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Now, what have I actually been doing to find work? After 5 years of relatively secure employment, I was a bit rusty on my job hunting skills but here are the techniques I have honed and succeeded to interviews. I've been looking for freelance and permanent opportunities if the right one comes along.
1. Keeping up to date with your industry
It is very important to remain up to speed, partly not to feel out of the loop but more inportantly to keep up with advances, trends and positions in your industry. Keeping in contact with former colleagues and friends in the industry could be used as little eyes and ears everywhere, listening out for anyone hiring or needing a helping hand. Fashion Monitor, LinkedIn and Twitter have been my main tools for news and updates on companies and individuals.
2. Contacting companies/individuals you would like to work for
Cold calling is still very much alive in 2014...sadly. I don't phone personally, I always feel a nuisance where a email can be read in the recipient's own time. I put aside most of a day to research companies I have genuine interest in, who have nice work. I put together a personal email to them introducing myself a quick history of my background. Nothing lengthy, just a short sweet message that you are seeking work with a invitation to know more. It's had great results so far and resulted in many meetings.
3. Networking through social media
That really annoying cliche of 'it is who you know not what you know' is so true and networking should be your number one goal. LinkedIn has been great for me, keeping in contact with ex-collegues and to extend my network. I would say 80% of my work is through networking through existing contacts. Sign up to Twitter, LinkedIn, instagram etc and get contacting. Social Media is VITAL.
4. Researching your choices
Another little technique I have found very useful, is looking at people's employment background on LinkedIn. You need a premium account to do this with profiles outside your network, however you can try out a month free trial. Without sounding stalkerish(!) I have found it great to see people in a position I would like to be in and see how they got there, what job titles have they had in the past. This has assured what direction to go in and what jobs I should be applying for. I've given this little nugget out to friends in similar position and they've found it really helpful too!
5. An extra nugget for job hunters - Search tool I use
I have been all over the internet and feel quite assured what are the best websites for searching. Number one stop is the AOP jobshop, this is where all the juicy photography roles go, it's a very specific market where generally only AOP members place adverts. I will next check out www.indeed.co.uk which is a search engine which collects listings from 100s of sites. The best of the rest - Guardian Jobs, Art Jobs and Fashion Monitor. There are the mega sites like Monster and Totaljobs but for me they rarely come up with anything of interest. I would however suggest signing up to thes sites for email alerts on your criteria and upload a general CV. I have had recruiters finding me from a uploaded CV. Regarding search terms, I find searching keywords rather than job titles very helpful, such as 'shoot' works as I want a role in shoot production and so the description will definitely have this word in.
I hope this series I complied has been helpful. I have shared my knowledge, now your turn! I would love to hear your little nuggets.
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