Top Tips from R1 Academy’s Creative Futures Event

Here’s a few top tips we learnt at last nights Q&A session with Industry leaders at the Creative Futures Event hosted at Exeter College:

1. Work Experience

The most common question from young adults, but what does it mean? Do you have to have work experience in order to get a job?  In short, in the creative industry experience is invaluable. You’re working in an industry that is constantly changing, constantly developing and looking for something fresh. Creativity stems from your surroundings, by being around those who do it daily work experience can only help you to grow creatively. It helps for both developing new skills, and networking. Work experience, shadowing, internships – do what you think will benefit you.

 2. Finding Inspiration

If the opportunities to volunteer aren’t there, get creative yourself and team up with people around you that inspire you. The Young Collective has been made possible simply due the enthusiasm of a group of people who want to get creative. Want to play music? Gather a few friends, practise playing and going through the creative process, this doesn’t have to be your ultimate goal, but instead gives you a chance to collaborate with like-minded people. You can learn a lot from those around you.

 

3. University vs Apprenticeships?

It’s an ongoing debate, but the panel agreed they both have benefits. You have to do what works for you, are your friends going to University, but you don’t feel it’s right for you? Hey that’s ok! Seek the experiences that build your portfolio and showcase you in your best light. If you’re progressively learning to be the best you can be, then it’s your choice to choose which route you go down.

4. No Template for the Perfect CV

No consensus from the panel on the perfect CV.  This goes to show there is no perfect CV, instead tailor your CV to the job. Your CV has to be relevant to the job you’re applying for, and illustrates the skills you have required for the job. This could mean you have two completely different CV’s for two different jobs…perfect! Take your time in knowing what they’re asking for, the important thing to remember is that the employer wants a taste of who you are and what you can bring to the company, if that summer cleaning job isn’t relevant don’t put it!

A Highlight from Last Nights #BBCIntroducing

I’m No Longer Scared of Not Knowing What My Future Holds

I’ve been in education since I was four years old, and in July of 2017 I will be graduating the University of Exeter with no plans and a very little idea of what I want to do with my life.

For as long as I can remember, people have asked me what I would like to be when I ‘grow up’. The way I answer this question has changed drastically over the years as it does for all of us. From the 17-year-old who wanted to be a zoologist, to the 12-year-old watching Michael Phelps make history in Beijing and dreaming of being an Olympic swimmer, to the teenager who after binge watching Grey’s Anatomy thought “hell yeah, maybe I could be a doctor after all.” And finally to the 20-year-old student who come July will be just as clueless as I was when I began University.

It feels like from the moment you get dressed for your first day of school, even picking GCSE’s, the pressure to enhance your CV and plan for your career begins. These expectations only intensify when you fast forward to University. Every family occasion turns into an interrogation of your future, and my favourite: people asking ‘Classics? What will you do with that?’. I’m four weeks into third year, and if I had a pound for every time someone has asked me what my plans are for after uni then I’d be a millionaire, well maybe not that rich, but I’d be able to pay off my student loan at least! And the truthful answer is I have no idea what I want to do after university.

We have so much fear that we’re going to graduate and have to have our lives planned out. In reality I’m still only going to be 21 and I’m pretty sure I’m not ready to spend my next 20 years in the same career I gained straight out of getting a degree. In all honesty I’ve never had a career in mind, my answer has always been oh I’ll figure it out or as long as I’m having fun then it’s ok!

To some extent I really did think that one day I’d have a eureka moment and figure it all out, but I’ve come to realise that pre-planning my life isn’t for me, and I understand I’ll probably have to figure it out some other way!  And it can be scary, when your friends have plans for a master’s degree, or a graduate job lined up though an internship they did last summer, or a ten-point plan to get where the want to be, whilst I’d be perfectly happy going back to summer camp every year, and just being a big kid.

This pressure has led me to careers advisors and personal tutors on many occasions, who are always telling me “don’t panic”. THIS IS ENTIRELY TRUE! I’ve stopped panicking (for the most of it), there is so much to look forward to. We all want security and to know that what we do will offer a comfortable lifestyle, but for some people like me that will come in due time; at a time that is right for you individually, whether that be a month after graduation or a year after.

During a recent meeting with my tutor, she told me to take at least one year out, to explore the world, and take a break! Loads of people have done it, when you’ve been in education for so long you get lost in the structure of the regulations, I’ve never really had time to process “is this really what I want to do?” I’ve been reassured that it’s ok to not know what you want to do, that I may go through a dozen jobs before I find one that I really like! And this doesn’t freak me out, I embrace that there’s going to be so many skills I can gain from taking on different challenges, and when the time comes I’ll know they’ll be something perfectly suited for me.

The point I’m trying to make is you should do what you want to do and if that takes time then let it, and don’t let those slow steps make you feel like you’re not getting anywhere. You are, but on your own terms, for your own future. For now, I know that I’ll take some time out, explore the world the way I want to, and then just maybe my eureka moment will come, and if it doesn’t then that’s ok too. I’ll find something to do.

By Niamh O’Connor

What I wish I knew: Advice for my 18-year-old self

You can find the full videos on Teen Vogue’s Youtube Channel for some more inspiration!