, there are internships that appear to be with DreamWorks Studios. They actually have a Jobs site that we can link to, so it should be a little easier to find out the details. Right now they have a Spring Theatrical Marketing Internship in New York City posted, but they will be accepting applications for Summer internships during the month of March. You can apply for these internships by e-mailing dwinterns@dreamworks.com (we’ve received word from a reader that this e-mail address is dead, so snail mail might be the only way to go) or by sending mail to:

DreamWorks
Human Resources
1000 Flower Street
Glendale, CA 91201
ATTN: Internship Coordinator

These internships are offered both on an Academic basis (unpaid) and paid Summer internships. All internships require a 10 week commitment, and Summer internships require 40 hours per week while Spring/Fall internships require 12-24 hours per week.

Yes, it’s a little confusing, but DreamWorks looks like an awesome place to intern, so spend some time on research to find the your dream opportunity.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have any more info on interning at DreamWorks? Leave a comment.

Sesame Workshop

Willy Franzen — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:52:24 +0000

Sunny day… Sweepin’ the clouds away… On my way to where the air is sweet… Can you tell me how to get… How to get an internship at Sesame Street? Sesame Workshop is “a nonprofit educational organization making a meaningful difference in the lives of children worldwide by addressing their critical developmental needs.” How do they do that? By producing Sesame Street, of course. You may not realize how much work and research has gone into making Sesame Street the educational powerhouse that it is. They have a well defined process that is the key to consistently addressing educational needs.

Intern with Elmo and Big Bird

Although you probably know all about Sesame Street (don’t act like you don’t), you may have never know that Sesame Workshop existed. It all started in 1968 with an experiment in using television as an educational tool, and look where it’s landed 40 years later. To get a full sense of where Sesame Workshop stands now, you should read their most recent letter from the President. It’s amazing how far reaching Sesame Street has become and how many topics they are able to address through the same medium that they started with. If you’re fascinated by education, childhood development, and television production, there’s no better place for you to intern than Sesame Workshop.

They are currently offering an Editorial Internship (possibly outdated), a General Production Internship, and a Sesame Street – Joan Ganz Cooney Center Internship. All are located in New York City and require a part-time commitment. Sesame Workshop typically pays a $30 stipend, so the internships aren’t completely unpaid. If you’re wondering what it’s like to intern for Sesame Workshop, you can check out this recount of a Barnard student’s experiences with the internship program. Sesame Workshop accepts applications via e-mail, but the address varies by position, so check out each internship description for all of the details on how to apply.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you still watch Sesame Street in your dorm room?

Vivaty

Willy Franzen — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:49:42 +0000

Do you feel that your Facebook profile just isn’t a good enough representation of who you are? Does it feel a little… flat? Is AIM a bit too 2-dimensional for your socialization needs? You could always try interacting with people in real life, but if you’d prefer to stay behind the keyboard, you can look to Vivaty for a solution. Their product, called Vivaty Scenes, creates a 3D world for Facebook and AIM (with more social sites to come) in your browser. It’s kind of like The Sims meets real life. We’re sure this isn’t for everyone, but Vivaty has done some pretty cool things with technology to expand the possibilities for online communication.

Can My Avatar Intern for Me?

Vivaty isn’t all fun and games; there has to be a business reason that they’re building this medium. If you’ve been looking at web startups for very long, you’ll probably guess that they’re going to leverage advertising in their 3D virtual world. According to TechCrunch, that’s exactly what they’re doing. Not only will there be obvious things like “videos on the in-room screen, posters, and billboards, virtual product placement,” but there will also be branded rooms that should be able to bring in some big money. There will also be virtual good for purchase in the Vivaty worlds, so that’s another area that can generate revenue. It’s good to know that there’s a plan to make that $9.4 million in venture capital funding that Vivaty has received look like a smart investment.

Speaking of Vivaty’s having $9.4 million in VC funding, we hope that means that they pay their interns. We don’t know, because we have very little information about internships at Vivaty. We came across a tweet (on Twitter) about how they’re looking for a new intern because their Summer Marketing intern had to go back to school. Neither Vivaty’s Blog nor Jobs page sheds any light on their internships. We’d imagine that they’re looking for another Marketing intern, but they’d probably love to hear from anyone who has an interest in what they’re doing, especially someone with significant 3D design and animation skills or a software development superstar. Vivaty is located in Menlo Park, CA, and we’d assume that they won’t allow you to intern via avatar, but you never know. You’re going to have to do the legwork on finding more information about interning with them, so reach out to them through e-mail at jobs@vivaty.com or on Twitter by tweeting @Vivaty.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you tried Vivaty Scenes? What did you think?

