Work placements - A survival guide for students

-Work experience is an essential component on the CV for postgrads
- Some skills are learnt/developed from actual experience within the work place, cant be taught in a classroom
-personal development from real experience
-Placements develop the skills you already have and give you new skills
-Working with role specific equipment and software
- Gives students an opportunity to experience real life issues which come hand in hand with working e.g punctuality, presentation
- These placements can act as a transition stage between education and full time work
-they also boost your CV
- Help people to gain further insight into a specific role before fully committing to it
- Give a student the opportunity to work in this field with the ability to ask to assistance and guidance without being deemed unable
- Learn the culture of the work place
-These placements can lead to being offered a perminant position, allows to showcase your skills


Internships -- short periods of time, multinational organisations, usually during summer, highly competitive, tend to have salary but much lower rate, often employed after

Voluntary work,  course specific placements,

Reflections:
Experience within work force is a widely sought after and important by employers, it is key for a student to compete against other qualified applicants. Placements are a really good idea to get hands on experience in a role specific to your chosen career it also gives you a chance to prove yourself a reliable and esteemed part of the team, so that they might decided to hire you as a paid member of the team. It is important to consider that when I graduate, I will be competing with other post graduates for one role- a placement or placements can help to set you apart from the other applicants. It is also a really good idea to give yourself an idea of what the role involves before deciding that it is definitely what you want to do.

Graphic Design?

In my research I have found out so much information about this career option. Although I definitely would consider a career in graphic design, I have found that I am still leaning towards film production. Graphic design seems like a forward thinking and creative role but within quite restrictive guidelines, I'm not entirely sure if this is something that I want to pursue a career in. Whilst I am still definitely a keen designer and illustrator, maybe I will use this to my advantage in a different role and as a hobby.

So now I need to be productive in trying to gain some experience in this division. I can use my newly improved communication and research skills to find an appropriate placement to take part in, where I can begin to establish appropriate contacts. From my reading on Why do a work placement, I have learnt about how useful placements are in giving you skills which are "practical in nature and stem from familiarity with particular equipment".
I think the most appropriate place for me to start will be as a free runner for an independent production company based in a media hub. I am currently looking at production companies in Brighton and London. Here are some I am researching into:

East Studio, a video and production agency based in Brighton

http://eaststudio.co.uk/studio/

Wild Stag Studio is also a Brighton based,  Video production company which has a quirky vision for film.

http://wildstagstudio.com/ 

Reflections after speaking with Duncan from Disney

Duncan seemed to love the work that he does but not the corporation that he works within in some ways. I should consider this when looking at roles to apply for, whether the company fits the role I want to take.

I learnt that building up your contacts is crucial in this industry and to try and make creative friends. Duncan advised me to give my time to people for free when possible as it may help you in the future when you need help and also helps to develop these contacts. It is clear from my time with Duncan that careers in this industry are not always a straight path and this encourages me to look for opportunities where they are available.

Duncan highlighted the process of working to a brief. I learnt that there are 3 products that are developed from a brief. Your ideal version, the clients ideal version and somewhere in-between which is often the most successful. Sometimes it is impressive to show your client all three to show contrast. This is an interesting to me.

This short experience helped me to develop and harness my social skill in a professional environment. I feel much more at ease at the thought of meeting someone of authority who I don't know.

Meeting Duncan was important to my experience. I now feel like large established brands such as Disney maybe aren't as charming as they seem.

I plan to stay in contact with Duncan, he has a lot of contacts over a range of different areas in animation, PR and film and also has a lot of knowledge within his realm.

Evaluation form from Tin Racer Design Ltd

Writing emails to companies or people about experience or work

I was really nervous at the beginning of this module about writing emails to people, enquiring about their profession. I was concerned that they wouldn't respond if I didn't construct them well enough.

In lesson, it was made clear that you shouldn't attribute the reason for your email to needing a placement for a module, instead reflect this reason as being down to your personal interest. This is something I had to keep reminding myself of throughout the whole thing.

