Career Track Tuesday: Get that Job, Creative Cv's and Covering Letters

Hermione Berry:

Part 1

CV's - professional, graduate, non-graduate jobs

This workshop will enable you to:
-understand the importance of your online presence and consider, "Digital CV's"
- Produce effective covering letters
 structure, format, presentation etc

But What do you want to know?
- creative cv's when are they appropriate?
- is a cv one or two pages? - uk standard two, american one, australia & NZ up to ten.

You need a different CV for every different job role you apply for.

Look at examples of CV's from other people in your area or job role you want to go into to get examples of what they're CV covers.



What is the purpose of a CV?

-Telling someone who you are, qualifications, skills & expertise.
The whole point is to get you an interview. At the end of the day you might have to make multiple cv's taylor for different roles.

Research shows that recruiters only spend 30 seconds looking at your CV so you need to make sure it read's easily.

How to Start
Who are you targeting your CV at? Reasearch companies and organisations and see what they say about themselves, both social media and their websites, have they been in the news? Where did they start off? What are the people like who work for them?
Show the reader what they want to know.
Check Role requirements, advert, person specification (what are they looking for, hardworking, compassionate? Can you show that in your CV).

What are they looking for?
Technical Skills - pattern cutting drawing?
General Aptitude - enthusiastic for the industry
Work Experience, crucial.
Transferable Skills - Writing, Listening, Communication, Time Management, (not reliable, punctual, professional etc because this is automatically expected at Graduate level. Obviously)
Other transferable skills, commercial awareness, teamwork leadership, problem solving etc.

Your CV is your Brochure
Think about the image you want to present, what's your personal brand? Your skills, strengths and aptitude.
How can you add value to the employer?

Identify what the employer wants.


Analysing Sammy's CV:
Name should be bigger because you're marketing yourself.
Have statements, don't use always I am or My, consider using third person, and short statements.
Examples needed when giving examples of skills. Put the skills in the jobs you've already done, and give evidence.

Presentation:
Easy to Read, Keep to 2 pages maz, consistent headers, font style, size, bolds etc
Avoids Wizard's or templates
Spell and Grammar Check (UK English!)

Structure:
What is the best order?
Give prominence to relevant details, what do you want them to see first?
Key Facts - 1/3 way down page 1 and top of page 2.

Usual CV structure:
Personal details
Personal Profile
Education and Qualification
Employment - Relevant Employment/Work Experience, Exhibitions, Voluntary Work, Internships
Skills - to include achievements and positions of responsibility, if applicable
Activities and Interests - avoid politics and religion
References

Personal Details:
Full Name, Address & Postcode. Telephone numbers, email address, LinkedIn Profile. Driving Licence? Visa Status - if Applicable.

Personal Profile / Career Objective:
Consider wirting a short paragraph, approx 3 sentences. Either Personal Profile (skills/attributes/strengths) or career objective. Written in 3rd person. Paragraph has to be punchy like a strapline.

Education, most recent first including dates & where you studied. Awards, what it was, relevant modules (for internships). Expected marks?

Employment Experience:
Most recent first, reverse chronological. Remember to include the name of the employer, dates of the employment (Month-year - month Year), job title. Use bullet points of what skills you've gained.

Employment history sounds better than work experience as that sounds a bit 15year old at school. Voluntary work is good to use to. Internships too!

Quantify and Qualify statements

Vague/Less effective: My duties are, Excellent problem solving, I had to work in a team, I had to communicated with clients daily, Checking invoices, working on tills, good customer service.

Specific: Responsible for a community budget of £2,500, Handled and resolved up to 100 queries a day, worked in a team of 10, supporting one another to achieve daily targets.

Make sure that your activities and interests are short and snappy and relevant to the job role / make you human or show your ambitions.


Simon Riechwald CEO




Creative CV's!!!

Creative CV Guide
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/careers/documents/creativecvguide%281%29.pdf


- use a tasteful and subtle watermark
- landmark CV's can be hard to format but can stand out from the card
- business card to match?

http://www.shortlist.com/cool-stuff/design/30-most-inventive-resumes

Textiles - CV on fabric? Stop motion CV on a set/puppet?

Digital CV - digital portfolio, own websites with showreels etc.
Do you need to put everything you've ever done on there? Showcase a small amount of your work, the good pieces not your progression. Get feedback from professionals on your show reel.


Video CV's









Think about who you are applying for!!

