Every time I search it seems like places offering jobs with the word “rigging” in them want people who can outperform Autodesk’s programmers as well as know more about anatomy, physiology, and kinesthesiology than any MD ever will. Does any studio/company ever offer beginner rigging jobs for recent post-graduates who have never worked before? Or are rigging jobs going away due to RnD advancing and making it easier for computers to handle rigging tasks on their own?
I’ve found realistically, that’s really not the case.
If a graduate, with no studio experience, shows great enthusiasm, friendliness, a willingness to learn and progress, and yeah, some skill (moreso to show understanding of processes rather than experience, but you still need to be able to do a job) they’ll be in with a good chance. Having a showreel that only show the results of tutorials, just shows that they can follow directed instruction, so the same with any job, they need to show imagination to stand out.
Not all studios will blatantly advertise to riggers with zero experience/little skill, why should they? after all its a job they want done. Look out for junior positions or even standard positions, take note of what they’re after and if you lack those skills, look into developing them. If your confident in your abilities to do that job, show it and send a personal cover letter.
All the while try to keep learning new things and developing the skills you have. Try to keep a blog and frequently update it with your work, help out in forums, network.
I hope this helps.
There are tons of entry level rigging jobs, though often it’s either for TV or conversionwork if its actual rigging, or you’ll be doing more techANim or TD grunt work if you’re in a feature studio.
But I work with someone who was hired right out of college as a rigger, and several of my friends are junior riggers for one off little things too. I myself had a few shots at being a rigger with no work experience but chose to go to a more anim focused route. (Never tell a rigger you want to be an animator)
Basically, if you’re smart and can ACTUALLY rig well, you’ll get a job. There are far too many students who think creating an IK arm with a controller counts as rigging, without any knowledge of the fine UX art that it is.
I think there is a lot about this lately, and it’s confusing to those who can’t find a job, and I’ve been there myself.
If you find a junior spot they aren’t going to be looking for autodesk rnd programmers. They will look for passion, ability to follow direction, and all the other things Lee talks about. Your also not going to see a shitload of junior posts, because the bottom line is the companies need stuff done, and with the economy and change in the amount of people who want to be “creative” they can get good talent for cheap, they don’t necessarily need to be grabbing juniors and out of school people, due to cost. You will find companies that do, but epic, blizzard, and valve aren’t going to have your positions, look at smaller studios, look at commerical film places, look at casino games, internships. Apply to places that have regular jobs your looking for, they may spring for a junior position if they like your stuff.
Bottom line is sometimes it takes a year or 2 to find a job, relax, get a shit job, it will make you want to have the job you dream of, and will put you in gear to get to the the level of polish you need to get that job. Plus as soon as you get a job, you’ll probably wish you had time to do your own thing.
post your site, lets us help you review your reel, and keep working. The jobs will be there, probably… 
A lot of companies, especially in the past, only have an a req for one tech artist for an entire project. That person has to be a liaison between character artists, animators, and programmers. I was the only tech artist here for 2.5 years before we hired a junior guy (who still had some experience coming in) to help me out.
An entry level position really requires that there’s another tech artist more senior there to mentor them, because usually no one else on the team - artists, animators, or programmers - has any applicable knowledge or experience to help a junior TA.
++ to that – an ‘entry level’ job in a specialist position (and ‘rigger’ is a specialist position) presupposed a big team with mentoriing capacity and the desire to have a big farm team of people they want to groom. Unfortunately thats an expensive, long term proposition for the company so it’s fairly rare.
The more common entry level job in big companies is for enthusiastic, do-everything, people who get by on passion and willingness to do unfun stuff that existing staff shun. This can translate into a better job over time, but there are definitely dues to be paid.
The other route is to head for smaller companies that need people with multiple skill sets (animator + rigger; shader artist + modeller, etc) and then polish your specialty skills while doing lots of stuff in both production and tech roles. Again, it’s a dues-paying kind of gig, but one which helps a lot later in your career, since having done production work makes you a better, more sympathetic TA and a better negotiator between art and engineering.
+1 to what everyone else is saying here too. I am an entry level rigging artist/technical animator who was hired in to a company that luckily had the capacity to train me, but I realise now that is a rare case. So, yes, it is possible - but not easy to come by.
Might want to have a read below as there was a very similar topic the other day. There is some more targeted advice here that could still apply for rigging too. 
Best of luck!