Key parts of how I plan to structure these emails include:

- A self introduction, brief
- A personal interest within the specific sector/role
- A personal interest in the company
-Examples of this??
-Why you would like to know more etc

The format of these emails is also important. It is a good idea to finish them with a positive statement for example "I look forward to hearing from you". It is key to keep the format professional, so finish with "Kind regards" and sign your full name. It might also be useful to include your university name if you haven't already mentioned it.


I now feel a lot more comfortable reaching out to employers.

Reflection on my time at Tin Racer Design

The two days I spent shadowing the Tin Racer team were very helpful in a number of ways.

It really opened my eyes to the process between a client and the designer, which is a very long winded and frustrating process for a designer. But the most successful designers are the ones that take arguments and changes against their work and their creative vision within their stride and use the feedback to develop successful products and happy customers.

I also learnt about how important it is to consider the audience, the third party, especially when in relation to creating a product which has a sole purpose to advertise or inform.

There is a lot of work, especially when you are a self-employed designer. The end to end process of graphic design is long winded and often complicated especially when there are a lot of jobs to be done in a short period of time. As I mentioned previously, I hadn't considered tasks such as completing the admin.

It was explained to me that this line of work can involved unsociable hours. Simone told me that she has had to work through the night before to get briefs fulfilled against deadlines after having power cuts and computers crashing.

I hadn't realised before that, sometimes it is a hard sector to work in, this is particularly true of those working outside of major cities. You are in competition with other local companies and those in major cities like London constantly. As a small company this is a big challenge that Tin Racer face.

By engaging in the task that Simone and Steve gave me I was able to understand the stress of the end to end process and the impact of tight deadlines and having to work with topics and briefs that you don't connect with in a creative way and also that my Photoshop skills were not as polished as my skills with other softwares.

This experience helped me to develop my social and communication skills both in a personal and professional way. I was skeptical at first, visiting an unfamiliar area and meeting new people on a professional level. I didn't realise how outgoing and calm I was! (ha) . I am now a lot more comfortable talking with people in person and also on the phone in a professional way and will be able to transfer this skill across in the future when trying to find an appropriate placement or position. This can also be said of my ability to email people I don't know to ask for a favour. I feel more comfortable addressing people I don't know after speaking with one of Tin Racer's clients in a meeting.

I have gained an understanding of what tasks this job involves and the reality of how un-creative and motivating some of them are, which was a key realisation for me that in any job there are going to be less glamorous and stimulating.

On a professional level I found that self presentation is an essential skill, along with an eagerness to learn. I developed my software skills and have learnt a lesson in organising my time according to deadlines. These all seem like significant skills which are required across most professions.

My time with Tin Racer

Whilst I was at Tin Racer on both the 11th and 12th May, I was able to get a real idea of what the company gets up to on a day to day basis and what tasks this includes:

I spent the 11th May with Simone.
The first thing Simone does is check the outstanding tasks she has to fulfil within the briefs, she has them organised in a file with whether they are urgent or not. She advises me that this is a crucial part of her job , making sure that they finish all the jobs on time is so important when you are trying to build and maintain a client base.

I also accompanied Simone to the printing company that they use for their products, where she printed some posters that they had created and the process of making sure

I sat with Simone whilst she took client calls and listened to the structure of their conversations. It was clear to me that presentation through your voice is very important when speaking to clients, Simone was very polite but also direct and I got the impression that this is very useful when establishing a brief with the client. Communication is an important part of the creative business, as often people have very different ideas of artistic direction.

I also watched Simone using photoshop to complete some design work for a poster. She explained how one part of being self employed is that you end up spending a lot of money making sure that you have the most up to date and appropriate software. She also has to keep her skills as up to date as possible in order to be able to provide the best service she can.


On the 12th May Steve very kindly allowed me to join him in going to meet a client to pitch some of his initial ideas to. I was able to see the kinds of people he came into contact with and how the relationship works between a graphic designer and the client. Watching them discuss and refine the work was very interesting for me.

I also watched Steve organise and enquire into a lot of files which included the company spending on supplies, printing and research. Handling the admin is something I hadn't considered as part of a graphic designer's day prior to this experience.

