Career Track Tuesdays: Practical and Creative Approaches to Jobs notes

The Foundations:
- Knowing the industry
- Considering location, is it rural or industrial?
- What can you offer? What can they offer you?
- Marketing yourself
- Brand identity, show this creatively in your cv

Identify where you can meet the right people, networking. Look into internships - approach via email, other forms of communication, organise studio visits! Animation studios are more likely to accommodate you with studio visits then immediate internships or work experience placements, they want to get to know you. Get to know the company, get them to know you.

You need to know where to look, they want to know that you have a good track record. This can be in the form of the freelance work you have done, experience within a certain role you have had - internship? - simply just a graduate? You need to be able to advertise yourself to get work out there. Research more into New Blood, student work festival, costings with the price of travel and stall.

Animation is a growing industry - the number of students that want to join this part of the industry is constantly growing. This means more competition.
- Internships, this allows you to gain experience within the company, learn how they work, compared to anyone else applying for the same job as you. Get to know studios - skill set adapts and absorbs new information that can help you with other jobs in the industry, gaining more experience.

Ideas for studio visits that are local:
- Inkco - York, Clifton Moor
- Kilogramme - Manchester

Need to look in the right places, you need to have confidence about yourself and your work, you MUST network! Get your work seen. Flattery to people you want to work for. Look into related fields, possibly less competition? Any feedback you gain, research - even if you are not suited to that particular place - will feel less personal.

The next step to move yourself forward (my personal action plan):
- Collect work together, begin to build a portfolio
- Talk to the studios you want to visit
- Build up confidence
- Research into internships or apprenticeships

Remember, never give in, never surrender! And most importantly try your best.