In Part 2 of our mini-series, we continue to unpack the challenges faced today by the creative industries. If you’re a graduate considering a career in the creative industry, check out these updates and learn about how you can use your time over the next few months to build success for your career journey.
For graduates thinking about finding work within the creative industries, we have gathered more trends to look out for in 2020, and what graduates can do to adapt in order to stay afloat and build success in their career journey during Covid-19. The information from this blog comes from reports across various industry reports (listed at references) as well as King’s Careers & Employability Employer Engagement team’s conversations with employers, gathered in an internal report by King’s Careers & Employability.
If you missed it, click here to read Part 1 of this blog!
Trend 4) Diverse portfolios of skills will be attractive to recruiters and businesses
When employers describe the value of their workers or freelancers, one of the biggest things that comes up is a ‘diverse skills portfolio’. Having a varied list of professional or vocational skills tells recruiters that you are versatile, you can adapt to different scenarios that need different skill sets, and that you are able to stay on top of rapidly changing tasks. Diversified skills are valuable right now because a lot of employers will be looking to adapt to cost-cutting methods and maximise the value of staff and freelance workers. This means having one person that can do work within multiple different areas (for example, graphic design, social media management and marketing tasks all in one role) will be very attractive for recruiters.
How to adapt to this:
It’s upskilling time! Think about what skills are likely needed in the future and take steps NOW to educate yourself. For graduates looking to be extra competitive, invest your time in skills courses or e-learning opportunities now, so that in 3-6 months’ time you will be able to present course certificates and talk about project examples. Think of new emerging technologies and skills. For example, if you are an avid illustrator, why not learn a bit of code or animation?
To take action, check out King’s academic and professional courses. You can also learn a lot of skills online through LinkedIn Learning. To find training courses in specific industries, consider looking at webpages of your industry’s associations–you can use our Career Sector Guides to help you find them. Often, websites like Eventbrite will also advertise virtual training courses around industry skills!
Trend 5) Connections will bring graduates their future work opportunities
Going through the recession, businesses will downsize and recruiters will look for individuals – largely freelancers – with connections, reviews and industry networks, in addition to examples of past work. Graduates hoping to enter the sector will either need to compete with professional freelancers (quite difficult to do) or accept that for a while they might not be paid for every project. Part of this is knowing who’s who in your industry.
How to adapt to this:
Don’t be disheartened! Consider taking up voluntary work or producing your own digital content as a way to build your portfolio; grow your networks; and find new work through those connections. Read more about how to start virtual networking from our Keats pages, as well as our LinkedIn Networking blog!
Staying connected to your industry will be vital when the market recovers and full-time entry positions will become available again. King’s Careers & Employability advises students to stay connected even if you need to pursue other employment in the first year after graduation. Remember, it might take a few twists and turns before you get to your dream graduate job, but just keep your head up!
King’s Careers & Employability is here to help you, wherever you are on your career journey. We offer one-to-one appoinments with Career Consultants, online information and career education resources at Keats, as well as our virtual events are here to support students and alumni at King’s to #buildsuccess. We support graduates up to 2 years after you leave King’s so don’t worry – our support is available to you even as you enter the world of work.
References for reports
The role of freelancers in the 21st-century British economy report by Centre for Research on Self-Employment in 2012
Coronavirus report by the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed in 2020.