Simone and Steve took the time to set me a design task whilst I was there! They have worked with a company called Murine, which produces eye products such as eyedrops. They create the packaging and the adverts for this company.
 So my task was to create a mock abstract, seasonal product for the company to sell and to also design the packaging and an advert for this product within an hour. I also had to print and stick the packaging design together! This was a very useful and interesting experience for me. It gave me some experience of working to a tight deadline and also having to step out of my comfort zone and come up with an idea which was original and fresh.

Here are the finished products of my mock Murine pack:

This really taught me that I need to brush up on some of my photoshop skills, as I mostly use Illustrator, but I need to be fluent across these different softwares if I want to pursue a career in this kind of position. Despite this, Simone and Steve were very patient with me.

Correspondance with Simone from Tin Racer Design Ltd

I spoke on the phone with Steve from the company and arranged for me to come and visit them on the 11th and 12th of May where they are based. The company is home run, so it will be interesting to see how they work from a home office. It was interesting to find on the phone that a lot of London based clients come to Tin Racer because it is less expensive than some of the larger London based design companies.

Using Linkedin

Following this module, I have really found that Linkedin is a social network which should not be underestimated. So something that I can take away from this, is encouragement to work on developing my profile, so that as well as using it to find employers, they can view my profile in turn.

Even the simple aspect such as adding a profile picture which is more suitable but inviting than the one I am currently using, my passport photo, it seems very mugshot- esq  now that I reflect on it and although most people won't notice, I am wearing a pink puffa jacket in it, which is probably not the most professional I could have looked.

I am also going to take the time to continue to add appropriate people from the industry to the network which will be helpful to keep myself in the loop.

Post Uni

Following some of my research and getting in touch with people, I am starting to think that participating by taking part in a placement in my spare time will benefit me in the future. Considering that building a wide contact list is incredibly important in any sector of the media industry.  So after I finish my second year studies I am going to start looking into appropriate roles to apply for. I am going to use the resources in the Careers and employability centre to help me to prepare for this. I am also going to try and get in touch with someone I previously had work experience with at ITN to see if there are any placements available.

Working hours of a graphic designer

In my research I have found that graphic designers on average work a 37 hour week. It is expected that extra hours will be put in close to deadlines.

The salary of a graphic designer

Just as a sidenote I decided to research a little into how much a graphic designer earns:

-Starting salary around £15000-19000 annual
-Senior graphic designer £35000- £55000
-Creative director £60000 + annual
as a free lance worker this is different, depending on contacts and experience, could be up to £400 a day

obviously this will change across different areas.

Graphic design career: Research

Being a graphic designer a huge part of this career is a relationship with your client base, listening to them and showing that you are able to understand and meet their needs.

The kinds of products a GD creates include websites, advertising, books, magazines, posters, computer games, product packaging, exhibitions, corporate identity, displays, "branding". 

A graphic designer usually works to a brief. This is usually agreed upon with the client in advance. So the concept and general idea is usually set already. It is essential to have a creative mind in this line of work. You also need to be up to date with your technical knowledge of appropriate software and hardware. This career works with deadlines as a key element.

Graphic designers, especially free lance designers, tend to work on multiple briefs at once. 

Tasks which are involved include:

-Meeting clients to discuss requirements

-Developing design briefs to suit the client or clients 

-organising self to work against deadlines

-Creating new ideas for design 

-Presenting infront of a team or infront of the clients to pitch ideas and product ideas

-Working with a range of software and keeping skills updated constantly 

-Working in a team 

Correspondence between Duncan and myself

I also spoke on the phone briefly with Duncan to arrange the logistics of our meeting. We changed the date to Monday the 24th in the end as it fit better for Duncan.

Interview skills

-It is okay to ask the interviewer to repeat a question, if you didnt understand or hear or need a little more time to answer

types of interviews:
One to one
group interview
panel interview
structured-- phone, video, skype

Linkedin, important social media profile for preparation, really look at the organisation and people before going to an interview much more impressive when you have background knowledge

Look at your own social media profiles and check your privacy settings if need be, increasingly something employers look at.

when asked a question, direct your answer towards that person, with your eye contact but don't forget to look at everyone. Eye contact is very important. Address everyone!!!

