Career Options
For years I’ve gone from one job to another with the goal of climbing the corporate ladder at some point, but each job I’ve been in didn’t seem to give me the opportunity to progress. Even though I was good at my job ( and in some cases one of the top members on my team) I never seemed to be afforded the chance to climb the ladder. Maybe because I was so young or maybe just because people were afraid that I would do a better job than they could and thought that I’d progress too far taking their job as well….? Either way, this may have been a blessing in disguise.
Throughout my life, I have studied music, performance and production. All I wanted when I was young was to be in a band, play guitar and be famous. Everything I studied was geared towards music in some way or another. I had guitar, keyboard and recorder (yes – even I have played the recorder!) lessons from an early age, giving up keyboard and recorder when I left primary school in order to focus on guitar lessons. All through high school, I continued with guitar lessons and even took my GCSE music a year earlier than I should have. Then, when I reached college, began taking drum lessons which I then continued for 3 and a half years. I stopped having drum lessons after 6 months of my first year at university back in 2004 due leaving the course as I had decided it wasn’t what I wanted. I’m not classically trained and struggle with music theory having played popular music through most of my earlier years.
So, after many a year working my way through exams and coursework, I was finally out in the real world. I had a string of customer service related call centre jobs, warehouse work and sign writing… it was only when I had the chance to get some experience as a stage hand that I found my way back to university but, in the year and a half that I have been a student on the BSc Professional Sound and Video course, I have acquired many different skills and also built on previous skills that I wouldn’t have considered following to any sort of career.
For years, I had focused so much on becoming a musician or working on tour as a ‘lampy’ or ‘vidiot’ (lighting tech or video tech to the unfamiliar) that I had all but dismissed my passion for web design, social media or digital creation…. It is now in my thoughts that maybe I should explore the possibility of a career within social media…? Maybe front end web development? I mean, I spend countless hours online anyway, so why not get paid for doing it?!! I’m capable of making videos and music…. I can promote things across multiple platforms and have access to all kinds of technological resources to aid me in creating and distributing so, WHAT ARE MY CAREER OPTIONS? Where do I go from here?? Why am I thinking these things now?
This is due to my partner. She is currently coming to the end of her PGCE. She has a degree and several years experience in management roles and yet is struggling to find work. The fact that she has put so much hard work and effort in to getting where she wants to be should mean that there are people knocking her door down in order to offer her a job, the thought of her being jobless after all this is a scary but real prospect. The amount of hard work and perseverance she has exhibited really inspire me so I really hope things don’t end up with a similar bleak outlook at the end of this course….
This course has given me so many options, I have some serious thinking to do. If I am to ensure I can walk in to a job at the end of my degree, I need to plan now.
UGFL - undergroundfreelancer.com 
You voice a concern that many people have – will I really find work? Off the cuff, yes you can – but your role needs to be relevant. Your instinct to gravitate toward social media is not a bad one. Do you think you could combine the two disciplines? I suggest that you do some research and conduct some informational interviews (15 minutes or so) with those the video/sound industry – they may already have social media roles – a role that might be the blend of the two areas you are interested in. You never know what you will discover. – Dr.Gottschalk
March 18, 2012 at 9:02 pm
The job market is harder than ever to break into but it is moving and people are still getting jobs. Despite the gloom, it’s *not* stagnant. Expect to spend 3 – 6 months before you get a job. That seems to be the common reality amongst people I know have succeeded although there are exceptions. Don’t feel the need to search every day and don’t let people or systems get you down. But *do* get a plan, search regularly, keep lists of useful sites, keep your eyes open, keep your mind open.
Personally I find many companies hire *before* they advertise: They don’t want to have to search through thousands of applicants so if there are twenty CV’s on their desk already they’ll bend the rules a bit and pick from them. So get your CV out there pronto!
In the same way you have ‘discovered’ a potential career in social media there are many more doors that are yet to be opened too. Keep an open mind, look broadly across your interest areas and whether the post you get turns out to be awful or fantastic, either way recognise it’s only one of many steps towards something even more exciting.
Try not to let pay sway you. You should try not to settle for less than what you feel you are worth, and you should always try for more than you expect, however, don’t correlate good pay to letting a company ask too much of you because they will, quite reasonably, take everything they can.
Also partcularly in the media (and IT) sectors there is a tendency for job adverts to look like ‘wishlists’ of skills. Dont be put off from applying by this, precious few people have every skill they want and they usually have to settle for less than they ask.
Anyway, thats my 2pence worth: Good luck!
March 19, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Thanks for the advice. It will definitely be taken on board. I know there are still lots of areas to look in to. I’m just trying to make sure I’m ahead of the game. Don’t want to finish and think “what was the point in that?”
March 19, 2012 at 3:13 pm