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!