Some Do's and Don'ts:
Do:
- use reverse chronological order,
- avoid jargon,
- clear headings
- be positive
- maximise on your line presence

Don'ts
- use wizards
- leave time gaps
- send a cv without a letter
- repeat yourself
- lie!!


Covering Letters!

Crucial to send with a cv! It makes you come across more professional. Standard structure, be formal and avoid sir and madam, see if you can find the name.

There's four main sections/paragraphs to a cover letter, think carefully about your font and font size.

Para 1. This is what I'm applying for, mutual contacts if you have any.
Para 2. Highlight relevant skills and qualities, what makes you superduper for that job, show enthusiasm and passion. Don't repeat what's on your CV, reword it in a sexy style.
Para 3. Why do you want the job role? Why do you want to work for them? Do your research on the company and showing you understand the ethics and missions of the company, you want to sure your commercial awareness.
Para 4. Positive ending, look forward to hearing from you, available for interview at your convenience, open door stuff.

Couple of recent sources are saying, handwritten PS at the bottom, are more frequently getting interviews and contact. Also so many people email these days, post often grabs more attention.

In Summary:

Tailor CV to job applications. Is 'your brochure easy to read?' - does it pass the 30second test?
Have you highlighted relevant skills, qualities and experience essential for the role?
Have you cut out negative and irrelevant info? Remember focus your covering letter!!!

Life Drawing

I decided to go to the life drawing society, because I have been doing a lot of character drawing recently and my proportions are just appalling. 

We started off with five one minute sketches of different stances. I didn't enjoy this, I need a few minutes just to take in what i'm looking at!

Then we were given the task of two five minute drawings, which I really wasn't happy with the results, I think I struggled a lot getting the proportions in such a short space of time, I normally do a rough sketch then go back and make it look proportionally better.

This was supposed to be the long drawing but I was really pissed off with the position and not being able to make it look proportionally accurate, so I spent this time inking in the images (those that I didn't finish inking in I did later because I decided that I really liked the style). 

This is the one I was most proud of from the session, I think next week I'll try something different, maybe a bit looser to start off with and go for proper measuring techniques on the long one after the break.

Skwigly - Laurel & Hardy

http://www.skwigly.co.uk/laurel-hardy-return-toon-form/

http://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/gaumont-secures-rights-to-animate-laurel-hardy/

This was just a short piece I wrote for skwigly, now I haven't had much chance to write much for them, whilst the end of the year was going on, as I work as well. But this is something I definitely want to work more on over summer. I'm going to get in touch and see if they have any projects I can cover because four months is a long time.

Jan Pypers

http://www.janpypers.be

Jan Pypers is a Belgium freelance photographer, who I discovered on Trendland. I think it's important to take inspiration from all areas of the art world and design industry, I think it's good to appreciate them because in some way or another they can inspire your own practice.

There are two main elements skillfully stage-managed by Pypers: dreams and paranoia. The hare is seen hidden on conspicuous corners, to casually sitting on a windowsill; this character drifts from one extreme to the other effortlessly, always casual and calm. The female character is the opposite, bringing obvious drama to the forefront. The surrealism of the hare with the paranoia of the dame in distress.

http://trendland.com/the-mysterious-hare/

This one is my favourite piece, the composition and lighting is simply hypnotic, it sets up for a really mysterious scene and makes the viewer ask so many questions about what the hare is doing. The scenes he has captured in the Hare series are so surreal it makes you question whether or not they are photographs, I think this is what makes this series stand out to his others because they are so captivating and intriguing.

He does class himself as a fine art photographer and sells them as prints, what I often find difficult with fine artists no matter the medium, there often is a lot of lengthy analysis into them and the meanings behind the work which is often nonsense. I don't think I need to do that here, Trendland already commented on the themes of the surreal hare, and the dame in distress. I think in this series yeah the Hare is surreal but the dame never looks like she's in distress, I think if I was to talk about it I'd say it'd have more to do with him being someone who isn't comfortable in his own skin/hair but he's found someone to love but he's too afraid to approach. I think it would make an amazing short film, in films you have directors of photography, that work with the camera and lighting crew to make a certain look of a film and I think this guy would make an amazing Director of Photography.

 

Sherwin Williams and Buck TV

http://www.buck.tv

I came across Paint Chips, the first of a series of commercials for a paint company called Sherwin Williams, that blew me away. At first I thought it might of been stop motions, because it's made to look like paper cut outs, but then next few times I watched it and researched it, I realised it was CG. I think it's really well textured which gives it a stop motion quality. I also think they mastered the movement of card to make it look like actual card. The other quality I like about these commercials is how they've really pushed the design aspect of what you can do with the colour chart cards. It's really imaginative the different forms and patterns they've pushed.



