Brief 1 - Employability Week

Here, I talk about some of the stand out talks that I went to during employability week. 

Personal Branding 

This lecture was very useful because as of yet, I don't have any social media sites publicising art I make. I now know that taking more time to look at personal branding can be useful for finding future jobs, finding customers and showcasing my work. 

When starting up a new website or social media page, they said the best questions to consider were:

• What do you want to be known for?
• Do you have a pre-existing audience already?
• What career options do you want in the future?

They also gave useful tips like:

• Don't post inconsistently or leave the social media side for months at a time
• Include a professional photo of yourself and give clear links to other websites in your bio
• Consider the 80/20 rule for posting content
• 80% - posts that interact, educate, inspire, entertain, connect etc.
• 20% - posts that promote your work or upcoming events 
• For instagram, use micro-tags (hashtags that are very precise to what the content of the post is) instead of macro-tags (general hashtags that get used millions of times). Tags that only get used between 10,000 and 70,000 times are the best.
• Consider your audience (age, gender, their interests, location)

CV

This lecture informed me about how to put together an effective CV that employers are more likely to read and consider for future jobs. The main points were to keep the CV short; keep it clear with distinctive headers; keep it relevant (responding only to what the job requires); and show how you're unique from other candidate. 

It's important to avoid cliches, such as describing yourself as a 'team player' or having 'good communication skills' but to instead be more descriptive like a 'positive and supportive team member' or 'confident speaking to large groups of people'. It is also important to give evidence for each skill we have through any work experience for example. 

On average, employers only read each CV for 7 seconds as usually there are 250 applicants to an average job vacancy. 

Apply Effectively Not Hard

This lecture informed me about the importance of standing out from the crowd during the interview stages of applying for a job. In 2025, 5 million more jobs are going to be lost to automation so it is important to be successful when applying for a job. A tip that they gave was to also have around 2 - 3 opportunities open in which to make money. That way you can be a much more flexible employee.

Companies like when prospective employees know what their soft/transferable skills are. These are skills that can apply to any job and are not job-specific. The main ones include:

• Core competencies (skills needed for a particular job)
• Planning and organisation (prioritisation, time keeping)
• IT and tech (social media, software knowledge).
• Intelligence (cognitive, emotional, creative, physical, social),
• Problem-solving (resourceful, critical)
• Business awareness (knowing what the customer wants)
• Numeracy (budgeting)
• Teamwork (flexible, punctual)
• Communication (good at giving receiving feedback).

Popular interview questions include:

• Tell us about yourself
• What is your greatest strength/weakness?
• Why did you apply to this job?
• Why should we hire you?
• What experience do you have?
• Greatest achievement to date
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
• What would you do in this job role?
• What would you bring that is different to this job role?

Also during the interview, if it is online, it is important to:

• Not have a distracting background
• Move a lamp around so that your face is visible
• Consider what you are wearing
• Have a good internet connection
• Ask questions in return while taking notes to look interested.
• Consider your digital footprint on social media

Resilience and Well-Being 

This talk focused on the importance of balancing your mental health while challenging yourself. Improving your mental well-being can enable you to take on more challenges. 

The learning ladder is a graph representing how new skills are learnt. It is something that takes time however. Skills need to be practiced often so that you don't lose the skill and fall down the ladder.

1. Unconscious Incompetence - you don't know you can't do something
2. Conscious Incompetence - you know you can't do something
3. Conscious Competence - you know you can do something
4. Unconscious Competence - you don't know you can do something (the skill comes naturally)

The 'stretch zone' describes when you go out of your comfort zone while learning new skills. They said the best way to work was to go between your comfort zone and your 'stretch zone' as a way of improving in your work without burning out. I don't find my mental well-being has ever been an issue however it was still useful for visualising the best way to work without over doing it, in this lecture. 

Careers in Animation

After uni, the next options you can take are:

• Master's degree
• Degree-level apprenticeship (usually 18-22k a year in animation)
• Internship 
• Going straight into work

Further careers can then include:

• Free-lancing
• Short-term contracting
• Part-time/Full-time job

It was interesting to find out there are certain roles in animation that you cannot jump straight into without experience. These include animation, rigging, editing and writing. You have to work your way up before taking on these aspects at most production companies. Despite this, there is currently a general shortage of riggers, background painters, CG roles, tradigital artists and editors in the animation industry.

Finally, the reality of working in TV/film is:

• Long hours
• Lack of job security
• Must be open to continuous change
• Must be open to following other people's vision
• Time is money

What Went Well

• The personal branding lecture was the most useful of the lectures as the marketing and publicising side to my work is something I struggle with the most. I now know useful tips about getting my work out there and will try them out on instagram
• Micro-tagging on instagram and the 80%/20% content rule were things I'd never heard of before and will definitely look into
• The CV lecture was very useful as I've not written up a proper CV before but now I know a few tips on how to make it look more eye-catching to potential employers
• It was useful to see that there are certain fields in animation that you cannot jump straight into as a form of employment

Criticism

• The maintaining your well-being lecture didn't particularly relate to me as I don't tend to struggle with pressure although it was still useful seeing how we should be working through the visual diagrams they presented
• I found that what was being taught helps to an extent, however chance also plays a big part in success when it comes to applying for a job or having a personal brand that takes off