Challenges we might face...
Money, confidence, artist block, fear of rejection, ties to home, struggling to get your foot in the door., comparing yourself to others.
Have a plan A but also have a plan B and C. Avoid feeling like you have 'no other options'.
Options - further study, volunteering, time out, underemployment, travel, etc...
Why should an employer take on a graduate?
Research skills, fresh approach, age advantage, hardworking, aspirational, good at teamwork, people skills, leadership, analysis, strategy, energy and enthusiasm, good value, they have new skills, up to date with the latest technology, social media savvy, knowledge of young target market, flexible, self motivated.
Most graduates are lacking... commercial awareness, experience.
Strength based recruitment is more about your qualities than your qualifications.
Leeds is the 4th largest UK economy with the city centre region having a £60 billion economy.
Alumni
'The first six months after uni will be hell.'
Look at alumni profiles on the college website - is there anyone relevant to me who might be able to answer some questions?
Understanding yourself - your skills, choosing the right job, selling yourself to an employer, developing your weaknesses.
Top 10 Graduate Skills
- Commercial awareness
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Negotiation and persuasion
- Problem solving
- Leadership
- Organisation
- Perseverance and motivation
- Work under pressure
- Confidence
- (plus specific technical skills and work experience)
JLA Skills Cards
Dividing skills into levels of competency.
Skills I have never developed by always wanted to try...
- Delegating effectively.
- Encouraging others to communicate.
Skills I am competent at but would like to develop in the next 12 months...
- Communicating a vision.
- Building and maintaining customer relationships.
Skills I am adequate at but would life to sharpen up and talk about better at interviews.
- Motivating people.
- Setting standards.
Arranging top 15 cards in order of enjoyment.
My top ten cards had letter codes C C C C I I I E E T. This means the majority of my top skills fit into the concepts or ideas category, followed by information, enterprise and things.
Finding examples to support my skills...
- Working to briefs where concepts have already been established and I need to adapt my working style to fit in with this.
- Understanding my course mates' individual projects enough to be able to offer feedback and critique.
- Working in a group and understanding the input of other group members while creating or developing an idea or concept.
- Exploring colour psychology in a project based on the calming effects of nature.
- Working with a restricted colour palette, for example for a traditional print based brief where only two colours could be used.
- Experience as a young sports leader, explaining rules and instructions to young children.
- Being able to communicate creative ideas and concepts to non-creative minded clients, customers or peers.
- Taking a brief beyond its initial purpose and seeing alternative purposes for the same work.
- Avoiding cliché ideas and taking the time to understand how concepts can be communicated effectively.
- Maximising output from printing sheets minimising paper waste and unnecessary costs.
- Managing my money as a student, learning new ways to minimise my spending especially with food.
Getting the best out of social media.
- Securing commissions through social media platforms like Instagram.
- Understanding the audience I am targeting and what social media platforms they exist on - I tailor my approach to each platform depending on the people who will see it.
- I live by to-do lists, both in my work life and personal life.
- Setting my own deadlines for projects to allow for unforeseen circumstances.
- Managing my projects for my university modules, organising my time and resources.
- Completing a research based visual project and dissertation independently.
- Taking on briefs with short deadlines, an example of this being producing a book cover and two illustrated double page spreads in a day's work at an advertising agency in Manchester at short notice.
- Painting the Virgin Media communication box, this was out of my creative comfort zone, working with people I hadn't met before in adverse weather conditions.
- Detailed drawings in portfolio showing technical skills and good observation.
- Playing and previously competing in sports including basketball, netball and badminton.
Presenting my skills in a two minute elevator pitch about myself...
"I am technically competent in a range of analogue image making processes, predominantly using ink. Efficiently producing high quality outcomes is what I strive for, minimising the waste of time and resources. I am self disciplined and adaptable which suits my practice as a freelance illustrator. I am an organised person, I live by to-do lists and I can effectively plan projects from start to finish which is evident in my management of my university workload. My experience of working to commercial briefs has allowed to be creative and innovative with concepts and ideas. I also love a challenge and seeing how I can push myself and be the best I can be. My past job in a cheque processing centre has taught me the importance of meeting deadlines and also to deal with strict speed and accuracy targets so I have definitely learned to function well under pressure. My confidence and my interpersonal skills have been greatly improved through my role as a student ambassador. I love talking about what I am passionate about and I believe that communication is key to producing successful outcomes, this is why I always aim to build and maintain strong relationships with clients and customers."
Feedback
Positives
- Explained well how I can benefit the person I would be working for.
- Very thorough and covered my many qualities.
- Articulate, organised and well informed about my craft.
- Work well under pressure.
- Goof references to your experiences.
- Great customer awareness.
- Good aspiration.
- Good evidence of skills and examples of where skills have come from.
- Very well prepared.
- Interesting talk.
- Well done at selling my skills.
- Well answered questions.
Improvements
- Try not to read from notes.
- Slow down a little and vary your tone more.
- Speak louder.
- Avoid saying 'term'.
- Refine my interests and pinpoint my creative concern.
- Look up more.
- More space between sentences.
I take on board all of this feedback and I am not surprised that the majority of my criticisms were about how I presented. I felt really put on the spot having to prepare and present this in such a short space of time and I was nervous about standing up in front of a group of people I didn't really know. I feel a lot more confident presenting something I have had time to prepare and practice so I think the answer for me is to continually practicing presenting myself to new people until I become confident at it and can reel off the right information when the opportunity presents itself.
My short term goals...
- Clear up and professionalise web presence. Delete old personal accounts that I don't use anymore and make sure all other personal accounts are set to private.
- Look out for summer school application.
- Message Cathy about art fair that I took part in last summer to get involved with this summer too. Good way to meet people!
My long term goals...
- Research / apply for studio spaces.
- Actively seek commissions rather than waiting for people to ask me.
- Make new professional contacts by going out and looking for them.
Identify obstacles and ask for help.
Be prepared to try different approaches.
Consistently review your progress.
When the going gets tough, stay calm, network, stretch yourself, don't give up, be realistic, be positive, be creative when job hunting. If something's not working, something needs to change.
No comments:
Post a Comment