I decided to look into the studio and came across two more in this series, I really like how in how the years have progressed the animation has improved and you can see how the lighting on them look more professional and especially in the one above the camera direction gets more complex. I think this commercial, Where will colour take you, looks less like stop motion, because it really does push the transformation of the colour chart cards, into complex monuments representing different cultures, pushing peoples imaginations with the colours they could chose or interior decor. Because of it's complexity it becomes inspiring for the everyday person who might not have much imagination.



I think it's clear to see they must of really exceeded expectations with the clients brief for a reasonable price because they kept asking them to make more commercials for them.

One from that studio that us english folk would recognise is the Hive commercial, controlling your heating on the go. They have some great work on their reel, I feel that these are their most successful and some of the others aren't up to the same standard. They have offices in LA and New York but the creative side is based in LA. They are currently hiring both traditional and digital animators. I think that there studio would be a great place to start in. One thing that makes say this is how cool there logo is.

I know that's it's quite a superficial thing to go on, but I've been on some studio's website and they just across really naff, if a clients going to come to you, you need a great website because it's the first port of call. I really like it's layout and set up and something I'll bear in mind when I make mine.

Animex! - Zach Parrish

Zach Parrish Head of Animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios

Zach discusses the process the animation department underwent from the beginning of Big Hero 6 to the production of shots including; pre-production, visual development, modelling, rigging, posing, and character exploration. He will focus on the challenges of the film including the large cast of main characters, the city of San Fransokyo, filling it with crowds, and the variety of animation needed for the film from subtle to action to Baymax.

So to start off his talk, Zach Parrish talked about some of the software that was used to create the film. The first being a 3D clothing simulation for Maya called Marvelous Designer. Which look bloody fantastic.

So this software is derivative of Clo3D which was made for fashion designers, on that piece of software you can have a wider range of stitches, and can also measure the avatars like a tailor would, from my understanding of reading up on the two pieces of software, I believe marvellous clothing drapes more realistically for animation and entertainment purposes. I was amazed by the list of clients and how all the bigwigs use this software from Dreamworks, to Disney, to Illumanati, to Ubisoft... it goes on!!!

The next piece of software he talked about that I had never heard of was Tonic. Tonic is a combination of algorithm's and simulations developed at Disney Animation Studio's to create multiple single strands of hair that move. It was first used in Frozen. 

Basically Hiro's hair is done in the same way as Elsa's (only shorter and darker). He showed us really cool diagrams of how the hair is split up into compartments, and then this Tonic runs a simulation and fills it with tubes. In Elsa's hair there over 400,000 tubes (just to put that into perspective there was on 140,000 in Rapunzel's hair.

What I also found interesting during Zach's talk is how rigorous the process is at Disney Studio's. I didn't realise just quite how much they treat time as money. As so as all the keyframes are done, they "Lock them down" and they aren't allowed to change any of them after that stage, and then it the same with the inbetweens and the earlier stages of the process. He made it seem very intense.

One cute thing he did sneakily let us see were the test walks for Baymax, and we found out that Baymax's walk is inspired by that of a Penguin waddles, so here's a cute video of a penguin:

Another test the animators had to do which hasn't been released, is they had to take a bouncy ball and represent the character in the ball, the way it bounced informed most of the walk cycles. So simple yet effective!

He also talked about the crowd simulation they came up with in the city, but I was too engrossed in Zach Parrish's animated to public speaking to write many notes.

The only other thing he talked about was there apprenticeship program,
What makes an animation show reel stand out are the eyes and soul in character because the mechanics can all be taught! Such good news! I don't think anyone could ever have a bad thing to say about this man he was such a lovely and down to earth guy, really wasn't what I was expecting, a real pleasure to meet him, I hope our paths cross again one day.

http://www.zapmyshorts.com/site/zap/1/

https://twitter.com/Laaazzzeeerrr


Elsa's hair infor: http://technologybehindmagic.tumblr.com/

Animex! - Atomhawk Design & MPC work on Guardians of the Galaxy

4:00pm

MPC presents: animating Groot

Greg Fisher Animation Supervisor, MPC

MPC Animation Supervisor and Teesside graduate Greg showcases the team’s work on the extraterrestrial, sentient tree-like creature Groot from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Bringing Groot to life was both an artistic and technical challenge, requiring a complex rigging system and variations including Groot Cocoon and Baby Groot.


