 All right, welcome back and today's topic is why did I not quit the animation industry? And why am I bringing this up? Kertum Brou posted a clip with the headline a former Disney storyboard artist explains why she quit the industry in Disgust. And this is about Janet Chan and her posting about why she quit Disney. And I thought that was an interesting and very important subject and my classes at the Academy just started and usually in class one and swapping into even the second class. I talk about kind of the do's and don'ts and kind of the pitfalls about the industry, a bit more of an honest approach about what is going on and what you should do to prepare yourself. And what she laid out is all very true, very valid, but also very subjective and all kind of depends on where you're at and what industry and what position and all that good stuff. But I want to go through all the points and give you my very subjective two cents. But again, I think it's a very important subject that every student should research and really look into before applying at different companies and heading into an industry that is very high stress, a lot of hours and where not everything is really tailored towards your creative needs. Again, it depends where you're at. So her first point was the executives have poor creative judgment and she lays out an example of we can't draw angry eyebrows anymore. Now executives having poor creative judgment, you're always going to have someone with poor creative judgment. And sometimes that creative judgment is poor and sometimes it's subjectively poor. But sometimes you think this is not right. And then when you're done and you watch the movie, like, oh, yes, it makes more sense. Now that I see the whole thing, this was the right call. Will you be faced with people who are just giving you notes because they're in the room and they feel like they got to give out notes because they are in a room and they're getting paid. And if you don't say anything, it looks like they're not doing the job. Yes. And again, you might be in a company where this happens a lot. And you might be in a company that's maybe smaller and more creative with the more intimate team. And you won't have any of that or you might. I mean, it's really a bit of a crapshoot. You don't quite know what kinds of people you'll be dealing with. But yes, I think this is a valid point. And she's right. But not all of them. And there are some executives that have fantastic creative judgment. So again, with all of her points, these are all valid and especially to her because that was her experience and that's why she quit. But I do want to give you the flip side and it's not always like that. Networking as king is the next one. It's not about how good you are. It's about who you know in order to keep climbing that corporate ladder. It's more beneficial for you to form alliances or clicks rather than to be good at your job. Yes and no. Ultimately, you can't be horrible at your job and just rely on networking. You won't get very far. You might climb some ladders, but it's not going to be very high. Ultimately, you still have to perform and you have to show that you can do something. That being said, is it going to be helpful to know certain people? Yes, especially as a student, if you have a relationship or at least some contacts with professionals who can vouch for you, might be facilitated by that versus just being a quote unquote, nobody sending out your real to company and hoping to get hired. At the same time, a lot of people have been hired like that as well. So again, yes and no, is networking helping you? Absolutely. And I recommend it to all of my students. Go to CTN, go to SIGGRAPH, talk to people, put your things online on Twitter, Instagram and network and put your work out there and see kind of what the response is. So yes, you definitely have to network. But is it more beneficial to do that than to be good at your job? That's what you experienced. So yes, in my experience, no, does networking help? Sure. But does it also help to be really good at your job? Yes, for sure. I think it's both. If you're really good and you know how to network, that's going to be very beneficial. Now, professionalism is sidelined. Unqualified people fail upwards while many talented people are passed out for promotion and ignore. Yes, absolutely. That being said, I think that's every industry. Now, I have only my experience, so this is just me guessing. But you are dealing with people and some people are just not qualified or they have a certain work ethic. We're like, really? Why would you say or do that? And then suddenly you see they have a promotion and that promotion can be there for many reasons that you're not aware of. Some good, some bad, like who knows? But yes, you are going to deal with people who compared to other people. You might think they're not as talented. Why did they get this? Why did other people that you know that are really talented, not get that? Yes. So again, I agree. Is it going to be just at Disney TV in her job? No, it's going to be everywhere because you are going to deal with people and egos and favors. Is it good? No, but this is something that you just have to be ready for. And you have to be aware of this, that when you start in this kind of industry, animation industry, any kind of industry with people and where there's a corporate structure where you have at least a career ladder that you can climb on towards at English Fells Me, you are going to deal with this. Toxic