Work Experience Evaluation
When I started year 2 of my HND of Creative Industries:Television, I wanted to pursue a career as an online editor working for small production companies like Freakworks. But as I continued to further my knowledge of VFX and Motion Graphics using After Effects, I found that I enjoyed this working in this area more and wanted to promote my skills to gain more experience in the VFX sector.
When I handed in the first copy of my CV and sample covering letter, I found that my CV seemed very general and not very specific towards any area of the Creative Industries for the following reasons:
The design didn’t look very interesting for a CV applying to the creative industries.
The education section of the form was very vague and didn’t explain the course I was studying which would give a potential employer an idea of what I learned on the course
and I had too many headers with my details on it. To fix this, I would need to have a header with all my details at the top of the page.
When I then took on this, I then designed a new CV which had a colourful design to make it stand out more, with a neater typography, this change I thought was essential to making a more unique CV. I added information about my course as well as relevant references for an employer to see.
During the work experience class, I have learned that is crucial that every CV is tailored to each individual employer and I must keep updating it with all my work experience to keep my CV as relevant as possible.
When I began searching for work experience, I wanted to try to contact every post production company, big or small, to try to get any work experience. After emailing companies all over the UK, I was unsuccessful in the majority of cases in getting a response, but persistence is the key to success. Eventually a work experience placement came up with 2020 Productions for one week which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I hope to continue keeping contact with this company.
Overall, I found the work experience unit a great learning curve to help me promote myself in the best possible way, here are examples of what I learned:
To keep updating my CV with all new skills/technical proficiencies to make sure I can promote myself in the best possible.
To be as friendly and approachable when given the chance to get work experience with a company, as it might lead to positive things in the future.
Make sure to be active in all aspects of searching for work in the creative industries as it will be only way I will stay in work.
Attend networking opportunities to gain professional contacts which may lead to work or even help with my own projects.
If I choose to pursue a freelancing career, I will need to make sure that I can gain clients and keep them in order to get further work with them. When I was on work experience, I was informed by one of the editors (who was a freelance editor/producer) that it is essential to keep clients happy as they would tend to come back for more business and word would get passed to other potential clients.
These valuable skills I have learned from work experiences, I will continue to make better CVs and will make a big effort to make myself as employable as possible.
Cheers
