Sidenote from My meeting with Duncan from Disney

After I had finished interviewing Duncan about his job, we discussed the kind of career path I wanted to take  and my interest in animation and illustraton and after being apologetic about not being able to offer me some shadowing time in the next few weeks Duncan suggested a few people he knows which may be good contacts for me and gave me his personal number so we can discuss further and maybe meet up with some of his contacts in film and animation in the coming months.

Design

After talking to my dad about my interest in design he told me that his friend Duncan worked in design for Disney, so with Duncan's permission my dad gave me his email. We have corresponded a few times and he has agreed to meet me for an informal interview. He is an online creative manager for Disney, I plan to ask him some questions about his role, what it entails and his career path etc. We are going to meet up for a drink instead of making a skype call as I feel it will feel more personal and I will be able to get more of a clear feel about how he feels about the job he has and I feel like I will be able to create more follow up questions.

Here are the Questions I have prepared for our interview.

1)    What key duties and tasks does your role involve

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

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

4)    Are there opportunities to move forward into a different role?

5)    Do you enjoy what you do?

6)    What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into branding

7)    What drew you to the role?

8)    What would you change about your profession?

9)    Would you consider your job to be fulfilling?

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

I have a recording device I plan to use when interviewing him and I will probably use it to type up a transcript of all the answers, missing out chatter and keeping it concise to the questions

Career paths: Branding/ design/advertising

Another possible career I am interested in is in some kind of branding, advertising and design. The artistic and creative side of this really attracts me and I am also very keen on the psychological theoretical side of this role, thinking about target audience in depth and using this to appeal specifically to social groups. My interests started from being interested in website and t-shirt design and also previously taking up some work experience with an design company called Tin Racer in 2013, where I created my own packaging and product for a company.

I have been in contact with someone who is involved in design and branding for disney and am in the middle of arranging to meet up with him to interview him about his profession. The original aim was to be able to visit his office to get some insight into his day to day schedule but because of his very busy profession, at the moment he is unable to do this. So an interview will suffice for now. I will continue to be consistent in trying to arrange a shadowing day or something to try and see up close the kinds of tasks he takes on a daily basis.

Career paths: Onset Runner

I'm starting to think about possible career paths which I would like to look into and that will benefit me during this project.

One job which I will be looking further into, is production running or [assistant] production coordinator kind of jobs. This fits well with the area of the film industry which I am passionate and keen on.  So it will benefit me to do in-depth research into these kinds of roles and speak to someone in a relative position to gain a detailed understanding of what this kind of career entails.

I will now look into a few companies which I can then get in touch with to find out some more info.

Some key questions to consider:
-what kind of qualities are required for this role?
-what kind of qualifications are required?
- what key tasks does it involve?
-what career opportunities are available to someone in this role?
-what path lead to this role?
-challenges?
-rewards?
-experience required?
-hours required?
-different locations?

Reading: interview Success Fanthome

The importance of preparation; an interview provides an opportunity to sell a product, which is YOU
- packaging= appearance v important
provides impression before even speak, good +smart appearance communicates sufficient want for the job + presentation skills

Mentally good to have basic knowledge of organisation, consider what the employer is looking for: previous experience, personal qualities, skills

concise answers but not too short

examples provide proof of ability
useful to be well informed on current affairs as may be asked about current headlines

TYPICAL Q --- why did you apply to us?
what can you offer?
previous experience?
strengths? weaknesses?

interview is not one way situation, opportunity to gain impression of employer
do not ask for info already available

Mock interview refelction

Today in groups we engaged in peer mock interviews, although this was nerve racking, having strangers ask you questions about your skills. It was good simulation for a real life interview. I have never been interviewed by a panel of three people before because I have only ever applied for jobs in entry level positions and within wither bar work or retail. So this was a new experience for me.

I found that when being interviewed, despite knowing what point I was trying to make, my lack of preparation meant that I found myself babbling and not relating my answer directly to a skill or back to the original question.

So in response to this, I feel it would be really useful to sit down and look at my CV, and then develop a few key examples of previous work situations which I can use to apply to multiple skills. I think it would benefit me to do some searching in the Careers and Employability centre on campus to find out some more information on how to be successful in an interview.

Choosing a sector within the media industry

Despite firmly knowing that I want to work within the media industry after graduating, I am still unsure of what specific area I want to work in so it is a possibility that during this opportunity, I will explore more than one specific profession that I am considering for the future.

Up until the past few months I have been certain that I want to go into a film production role after university, I am definitely more interested in pre production from script writing to directing. But given that I have recently become interested in graphic design and Illustration, I think it  might be useful to harness this module in a different way and to take this opportunity to explore a graphic design related career, which will either clarify that I want to pursue film, or open up a new alternative choice to consider.

I will try and get in contact with a few people from different ends of the spectrum, some independent companies and some larger scale companies.

 I will now have to begin my research into particular companies locally to Brighton and London because these are the most appropriate places for me to be networking and gaining experience in geographically. 

Now I know what kind of jobs I want to look at in further detail, its time to research some companies in appropriate companies and start to think about how to construct emails them explaining my intentions and asking whether they can accommodate what I am asking without making it seem like a forced exercise as part of a module.