How to hire creatives for your studio: 10 tips for sourcing the best creative talent in post production
The Editors
3 Minutes
Sifting through resumes doesn’t need to be a burden.
Finding the best talent for the job is difficult in any industry. In post production, that recruitment is put under the magnifying glass. Studio managers, post production directors and other creative supervisors have an intimate relationship with their creatives. These video editors, color specialists, VFX artists and others are driven by the overarching vision of a project, communicated through studio directors, clients and other collaborators; and through these conversations are entrusted to make the project’s storytelling vision come to life.
There’s an innate trust required between members of a creative studio—making the hiring process and finding the best talent for the project so vitally important to its success. Today, cloud-based workflows open the door to new possibilities for studios seeking creatives. Storing, sharing and editing media through the cloud eliminates the constraints of having to hire someone who lives driving distance to the studio. Virtual post production opens the door to new hiring potential, enabling creative teams to expand their search to—literally—anywhere in the world.
The hiring process can be daunting. It can also be exciting, representing a time of change for a creative agency. When it comes time to grow your team and take on that next project, keep these 10 ideas top-of-mind:
- LEAN ON YOUR NETWORK – Look to your closest collaborators for your best insight. Your current network is powerful. You just need to start asking the right questions. Be specific when talking about the role you’re trying to fill and the scope of the project, so that your network brings you worthwhile candidates. Reaching out to your current network of creatives, in-house editors, and even clients—if the relationship fits—can be a great way to ensure the resumes that land on your desk are vetted and worthy of your time.
- LOOK LOCAL – Every city and nearly every town has a college or university nearby. Young talent and students looking to break into an industry are often hungry for work and eager to learn. These people can be great additions to a creative studio, bringing new ideas and unfettered energy into the room. Get in touch with local art schools, design programs and video-specific departments and consider recruiting soon-to-be graduates to fill the role.
- BECOME A MENTOR – Mentorship and professional guidance are vital the success of any one person; for a creative agency or post production studio, it can be a make-or-break factor in the success of the business. Find ways to become a mentor in your professional community by being open to educating and nurturing up-and-coming talent. By leaning into these opportunities, you’ll likely find new talent or encounter new ways of thinking, both of which can support and grow a studio’s business. Before long, it will be known that your team is one of the few helping nurture young folks and new talent will begin flocking.
- MAKE THE MOST OF SOCIAL MEDIA – A studio or creative agency’s social media platforms are powerful tools to communicate brand awareness and messaging. Every social media channel attracts a slightly different audience, too; your Instagram following is likely different (in some ways) from your LinkedIn following, and so on. Post your job listing on each of these channels and know that you’ll be successfully tapping into new networks through each post. Keep in mind that social media posts are also easily shareable between followers and their respective networks, and there’s a chance your message goes further than you might expect.
- INCENTIVES FOR CURRENT CREATIVES – Your current team of editors already have your trust: you’ve seen them working and you know the quality storytelling that they can produce. These editors and creatives all have their own personal networks of professional connections, don’t forget. When it comes time to fill a role at your studio, consider incentivizing the search internally with perks or rewards for current editors. Light the fire from within and watch the candidates fall into your lap.
- SHOW FACE & SHAKE HANDS - Nothing can replace real-time networking. When your industry has its annual conference, attend it. Make yourself and your company known in the greater conversation. Showing face at both industry-level and local network events put you and your studio at the forefront of others’ minds. Job fairs are also a great way to meet young talent and people ready to work. While they may seem trite in some industries, it’s can be beneficial to have “on the ground” conversations with other creatives and industry players. You never know where those chats might lead.
- BE HUMAN – When it comes time to interview a potential candidate, speak about your company culture and work/life balance. For prospective employees—especially younger ones—it can be vital to show how your studio differentiates itself. Prospective employees and current employees are only human—and so is everyone else. FInd ways to discover what makes this person tick as an individual beyond their editing, coloring or other professional experience that brought them to you in the first place.
- GIVE SOMEONE A CHANCE – Help nurture a company culture at your post production studio that values and celebrates creativity in all its weirdness. Celebrate individuality and it will open doors to new communities and attract like-minded individuals. Challenge the way you’re currently doing things and lend a hand to someone who seems ready for the opportunity. Just because someone can’t afford to live in Los Angeles doesn’t mean they are incapable of strong post production work, and cloud-based creative workflows are making this a reality for creative teams across the country.
- INTERNSHIPS & GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES – While the idea of an internship might come with its baggage, many industries still rely on paid internship opportunities to foster quality talent for future hiring opportunities. If you’re looking to fill multiple roles on your team at once, consider posting multiple internship or fellowship opportunities instead of one full-time role. The candidates you receive through this search will undoubtedly be lesser experienced, but, for that lack of experience, they will likely make up for it in enthusiasm, a willingness to learn and an hunger to do good work that you might not find with more tenured professionals.
- NURTURE YOUR TEAM – Encourage your in-house team to further their professional education by providing training and development opportunities, or stipends to seek out continued education for specific team members. Honing your team’s creative talent instills a certain level of expectation in your studio’s workflow, but it also shows that your creatives and their personal growth is important on a big-picture scale. This trickles down into how the employees comport themselves at work and how the final product shines in the end. This high-quality atmosphere, encouraged by education, creates an aura bound to attract only top-tier talent, helping you sift through the madness to find the next best person to join your creative team.
When it comes time to take on a new project, it might require adding remote, creatives to your post production team. View the search, not as a burden, but as an opportunity to discover more about your industry and the people in it. With cloud-based workflows now more readily available to creative teams, the job hunt—whether you’re an editor looking to be hired or a studio looking to grow your team—is now easier than ever.