On the monday afternoon there were two very very enlightening talks both relating to Guardians of the Galaxy.

The first of which was by a very pleasant man called Ron Ashtiani, a Manager of AtomHawk design, the Newcastle based company designed the concept art for the Marvel Blockbuster.

It was so exciting to go to these talks and see more of the making on Guardians of the Galaxy, what I really enjoyed was how, Atomhawk's studio worked, how they've risen from nothing, they've done a lot of shit work but they've finally made the big time, they've got some great artist's working for them and they powered through by staying productive. Once a week they have working lunches where one of them will impart some wisdom some tips and tricks on to inspire others and make them work faster. I thought this was just such a great concept. I love this. I did find that the guy wasn't a brilliant public speaker though, but I was super impressed by the work, we were fortunate enough to see it in the gallery printed out huge.


Atomhawk - UI Casestudies 2015 from Atomhawk Design on Vimeo.


www.atomhawk.com


It was also really interesting to see the making of Groot by MPC. And hearing about how they tendered for the character against some really big companies (they were against Frame store and they also bid for Rocket but Frame store got Rocket). How they had several designs and character tests in Maya. It made me realise that Maya is actually an incredible piece of software. I think I'm going to have to do more with it in third year just because so many companies in Industry use it. And I want to be on the same level as these big boys.

Animex! VFX Recruitment Panel

Recruiters panel session - breaking into the industry

Sophie Charlton Recruiter, Double Negative

David Delve ILM London

Mike Farrell Global recruiter, MPC

Thomas Knight Talent co-ordinator, Mill London

Anna Russell Recruitment & Talent Development Manager, Framestore


This panel talk was really insightful, and I imagine it would be especially useful for anyone interested in going to a VFX company. I think at this moment in time, it's not something I particularly fancy. In the sense I would love running for one of these companies and meeting all these people with amazing talents, but I think I personally would prefer to be creating the stories. I also think my passion for using all the software they use isn't there. I prefer drawing and inspiring magic.

I do however strongly believe that what they said about getting recruited by these companies applies to any job. (Most of it). The key points I wrote down are:

- When going for a job interview, you need to show flexibility and a multitude of styles and skills, unless you're applying for a specific role.

- Enthusiasm and eagerness to learn needs to come across all the time, the Industries always change and you need to change accordingly.

- Research who you're applying too. Why are you applying there? Go Prepared! What's there output of work like?

If you would like to hear the talk, I recorded it and uploaded it to soundcloud see below:

https://soundcloud.com/fionastucla/sets/avfx-animex-vfx-company-panel-discussion

Animex! - Simon Carr, Method Studios.

The following talk after Ed Hooks was by Simon Carr VFX Supervisor at Method Studios. I felt like he had a lot of interesting things to say but he wasn't a brilliant public speaker so I had to focus to really appreciate what he was saying, which was a shame, but I can appreciate how talented he is. I therefore didn't write down too much from his talk, also he was giving really in depth detail about a recent project of there's, and I think unless you go to these things it's unfair to spoil the magic, so I'll just share the key things I learnt from his talk.

Triage Shots - Where you shoot with a camera that produces two slightly different videos, one looks like a right eye and the other the left, during Exodus it was Method Studio's job to line up these two shots of the same thing then add the VFX ontop of them. 

The Software they used when working on Exodus:
CMM: 3dE - internally but a little was outsourced to yannix.
Ocula 3&4 - Nuke Plug in
Nuke
Maya / Houdini / Z-Brush / Mari
Rendered in Arnold
Photoshop

During Exodus there was everything from little fixes on shots to large scale fx adding in a lot of drama through sky and map painting to the landscape to completely change the look of some of the shots.

They also worked on Jupiter Ascending which is being released soon, on that they did everything from the space shots, to the palace with red foliage, guns on people's arms and robots with human faces.

Future Projects include:
Insurgant
Avengers Assemble
& Geostorm.


http://www.methodstudios.com/
http://www.yannix.com/

Animex! - Ed Hooks

I first read Ed Hook's book, Acting for Animators, at the start of Character and Narrative during the start of second year when I found out that marks were mainly on the performance. So I was super impressed to find out that he would be opening the AVFX days of animex. Also when Rosy told me she was doing her COP essay on acting and performance analysis of animation, I straight up said she had to read his books, and told her to email him regarding his talk and see if he would answer her questions so she had a first hand source, so when she told me he'd emailed back and would love to talk to her on the tuesday, I felt like a real proud bear!! 

I feel like for most people reading this blog, this man needs no introduction, but if you do please read his about me on his webpage: http://www.actingforanimators.com/about-ed.html

I loved his talk, everything he had to say resonated with me, and the bits that didn't I felt could be taken with a pinch of salt. He clearly was born to perform and his talk was far from inanimate. And just incase you can't read his t-shirt in the above photo, it does say #imazipster.

Notes from the talk:

Do films really need such large budgets? Films like Frozen had a 200million dollar budget, but the higher the budget the more you need to take at the Box Office and Home Cinema's have made this harder, some might even say unachievable. Triplets of Belleville was made with a budget of 8million.

If you're going to break into this industry don't go queue at a studio, you need to update your passport and attach yourself to projects.

Here's where I first take a pinch of salt, because although I appreciate what he's saying, home cinema's really are making it difficult for the industry, especially when animations feature length films take so much longer to produce, they have to make the budget stretch further which can be really difficult. And to get into your dream studio when there's so much competition also can be really really difficult but I think if the opportunity arises, then why not aim for the studio's and go with the ride and if other projects do come up then go with them too. I do however fully agree with the passport thing, you have to go where the exciting stuff is happening and just roll with it, and don't be afraid. 

Look at what Walt Disney did, what he created, I'm talking on an individual level, not the company now. He put his life and personality into it, followed his heart and soul at all costs and he had nobody to follow, it looks that way with disney and pixar merging. Now is an exciting time to break into the industry because there's all these new way's to break into the industry, via Kickstarter, being funded by Amazon and Netflix. You guys are going to be the birth of a new generation of animators, and you'll look back in 20 or 30 years and everyone's going to be so jealous.

This is basically a summary of what he said in a good half an hour, I really liked it, it's so refreshing to hear that it's not a dying art, it's not stopping anytime soon, and we can do whatever we want to do, their isn't actually that many limitations. So motivating to come home and crack on with work and make your own mark.

What do you want to do? What do you want to say? Who do you want to work with?

Work with people that are good and talented. Good people find and attract good people.

This is something that my mum has actually said to me a lot, except it's not good it's happy. I think that's a really important thing to be, if you feel a bit down that's okay but you can't go into a crowd of new people feeling down otherwise you will just attract other negative people that will just make you feel worse, you have to be happy and charming even if you don't feel like it, because you're more likely to talk to someone else who is like that and in the end they will make your life happier. This is a lesson she taught me at a young age and has become a philosophy I live by so again it's so refreshing to hear it from someone who knows the industry and it just makes me feel good about myself to be told it again.

Confidence is vital in the industry. You need to know who you are. Even in training you need to wear it on your sleeve, it's no longer oh you might be an animator when you graduate, you're an animator now. And you are good enough for the industry you just need to be charming and show yourself off. Some will like it, the other's- to hell with them!!

I think this a major problem student's have is the confidence. I think this is one thing Elliot especially picked on, he turned to me and said I can't believe Mark's so nice to us, or Zach just stopped in the street to wish us a safe journey. But at the end of the day they started off like us and we are nice people and we've been up to them and spoken to them and had really cool conversations, even if that confidence came from a few pints (half a bottle of whiskey whos counting), it still makes their trip nicer, and it's made our's amazing, surely the exchanges are beneficial for both parties. I think this made him especially more comfortable next working, and to me, that made the trip more worthwhile that meeting the big wigs. Although I really felt for him when Weta cancelled. Back to Ed...

What is Art - Tolstoy

If you haven't read this you need to ! It changed my outlook! Before anything else art has to convey an idea, a meaning and in animation that's through the performance, but if you don't have an idea you can't have a decent performance. You need to surround yourself by all kinds of art and design disciplines and books and travelling to get these ideas.

I now feel bad that I haven't read this, I do as much as I can but where do you find the time to cram as much of it in!! I have now added this to my list of PPP blogs to get out of draft!

In conclusion Don't fall into line with the others you've got to step up and lead, the excitement might not come to you, go to it, be prepared to travel, don't assume though that it's all coming from America, there's just as much in Europe and the East, especially with these new platforms.

What an amazing start to the day. So inspired, he also suggested we watch The Congress, Ari Fulman's latest film (Waltz with Bashir), (note to self add both films to must watch list).

