How I Landed A Job at Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon Animation Studio’s Lobby by Eric Bravo (2020)
One of my personal goals for 2019 was to switch careers from being a Financial Analyst at Lionsgate, to becoming a Production Assistant at an animation studio. In the beginning, I didn't mind working at Lionsgate because my work hours were flexible, the pay was great, and my commute was half a block. I also enjoyed my team and became close friends with one of my co-workers. However, things started to change mid-year. I didn't feel happy. The work became boring and worst of all, I felt I was in a creative rut. To put it simply~ I felt like this job was draining an important part of me.
In times like these, I tend to listen to Steve Job's Stanford commencement speech. There’s a part of his speech that always stuck to me (at 9:22). He says,
“For the past 33 years, I’ve looked in the mirror and asked myself, ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
So I looked in the mirror for the next week and a half to find out that I needed to change something…so that's just what I did. In this blog post, I'm going to be telling you how I switched careers from finance to animation.
If you’re a college student looking to land an animation internship, be sure to check out my book, “How to Get an Animation Internship” for insightful knowledge to securing your first animation internship. It has helped students land internships at major studios like DreamWorks Animation and LAIKA.
How I Got Started at Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon has treated me well in my professional animation career. This studio has given me so many incredible opportunites that still dumbfounds me til this day. My relationship with Nickelodeon first started when I interned with the studio back in Spring of 2013. I was a Vault Intern helping archive old Nickelodeon assets. I got to see an old Ren & Stimpy cel from the banned episode and the actual pilot reel for Hey Arnold. After my internship, I pitched a character-driven cartoon short to Nickeledon’s Animated Shorts Program titled, The Outsiders, and it was greenlit in 2014.
Shortly after The Outsiders was completed, I decided to move from my hometown of San Francisco to Los Angeles. Once in LA, I thought it wouldn’t be difficult to secure a job in the animation industry since I already made a cartoon short with Nickelodeon and had several internships under my belt. Oh boy, was I wrong. While in LA, I was unemployed for more than 6 months and my apartment in Burbank was eating through my savings.
I was forced to get a non-animation job to survie in LA. A friend of mine who worked at Lionsgate informed me of a position in her department that just opened up. I gave her my resume and got to interview for a Coordinator position in the Participations Financial department.
A week later, I had lunch with the same friend and asked if they filled the position. She confirmed that they did, but mentioned that they had another job opening, but this was for a Financial Analysist positon. My college degree was Managerial Economics, so I figred I could at least try. This was my best lead for a job that I had since my move. I sent her my resume again, and got the Financial Analyst interview. I went into the interview and to my surprised, I received a phone call from the recruiment at Lionsagate a couple of days later offereing me the Financial Analyst position.
I was happy I was still in the entertainment business. I had a solid salary, the benefits were great, and not to mention my communte was only half a block. It was great for a few months, but animation was still my main focus. This was a particual hard time for me. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get any entry level positon job at any of the animation studios. I applied over and over again and couldn’t even get an interview.
I thought I was stuck in Finance until one faithful day. Upon browsing LinkedIn for writing jobs, I came across a Script Coordinator position at Nickelodeon. I reached out to an old intern friend who works at Nickelodeon to see if she could push my resume through. She said sure, but they might already have someone in mind.
I knew it was too good to be true. Animation studios only post positions out of necessarity. They almost always hire from within or through referrals. I passed along my resume still, knowing another chance to switch careers has been missed.
About a week and a half goes by and that same friend calls me via FaceBook messenger. I assumed it was a butt dail and sent her to voicemail. After it stopped ringing, I looked at my messages and it looked like she’s been trying to call me for a while. I couldn’t finish reading everything as my phone rang again. This time, I left my desk and picked up the phone. She explained that a Production Assistant (PA) postion opened up on her team and was wondering if I could come in for an interview. I said sure and asked when was she thinking. She said in two hours . Mind you, it was 3:00pm and I was at work in Santa Monica and I had to drive to Burbank by 5:00pm to interview for a position I haven’t yet prepared for. I said, that’s no problem and just went with it. As I was walking back to my desk, I was thinking of different types of excuses to leave work. Eariler that day, it rained. I told my manager that my girlfriend called me to say that there was a small leak in the apartment. This white lie helped me get out of work early enough to head home, get changed, update my resume to send to my friend and her department heads, and drive through the horrible bumper to bumper traffic on the 405. I made it to Nickelodeon barely before my scheduled interview. The intern got me from the lobby and we made our way up the elevator to the 4th floor. I waited around for a few minutes, then the intern leads me into the manager’s room. There was 5 people in there, ready to interview me.
I was not prepared, but as the interview started, my nevers subsided. The line producers said, we know that you are qualified from your intership experience, so we just want to make sure you are a good fit here. They began asking me personal questions and we talked about many things from the season finale of Game of Thrones to my personal hobbies. I told them I recently wrote a book, How to Get an Animation Internship, that featured my friend who got me this interview and I told them a couple of readers reached out thanking me because they have gotten internship offers at DreamWorks and LAIKA. I was explaining how proud I was that I was able to help someone get into the animation industry. They also asked why I would want to become a PA when was in Finance making more money. I explained, I understand that this is a different pace and would be a lifestyle change, but I love animation so much, that I would want to be apart of Nickelodeon’s culture again.
The next day, they offered me the job.
What It's like Working at Nickelodeon
Even though I'm getting paid half my salary, I am so much happier. I enjoy going into work. I enjoy the culture and creative atmosphere and I very much enjoy the people who work here. They are one of the friendliest studio in animation. They are very respectful that you have a life outside of work and really try to get you out on time. There are free current movie screenings weekly! The sunsets from the bacolny are not to be missed and there’s arcade games scattered throughout the studio.
Balcony View from Nickelodeon Animation Studio - By Eric Bravo
I am currently working on Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and am enjoying every minute of it.
Rise of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Credit
If you found this blog post helpful, check out my book, "How to Get an Animation Internship" where I dive deeper into preparing for an interview. I provide plenty of questions so you can prepare properly. I go into detail about how to be secure an animation internship. I've interviewed and accepted internships and jobs at Warner Bros. Records, Nickelodeon Animation Studio, DreamWorks Animation Studio, and Google.