Small steps

Where I left you last time does not paint a real good picture of my drive to get into a job post graduation. Being satisfied to just sit in my room and send off blanket emails left me wasting away. Living the usual student life, doing my work and partying. Is it any surprise then that each blanket email I sent came back with little to no responses? To be fair I probably hung-over each time I sent an email, therefore the effort put into correcting it and enhancing each email would have been minimal at best. Oh alcohol how you destroyed me. Won’t change that university experience though, living the life of a student is essential at university, as once you’re out, like I am now, you know you can’t live like that again.

I started, after not hearing anything of note back from anyone, trying to find a part-time job again at university. Through my second year of university I worked for a promotions company. Climax Promotions was its name, in Cardiff. Now at my time in Cardiff the ownership of nights out in the town centre was pretty similar to an oligopoly, with the two main players being Climax Promotions and an events company called Skooled. I would suggest, looking back now, that anyone in their first years of university looking to meet new people from different backgrounds and widen their social network considerable should aim to get a job working promotions. There is good money in it if you are driven enough and the opportunity to move up to event management in a short space of time. And if you’re going to Cardiff University, join Climax not Skooled. What kind of name is Skooled? Trying to be all hip with its spelling or something? Skooled is spelt schooled, no other variation, I don’t know why it annoys me so but it does. Probably still the promotional battler within me wanting to flare out. That’s what comes with working in promotions, a competitiveness between opposition factions. Sounds quite MMO/ Call of Duty like doesn’t it. Well it was just like that. Trench warfare as we battled it out in the grueling rain and the biting cold at night to bring in the most customers. Life changing stuff.

However, in my third year I outgrew working in such an industry, the long nights, working in the cold, having to pollute my Facebook and Twitter pages with tons of promotion just wasn’t what I wanted anymore. So as I was saying, I began looking for a part-time job that did not involve promotions. Hardly any jobs were flying about, as this was around February this year, but I used sites such as Gumtree to aid my search. After applying for a few things… and not hearing anything I was quite disappointed. Then I saw an advert for a voluntary writing role on Gumtree. Normally I would ignore an advert like that, as the word voluntary is enough of a deterrent for a job seeker, yet this time my attention was grasped. What our lecturers and guest speakers always seemed to emphasis was the importance of building an online portfolio and improving your online presence, especially as we were looking to get into the media industry. So I replied to the ad, a position to be a content writer for a gaming website. After responding I had to write a first piece to show that I had an affinity for writing, and I did just that. After a slow start of creating content, and large breaks between posts, I am still a writer for that same website. The Games Cabin is what it is called. Check it out if you are a gaming fan or just interested in all sorts of news. This is a direct link to my actual posts www.thegamescabin.com/author/tayo

The point is, even though this was, and still is a voluntary role, it shows an ability to be creative, creating content that focuses on the gaming world. Being creative is a major part of working within the media industry, and having something to refer to in an interview to show your writing skills is always a plus. As well as this, there is always the possibility that prospective employers will search you online before an interview (probably to make sure you’re not a runaway murderer), and having something come up that shows your skills is always a plus. Time is valuable and we should always be doing something with it, and I am sure if you are a student you have spent plenty of time sitting around doing nothing when you could have been increasing your online presence. I am grateful that I applied for that position even now, not only does it add to a CV of experience, it shows initiative of continuous learning even through unemployment. Take opportunities to expand your skills, whether it be through expanding your portfolio, or to expanding your professional network. It all helps boost up you up those stairs to success. I’m still so far at the bottom, but would be much further down if not for The Games Cabin.

Still got a way to climb, but you’ve guessed that already.