Well, I already realize my reel contains very little in terms of practicality or usability, and also has a character on it that I found on cgmodel.cn that I didn’t know was derived from another person’s piece on cgsociety until after I had it on my reel. My teachers claimed it was my strongest piece so I had to keep it in order to not extend my stay time (e.g my borrowing costs) at the school though. Nevertheless, here it is:
www.characterdrivenkey.com
Would you be interested in a critique of your reel?
Ryan
Okay, sure. Thanks for the replies -to everyone else. The thing is I never got the knack for anything other than rigging. So I can’t perform to a severe degree in any other pipeline task. The only other skill I really have and love is writing. I’d rather be making my own stories for feature film & animation, to be honest, but my school had no means to prepare me for such a venture…
Everyone wants senior people. Sometimes several closely related senior positions at the same time.
Contemplate this.
Everyone does want senior people, which can sometimes make everyone ‘senior’, but that’s another discussion. At Crytek I have been able to hire junior people to fill senior positions if I feel they are capable of handling what we need them to do. This can be dangerous, but I have been really blessed with some great guys (and gals!). I would 100 times over take a bright, enthusiastic junior with a good attitude over a jaded dude with bad attitude who has shipped 25 titles.
I’ve been following this thread, because in short it really hits home with me. From a U.S. viewpoint however, as overseas you appear to actually HAVE some entry-level stuff open! So here in short is my view and what I’ve gone through.
Pre-recession:
I can certainly relate. I started looking for internships and any experience when I changed fields in grad school during the recession. The recession hit as I was in the middle of school and being within the midwest, entry level/Junior positions being wiped was certainly true. ALL positions and full studios were closing. I can remember the same studio openings prior to this crash, and yes, there was entry-level, junior and related openings. Afterwards, if you were not already solidly in, the door entry was certainly tightened up. Logic would state this was due to what happened. Fear of a similar crash resulted in a want for secure, trained and ready senior people. Weathered. Some likely already did this, but there were a few gems that didn’t.
Post-recession:
Now fast forward to today: It appears a transition has occurred. Not only within our field, but it does effect us more. On-the-job training within and out of this field has appeared to have been scrapped (Again, also outside of this field). A few surveys of recruiters have generally come to the conclusion most have Sales, Marketing, and Psychology backgrounds, which in the computer graphics and computer science industry, the consensus appears that it does not quite bode well for evaluating potential hires. At the moment with a surplus of applicants, this works more as crowd control then recruitment. I typically think of someone holding their foot at the base of a door to a building with a checklist of who may enter.
-One suggestion I’ve always thought, open a position up with a visible limit of what you can knowingly work through. Assess that list of applicants on a given timeline, and if none are found, re-open the list. But make it visibly known, transparent. Just a thought.-
Currently: Today I’ve been trying to continue contracting, typically outside of this field in web and related areas simply do to the unavailability of related work. I’ve also had to put my boots back on and head back to helping with construction. I don’t mind that work, but I went to school to avoid making it a career. I’ve also gone back, taken additional courses and training from places like RiggingDojo etc to keep up and add skills. In the end what I can say is, this really is out of the applicants hands. We can certainly continue to train, as we should, but if any changes are to happen with hiring junior or lower level applicants to train and retain, it is not in our current abilities to set such precedent.
Anyway, you are not alone. Just keep your head up and continue learning what you can. Bypass HR whenever possible, but be polite about it. Joining this is a great start, as is attending IGDA related events (If into gaming). One step I’ve taken more than once is to relocate to regions that support my field. I know I would not have worked at Bioware if I had not done this. Not sure if that is within your abilities, but something to think about.
Take care, and hope my story helped some 
-Trey
A lot of the problem everybody in this field faces is the tremendous wannabe factor in games. If you advertise a post for any game company that anyone has ever heard of, you will get hundreds of applicants; unfortunately the vast majority of them are not going to be qualified but it takes time to weed them out. I once advertised a very specific job requiring 6+ years in the industry, 2 particular software requirements, and 2 shipped titles. I got more than 250 replies (and this was before the recession too!) and well over 90% were from people with no prior experience at all. The ease of applying over the internet and the ‘glamor’ of worlking in CG make it sort of like email circa 2000 – there’s just so much junk in the channel that it is very hard to actually communicate. Nowadays a lot of companies use software to keyword search resumes hoping to weed out the bottom 90% of candidates, so its also hard to catch the eye of a potentially sympathetic reader.
