Location: Emeryville, Calif.

Employees: 1000

Number of interns: 30 during the summer, 70 throughout the year.

Length of internship: 12 weeks. Pixar also offers six-month technical director internships and yearlong technical director residencies for recent graduates.

Internship program created: 2004

What it does: Creates some of Hollywood's biggest animated movies, including Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Monsters, Inc.

Description of internship: The company offers technical, artistic, and administrative internships. Students can apply to study story creation, animation, production, technical direction, management, marketing, or engineering. Techies learn to use software at Pixar University, an internal training program, while interns on the art side study character design and story pitching in a classroom environment. Art directors and editors are in close contact with interns, and at the end of their time at Pixar, interns can present their pitches or designs. (paid)

Notable perks:: How would you like to see your name on the big screen? Because many technical interns work on real production shots, they earn mentions in the finished film's credits. The studio organizes an intern lunch series every two weeks, where employees shares their tips about the field. In addition to their regular paychecks, non-locals are set up with free housing. The company's free cereal bar -- with more than 20 different varieties -- is also a favorite.

Why interns? Each intern receives an evaluation upon his or her departure, which is not just a perk for the students -- it also helps Pixar assess rising talent. More than half of the technical intern pool traditionally receives full-time offers. "We've had such success with our intern program, which is great, because companies often don't have the time to devote to a program," says Dawn Haagstad, Pixar's university relations representative. "We often have people begging, 'Can I get an intern? Can I get an intern?'"

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