Career development options

FD architectural, interior, 3D design

Jodie leek- second year

After I have completed my FD in architectural, interior, 3D design course I am looking in to full time employment. I have decided to go in to full time employment because I feel that I have all the appropriate skills and knowledge I need. Also having been in education for 15 years I feel that I have personally had enough and am ready for a new challenge that I have yet to experience. I will have 2012 and 2013 to find a suitable job and if I am unsuccessful then I shall return to education to gain more qualifications that will help me. I am not gaining any more qualifications now as I have previously interviewed a few people in the industries I am interested in and have been told that employers tend to look out for skills and experience rather than qualifications, after having completed work experience on a T.V set I was told the same by most of the people there, but I am not basing my next steps on what people have told me, I also believe in the “it’s not what you know, but who you know” concept. If my plan for employment doesn’t work out I feel that I can have it as a year out and just return to education, which I will be willing to do after a year out of it. I am going to gather all my portfolio work together from the past 2 years to produce an E-portfolio which I can send to employers online. I will choose my strongest pieces and improve the quality on Photoshop for a more impressive and professional look. I am going to choose a mix of drawings and practical pieces that I have created to show my wide range of skills that I am capable of doing. As I really want to get a job in costume I am going to set myself some new goals of making more garments outside of college for my own benefit, of improving my skills.

I am going to produce an action plan and new personal goals to help me prepare and look for a full time job.

I will also use the information from my SWOT analysis to improve on my weaknesses and target my threats.

My personal goals for 2012:

·         I am going to start creating my own garments outside of college to improve on my skills such as sewing etc. I will learn more complex patterns and techniques that I may come across in the future.

·         Look for more work experience in the theatre industry.

·         Research job vacancies and find what the employers are demanding.

·         Attend networking events.

These are my new goals to complete before I finish my course. I thought that these were reachable and not too much work to do alongside my other projects.

I want to improve on my garment making skills as for my last project, the insides weren’t done very well and I thought they looked shabby and untidy. I am also going to email theatre companies in west Yorkshire to request work experience as I have not yet worked in a theatre and would like to know exactly what it entails. I want more work experience as it will give me more chance of getting a job in the theatre. I am going to start researching job vacancies and internships for theatres as soon as I can to see what the employers want to see and if I could possibly apply if it is a start date that is later in the year. I am also going to look for networking events now as the dates tend to be much spaced apart and not so often. When I do attend the events I will take along cards with my information on where I can offer to people who could be interested in my work and some of my artwork scaled down to a more accessible sketchbook size of A4.

Action plan:

·         Look for networking events to attend- deadline, January

·         Start creating own garments- deadline, March/April

·         Apply for work experience- deadline, on-going.

·         Update CV and produce personal statement-deadline, February

·         Create small portfolio of all work to take to events- deadline, February

·         Create E-portfolio to email to possible employers- deadline, June

·         Look for job vacancies- deadline, on-going

This is a basic action plan that I have set myself, with unspecified dates so it doesn’t get too overwhelming for me while I am doing my other projects. These are easily achievable and will be done inside as well as outside college.

Throughout my remaining time at college I will also improve my sketching and try to be more adventurous with the media that I use.

I have also researched courses that will gain me more qualifications in a different area of theatre that I am also interested in, if I return to education. I wanted to look at courses so I had a course to go back to that I will enjoy and that will still let me work in theatres. I found the makeup and artistry HONS degree at Bradford University, which I found that I can get on to and is for a year only. It teaches how to do a range of makeup styles, including theatre and prosthetics which is useful in theatre as well as TV and film. This is an area I am happy to work in for TV and film as it is much more creative than most costume department jobs, but I am aiming to start out in theatre and maybe move up in to TV and film in the future.

I am going to fully prepare myself for leaving this year while I have the support of tutors instead of doing it all on my own when I have graduated. I will achieve my personal goals and complete my action plan. Every goal and bullet point of my plan I complete I will record to show my achievement. I will also post pictures and updates on my blog to show my progress.