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5 Top Tips from Employers – Kickstart Community Blog

Top 5 ‘Next Steps’ Tips from Employers

Hello everyone, Jack here, the Kickstart Community Administrator.

We’ve had some useful and engaging ‘Meet the Employer’ sessions over the past few months, delivered as part of the Kickstart network. Below are 5 top tips from the featured employers, which can help you get started when looking for future job roles in the arts sector!

Claire Somerville, Babylon Arts – www.babylonarts.org.uk

1. Do your research – If you’re invited to interview, help the employer see that you’re keen to work with them and that you know something about the organisation already.

Amanda Rigby, Paper Rhino – www.paperrhino.co.uk

2. Go to arts events– If you’re looking for work, try hanging out with other creatives, putting as much of your own work out through social media as you can and making it known you’re available for work. If you can, pick up some freelance work by doing favours / design jobs for friends and family. You can add this to your portfolio and gain experience which might lead to referrals. If people can’t pay you, insist they give you creative freedom and share the work instead.

Ruth Campbell-Ekins, Metal – www.metalculture.com

3. Make your CV stand out from the rest – If your creative, make it creative! Tailor your CV to each job you apply for and include links to examples of your work (if appropriate) such as a website or Instagram.

Amanda Rigby, Paper Rhino – www.paperrhino.co.uk

4. Pick the work you love – When curating a portfolio great portfolio, consider quality over quantity. Select high-quality pieces that really show what you can do. Pick the work you love and try to tailor your portfolio to suit the job you’re going for by selecting content that relates to the job you’re applying for.

Claire Somerville, Babylon Arts – www.babylonarts.org.uk

5. Networking can be fun! – Most people are just as nervous about chatting to new people, as you might be feeling and are grateful that you have struck up a conversation with them. Prepare a few open-ending questions to get the conversation going.

If you’re a Kickstart employee and didn’t manage to catch any of the ‘Meet the Employer’ sessions, they are available to watch via the Kickstart Teams channel. If you’d like to view all our employers top tips, please email Jack Breeze-Lamb – jack.breezelamb@nnfestival.org.uk

Introducing Jack and the Kickstart Community Blog!

You may have seen that we at Creative Arts East are heading up Kickstart East Anglia, a consortium of 50 creative and cultural employers across Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire who are offering 6-month work placements for young people on Universal Credit. With a whole host Kickstart employees now in post, we’re bringing them together to share their experiences, learning and interests via a new Kickstart Community blog, hosted by Community Administrator, Jack Breeze-Lamb. Let’s hand over to Jack to introduce his role and learn more about what we can expect from this new endeavour!

Hi, my name’s Jack, and I’m the Community Administrator for the Kickstart East Anglia consortium. My job is to find opportunities, create events and build networks for the Kickstart employees, to help us become more employable, informed and professional when our placements come to an end. I work chiefly under Festival Bridge, who are working with Creative Arts East on further training opportunities for the consortium.

I found myself working as the Kickstart Community Administrator after a long period of unemployment, where I focussed on writing my second full-length album, ‘Energy’, and doing odd jobs as a freelance composer. As an electronic artist, I played along two friends of mine in a gig in Leeds last March, supporting Plaid at the Sounds Like THIS festival in Leeds. The future looked hopeful for gigs and live shows for us, as we had a great time and put on a fun show. However, just a couple of days after this gig was the beginning of the first lockdown, and so I haven’t had a chance to play live since.

Things are starting to pick up though, as I am playing a gig in the Hunter Club in Bury St Edmunds on the 14th of August, so be sure to come along if you’re free!

Jack Breeze

I’m going to be sharing Kickstart updates and happenings of the forum as part of this regular blog series, as well as any interviews or articles I write with helpful information for those furthering their employability skills. To give you a taster of what’s coming up, last month I interviewed a wide variety of different freelance creatives, asking them about their work and how to be successful in an uncertain career. It will also be a place to find out about opportunities, events and to hear what the members of the consortium have to say, including movie reviews and independent articles written by Kickstarter employees themselves, offering their own perspectives.

Are you a young person looking to gain experience and employment in the creative industries?

Take a look at the Kickstart placements on offer in the region, via Kickstart East Anglia.

Click here to see all the Kickstart East Anglia placements

Creative Arts East and Kickstart Logos