On The Spot - July 2008

Welcome to this month’s edition of “On the Spot”

SPOTlight on: August

Those hazy lazy crazy days of summer are hopefully in full swing for you all, and while I would be the last one to want to cast a pall of gloom over the proceedings, the nights are already drawing in.  Could it be time to turn your thoughts to the future?  Your future, that is. As far as I’m aware Shakespeare never moonlighted as a careers adviser, but he certainly might have had recent graduates in mind when he made the point that “Summer’s lease hath all too short a date”.  So right now you’ve taken a vacation job to tide you over, or maybe you’re enjoying your last ever long holiday?  Then what? With autumn, alas, now officially just weeks away, it may not be too late to get onto a post – graduate course.  Yes, a lot of vocational, Master’s and PhD courses are already full, but no, you may not have missed the boat.  Many others may still be recruiting and new recently validated programmes are coming on stream all the time. Check www.studyuk.hobsons.com and www.prospects.ac.uk for course listings or contact the university of your choice direct

If you haven’t caught the tide for this year, then apply early for 2009 (I’m talking October here!)  and use the coming months to acquire relevant experience that will enhance your application.

Demand for places is likely to be high, so make sure that you get past the first sift. If you need help with identifying likely study opportunities or with completing personal statements then the team at Domino is at just an email away or at the end of a phone line. 

The Heat Is On

Perhaps this summer sees you in fairly routine (not to say mundane) employment that will earn you an honest crust/ pay the rent/ go a tiny way to offsetting the student loan?  Cash is likely to be your first priority at the moment – but could the job be the basis for a longer term investment?  Recruiters constantly bemoan the fact that graduates seem loath to market themselves to the max.  So here’s the Domino quick guide to making your summer job work for you.

What skills did you use?  Try to quantify these, rather than blandly stating the bald facts.  The devil is in the detail here.  Let ‘s take teamwork as an example.   How big was the team?  What was its brief? How did you contribute?  What role did you play? What positive outcomes did you help your colleagues to achieve? 

Individual successes: Meeting (or better yet) exceeding targets, managing a project on your lonesome, hitting a very tight deadline, dealing with a difficult situation(s).  Whatever it is, don’t be afraid to blow your own trumpet – there’s a time and place for modesty, but not on applications or at interviews.

Ideas, innovations, initiative: did you come up with any original ways of working or creative solutions to a problem?  Give yourself credit for this – employers like to hear of people who can think outside that proverbial box.

What did you observe?  Rather than reel off a list of (let’s face it) the sometimes uninspiring duties that you undertook, what did you learn from other people and the way that they worked?  What did you find out about how an organisation operates successfully, delivers to customer expectations, makes a profit.  This, believe it or not, is the nub of commercial awareness – that elusive quality which is often so hard to prove.

Ah, I hear I you cry, the place where you work is so dire that it doesn’t do any of the above.  In this case, reverse the negative: where are they going wrong and what would you do to turn things round?       

So as you toil over a till or beaver behind a bar think positive.  You can use this to make yourself a value added candidate.

 

This Month’s Nugget Of Information

Doom and gloom all round it seems.  Signs are that the finance industry is feeling the pinch of the current economic situation and – wouldn’t you just know it – graduate recruitment is likely to be the first casualty.  Fiona Sanderson, head of careers at the august London School of Economics, no less, has warned that there will be greater competition for fewer places in this sector.  It could be dog eat dog.  If you need help in tuning yourself from a (metaphorical) Jack Russell in to a (virtual) Rottweiller, let us know.     

 

Dear Aggie: our agony aunt has the answers.
Alternatively: Zodiac Sign of the month -  Leo

The Lion hunts tonight….. and this time it’s for a career.

I graduated in June (English, 2.i) and have deferred looking for work until now because I wanted to focus on my degree. I’d like to get into the media but don’t really have any ideas about where to start.  What would you advise?

You’re obviously raring to go, but the motto here is Festina Lente (“hasten slowly” for all you non classical scholars).    The first step on what can be a long and winding road will be work experience.  The second step is likely to be more yet work experience.  Very few people get into the media without building up a track record first.  Depending on what aspect of the sector takes your fancy, you’ll need a portfolio of written articles or a showreel of creative or production projects.  While you’re doing this, you’ll also be building up contacts – vital for your future happiness, as in TV and radio particularly, many job opportunities come via word of mouth.

So the starting point is contacting a newspaper, radio station, TV company, film studio and asking to do some shadowing.  It doesn’t have to be one of the national big names: plenty of big name players made their initial foray into the media at local level.  Be prepared to chase up the request as it may not be at the top of their agenda. 

Even though it may turn out to be little more than gofering (or “running” as it’s known in the audio visual industries), show willing, volunteer for everything and learn from everybody. Offer ideas and follow them through if required.  Be the first in the door every morning and switch out the lights when you leave in the evening.

All of this is probably going to be unpaid, but if money is an issue, think laterally.  Maybe you could do a placement one day a week and work elsewhere for cash the rest of the time.  Or perhaps your local newspaper or radio station needs help at weekends or on the night-time graveyard shift? 

www.skillset.org and the websites of the major TV channels will give you some excellent hints and tips on getting started in film and broadcasting.  www.journalismuk.co.uk is a good resource if you’re aiming at the printed word.