What are the key skills for employment? Shown below is a quick mind map showing the main subject qualities you need to be employed. Whether it is part time, full time, temporary or a specific career. You will need these skills to set a good impression.
Confidence - When having an interview or meeting, you need to show confidence. You need to be confident within yourself, your client and the product you are presenting or producing to them. If you are unsure about anything then the client will be unsure too. You need to of researched a lot into the client, what you are doing and how your going to do it. You have to prove that you are the perfect employee or freelancer for them because you know what your doing and you can get the job done to the quality they want it.
Basic Qualification - To start any employment, you will need your basic GCSE's usually 5 A*-C Grades as is required for university and specific employment but not all employment. All Employment will require you to have English skills and higher paid jobs or specific careers, will require English and Maths skills/qualifications.
Professional - It is important you look the part as well as act the part when seeking employment. If you dress and act inappropriately then it does not set a good impression in the employer's view. You not only need to act formally for business purposes, act sensible to show maturity and speak formally, you also need to dress accordingly too. If you do not then the employer will most likely get the impression that you do not really want the job or aren't really bothered about the client as you are doing it because you have to.
Team Work - Team work is everywhere. Whether you are a freelancer, working alongside a client, whether you are working in a company with your other employees, whether you are the manager working alongside your employees, you will always have customers and clients. Being able to work in a team is a crucial skill to have due to most employers looking for that before employing their employee. Being able to work in a team can also be extremely helpful as you are able to share the work load out between other members in your group.
Communication - Communication is also one of the most important skills needed as it is everywhere. You need to be able to communicate with your employer, other employees, clients and other freelancers to have contacts in the industry. If you are a freelancer especially, you want people to recognise you and know about you. You want to advertise your business and make it visible so you stand out in the industry. If you have poor communication skills, you will not go very far as communication is everywhere, especially in the media industry.
Organisation -Organisation is the answer to keeping on track with your work and making sure you have done everything needed to do and you have not left anything out. When you are not organised, is when things become messy and out of order. This means you could miss crucial things out of your projects, you could miss deadlines, miss meetings, be late and miss out on opportunities. Having poor organisation skills really does not impress your employer or client.
Punctuality - When working with clientele in particular, it is important that both you and your client is very punctual and always on time. If you fail to show up for meetings or you are late, it does not set a very good example to your manager or boss or clients even, because it shows that you aren't too bothered about the work and that your not eager to do the work or start the project. The client or boss may want to find someone more eager and willing to do the work. The client then might not want to work with you again or recommend you meaning your losing out on money. Or if you are the freelancer, you may not want to work with the client again because they are making you lose valuable time.
Time Management - Especially as a freelancer, it is important to manage your time wisely. You need to firstly concentrate on the job and clients in hand so you need to be coming up with ideas for the projects you are doing, planning, organising and shooting or doing the project for the client but you also need to make sure that you are up to date with the industry. Up to date with the software and hardware and technology or different ideas and ways of doing things. You need to research into this all the time as especially in media, the industry is constantly changing. A client would not want a freelancer who is always behind on whats going on in the industry. You then need to manage your free time and research. You need to make everything work and you need to manage times to do things so you are never behind. Organisation is key here.
Initiative - You will need to be able to use your initiative when needed. This means that you would need the capability of not only working in a team but working independently when needed. You should be able to undertake the tasks and projects set by either clientele or your boss and you will need to get them done quickly, effectively and to the best of your ability to the standard that they want. This is extremely important in the industry as there is always times and moments where you will need to work on your own to get a task done. Even if a task hasn't been set, having that initiative to do something even if it is not asked, is extremely important as it will put you a set ahead, giving you more opportunities.
Adaptability - When going to university or being a freelancer or working for a company, there are always new people, new situations and new environments that you will be put in. It is essential for you to be able to adapt to these new changes to settle in at your work place and have an income. If you can not easily adapt to these new situations then it is going to be hard for you working in the industry. Especially in the media industry where change happens all the time. Your boss might change, so-workers might change, work might change and if your a freelancer, you will have ew clientele all the time. You need to adapt to these changes and be able to work with a wide range of people even if you do have different interests.
Listening Skills - Watching and listening is a crucial part of development in the media industry. It is how you learn the most about your job. Instead of learning from written lessons and exams, you learn from other people. Sharing the knowledge, listening to what they say and watching what they do. Even online tutorials and videos showing things, teaches you a lot. If you always think you always know best, and you don't listen to others in the industry or people doing the same thing as you then you will end up learning a lot slower. It is a constant competition in the freelancing world and the best way to learn is from others doing the same job. If you refuse to listen then you will never be as advanced as others because there will always be someone else with more knowledge on certain things.
Experience - Experience is key in some career goals. Especially the media industry as it is very practical. The best way to get better at a practical subject is to learn by practicing and having experience in doing it. Learning from others and learning from practicing. Experience is hat impresses other employers as you not only have the knowledge and qualifications, but you have the confidence and you know what your doing as you have done it several times before in different situations or companies.
Contacts in the Industry (Specific) - Having contacts in the industry is more of a specific key skill for the media industry but it is one that is also important. The media and creative industries is very big. To at least be recognised for your work, it is important to make as many friends and contacts in the industry as possible. This way, you will have more opportunities come your way like working with a team, you can also build on your own team with more people and you may get more clients from people who know about you and your work. It is key to stay connected with the industry through clients and contacts.
Problem Solving - Problem solving can be the key to the industry. It could set you aside from other freelancers and employees. If you can solve problems easily then more employers will want you due to you being different in the industry. It allows for the client or the employer to move a lot more quickly if the problems that occur are solved within a short amount of time. It helps the client and the employer due to having less set backs. If you can provide this for them then you will be highly wanted.
Creativity (Specific) - The creative industries require you to be a creative person. Although this may seem obvious, not everyone has the creativity for the industry creativity does not come easy. You need to be able to have a creative mind set at all times. Every job and career path is different but without the creative eye, you may not necessarily make it to the career goal you wished for. However, you can keep practicing and getting experience in the industry to develop a creative eye. But usually, it comes naturally although not everyone has it. It just helps with things like advertising and editing. Knowing where the cuts go when editing a sequence and knowing how it should be colour graded. Whether the grading looks right for the scene you are going for and, knowing whether people will look at the advertisement and instantly be sold to the product or not. The creative eye just brings your work to life. It just tells you what feels right and what doesn't.
The Key to ensure your professional development:
Trends - The trends within the industry is a good way to ensure you are developing. Whether you are a freelancer or you work for a company, keeping up with the trends is an essential when working in the industry as you do not want to be behind with the new trends, ways of doings things or updates or people will not want to employ you or work with you as you have not shown an interest in your work.
Equipment Updates - A bit like the trends within the industry, equipment updates allows you to keep up with industry styled equipment and hardware. It means that you will be producing high quality standard work with new equipment that is out there. It also means that you know of all different brands and hardware pieces or accessories for cameras and things that you work with. So that you will not be completely alien to it all and that you can work in the industry with no problems at all.
Watch and Listen - Watching and listening is one of the main keys to ensuring your development within the industry. Especially as media production is mainly done off your own back at first to get recognised. The main keys to developing on your own as a freelancer is to watch lots of tutorials or YouTube videos about what it is your interested in and are doing. For example, after effects tutorials, photoshop, editing, filming, special and visual effects etc. Whatever it is your interested in, there will always be plenty of YouTube videos to watch and follow step by step. When gaining experience, it is always important to watch, listen and take in what is going on around you.This allows you to gain first-hand experience with working with the new technologies, people in the industry and the industry life-styled working environment. It shows you what you to expect when working in the industry.
Lessons learned from projects (feeding forward) - One thing I have definitely learnt from the projects I have created is time keeping. When creating future projects, I will make sure that I plan and use my time wisely rather than just doing what needs to be done. I need to be more organised to get things done on time. Feeding forward is a very important process as it allows you to realise what points went wrong with your project, and where you can make them right. This will help for my upcoming projects in the near future and in the industry.
Software Updates - Knowing different software updates may be just as important as hardware updates if you are working towards the editing career pathway. If you are a teacher, then you would need to make sure you look over the software and new update before you teach your class. If everything has changed and the layout has changed with the new update that you didn't know bout, then you are not going to be able to teach. You need to make sure that you are aware of these updates and keep updated to them.
CV/ Portfolio Update - Make sure your cv and portfolio is always kept up to date so that when applying for jobs and universities, your work will always be relevant to that day. Your CV/Portfolio is what sells you as an individual student so it is important for your cv or portfolio to be straight to the point, creative if that is what you wish to go into and show all of your best pieces of work. If it is unorganised and messy or not relevant, then most universities and work places, will just put your portfolio to one side as they have a lot to get through and yours does not stand out.
Things that can interrupt professional development:
Being Lazy - Being lazy is one of the key issues shown when coming to work and professional development. It is easy to not be 'bothered' or wanting to put work to one side to watch the last episode of Stranger Things on Netflix but, this is what can interrupt your development within the industry, destroy your project or make you behind on schedule or even make your project work for your client, all messy. It may mean that you are behind on schedule and will not have time to do everything at once like your client work, college or university work and keep up with the industry all at once. This is why it is extremely important to find your priorities and put a schedule in place so that you will have free time, but also that means that your free time will not make everything unorganised or behind on schedule.
Knowledge - Not having enough knowledge can be a big issue due to you not keeping up with the industry, client or new updates. This means that you could potentially take longer to complete your work due to updates that you did not know about or know how to use. If you do not have the knowledge for updates or equipment then you will always be behind on projects and miss multiple deadlines. It is important to have the knowledge, this could help you in multiple different ways and routes for your projects. You may find out better softwares and better equipment you can use to make your job easier. The knowledge also allows you to have more clientele and more opportunities due to widening your work prospects.
Time Management - Time management and organisation is key when producing work. It allows you to identify your deadlines and work towards them. It keeps you on time with your projects and it relieves stress by organisating your free time, work, clients and keeping up with the knowledge in the industry. Time management allows you to not underwork or overwork yourself. It helps you make times and plans for you to finish your work on time and to the best of your ability without having to do everything at the last minute.
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