Career Development Portfolio

Career Development
Portfolio
By Brandon Boyd

WEEK 10:
Introduction to the
module

Cover Slide:
FULL NAME: BRANDON BOYD
STUDENT NUMBER: N0703554
DEGREE: MEDIA WITH PATHWAYS
(PRACTICAL PATHWAY)
CURRENT ACADEMIC YEAR: 2018/2019

My Profile (via InPlace)
Here you can see that I have created my
InPlace account to start looking for work
experience opportunities.
Above Screenshot: No work experience yet
Right-hand side Screenshot: Completed profile

Searching for Opportunities (via InPlace)
I made an account for InPlace and
wanted to find some work
experience relating to photography,
videography or vlogging and came
across a potential company I would
be interested in.

Health & Safety Quiz:
I went through the Health & Safety
information for when I begin my
work experience and got 100% on
the quiz at the end.

WEEK 11:
Seeking Work
Experience

Summary of Work Experience
-What work experience have you already done and what are you looking for?
In the past I have done some work experience in the following fields:
>Assisting a Tennis Coach at a sports club
>Paid work experience in a charity called JLGB, helping with The National Citizen Service (NCS) and the
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE)
Some work experience that I was looking at is things related to the digital media;
photography, video making/editing, vlogging or blogging or maybe even some
promotional videos for charities or companies.

WEEK 12:
Exploring
Media and Creative
Industries

Work Style Quiz:
At the beginning of Week 12’s scale up, we did a little quiz to see what kind of
worker we are. We went to a website called ‘icould.com/buzz’
‘Eagles are confident and often more
mature than other people their age which
can be seen by some as big-headed, but
it isn't: it's being able to stick up for what
they believe in. They can become
rebellious and restless when bored and
need a channel for their energy and go-
for-it, problem-solving attitude’.

Learning about Media and Creative Industries
At the beginning of the scale up, we were all given
a Job Sector to focus on. My group got ‘Social
Media’ and we had to make notes on the specific
job roles available in this industry, the job
prospects and the best ways to get into this area.

Exercise 1 - Exploring the Media and Creative Industries
> ‘Start by selecting 3 organisations or job titles that interest you and use the
laptops available to research in more depth and find out more…’
(A)-Lawn Tennis Association: Video Champion/Assistant Photographer
(B)-Promotional Photographer/Videographer/Events Photography
(C)-Documentary Filmmaker

1: Lawn Tennis Association - Video Champion/Assistant Photographer
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is
a company that is trying to get more
people involved and play more
regular tennis - helping them to
compete more and climb up the
ratings ladder to eventually become a
semi professional/professional
tennis player. I’ve been playing
tennis for several years and thought I
could use some of my
video/photography skills to make a
promotional video and take some
nice shots of the tennis environment

The Next Step….
I was really passionate about
working with the Lawn Tennis
Association as I used to play
competitive tennis and was
interested in doing some work
experience during some of their
events (paid or unpaid). I just
have a passion for videography
and photography and this
opportunity would give me more
confidence with what I could do
with my equipment but also get
some new content for the
organisation

WEEK 13:
Planning of your
future

Aims for the lecture:
-Planning the timeline of your life
-Getting motivation for planning career
-What do you want from your work experience and future
career
-Assessing personal strengths and aligning these with work
experience and future career

Ebony Pascall - Media with Media Practices (2010)
Possible Work
Experience:
TrentTV
Media Trusts
Trending Live
YouTube Space
CBBC
Things to do:
-Learning what to say ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ to
-Having a Work/Life balance
-Opportunities
-Work Experience
-Find what you want to specialise in
-Industry Experience
-Independence/Confidence
-Career Services
-Use dissertation as portfolio
Things to do (Continued):
-Internships
-Work Hard
-Don’t rush
-Find gap in the market
-Creative and Explore potential
-Make mistakes
-Getting foot in the door, Volunteer, Connect,
Ask, Apply, Know the company you are applying
for, Networking/Social Networking

Ebony Pascall - Media with Media Practices (2010)
Steps To Success:
-Take the initiative
-Club photography
-Motorpoint Arena
-Events Coordinator
Ebony Pascall - Melodic Caring Project (Founded 2017)

Exercise: 1
‘Use what you have identified through doing the
personality tests in the lecture’
‘List 10 key attributes you can offer a future
employer’
‘Think about the following categories’;
(1) PERSONAL QUALITIES
(2) STRENGTHS
(3) EXPERIENCE
(4) TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
Some of my Personal Qualities/Strengths
include:
>Confidence
>Leadership
>Taking the initiative
>Not afraid to try new things
>Ability to work independently or in a group
>Getting work completed to best of ability
Some of my Previous Experience:
>6 month contract working for JLGB (Charity
who provide opportunities for
children/teenagers offering Duke of Edinburgh
& National Citizen Service awards (DofE and
NCS)
>Social Media Assistant at JLGB; helping to take
control and live post on Facebook, Twitter,
Snapchat and Instagram

Exercise: 2
PROCESS: Exploring your career preferences
We were given a worksheet where we had to explore
different career choices and speak about the
purpose of the job role we wanted to apply for, the
particular roles we were applying for, along with
other questions; including the type of work
environment/skills needed for the specific job role.
From listening to Ebony’s talk about her work
experience and the journey she went on to get to
where she is working today, it gave me the
confidence to continue looking for work placements
and thinking about the specific work I wanted to do.
Some of the skills I believe I have are with video
editing/filming, photography taking/editing,
vlogging, making promotional videos, helping out
and being active on social media platforms (and I’ve
got an active following on Twitter so I would be able
to promote any smaller projects or placement work
that I am working with.

Exercise: 2 (Continued)
Graduate Attributes Skills Audit:
The next activity that we were tasked to do was to look at a
sheet titled ‘Graduate Attributes Skills Audit’ and answer the
questions, providing evidence for when (an if) we had
completed the sections. Some of the categories included
‘Working with Others’, ‘Ability to problem solve’ and
‘Positive Attitude’ -so I had to rate out of 5 stars how
confident I was with each of the sections and explain why.

Exercise: 3
The third exercise was to take some
personality quizzes to see how we deal in
certain situations. It was recommended that
we took all of the tests, so over the next few
slides I will post screenshots of my results.www.ntu.ac.uk/emponline

WEEK 14:
Analysing Work
Skills

Scott Bayliss- