Today I attended an afternoon event organised by my university's employability team. It consisted of a series of talks focused on careers and entrepreneurship within the creative industry, as the full timetable illustrates below. I wanted to attend as I enjoy looking at job adverts and thinking about I will do when I graduate. Though I do hope opportunities will come my way, I know I will need to present myself and my work in an effective way, and make sure I am in the right place at the right time!
Timetable for the day.
The Keynote Speech
This pre-recorded interview with Wayne Hemingway, of Hemingway Design, was presented to us via youtube. Though a real presentation would have been good, in some ways a video that I can re-watch and was edited in an effective way. I feel I really benefited from learning about his interdisciplinary approach to design, which generated from a fashion label (Red or Dead) with a real purpose (to be the first affordable fashion label.) Rather than focusing on education, Hemingway highlighted that good designers should be interested and curious in everything they come across, with some real true passions (even obsessions) in key areas. This inspired me to get more involved in my blogging - even if short and sweet - because it is an effective medium to document and piece together all the random things that inspire me, I experience, or even that I unexpectedly notice from day to day!
Furthermore, Hemingway really encourages the designer to have fun, and be playful, and let this come across. Sustaining healthy working relationships and building networks is key to success, especially once leaving university, where there will not be tutors or studio peers to turn to each week. In terms of discussing work, he suggests to be questioning of own work, and ask others to question it to push you, rather than letting it be 'fawned' over. This (and hearing Katie speak in the next segment) really makes me value the importance of being yourself (a.k.a. a nice genuine person hopefully!), being friendly to everyone and being happy by having fun with what you do!
There were many other valid points raised in this segment, proving the benefit of having a potential future employer give a talk relating to what he would look for in up-and-coming designers, as well as talking about his own journey and sharing with us tips that he picked up along the way!
Your Personal Brand
Katie Alderson is the founder of Ideology Workshop, and a graduate of my course; Decorative Arts at Nottingham Trent. I am interested in branding, and though I am not doing the business project I feel inspired to create a brand for this year. I would worry about doing this and my work losing it's 'personal touch', however Katie showed us how to balance a super precise and elegant brand with a human element by using a website and social media in slightly different ways. I know when I leave I would be interested in working for a brand, thus showing this awareness in my portfolio would be a benefit. She also reinforced the point that good photography is key in your final year, as a picture can speak a 1000 words, is more eye-catching and is easier for creative minds to process.
Again, a lot more amazingly relevant and useful content was discussed, I love following Katie's process and recommend everyone checks her work out!
Linked In
This session, for someone who thinks they knew Linked In, was ridiculously useful. All the useful in-depth how to's, must do's, and must not do's, has given me oodles of confidence to use it as a networking tool. I am not sure how relevant it will be for future employers to check me out on (it would be nice if they did though!) However again the focus on networking and presenting an engaged, ambitious and positive outlook could help develop personal and professional relationships, as well as stay up-to-date with industry information, from knowing what companies I could work for to even just knowing what type of jobs are out there (always good for an interview - or even speculatively asking for one!)
The Opportunist
This section was similar to the compulsory employability sessions we've been doing during our degree, though I still feel like each one I learn something new (though maybe I'm simply relearning...) I felt a real focus on transferable skills, as well as how to actually apply to jobs. From my meeting with the team a few weeks ago, I felt inspired to update my CV, and focus more on skills gained. This session gave me even more ideas of what to include, examples of evidence to support my claims, and how I want to sell myself.
One exercise I feel I particularly benefited from was taking a minute to discuss our weaknesses. One example that came forward was someone admitting they talk to much (a bad habit of which I am guilty of!) They followed up by saying how they were trying to over-come it, by doing more active listening, and trying to take notes whilst people talk, and really thinking about what they are going to say. I definitely will take this on board (another thing that evaluative writing/ blogging might help me with!)
Overall conclusions
So, as well as being really useful to all the things pre-outlined on the timetable, I really enjoyed this session as I feel it satisfied in some way my procrastinate-ive habit of thinking about the future. Better things I could do with my time include updating my CV and my Linked In profile, blogging to show my many interests and research, and use this to build my personal brand. There is no point looking for premature opportunities if I have not got anything to show them to prove I know what I am talking about (which I should do less of to start with...)