Skwigly - Mark Shapiro Interview

Meeting and interviewing Mark Shapiro was the highlight of BAF for me!! We were only supposed to get a twenty minute interview slot but it turned into forty, which meant for a super long interview, that took me hours to transcribe. I basically wrote every word out and then edited it down so only the interesting parts got published. This was a really long process but one that I really enjoyed, he's such a nice guy that made it really easy to feel comfortable to ask questions. I tried to ask ones I thought would benefit the readers most, and also the ones I was most interested in knowing the answers to. I think interviewing is something I would definitely be up for doing more of, maybe it's a calling!



http://www.skwigly.co.uk/mark-shapiro-part-1/
http://www.skwigly.co.uk/mark-shapiro-part-two/

Skwigly - Frozen Fever

This was a really fun article to write, I was walking through discount brands and they had a massive section of Frozen merchandise, including kitchen roll and toilet roll, and with the new short coming out to be shown before the new live action Cinderella, Steve suggested it would be a really exciting thing to cover. When I initially wrote it before christmas as a suggestion for christmas present Ideas, they didn't have time to edit it and with me being a new writer the first few articles I've written they've wanted to go through and edit with me so they can make sure I'm learning from the process. So we decided to wait and time it with the Big Hero 6 release and put some of that crazy merchandise on too. I'm really enjoying writting for Skwigly and it's run by such an amazing team of people that are so passionate about the industry, I think it's helping me grow contacts and confidence in my own abilities.

http://www.skwigly.co.uk/fans-still-gripped-frozen-fever/

Overused LinkedIn Words

2014 Global List - Top 10 Most Overused LinkedIn Buzzwords
Motivated
Passionate
Creative
Driven
Extensive experience
Responsible
Strategic
Track record
Organizational
Expert

2014 U.S. List – Top 10 Most Overused LinkedIn Buzzwords
Motivated
Creative
Passionate
Driven
Extensive experience
Organizational
Strategic
Track record
Responsible
Problem-solving

http://blog.linkedin.com/2015/01/21/brand-you-year-how-to-brand-yourself-without-sounding-like-everyone-else/

http://www.nylon.com/articles/linkedin-overused-profile-words

The main offender on my LinkedIn profile is the word creative, but I feel like it's fitting, because I like everything from illustration, to knitting and sewing, to animation and model making. I think there isn't one thing of these that I'm amazing at I'm just okay at all of them, but that's because I spread my time across all of them equally. I think this is justified from my skills department, so I think it's okay to leave this is in my profile. However I am continuously wanting to self improve my profile, because it's proven to have recruiters look at it for new blood, I think I just need to get a showcase of work ready to plaster it across a website and all over my social media like a branding to stand out a bit more.

Career Track Tuesday - Practical and Creative approaches to Job Hunting

Practical and creative approaches to Job hunting

Tricia Ferren & Katie Peyton Lister

-Foundations for your job search strategy,

• if I were the employer,
• practical and creative strategies
• how to keep going when you feel like giving up.

Am I clear about what I’m aim for?

Can I confidently describe what I can offer (with evidence)

Do I have job/opportunity strategy that I feel confident about?

What are your own values? What do you enjoy? Do you know what’s already out there on the market? Values/Beliefs/Preferences

See yourself as a product, market yourself to other companies.

You need to be actively seeking out the role, no where is going to spend good money marketing the job when they already have a mass of people actively seeking out there bottom feeder roles. Remember to look at organisations that look more widely at creative industries who might need your skill set.

Be prepared, always make sure you are always up to date with your cv and self promotional stuff.

What’s my strategy?

Relevent employer/organisation information.

See handout of practical and creative approaches to job hunting, and some useful websites, Links and Advice and using recruitment agencies.

http://www.agencycentral.co.uk

https://www.rec.uk.com/help-and-advice/jobseekers

Make sure you are looking at the right places

The Moodys "Job Search" from Über Content on Vimeo.

What is Hiive? (full version) from Hiive on Vimeo.

hiive.co.uk

Twitter is really big now, follow follow follow. 

Don’t ignore linked in!!

Career Track Tuesday - How to Network Effectively

The art of networking

Not everyone is brilliant at networking, for some people it does take them a bit of effort.

What we will cover:

Why is networking important

Where to network

Making your introduction

Conversation topics

Body Language

Dealing with the deadly silence or moving on

Follow up

When you go to a networking event do think about it as what can you get out of it, but you have to give first and then it comes back around. 

