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Internships if you're a few years outta school?

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Internships if you're a few years outta school?

I graduated a number of years ago (within the decade!) with a BFA; my major was 2D animation. Right out of college though, I worked as an illustrator, peppered with several stints in the glorious food service industry. I sort of, like a lot of 20-somethings, lost my way for a little bit.

Not anymore. My portfolio is beefing up but the one thing that I bemoan is that I have not worked in a studio yet, outside of a few short freelance gigs.

It's really daunting to see students grabbing up jobs before they have even graduated, I feel like I'm basically the bottom rung on the ladder because I am not part of that fresh, exciting new crop of kids. I feel like an internship could be my best bet to prove myself to an employer but I am worried that again, because I'm not a student or newly graduated, I won't be eligible.... heck, Pixar's site definitely makes it sound like you MUST be a new graduate. Are there ever exceptions to the rule? Is there a way to plead your case successfully without being desperate? I'm just trying to explore my options... anyone with insight or suggestions, I'm all ears!

You want an honest opinion??

If your talent isn't up to getting work right now, getting an internship probably isn't going to happen.
You've done the school game and now comes the real "graduation exercise"........getting a gig with what you know and can do.

Look, stop playing the same angle that everyone else plays.......that is trying to find a shortcut or way around having the talent in hand to get work.
Your work........re: your portfolio, is either up to snuff or its not.

If it is, you will get work.
If its not........then you need to bring it to the point where it is.

Its no big mystery.......get your work to the level of the work being produced by the studio. That is the gauge to compare yourself by.
The studio has no use for you if your work is not at that level.
Trying for internships NOW is probably just pissing around with your time and talent... and having lost your way for a little bit........well....your job now is to find your way back.

Your place on the "rungs of the ladder" is determined by your talent, NOT by your proximity to the classroom. Internships usually happen as an arrangement between schools and studios, as a way of developing burgeoning talent.
Those students acting as interns, in and of themselves, often don't have or present any guarantees that their time in-studio will gain them any cachet with the studio once the internship is up. Yea, the kids in school have an easier "in" this way, but their talent remains the deciding factor--and a LOT just don't make the grade.

I mean, if your abilities are going to get you in the door regardless.......why aim for the lesser "peon" job of an intern? Go for the brass ring, for the positions that you think you end up in anyway.

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)