Writing this now after I've attended the four talks I planned to attend this week I can honestly say that this was the best, that's not to disrespect the other brilliant people who came in to talk to us, they were good as well but this one was more tailor made and personal to me so I think that's why I enjoyed it slightly more than the rest. One thing that I've noticed during the weeks events is how much I've actually learnt from each individual talk and again this was no different, at the risk of sounding like a broken record in my write ups of the talks I will go into what I actually learnt but first I'll give a little more detail on Neil Shand
Throughout the talk I found Neil to be really inspirational with everything he said and everything he has done in the media industry. Determination was a word that Neil continued to bring more and he went on to tell us that to get into the ITV building he got in touch with a friend who cleaned camera lenses and asked him if he could help him, his friend asked him why and pointed out that he would not get paid, which Neil replied "I just want to get into the building". I found that anecdote to be really inspiring, I try my hardest everyday to put effort into everything I do, and I try my hardest to get as much experience as I can outside of university, be that working for In-House productions or working as a photographer for www.accommodationforstudents.com, and hearing how this approach worked for Neil makes me feel justified in my approach to life as it were.
I felt as Neil was giving the talk that there were similarities between his approach to his work, and the media industry in general, and my approach, he went on to say that over the course of his career hes done every job available and tried every bit of equipment he could try, this is how I like to get experience, I will do any job within the media industry in the hope that one day someone may need an emergency film editor and I can just jump in.
Neil had a significantly impresses CV of TV programmes that hes been involved in, this ranges from Coronation Street, to Heartbeat to A Touch of Frost and of course many more. I would hope in 20 years time that I could boast the same kind of quality portfolio, I know that when I get my chance I will take it, much like Neil did and is still doing.
We gained a lot of tips from this talk about how to actually get the proverbial foot in the door, one thing that Neil mentioned that has been mentioned numerous times this week is unpaid work experience, even if thats one week in a film production company the more you put into getting experience the more you will get out when it comes to finding a job. One thing though I he did mention that I didn't know was who to actually write to, he said that theres no point writing an email to someone who doesn't do "the hiring and firing" as Neil put it he advised us to research who is the production manager or line producer in an organisation and write to them instead.
After listening to this talk I genuinely felt inspired to keep on plugging away at getting experience and carrying on taking any unpaid job that I can find because it will eventually help me. As I said before this was my favourite talk but I've got to be honest and say they were all brilliant and I'm already looking forward to next year Employability and Enterprise week.
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