Employment and Company Types – 03/12/21 – JORDAN

WII 1. Understand job roles, career structures and business models across the games, animation and VFX industries.

When it comes to working in the GAVFX industry, there are many ways to get employed in the industry whether it be by the company or as a freelancer. These are the types of jobs that can be considered when looking at the GAVFX industries:

Full Time

Full Time work typically comes in both permanent and temporary employment. It generally includes working on a company premises for full time hours which is roughly 40-45 hours a week. Full time employees can be on salary or hourly rates. Salary is a guaranteed sum per year whereas hourly rate means your pay may fluctuate dependent on hours worked and OTE. The advantages to full time work is that you have that job security and are working with the same team for a long period of time, building chemistry and understanding everyone’s work flows, this can be a disadvantage when it comes to working for another studio as they may have different processes and workflows.

Part Time

Part Time work typically comes in both permanent and temporary employment. Part time work generally ranges anywhere from 0 hour contracts to 30 hours a week. Part Time contracts allow for flexibility to suit the employee’s needs such as childcare or other commitments, as an example for me it is Education.

Freelance

Freelance work is essentially the art of selling yourself, service and your portfolio to potential employers. You work on your own time and negotiate your pay with the contractor. You can put yourself forward for employment or you can be headhunted but it is probably always best to look for work in particular, especially with bigger studio. The disadvantage to this however is that work may not always be available but on the other hand, time is always available to learn and enhance your skillset.

Self Employed / Sole Trader

Self Employed / Sole Traders differ from Freelance work. It has a more broad approach as opposed to just selling a service, you are selling products as such whether it be assets or completed products in terms of games, films, animations. Just like Freelance, Self Employed / Sole Traders can be hired by studios and then released once the brief is met and the employers are happy, but you are also not tied to one particular hire. The sole trader will need to provide invoices to the employers for the work completed in order to be paid.

Independent Contractors

Independent Contractors are people who have been hired by an employer however are tied to that particular company until their contract has expired or by other means. Independent contractors are good because it means you can find jobs that are in your specialist field and not have to take on work you may not be fully capable of. Just like freelance, you can pick and choose the jobs you want to take on, but when you are in those jobs, you will need to follow the brief given.