Marvel Enterprises

Willy Franzen — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:07:25 +0000

Are you a superhero whose alter ego happens to be looking for an internship? Just for cover, of course, because superheroes don’t actually need to work. You’ve managed to keep it quiet through a couple years of college, but you need something to do between classes besides beating up villains and saving the world. Why not intern at the last place that they’d ever expect you to work – Marvel Enterprises. It’s so obvious that it’s completely unobvious. In all seriousness if you’re not familiar with Marvel, they’re “one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies.” They made their name in comic books, but they’ve expanded into tv, movies, toys, video games, and more.

Can You Be a Superhero Intern?

From what we hear, Marvel is the type of company that is filled with fanatics. If you don’t have a comic book collection, you’re probably not going to be a good fit as an intern. Because Marvel has such strong brand recognition and loyalty, it seems like they always get plenty of people who want to intern with them. We don’t know too much about what it’s like to intern at Marvel, but this blog post entitled Why Women Don’t Work at Marvel is a cause for some concern. You shouldn’t write off Marvel just because of one person’s opinion (the blog post is 2 years old), but you should certainly research them with caution. You could also try to be the superhero intern who initiates change and brings equality to Marvel while fighting the “Howard Stern/partytime/fratboy/strip club” mentality.

Marvel offers a wide range of internships year round in both Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY. We’re pretty sure that it’s too late for a Fall internship, but they do say that they accept applications on a rolling basis (they used to say that started accepting applications for the spring on September 1st). They don’t do a very good job of identifying which internships are located where (maybe they’re really at a secret superhero hideout), so you’re going to have to inquire about specific internships. Marvel is currently offering internships in Art Returns, Editorial, Production, Web / Online, Creative Services, Brand Assurance, Inventory, Business Development & Merchandising, Sales Communications, Legal, Accounting, Publishing Operations, Scanning, Marvel Toys / ToyBiz, Licensing / Consumer Products, IT Desktop, Marvel Studios, and Human Resources. You can find full descriptions for each internship on Marvel’s Careers and Internship page and you can apply through their online form. If you love comics and superheroes, what could be better than interning at Marvel

Although not an internship, there’s also another option for the more creative Marvel Fans. You can submit your writing or art for consideration by their team. If they like what they see, you could be the next Marvel superstar. They get a ton of submissions, but if you’re good, it’s worth a shot. They are very specific about how you should submit your art or writing, so be sure to read over their submission guidelines very carefully. Just imagine telling people that you meet in college that you haveyour own comic book series.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Who’s your favorite Marvel superhero? Leave a comment and let us know.

VIZ Media

Willy Franzen — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:47:53 +0000

We Americans seem to love picking up on Japanese culture and making it part of our own popular culture. Karate, sushi, and video games are excellent examples of things that we’ve adapted in our own way into our everyday lives. Manga and anime haven’t quite had such wide adoption (except for Pokemon), but there seems to be a large group of fanatics who are absolutely obsessed with Japanese animation and graphic novels. Today’s internships are for those people. VIZ Media, owned by three of Japan’s largest creators and licensors of manga and animation, is “a leader in the publishing and distribution of Japanese manga for English speaking audiences.” When it comes to publishing, animation, and entertainment licensing of Japanese content, VIZ Media is the company. They publish magazines and graphic novels, produce DVDs, and develop, market, license, and distribute animated entertainment for those of us who consider Japanese a foreign language.

Internship for Anime Lovers

VIZ Media is located in San Francisco, CA and appears to have a quite a comprehensive Fall internship program. They are currently looking for an Animation Production (Home Entertainment (DVD) & TV Production) Intern, a Brand Liaison Intern, a Design Intern, an Editorial Intern, a Legal Intern, a Magazines Intern, and a Sales & Marketing Intern – something for everyone. Each internship has an in-depth description that goes into great detail about what each position entails and what kind of qualifications you should have to apply.

All internships at VIZ Media are part-time and unpaid, but if you love anime, it doesn’t get any better than these internships. To apply send your resume and cover letter to jobs@viz.com. Make sure that you specify which internship you are applying for and send your resume and cover letter in the text of the e-mail – no attachments!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Are you into anime and manga?

Armstrong White

Willy Franzen — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:49:25 +0000

I just found out that my car is on its last legs. It’s a ’97 Ford Explorer, and I’ve loved it since I bought it as a senior in high school in 2001. These days American car manufacturers have a pretty weak reputation with consumers, but I was a happy customer. Unfortunately the decline in reputation has been part of the demise of the Big Three, and it’s seriously hurt the entire Michigan economy. That’s why you see these commercials with Jeff Daniels that try to sell businesses on a Michigan location. Armstrong White is exactly the type of company that is going to bring jobs back to Michigan. They have built a business in Bloomfield Hills, MI that directly serves the auto industry, but is also high tech and extremely innovative. No, they haven’t developed some sort of alternative energy technology. They specialize “in rendering reality out of automotive 2D and 3D assets and digital landscapes for print, broadcast and interactive mediums.”

When You Were a Kid Did You Draw Cars All Day?

