It's a large company and as with any big corporation it comes with office politics and a very corporate environment. Some thrive in this type of atmosphere but it's certainly not for everyone.
This is often done by hand on a piece of paper. The animator needs to excellent good drawing skills to visually explain the concept of the animation to a customer or design team. In some cases, the animator must also be able to create a storyline or assist the client in the storyline development.
A student's portfolio may be the most important factor in getting work as an animator on an anime show. Besides the degree, employers look at portfolios to check that applicants have the right style for the genre. Students create a portfolio as part of their studies, adding works submitted for class into the portfolio.