Tell me about it exercise:

Pair up with someone and ask them to talk about a subject and the other has to keep asking questions called tell me about it. 

Everyone preferred to be the person asking the tell me about questions which is really positive because you can ask the questions. The importance of this exercise meant that it’s not about telling people about you it’s about asking about them and making connections.

The fear:

What if no one talks to me?

What if I don't know what to say?

What if I get stuck with a boring person?

What if someone asks me something I can’t answer?

Replace the fear of the unknown with curiosity.

Why is it networking really important?

It can open the door to new relations.

Make connections to move your career forward.

Connections create mutual benefits between important participants.

It is important to reach out beyond your ‘sector’.

Where do I find out about networking events?

Online/through your friends / colleagues.

Eventbrite

Yorkshire Mafia

Cafe Start-Up (for freelances, new companies)

Junior Chamber of Commerce

LCA Events

Festivals.

Online presence is important as well, especially linkedin. Works best if you contribute to the industry you're in.

You've registered for the event, now what! Plan ahead, you don't want to feel flustered!

Get an invite list if possible, maybe set target and say you want to target at least five people. 

Arrive Early. More likely to talk to people if you're the only in the room.

Go with someone - but don't stick with someone. 

Be confident - talk to people who are on there own or a couple of people who look like you can join in.

Starting the conversation

Hi my name is xxxx (and your name is xxxx)

Where do you work?

Have you been to one of these events before?

Tell me a bit about you, what do you do? What projects have you got on at the moment?

If you forget someone’s name - ask them again.

To remember someone’s name use visualisation. Relate it to a famous person, like Susannah - Trinny and Susannah imagine them naked. Oystein (anglo saxon name) them holding a stein of oysters.

What’s most successful about meeting someone is when they get talking ask them an open question about what they do. Don't give compliments when you can ask a question.

Example:

someone says; “I work with young people using creative strategies”

• How long have you done that for?
• Where do you do it?
• What kind of Strategies?
• How do you chose a strategy?
• What age range of young people?
• How did you get into it?

Don't worry about being interesting, be interested it and people will like you for being curious. Ask questions.

Listen - can you make connections/suggestions.

Things not to do:

• use your phone.
• Glance away 
• talk over them, over agree definitely not.
• hijack the conversation
• mumbling
• move backwards
• looking at watch
• daydreaming
• yawning

Logical Levels

1. Environment
2. Behaviour
3. Skills & abilities
4. Values & Beliefs
5. Identity
6. Mission / Vision

1.2.3. = Head 4.5.6. = Heart

1. How does it relate to everything else in your life?

How does this contribute to where you are going in your life?

Your relationship with others?

1. What does doing this mean about (or say about) you as a person?

What’s changed about you since you started doing this?

1. Why do you do it?

What do you get from doing it?

What would you miss out on if you did not do it?

1. How did you learn this ability?

What do you need to develop in order to do it well?

What are the main skills required?

1. What do you do when you do this?

What’s involved?

1. When and where do you do this activity?

Who else is present?

Body Language

It’s about active listening - not just with your ears, but with your body language

Dry mouth, sweaty palms, increased heartbeat

Eye Contact / firm handshake important

Don't fold your arms in front of you

Your stance, be open, don't slouch, think about holding food and drinks.

Facial expressions, smile versus a yawn!

Speed of talking/tone of voice

What to wear - dependent on type of networking event.

Repore: 

How do you create repore with another person?

Don’t match their body language, dangerous.

Tonality of the voice, subtle and respectful matches.

Similar eye movements, but not too much eye contact!!

You can have repore with a person even if you don't have eye contact. I.E farmers sitting on a fence.

The deadly silence

Have question fillers ready, make sure they are open ended.

i.e What clients are you working with at the moment?

What do you love most about your job?

What other networking events can you recommend?

What are your plans for the weekend?

Don't leave someone on there own if it can be helped. - nip to the loo is often a good exit strategy. 

You could ask them to introduce you to others. Never close a group. Keep yourself open for more people. Or bring someone else into the conversation.

Follow up

Write on the business card where you met them,

Add on any action you promised.

Schedule 30 minutes the next day

Email them and say nice to meet you, follow them on twitter, retweet info about their company.

Add on LinkedIn.

Staged networking event - more personal to speak to people one on one.

Mitchell and Webb networking, youtube video, brain surgery / rocket science.