Preperation is key. skype or video call, prepare the room ,lighting, quiet, tidy

Examples from your past are key when asked competency based questions
Consider what you are good at, what you enjoy, what comes easily to you
achievements,

identify skills you need for the role beforehand and find your best example of this to provide
Make sure you structure your answers, reduce rambling.
They will understand that you are nervous

SITUATION, TASK, ACTION, RESULT and reflection, so doesnt matter if result was negative as long as you can reflect on it

key feedback from employers suggests that main issue is that employees did not know enough about the company and the role.

Body language 50%  voice 40% words 10%

CV improvements

Following my CV workshop and looking at various resources on the internet and provided by the careers and employability centre.  I have made lots of appropriate changes to my CV. Here is the new and improved version:

In the future, once my Linkedin page is more developed I plan to put this within my contact information too.

CV workshop

As one of my chosen workshops, I decided to get help regarding my curriculum Vitae. It is especially important that I start to make sure my CV is appropriate for the career path I want to pursue now, instead of just for part time jobs in retail and hospitality as I will soon be looking at internships to try and kickstart my ideal job.

So before the workshop I tried to tweak my CV from a part time based position orientated format, to something more professional, highlighting my appropriate skills etc.

Here is my CV before:

Some key notes and points I gained from this one on one workshop was firstly that layout is key. My most recent studies should appear at the top of my education rather than having it in chronological order. This needs to attrack the attention of the employers eye immediately. It was also pointed out to me that I needed to adjust my contact details at the top as they were in the wrong order. This was really useful as before I didnt realise there was a specific preferred order for this information. Headlines should also be in bold. Attention to detail is key when presenting your CV.

When writing a short statement about my degree studies, I was told that it was effective that I listed some of my modules but that I should be providing some broader skills in addition to this. Which has really given me something to consider with my CV.

one of the leaflets given to me pointed out that I didn't need to list all of GCSE results, I should instead summarise them, making sure I mention that I have English and Maths. And I should give the start and finish dates of the coarse.

I was advised to edit my opening statement because my cv was meant to be aimed at film and media related posts but addressed my customer service roles. So I should take this out, keep it short and to the point.

Finally, when writing about my work experience I need to list to most appropriate first instead of the most recent. And to write a short sentence explaining that referees are available on request underneath.

Tin Racer Design Ltd

After not being able to spend a few hours shadowing Duncan at Disney, I decided to look for something similar, packaging design and following Duncan's advice some kind of online design work to try and get some contact hours with.

I found a company based in oxfordshire, whos style really sat well with me, a lot of their work has a tiki aesthetic. They are a small family run company, so they shouldn't be too busy to let me come and see what they get up to.

Here is what the Tin Racer Website looks like:

My meetup/ interview with Duncan Russell from Disney

It was a very casual meetup which felt appropriate considering, i'm looking into the creative business. We met in a pub at London Bridge, where I interviewed him over a drink.
Here are the interview questions and answers from our meeting:

1)    What is your official job title?

Most recently I have stepped back and become part of the packaging design team but for the past nine years my title has been Senior Designer at Disney.

2)    What key duties and tasks does your role involve?

In my team we work on the online side of design, especially now that the packaging side of things is beginning to die out, a lot of what we do is moving online as technology continues to be developed. Our job is a long process, we manage digital media, packaging and online. This involved the social side of things too, so even Facebook banners and interactive media. Most of what I do is adapting the American design to fit Europe, we tend to use a lot brighter and modern colours than the US. Its mostly a seasonal thing, so we design all online Disney for Christmas, Easter etc. There are a lot of tight deadlines as we have to co-ordinate all the translations across the European countries we cover. There is constant pitching and redrafting throughout the process, sometimes the brief changes during the creative process and we are thrown back to square one.

3)    Does your role require any qualifications? If so what?

