Since I forgot to do last week’s session I’ll combine it with this weeks.
Last week, Ross Reid, a local sports journalist came in to talk about what it’s like living as a freelancer, which was fascinating. It is something I have considered, and it was good to get an inside look at what it’s like.
On top of the discussion about not being afraid to put work out, and the speed interview practise we did in preparation for this week, the main thing I took away was that it’s more work than it looks to freelance. Ross said he started after working as a journalist for a while, so he had built up contacts already, which seemed to make it easier for him. I think it would be really difficult to come to it as a job straight after university, not knowing anyone in the industry, or how it works.
As I am not the best socially, either, working for someone would out me give me a reason to talk to a lot of people I might not get to otherwise.
This week, we all went to a networking event at the Theatre Royal; we listened to a panel talk about what it was like getting into their industry, then had the chance to ask them questions afterwards.
I was dreading it, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d been building it up to be. The panellists were interesting people, with a lot of stories to tell and advice to give. They were mainly from the broadcasting side of things, though, or screenwriters, and not necessarily relevant to what I want to do, though I tried to take as much as I could from it, asking questions and making notes.
Afterwards, I was lucky enough to go to the BBC studio for a potential job there. While I don’t love broadcasting, I do like radio, and I’m not terrible at it, like I am with film, so I think it would be a good opportunity to properly see if it’s something I want to do in the future.
At this point, it might be best for me to stop thinking about what I love doing, what I enjoy the most, because it will always be writing in some format. I figure it would be better to look into doing other things, especially at uni where we’re not limited to one area, and we have to use other mediums anyway.