My Creative Life (Post Grad)

Howdy,

I'm a member of the 2015-18 class, coming straight out of Falmouth (UK) with a BA(hons - whatever that means) in film. If you must know, I got a 2:1 and yes, it was one mark off of a first. I'm going to give a very honest re-cap of the last two years of my career in the creative industry. With the hope to calm any nerves you might have about leaving University or where you "should be" now.

So here it goes.

Part 1) 2018 - Graduation

Coming to the end of uni I knew 2 things. I didn't want to work in the cinema industry as previously thought when I joined in 2015. I also knew I wanted to take more risks, and get the hell away from everything.

So I sent an email.

And I got one back. Then I went to live in Costa Rica with 4 German people for 2 months. I won't bore you with my tales of surfing everyday and eating Mango right off of the tree like Baloo from The Jungle Book. But there's a reason this trip is in this article - I realised I couldn't do this forever, nor did I want to. I'm a career guy after all.

Actually, nearing the final weeks, I was itching to get home. I wanted to get started with my career, despite being so desperate not to the second I got out of uni. I even missed my graduation (kind of regret that - kind of don't).

Part 2) Making Coffee

I'm not exaggerating when I say I make good coffee. In fact, my whole working life (aged 14+) I worked in cafes, bars and then in 2016 whilst at uni, a coffee roasters. It was a legitimate passion of mine that turned into a job and when I returned from Costa Rica, I returned to The Roastery.

I was still hustling photography, I was providing some for where I worked and some our clients. Not to any financial gain though. To cut a long story short, things soured at The Roastery, and I hopped from cafe to cafe for almost a year after graduation, before I made something happen.

Part 3) Working for free

Hey! Guess what? Yeah you do need to work for free. Towards the end of university, so many of my peers were adamant that they were too highly skilled to work for free. They were sure since they had a degree they were too valuable to "sell themselves short" - you're not.

I never had that attitude. I worked my ass off. I did jobs for free, I volunteered for experience etc. Then one day, that paid off. Big time.

Part 4) The phone call.

I'm sat in a coffee shop where I was working. It was dead (meaning no people but also the job sucked). My manager had been trying to get me to commit more to the role, you know, invest my emotional energy into this failing business. Anyway, a few weeks back I had volunteered on a job, just set building, carrying screw drivers, helping out. I gave it my all, I was stoked to be there, grateful too.

So the phone rings.

It's the boss from the volunteer job I did. He says "we've got a vacancy at the agency for a junior producer, I want you to apply for it".

YEEEEEEW!

Obviously I was gassed beyond measure. But I kept it cool, knowing it wasn't a guaranteed gig. But they did want me to temp for a few weeks to cover the person that's leaving.

Part 5) The Ultimatum

I requested a few weeks time off from the shop. They said no. I quit. Not really an ultimatum.

So I ended up temping at this agency, loved it. But it was awkward. Why? Because I had to sit there and work whilst they interviewed other people for the job, they have to be fair to the other candidates. But it did suck a bit.

I'll cut to the chase so I can give you the main thing to take from this.

It took me a whole two years after graduation to get hired. I didn't go travelling for a year, I didn't get a post-grad scheme. I just went with the freakin' flow.

Work hard. Be Passionate. Work for free. Don't get attached to your cafe job.

And yeah now also Stay Alert. That too.