Employment opportunities within Media
Full time
When you get the chance to work in the media industry you will be placed in many forms of different work contracts the first being a full time worker with a full time media contract more often then not full tine jobs require you to work on a production for a long period of time for a full time paying job the production could go on months at a time but you would be put in that specified area for the allocated time that this production begins and ends. An example for a full time job would be a researcher in which the job entails you to do multiple counts of research as to whats current and what people currently want in popular culture in doing this you develop your own ideas and bring them forth to your team and pitch ideas for this new show or persuade your team to focus on a certain area that has become a popular and there for making this idea into a series. People in this job role would typically have some expirence in the media industry meaning they worked there way from the bottom to this point even to go far back as getting free work as a volunteer but then after mutliple times of being with that company they decided to keep you own as a runner which would later move you up to the point of becoming a researcher, Much higher roles with full times would be Director,producer,editor,vision mixer ect.
These jobs would require massive amount of experience so to get your foot in the door you would need contacts its always good to have contacts as word of mouth is the most trusted source of infomration as if your friend works on a production and needs someone and they suggest you the person in charge would most likely take there word of them and with one right production you can get youself in the company and start building yourself up and get yourself a high paying full time job.
The final way would be to directly contact this comapny maybe pester them to the point they accept your interview giving you a chance to show them how persitant and driven you are.
Part Time
When working in media not all jobs will be full time roles many of these jobs will be part time roles if you find yourself wokring a part time shift one benfit is less hours so less stess but sadly you will have less pay. ruuners are considered to be a part time role as you are really the person below a lot of higher people and you do a lot of errands for those people to keep the production going you do many functions as the runner following multuple areas in the media sector this could be major jobs or small jobs depending on whos incharge of you. For example if you worked on TV and you had a guest your priority would be calm down the guest and talk about why they are on the show almost do a dummy interview with them so before they go on to talk to our host they are a lot less stressed out and are calmer making it easier for them to talk to our host. The employer would be looking for most likely younger energetic enthusatic people with a massive creative input for the production crew as if they are working there way into this industry they need to act like they want to get involved with this company and its shows. This person would have to massively organised, punctial,able to hit dead lines and have great time keeping this will help the production go at a smooth pace it will also look good to an employer as you are hitting everything they are looking for. They want people with bits of expirnce and passion so keep your CV up to date with a passion about this industry and your skills as well as what you can bring to the table.
Freelance
Freelance is another way of saying self employed for example if you have a keen interest in photography and have the skills to take beauitufl photographs you could later sell these photographs to a magazine and get them to publish these photos in this magazine and you could split the profits they could then later hire you as a free lance photogrpher where they tell you what to take pictures and what for and how much you would get paid but this be assigned strictly to you and you would not get a company contract with this company. In the interest of filming many people take it upon themselves to charge for wedding videos as they shoot it with there own equipment and then edit the final product themselves and sell it to the couple while buying a small licenese to have any music they want on the DVD as its not for commerical useses. The only thing about freelance is you have to set yourself up so have a strong graps on certain skill and have backing knowledge of what is you do and also provid an e-portfolio to clients.
Shift Work
When having with shift work within the industry this would usually be for a 24 hour broadcaster. This means that someone that will have a job in a television production or in radio broadcasting when recording something that would be continuous throughout the day for instance Radio One with the BBC, someone that would be working by shift would be given shifts for when to work within a production day.Shifts could be split from basic 9 to 5 or even have the grave yard depneding on what you were assigned.
Voluntary
Voluntary work is commonly known as work expirence you are volunteering because you want to learn about the industry you will most likely not be paid by the company as you have no expiernce in any form and there are probably more perepspetive candiates however if you are eager enough and impress them what could happen is shadowing where you are taken under someones wing in a certain area that you impressed and you become a paid apprentice. You are most likely a runner or highest a peronsal assistant to someone most of it would be doing small job no wants to do but its a great way to get in the door.
Piece work
Piece work is a contract where someone pays you for a proudct or in this case piece to be made for a specfic area however you will not get paid until this piece is done a lot of compaines do this with out side graphics deisgerns for banners and 3D modelling even editors get a chance to create a piece for a production as the main company may have deadlines to meet with other shows they out source there content to other companies or clients so they can keep on track but as i said you would not be paid until this piece is finished. Many comapines who are dry on ideas could even ask you to make a whole new show for them and even pitch towards a company for them as you are writing an oringal piece for there company and could get comissoned which if this happend could get you into a higher rank of employment if you idea is good enough you could also get a heavy part of the profit if the piece sells well.
Preparing and applying
Prepraing for the media industry is such a long task and with technology progessing as it is new exciting jobs come out every year but with the overwhelming amount of change in the industry you must be sure what you would want to do in your future as the qulafications you get can help push you in that right direction. For example if you wanted to become a great writer for making movies you would most likely have to go into a univertisy and study either script writing or film production this would take three for a basic degree or five for a masters over the time you are there you would have developed your skills and found your strenghts and in many cases worked on some of your own productions in departments you want to work in. All the qualfications you gain over the years in university should be noted down on a CV. Your CV is your life blood for job interviews it has to sell you as a person it shows your educational milestones in life as well as your previous job expirences and a small part about your interest the whole point of this document is to make you look appealing to the person who is holding the job so you must make it count you have to seem eager and passionate at the job interview prepare yourself know what you are going to say think of questions to ask talk about your passion and what you hope to achieve and what you can bring that no one else can. FInally have regrences about your previous job employers and show them to your interview the words they say can help you come across more of an employable person even use old jobs as refrence points when questions are asked even turn a weakness into a strenght but dont see over confident. One final thing is do your home work if the employee works at Sony pictures research the company talk about its greatst movies its casts and clients its history seem eager to want to work for that company and attend the interview on time be punctional and finally dress to impress.