I don’t have a degree.. I completed a term of University before dropping out to pursue my career as a musician in a band. I have completed a foundation course in art but I would say that in this industry you will find that the people you know and your ability is more important than what qualifications you have. A degree will help you get your foot in the door but if you can’t deliver, then its pointless.

4)    What path did you take to arrive at this role?

After dropping out of Uni, I started working at BT as a source of income to support myself whilst focusing on my band. Music is what I wanted to do. I’ve always been interested in art and design, I was a keen drawer, eventually I started designing the flyers, posters internally for BT, not the actual public advertisement ones. Eventually I took voluntary redundancy, I bought a Mac and started free lance design work as well as working in a pub. I worked loosely with a few companies doing pretty standard boring stuff like designing business cards, business posters, logos etc back then the tools available were much more limited so printing letters was such a long process. But all the experience made me really fast and efficient at what I did. A lot of these jobs I secured through friends I think it is important to mention to you. One friend who I had worked with previously started working for Disney and when they were looking for new packaging designers, I was able to get a job because of this contact. They were also looking for product designers(Senior designer) at the time which is what I was more interested in but someone who had been working within the company already was given that job. I was just really happy with what I achieved because I never thought I’d get into design. Eventually they split us into teams so one team took care of physical packaging and my team took care of online. I was then promoted to packaging manager, but I found that I didn’t want to be a manager, the company then decided to downsize the department and I took voluntary redundancy (again) but I knew they wanted me to stay. So I started free lance design again as my teams jobs had mostly been given to the USA team for a brief period. Disney then offered me a job again as part of the packaging team. And that’s where I am today.

5)    Are there opportunities to move forward into a different role? I have been given opportunities in the past, like when I was the manager of the packaging team but I feel like I have gotten much further than I had planned and I am very happy with the opportunities I have been given. I decided to step back because I don’t want such a high pressure job at my age. I want to still enjoy what I do, by being part of the design team again, I can focus on the creative side.

6)    Do you enjoy what you do?

Not as much as I used to, things are a lot more commercial and profit driven, timescales are much tighter and we have to clock in and out which tricky when your in a creative industry. For me it puts a cap on the creative process, so I don’t find it as enjoyable as I used to. It’s less social, there’s less room to manoeuvre and less freedom.

7)    What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into design?

The printing industry is a dying one. So if you want to get into design I would recommend considering something which is new and growing for example the gaming industry is a very strong one. Or at least some kind of online designing. Or film/animation. I would also say when taking on a job with a brief, it doesn’t go unnoticed when you go the extra mile. Create something which fits the brief, then create something that follows your vision, then create a version which is somewhere in-between – people like options and it shows you are genuinely interested. Contacts are everything. A lot of voluntary work pays off. If you help people out, they remember it. A lot of my success in getting jobs has been through helping people previously and then they pull you up with them when they succeed. Also be punctual. It’s important. And if you need to put in extra time to get it done right, then do so.

8)    What drew you to the role?

It’s funny because I ended up here more by chance than being drawn to a specific role. I didn’t have a direct path. I enjoy design.

9)    What would you change about your profession? It is very school like, punch in punch out timings which doesn’t work well when you’re being creative, you need time to research and get inspiration, speaking to people and finding appropriate resources. Also often we are not given the full brief straight away which makes things tricky when working with deadlines, often we have one day to make big changes to design which can be stressful.  

10) Would you consider your job to be fulfilling?

Yes and no. It depends what I’m working on. There are things I would change but, being in design itself is fulfilling because of where I came from.

11) What main skills do you need in your role?

Charisma, mores as a freelance designer but in any role really, you need to get along with people, to get people to want to work with you. Creativity is a key one. Being about to work as part of a team and being a keen learner.

Researching Duncan and his role

This is Duncan's Linkedin profile:

I think Duncan will be a very interesting person to talk to about his experience and his creative journey to his profession. It will be interesting to ask him about his journey and what he thinks of his job, whether he finds fulfilment in it. It would be great if we can arrange some kind of shadowing so I can experience it for myself!