Vantaggi
None. There are zero intensives at this company. You get a computer, desk, monitor. The bare minimum just so you can do the job. At departments that absolutely need Drawing Tablets, only a handful of artists may get the right equipment they need. For example artists are asked to bring their own Drawing Tablets or Cintiques from home and leave it at the company! Absolutely unprofessional. Company may get you a tablet if any, but the smallest size imaginable, which barely gets the job done on heavy art duties like design, storyboards and texture artists. And when artists can't get their work done properly due to lack of equipment, the artist is blamed for bad performance. Absolute cruel joke! I don't see any reason why anyone would want to stay at Icon, unless you are a junior with no experience straight out of school and this is your very first job. But then again there are tons of better places in Vancouver to gain great experience and stay. Icon has no longevity. not worth the risk.
Svantaggi
Be aware!! Production / Corporate rules with a sneaky backstabbing hand here. If there is a list on what bad management is in a creative industry, ICON is the prime example. Random young people with ZERO industry experience are hired as Production Managers right off the bat. Same group gets accolades and promotions to Line Producer, Asso Producers etc within a matter of months!! These so-called production staff walk into the animation industry and start treating artists like tools, to them the only thing that matters is the bottom line. These people have no concept of what it is to work with creatives, it's a barrage of bureaucracy that follows. Quality is done on the backs of artists with: - Unrealistic schedules, made without consulting creative leads. Unbelievable! All of a sudden there is a spreadsheet with unrealistic delivery time in your mail box. And it's up to the Leads to figure out how they can sink or swim. All the way down to Jr.s will suffer. - Overtime, all the time. Guaranteed 10-12 hour days Mon-Fri. - Forget about stat holidays. If you take one stat holiday or long weekend the next day you have to work twice as hard just to barely meet the deadline. - Some weekends are also sacrificed for work. - No work / Life balance. - No benefits. You are NOT covered for anything! - If you rely on drawing tablets or drawing equipment, The company tells you to bring your own from home. There are a handful of animation industry veterans working at Icon, but they get bullied by corporate and bad management. Production staff who doesn't know their place in this industry makes decisions behind creative's back, when it doesn't work creative gets the blame. These are young and downright amateurs who have been promoted to be Producers, who have hijacked the company. It's a poisonous environment for creatives. Stay away! There are lots of better studios to work at in this town. Icon is not it.