Creative arts, media and design

With any job, experience is important to have. But with creative jobs in particular, work experience is like gold dust. In fact, having a strong portfolio (which is essentially a collection of your best work) when looking for jobs in the creative industry is just as important as having a strong CV, as it allows you to showcase your skills, ability and talent to potential employers in the most effective way. Portfolios can be in the form of a website, USB with reel footage, playlist, physical folder or book or any other way that easily presents your work. They should be updated as frequently as possible and include a variety of work, but they should also be tailored to the job you are applying for. Put the things that are most relevant to the particular job and employer first. And, obviously, your portfolio can't exist if there is nothing to put in it, so, while also pursuing your own creative projects, seek out formal work experience opportunities and freelance work.

If you want to get a creative job, all you need to do is fill out a straightforward application form, sit a few interviews and wait to hear back – said no one, ever. Well, that’s not quite true. You could follow the typical recruitment process for graduate jobs: fill in an application or submit your CV, covering letter and portfolio via email and attend an interview. But, with there being relatively few graduate jobs and schemes in this sector, finding work often requires reaching out to different creatives, networking and lots of persisting. Not all vacancies will be advertised, so you’ll need to build up a network, keep an eye (and an ear) out for potential opportunities and proactively contact employers, asking them to keep you in mind if they ever do have a vacancy. This is known as applying speculatively. Find out more about speculative applications and the six tips that can help you in your hunt for a creative career.

Whatever job you apply for in the creative industry, there will be some form of interview during the process. You may attend one or multiple formal interviews over the phone, video call or in person – or you may be asked along to an informal interview. Either way, the employer wants to find out more about you and your suitability for job. How they assess your suitability will depend on the job role – for example, a journalist applicant could be asked to turn a press release into a news story in the interview. You could also be asked a combination of motivation, strength-based, competency-based and values-based questions. One thing, however, that will be consistent in any interview is questions relating to your CV and portfolio – this is a chance to talk about your creative ability and skills that you can bring to the role. Prepare for your interview by taking a look at our nine-step graduate job interview guide.