With that in mind, it’s important to read every ad carefully and echo back the requirements in your credentials. Make sure the human (or computer) who reads it will see the relevant skills and tools – this may mean you need to have several tailored versions of your CV for different applications. A good cover letter is useful in setting the stage for when you get to a human reader. And of course a strong demo reel – with no obvious weak spots! – is also key. There’s no question that the job search is a lot harder today than it was 5 years ago. OTOH there are many non-traditional ways to get into the business and get that all important first shipped title. If you’re not working yet, there are a lot of open-source projects and indie games that can’t pay much (if at all) but can give you something to talk about in your interviews and show in your reels. Find a local IGDA sig or indie games meetup and get onto a team that needs people, or maybe a small indie film project.
In a way this is a throwback to the days when the mod community was the main route into the games business. The downside is that it’s insanely stresssful and depressing. The upside is that it is at least a process that rewards drive and creativity over, say, having the money to pay for a fancier degree.
Just supporting what Theodox said, a few other options: https://www.odesk.com/o/jobs/browse/c/software-development/sc/game-development/ - Several options for assisting in Game Dev, some pay, some do not.
Also, elance.com and rentacoder.com - This is more related to software dev however.
Additional help, a book I recently read: http://www.thegoogleresume.com/ - Touches on getting into the game industry and other related software fields.
Hope it helps!
Hi mtuttle, I’m in the same boat as you. I just recently graduated from college and all the job postings seem pretty intimidating. It always feels a bit weird applying for something that requires lots of experience when you don’t really have any, but you’re never going to get a job unless you apply.
Good things can happen though if you keep working at it. Internships and entry-level positions are rare, but they are out there. I went to GDC last year and–thanks to a lot of networking and putting in applications–I was lucky enough to land an internship at Sony. From my limited experience looking for jobs, it seems like there’s a fair bit of luck involved. Your reel just needs to make its way to the right person at the right time. If they like what they see then you’ve got a chance.
There’s also a lot of truth to the saying that luck is where hard work and opportunity meet. Just keep working and applying, don’t lose heart, and eventually something good will happen.
I recently read an article that discussed how many companies are looking for senior level talent at a junior level cost. I suppose this is mostly due to the state of the economy. I agree with much of what is being said here. I work with one other technical artist at a studio of 250 people and we are able to handle pretty much all of the character rigging needs. On occasion we utilize people from other disciplines to assist with tasks like skinning so we don’t really have a need for junior level staff. My best advice is to remain flexible and keep an eye on industry trends. This applies to newcomers and veterans alike. After eight years in the industry, I still need to continue adapting to the changing environment. Right now there is not a huge demand for riggers, but companies are constantly looking for Motion Builder skills, pipeline development, and web based programmers. The key is to find out what the industry needs, and to focus your time developing those desired skills.
Ditto. However I know we have/run a particular type of TA team that can advocate for the hiring for and accommodate the training of junior people. Many (most?) TA teams are just a few TA’s working under an Art Director to keep a game afloat. I’d say we’re in the minority (but certainly growing). Actually we just backfilled a Senior spot with a midlevel hire and our next spot will likely be for another junior/midlevel position. The benefit of this massive demand for senior talent is that teams like ours which can hire junior talent really have our pick of the litter.
[QUOTE=Wuffles;19157]+1 to what everyone else is saying here too. I am an entry level rigging artist/technical animator who was hired in to a company that luckily had the capacity to train me, but I realise now that is a rare case. So, yes, it is possible - but not easy to come by.
Might want to have a read below as there was a very similar topic the other day. There is some more targeted advice here that could still apply for rigging too.
Best of luck![/QUOTE]
I’m also a recent graduate who had the opportunity to intern at a game studio over the summer of 2012. I just finished my MFA in December and currently looking for junior level work but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of opportunities right now. Based on my job search, I agree that the junior-level openings are a rare case. I have noticed some junior rigging positions for small film studios in Vancouver but I believe they would generally hire local residents over internationals.
I’m hopeful that some game studios will need to staff up soon. Any senior TA’s willing to critique my reel? If you are, I definitely welcome critiques. Reel below:
Cheers, Gene
Hey Eugene,
One thing I always seem to say when people ask for reel critique, is I don’t just want to see the end result, I want to see HOW that end result was achieved. Your cartoon chipmunk-esque character has some nice face poses, but I want to see if it was done with morphs or bones etc. I’m always impressed when people get great deformations with the minimum number of bones/blends etc etc.