Work Experience

Introduction

Work experience tends to be a task that every student must work through at some point in higher education. One of the main reasons behind this is that it will give the student an insight into what it will be like working in their chosen profession (Billett et al, 2018) which is useful as it will also allow the student to determine what areas of their subject best suits them, aiding them in refining their career pathways. This can be linked to the importance of occupational self–direction and how it can form an individual’s values not only regarding work ethics (Maguire, 1998) (Cline,2009).

 Furthermore, having work experience under a student’s belt will often increase their likelihood of getting a job as it acts as a tool for proving both their experience and reliability thus often leading to higher occupational careers within their field (Mortimer and Lawrence, 1979).

Previous work experience

In terms of the work experience I have already completed, I have attended a number of sessions that encapsulated teaching the basics of the different aspects of live events; camera operation, outside broadcast (ob) vans, lighting, sound, rig and de-rig of equipment, as well as training specifically for how to film basketball.

Most recently, I was a camera operator for the DVMISSION gala screening & awards night. DVmission hosts the 48-hour film challenge each year which looks to give opportunities to new talent and young filmmakers whether they are experienced or not. My second task was to create a one-minute edit the next day and that was when I truly discovered the painstaking process of sifting through footage to find the highlights of the event. Overall, I enjoyed working on this project and it has aided me in streamlining my career pathway.

Future Work experience

In the summer, Royal Russel will host a charity fundraising event for six charities, so I will be creating their official promotional logo. My final project for this academic year shall take place towards the end of August 2023, in which I shall be a camera operator for Pride 2023 in Southampton which will be my first festival coverage and I am looking forward to capturing such an exciting event!

Documentation – work experience audit

For my degree in Media Production, my course requires me to complete one hundred hours of work experience. This blog will be the first of many documentations of my journey with work experience as well as a ‘work experience audit’ created using Microsoft Excel which will allow me to keep a more in-depth account of the projects and how many hours I dedicated to them as shown in the image below.

Conclusion

Taking into consideration what has been discovered from my research and from the range of future projects that I have managed to obtain, by this time next year, I aim to have a better idea of what area of media I will want to pursue career-wise and hopefully have gained some relevant experience in that specific part of the industry.

Bibliography

BILLETT, S., M. CAIN and A.H. LE, 2018. Augmenting higher education students’ work experiences: preferred purposes and processes. Studies in higher education (Dorchester-on-Thames), 43(7), 1279-1294

CLINE, J.A., 2009. the experiences of occupational therapy clinicians as educators: the community college context. Iowa State University

MAGUIRE, M., 1998. Occupational self-direction, values and egalitarian relationships in dual-earner couples, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing

MORTIMER, J.T. and J. LORENCE, 1979. Work Experience and Occupational Value Socialization: A Longitudinal Study. American Journal of Sociology, 84(6), 1361-1385