Visiting Professional, Rebekah Caputo, Puppeteer

Puppeteer and Theater Maker.

Designs and makes puppets and then manipulates them on the stage.

What is Puppetry?
For anything inanimate to appear alive.

Why did she choose puppets?
Caputo started off acting but came to work a play with puppets because of the magic involved and the animism of puppetry. (Animism - (from Latin animus "soul, life") is the worldview that non-human entities (animals, plants, and inanimate objects or phenomena) possess a spiritual essence.) This spiritual essence can be in anything from a plastic bag to to an old man, there are no restrictions. She also loved the fact that with acting you can be quite limited with what you can do with your body but with puppetry you can do anything with them.

Caputo obtained an acting degree at Bretton Hall, a degree that focused on script writing, and their own shows. From this a group of her course mates banded together and created their own theater company Chotto Ooki. This lasted from 2005-2008 until they all decided to pursue separate strands of theater.


However during this period of her life, she was on the verge of exploring puppetry, including shadow and hand held. Faulty Optic were a massive inspiration to where her career is taking her today.
http://www.faultyoptic.co.uk/tunnelpage.htm

Caputo was inspired and wanted to create worlds with no limits. After splitting from Chotto Ooki she spent two years making her own puppets, whilst also working with a community performance group called Ladybird which rented spaces at festivals, to provide performances of puppetry, it was where anyone could have a go, so she regularly tested her skills.

Rebekah brought in some of her earlier attempts at puppet making, which are falling apart, but this shows the development of her materials, and the improvement of her designs.

Her Inspirations:
Faulty Optic
http://www.faultyoptic.co.uk/newindexframe.htm
Which are defunct now and work under the name of Invisible Thread
http://www.invisiblethread.co.uk/
Suspense Festival - Which sounds amazing, I really want to go!
https://www.littleangeltheatre.com/festivals/suspense/
Pickeled Image
http://pickledimage.co.uk/

Other Influences:
Loves to people watch, see how the faces move and form, you can learn a lot from looking at different sized people.

Masks - these emphasise faces in different ways

Skeletons: the anatomy is really important to study to create other worldly object

Car Boot Sales - likes to make up stories on other  peoples history.


Now Rebekah's practice form one half of Odd Doll Puppetry.


The are constantly thinking of concepts and shows they can sell for an audience so touring companies want to book them, although they are based in Leeds. The First show was the worried walrus, aimed at families, because there isn't a large audience for adult puppetry. A lot of funding comes from the art council.

She also makes a living from shadow art, making shadow art with refugees and asylum seekers as a form of therapy.

As well as being an MA student at LCA Caputo believes it's of upmost importance to share her practice with others and collaborate as much as possible. She's learnt that it's okay to enjoy and specialise it quite dark pieces of work.

Suggestions from Rebekah Caputo include:

Animate Live - an improv night once a month at the Hub in Holbeck,

Websites:
http://www.puppeteersuk.com/
http://unima.org.uk/

Books:
Puppetry & Puppets: An illustrated World
Puppetry A Reader in Theater Practice

Materials:
Supersculpty - heavy & Brittle, Faces cast in clay and then cast in Latex.




Bastard! from DudaPaiva Company on Vimeo.



http://www.rebekahcaputo.co.uk/

Vikas Bahl

Vikas Bahl is an Indian Director who used to be head of UTV Motion Pictures (an Indian Film making company owned by Walt Disney). He now is a co-owner and director at the film production company Phantom Films.

Above is a short film that caught my attention to raise the awareness of the empowerment of women in India. I think this short is striking because the whole narrative follows a path which is anything but realistic, but why shouldn't it be realistic for a young girl to be treated fairly if her care breaks down? I think the message "Can we give her the world that she believes exists?" Is an important one, and one we should ask, but I don't think Vogue is the right platform to do it on. Surely this should be shown to men and on platforms with the type of people that are likely to attack a young woman.

I've never really looked at Indian Cinema, I've seen the odd Bollywood film, but I wasn't expecting anything this contemporary or striking from a director whose typical pieces are Bollywood.

What I enjoy most about this director's work, is the composition. I think the shot framing is really professional, my favourite part in the trailer for his latest film below is when the boy and girl are talking through the book case and they are each on the thirds and it cuts perfectly to show a flowing conversation. It's a mash of effective editing, and this effortless control in shot framing that makes his filming style so contemporary and unlike other slightly crude Bollywood films. (for example the Godmother).

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4318482/