behavior is rife. Oftentimes people are only kind to you if you're of value to them. So if you're in the lower rung of the totem pole, you're treated like dirt. Again, that's something that she experienced. So it is valid. So to her, yes, absolutely true. Have I experiences? No, not personally. That being said, every now and then people have their own ways and their own lanes and whatever happens to them on that day, you might be treated differently from Monday versus Tuesday. But yes, I mean, there is going to be a spectrum where some people treat you awesomely and other people's treat you badly. And yes, it is valid. This is true, especially in her case. But is it everywhere like that? No. Is it worse at some companies? Yes. Again, something you have to be aware of and consider. And so whenever you apply somewhere, research that company, research their culture, look at the history and the comments. I mean, don't go on Glassdoor.com and just read negative comments. Because whenever someone gets laid off or fire, whatever, there's going to be a certain slants to their comments. And not everybody will agree with that. But still do research and look at all the pros and cons whatever company you want to work for. The working environment is dull and bureaucratic. At the end of the day, it is a Monday, nine to five office job where I sit in my cubicle all day at my computer or I have meetings about having meetings. This is something I talked in depth about in my class yesterday. And she is kind of right. And again, it really depends. Is it dull and bureaucratic? It kind of depends. I mean, at the end of the day, is it a month mundane? It really depends. You might be working at Disney and it's horrible for you and it's boring and it's not really what you expected because you were looking for something else and it's not the creative fulfillment you were looking for. 100 percent. Totally valid. Absolutely. To me, not mundane at all. Now, I don't work at Disney. I work at a different company that is owned by Disney and it is not mundane at all. So again, there's always a spectrum to where it was totally true. For me, not true at all. I'm surrounded by props and stormtroopers and VBA and the change of costumes and I work on movies that have been part of my childhood and it's fantastic. Every day it's fantastic and I laugh and it's awesome. So again, there's a spectrum. That being said, nine to five office job. Yes, it's actually nine to six, nine to seven. If you take a break, also sometimes Monday to Saturday. I mean, no, there is more to that. But it is an office job. You are going to an office and where I sit in my cubicle. Actually, I love cubicles because then you can dress them up. Posters and plants and toys and you make your own little little playground, so to speak, because you want to have fun and you're going to spend more time at work than at home. So you better make it your second home. In her case, it was mundane and you felt like it was an office job. Again, totally valid. And for some people, it is like that for sure. For some people, it's not like that at all. It also depends if your work environment fosters that creativity in your workspace. Can you put up things? Can you put up posters? Can you put up? Can you decorate it and make it your own? Again, some companies will be yes, some companies will be no. And then you have to decide, well, is this something that's really working for me or I have to go there? The flip side, though, because she quit and created her own business. And I look at this in terms of I'm also looking at games and you read all those stories about indie games where people get burnt out because they work from home. But because of that, it's not a set mundane nine to five job. It's because you get up, you work on your game, you go to bed, then you get up again, you work on your game. There is never really you never really turn off your brain. There's a lot of burnout because of it. And I think that's to me the flip side and the good thing about the nine to five office job is because you get up, you take a shower, get ready, commute. Hopefully the commute is not too long and get there. And then that's your space. You work there when you're done, you get home and you can turn off your brain and it's that work life balance. And if you do things only from home, you've got to be very careful that it's that you have that work life balance. So and again, that really depends if you have, for instance, an office space. Do you have an extra room to just work there? You know, depending on your situation, your financial situation, maybe you can't. And then you have to make an extra step to I'm going to sit here, work, take a break, take a lunch break and be done by six or seven and have a life outside of what I want to work on. Of course, sometimes you're really passionate and it's bleeds into the evening. And then, but again, it's very it's tricky where you might be on your own with your own business or at home. And then you got to be really disciplined to not have your work be your whole life. And that to me is the flip side about a nine to five office job. Is it is structured that that gives you the I'm going to go to work area and then I'm going to go home area. Where do you have that balance? Now, I have meetings about meetings. Yeah, I mean, in a corporate environment, you're going to have meetings and you're going to have meetings about meetings. And sometimes you say that you like really do really need that meeting. It could just send an email at the same time. I personally I like it. I mean, I don't always like it sometimes. You really feel like I prefer to be at my desk right now in anime. But sometimes you just got to take breaks and you also get to see people because the danger is also that you are in your cubicle and that's all you have. You never interact with anybody else and then having a meeting. You also get to know people from other departments. Again, pros and cons. The industry isn't honest about all this. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having a corporate job. It's just I wish my school, the recruiters, the studio itself told me what I was walking into 100 percent. Absolutely true. There's nothing wrong with corporate jobs. Some people love it. Some people flourish and some people hate it. But she is right that you see a lot of times advertisements where hey, you know, do this and you'll be an animator in six months. No, it's going to take a lot longer. It's a lot of hard work. Do the schools, whatever, online or brick and mortar like the Academy make enough of a point of what happens once you graduate? To be honest, I don't think so. And I'm very honest about in my first class about what you're walking into and you get a lot of stairs like really, man, that sounds horrible. And it can be. I just want to give you kind of an exaggerated projection of what it could be. And in her case, it was so bad that she quit after four years. I didn't quit and I've been working for 16 years. So this is the spectrum. Hers horrible quit. Mine awesome. Still doing it. So you're going to fall somewhere in between. And in some cases, it's going to be worse. Some extreme cases where it's going to be worse than what she experienced. In some cases, much, much better than what I experienced. Of course, there is there are even bigger extremes. But yes, should people talk more about this? Yes, might there be ramifications? If you do, yes, there are many reasons why people say things and don't say things. So, for instance, when I have a new class and I ask the students, are you aware of what happened years ago with the wage collusion? And most people, I would say 99 percent say no, they don't know. And then I point them to Cartoon Brew and then you can see what goes on behind the scenes in the corporate meddling and, you know, bring your wages down. And there's all this is an industry that is looking for a ton of profit. This is a lot of like a billion dollar industry that coupled with creative people and ambitious people and egos. I mean, this is a recipe for all kinds of dirty behavior and toxic behavior. And at the same time, also a massive pool of creative people who will lift you up and fulfill all kinds of dreams and you're going to have a really good time. So why am I making this video? You need to read this, you need to research this. And if you want to work in this industry, research your side that you're interested in. Is it games, is it TV, is it feature animation, is it VFX, whatever it is, you can't just want to be an animator and then think that once you graduate, you're going to get a job right away at the top company and it's going to be awesome there. There are going to be many, many hurdles and some things are going to push you back. Some things are going to really discourage you. That might be a motivation to you or it might drive you to quit. But my point is that there is a spectrum. This is true. This is valid. For me, most of it not true. And I flourish and I to me, it's awesome. As I always tell my students every day for 16 years, I laugh. Yes, sometimes you have tough moments and stress and deadlines and clients or what's going on here and or you did an awesome shot on the shock. It's cut. Of course, there are also negatives. But as a whole, it was a dream come true for me and every day I laugh. I talk with people. I talk about things that we're interested in. We have sometimes lunch together if the time permits. You work sometimes on awesome work that you just can't believe that you're actually animating this. You see this on the big screen. I mean, again, the spectrum is why. So I had a really good experience. That doesn't mean that everybody will. And that doesn't mean that it invalidates what she went through. Not at all. So look at this, research this, maybe contact her and just be aware of there is a spectrum of horrible. I'm going to quit and awesome. I'm going to continue and you might fall somewhere in between. And I really hope that you don't fall in the extreme other side. And I hope that you fall into the other end where you do create a short and get an Oscar for it and hopefully create a more project and take on bigger project and bring your friends with it and flourish. And I mean, there's there is a pretty wide spectrum to this. But I definitely agree with what you said at the end. People don't talk about it enough. So you ready? Research. Know that it's not all awesomeness. Like you see in the making of there is always a darker side to everything. So be ready, be prepared. And it's tough and it's a tough industry and it can be tough long hours. It's a long road to becoming better as an animator. There's a lot of practice involved. Also, practicing while you have an actual job. So it's not easy and it's constant work. Do I love it? I do. Some people don't. So look out where you fall and good luck. I mean, it's all I wanted to say. So research this and whatever you're going to do. Be careful, be awesome, have fun with it and good luck.