This morning Jack from Careers and Enterprise in the college came to give us a talk. He started off the talk with a little bar chart survey to see where we were all at in thinking about our future. 7 of us said 'I have not decided what career I want to follow after I graduate', 6 of us voted for 'I have some general career ideas' and 1 for both 'I have a career in mind' and 'I'm already working in my chosen career'. I voted for 'I have not decided what career I want to follow after I graduate' because at this moment in time I have no idea! I am quite nervous and anxious about what sort of career I'm going to be in by the time that I graduate but Jack reassured me a little when he said that with the careers team help by the third year I could be nearer the 'I have a career in mind' and 'I am already working in my chosen idea' on the bar chart.
He then started speaking through all of the team that are in the office. I really wanted to know what each person did so I wrote down who was who and who did what so that I know who to speak to if I go down.
Becky is good with helping with CV's
Sarah is good for helping find placements for people as she's good at networking and knows a lot of different people
Kamal runs the agency and is always looking for photographers which is really good to know. If a student is interested in a photography job he will ask for a small portfolio and put the students work in a file and when a client comes in he shows them the work if it suits the clients brief. He helps with the invoices and money side of being freelance as well.
Laura oversees the team
Jack is the person that is the most Front of House so is the first person we would see when we step into the office and he can book us in directly with the person most suited for us after having a quick chat about what we want help with.
Paul is the newest member of the team and is a good business advisor. If I was looking to set up my own he's the person to go to and have a chat with. I would get a free consultation with him, which with anyone else would normally cost around £200!
As an alumni we also get 2 years of extra support from a lady called Vicky she helps with:
Mentoring opportunities
Job alerts and newsletters
Invites to events
Networking
Freelance opportunities
There is also a chance to work on live paid briefs which would be really fun and if I could get involved with any of those it would be great experience.
Jack then said some really important bits of information to remember during our experience and time at uni:
Learn to take feedback
The dream job doesn't really exist, you have to make it yourself
Take the word 'student' off any social media and emails you're sending to anyone call yourself 'junior' as employers put students in a completely different category, I have definitely experienced that and it makes so much sense.
The last thing he reminded us about was the Online Toolkit where there is a Job Wall and an Online store. There is also a lot of resources to help us with our future careers such as a CV Builder and a 5 year plan.
After listening to Jack I am definitely going to pop down to the office to get some help because I know that I am going to need help getting out into the art world and to help me figure out what I want to do when I graduate and I now know that there are the right people down in the office to help me do that.
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