If you were one of those kids who was always drawing cars, then interning at Armstrong White would be a perfect thing for you to do this summer. They take technical drawings and renderings from the automotive manufacturers whom they work with and turn them into lifelike images and videos. They have a lot of work displayed on their home page, so take a look at that to get a better sense of exactly what Armstrong White is all about. The work is so impressive that we couldn’t pick just a few to link to, you need to look at their entire portfolio.

Although most of what Armstrong White does is extremely artistic and technical (read: way over our heads), there’s not much more that we can say to explain their business. We do recommend that you take a look at this interview with Eric Bruneau, who is an Executive Vice President / Creative Director at Armstrong White as well as a four time Academy Award nominee. You might also want to take a look at Armstrong White’s YouTube channel.

Armstrong White is looking for a Summer Intern in 3D Animation. The internship covers all facets of 3D animation and should offer an amazing experience for the right student. If you want to get a sense of what kinds of people work for Armstrong White, you can check out their employee profiles, which include pictures and some biographical data about their employees. Some of their interns are featured, so you should definitely take a look! In fact, some of the interns appear to be working in more general areas, so there may the possibility to intern at Armstrong White even if you don’t have a background in CGI. That’s something that you’ll have to cold call about though.

To apply for a job at Armstrong White, you’re going to need to include a cover letter, resume, and portfolio or reel. You can send that (and any other inquiries) to jobs@armstrong-white.com or

Armstrong White
ATTN: Mark DeRidder
800 W. Long Lake Rd. #100
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you like the most in Armstrong White’s portfolio? Tell us in the comments.

Freeverse

Willy Franzen — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:29:37 +0000

Sometimes we like to get a little creative when we look for internships. It almost becomes a game for us. We hear about something, start researching, and piece together enough information so that we can give you a good idea of what the internship is all about and how you can apply. For some reason some companies don’t think to post their internships on their own websites, which makes finding reliable information a lot harder. Our daily Tweetscanning for internships turned up a link to a closed forum post about Freeverse. That piqued our interest, so we kept researching the video game and software developer.

Unrhymed Lines Having No Predetermined Pattern

It seems that Freeverse prefers to use forum posts for their hiring over having a Jobs section on their website, which we find a bit strange. Still, they make some extremely cool applications and games for Macs, PCs, iPhones, and Xbox360s, and we know that video game jobs and internships are always popular. Here’s what we’ve pieced together. The internship is paid ($250 a week) and located in the Dumbo district of New York City. We found a post on a Freeverse developer’s blog that describes this internship as mostly focused on testing and bug tracking for their video games. To apply you’ll have to contact “hippieman” – the blogger/developer. They’re also looking for interns with C++ or 2D/3D Art experience. If that’s you, they’ll even pay you more than they will pay the regular old interns who don’t have sweet skills. We wish that we could give you more, but even Google Cache failed us in our attempt to dig up more information on this internship at Freeverse.

There is a post from last Fall about internships at Freeverse that might give you a tiny bit of insight into what you’d be getting yourself into. At the very least the post includes a very funny YouTube video. There’s also a post about Freeverse’s recent move to a new office on the The Unofficial Apple Weblog. We can’t find much more than that, but these internships look pretty cool. See what you can find!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Got any more info on internships at Freeverse? Feel free to leave a comment.

Insomniac Games

Willy Franzen — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:00:04 +0000

Lately, we’ve seen a lot of search activity for internships in the video game industry, so we thought we’d deliver what many of you have been yearning for. We featured Insomniac Games’ entry-level jobs on One Day, One Job a couple months ago, and we were thoroughly impressed by their job offerings. When we decided to revisit them looking for internships, it was no big surprise to us that their offerings appear to be some of the best summer internships that we’ve seen.

In case you don’t know, Insomniac Games is an independent video game developer located in Burbank, CA. They develop games for the Playstation, Playstation 2, and Playstation 3 – including Ratchet Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Ratchet Clank, Resistance: Fall of Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Disruptor. By sticking to 5 key principles, Insomniac Games has has been able to create award-winning games without grinding their employees like many other video game companies do. To get a better sense of what it’s like to work at Insomniac Games, we recommend that you tune into their podcast called the Full Moon Show and read this article about Peter Chan, an Insomniac game tester.

Insomniac Games has a great careers site and their internships page lays out exactly what kind of interns they’re looking for. There are currently internship opportunities in animation (2), art (2), design (2), and programming (multiple). These are paid internships, and they are reserved for individuals who are full-time students. Insomniac Games goes into full detail in their internship descriptions, so it should easy for you to determine which of the internships will be the best fit for you.

There’s a lot to look at on Insomniac Games’ website, and the links below will help you find out more about why they’ve been named one of the country’s 10 Best Small Companies to Work For 3 years in a row.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

By the way, a lot of people have been finding our site by searching for internships at Nintendo. There aren’t any currently offered, so look at Insomniac Games as an alternative.