Careers Week 1

 Confidence Talk -

• Low confidence can be a good thing
• It means you don't over promote your own abilities and you work harder to achieve your goals
• It can equally stop you from performing certain tasks such as speaking out in front of a class.
• Don't try to make yourself a different person and focus on what companies like your qualities
• Try to express what qualities you think are important to you in your work
• Try to stay in you comfort and stretch zone instead of the panic zone. 

Personal Branding -

• Colour palette theme
• Profile picture should be a photo of yourself / drawing of yourself. 
• Description should be able to tell everyone anything they need to know about you. But short
• Tags help, the more the merrier. Up to 30 on Instagram. Keep them in the first comment to look neater. 

CV - 

• Name should always be at the top as the title
• I asked about preferred names and pronouns and if that's too long for a title. She said that it should still be first but not in the title so you have room to tell them all of the specifics. The name you don't want to be known by in brackets. Definitely included it or anywhere you work for won't know. 
• Short and snappy
• Bold draws the eye, key words.
• UK 2 pages expected. If they see 1 page they think you have more you could say and are disclosing info. US is typically 1 page.
• Contacts and references, maybe get quotes from references. 
• Don't be too artsy - graphics and colour don't always work but simple can. 
• Why your qualities and experiences can help the company, not why you're good. 

Presenting - 

• Opening and closing statements should be as if you're retelling the main body of topic two extra times so the information goes in. 
• Rule of 3 is the most catchy way to go
• Bookending - showing or saying something at the start and end of the presentation to remind the viewer of everything said in-between. Make it a big statement. 
• Quote
• Image
• Object
• Statistic
• Audience interaction is engaging
• Use of humour makes the person memorable
• Anecdotes help people remember facts because they remember the person talking. 
• Universal topic
• 'We' engaging. 

Stress -

• I might have chronic stress
• I asked what the best way to deal with daily chronic stress is and the lady said that sometimes you need to take the harder path. By having a tough conversation with someone or sometimes even cutting someone from your life if that helps.
• Sometimes stress is a good thing and can make sure you work harder.
• Understand what symptoms of stress can be resolved - like addictions such as itching vs bad digestion. 
• Breathing exercises are quick and effective coping mechanisms. 
• I think disconnection is currently the most useful of the 8 methods to help for myself as i feel like having a phone near me hinders what work I am doing and sometimes makes it last a lot longer than it should do. Sometimes it also means that I waste my free time too, getting lost on social media. 
• I tend to give quite a lot but sometimes you can give too much without receiving. 
• Sometimes you can care a lot and try help someone through their stress who doesn't want to work towards helping themselves through said stress. They tend to want to live life through the stressful slump and not take advice. I feel like this can be me at times because I am usually advised by friends to go do certain things to get better and often just wait it out. Help myself more to be less toxic to them. 

Freelance Animation - 

• Fiver and gumtree and things were really good straight out of uni to try and find small jobs and gain contacts. 
• Try to use the newest trending site because it will mean less people are on there looking for workers. 
• Social media is very important and it's alright to be sketchy sometimes.
• If you don't want to ruin brand aesthetic etc, make a new account or a story reel.
• If you want to work small like this, it's still sometimes best to have a team. Choose people with similar interests as you. 

Creative Opportunities - 

• Have multiple avenues, back up job, freelance, commissions etc
• Telling a story
• You need to be able to tell a company your own story through how you present yourself and act and your portfolio of work. 
• You equally need to know your employer's story through their socials and their business. 
• Evoke emotions
• Connections and people you have met along the way
• Contact people 
• Do it when they don't ask
• Sometimes try to guess their emails
• Contact anyone you can including anyone you look up to in the animation industry, don't be afraid to DM 
• Start now, they will remember you in the future if you leave a good impression.
• 5 ways to grow your community
• Say yes to opportunities
• Social media networking
• Keep up to date with industry news
• Reach out through email
• Use uni to your advantage. Careers team in LAU. Do/ enter work in to contests.
• Google alerts
• Subscribing to magazines
• Look at who your employer or want to be employer follows and what they are interested in. Gives you relatable topics of conversation before you've stepped in the door
• Small world theory, who do I know? Who do my teachers and family and friends know?
• Friend knows an actor in the new MARVEL Loki tv show
• Cousin was a graphic design manager and is now a teacher
• Great Uncle is a carpenter who makes toys etc for people like Klaus. 

Contact more people

Research the industry more - might be useful making myself known on Twitter 

Try to develop more of a style on Instagram that flows between my work / do more personal animation so that I have portfolio ready work and also so that my style flows between both accounts. 

Make an avatar for my uni account

Try to look in to mental health help for the anxiety and speech talks - but also try to balance work and leisure a bit more and out down your gosh darn phone! even if that means going on other tech like a computer more often - it's less connected and causes less comparison.