Nerd Corps Entertainment Reviews

Pros

You will learn. New skills and abilities. You will use your new skills and expand your range of knowledge ans you progress.

Cons

Tight schedules. Steep learning curve. Not always able to receive good input as to your progress other that your accomplished work load.

Pros

Very motivated team and passionate people made my experience there a total paradise professionally speaking ! Everything was there for everyone to develop his/her skills

Cons

After a year in their basement in the absolute darkness, I now need to wear glasses Their building is a total disaster

Pros

Perfect for new artists. Got to be a generalist- which is rare. Found it both challenging and rewarding. Take ownership of your projects, you start and finish them. If you do well you are treated well, but if you do poorly- See Cons

Cons

If you do poorly on your deadlines you are treated really bad and given little support. Basically no proper training. Wildly varying experience depending on team. Bad case of jaded senior artists. generally everyone sees it as a stepping stone unto better things - justifiably.

Pros

Got to work on some cool projects with some great people. Enjoyed stable employment for many years. Received raises and promotions in a timely manner. Excellent employee benefits package. Work environment was pretty casual.

Cons

Nerd Corps was a company with exceptional employment stability. Since being acquired by DHX Media, things started to change a bit. I watched a handful of employees let go, some of which I did not expect. The shot tracking system was very good in most aspects, but the fact that it had a built in timer that would tell employees how far behind they were was quite stressful and did not always accurately reflect the... work that was being done. The result was people feeling guilty and/or rebellious all the time and in the end would single people out as opposed to a more team based approach to the work. They are switching to Shotgun tracking system, so things may be a bit better once that is underway. In terms of promotions, I felt that I was promoted at the appropriate times although I witnessed other employees that seemed to be disappointed at how slow people were promoted. However, the more senior positions and supervisory positions were often filled with employees that probably did not have enough experience yet. I applaud the fact that Nerd Corps wanted to promote from within, but sometimes it is more important to have someone with experience fill those roles to provide the necessary leadership to be efficiently successful. While DHX is more open to this concept I don't want them to forget about their current employees; if someone is really good at what they do and deserve to be promoted to a leadership role, they should definitely be considered before an outside hire. Nerd Corps was very slow in switching to industry standard software. Many people were trained in a Maya/NUKE workflow, but we were using Softimage XSI for everything. I was fine with using Softimage at the time because I had gotten to know it quite well, but now that I am looking for new employment I feel a little behind the times. There was a continuing education program for employees that was getting set up, but seems to have gotten cancelled. I was pretty excited about this as there was going to be classes that we could attend to further develop our skills. Hopefully they can bring this project back at some point for the benefit of their employees (and for the benefit of the company). There was no designated lunch room for employees to gather. Lots of people would just end up sitting at their desk through lunch, myself included. Hopefully the new DHX studio will have better facilities for the employees. Note about my rating for the company: For the majority of the time I was employed at Nerd Corps I would have given 4 out of 5, but lowered it to a 3 by the time I left. I have hopes that within the next few years DHX will have made some changes that benefit the employees' happiness and well being.

Advice to Management

Employees need to be paid more, especially now that DHX does not provide stable employment like Nerd Corps did otherwise the studio won't be able to entice or retain people. Check in more with employees to make sure they are still engaged by the work they are doing and are happy with their role in the company. Keep up to date with industry standard hardware/software and provide training for employees so that they... can continue to do their best for the company.

Pros

nice place, interesting, good environment, nice people, good managment, easy pipeline

Cons

funny coffe! some times long hours,

Pros

Newly introduced benefits are better than you will find at most places in the animation industry. The people were great. The directors were patient. A great place to find your footing in the industry.

Cons

Low wages. Probably the lowest in the industry. The work load was too much. Animation quality was lacking. A tracking system was used that overloaded it's employees telling them they were cronically behind. Felt like a career at a factory rather than a dream job.

Advice to Management

Raise the rate of pay to a new realistic standard of living in Vancouver. Bring higher quality and budget IP'S into the company. To allow your Sr. Staff to grow.

Pros

job security and early training

Cons

outdated software, disconnect between higher ups and workers, improper leadership, inflexible hours, low pay.

Advice to Management

have more of an open communication with leads, seniors and employees in general.

Pros

great coworkers cool shows forced to learn quickly

Cons

old software company uses a business model to treat employees unpaid overtime

Advice to Management

ease up and treat your artist fairly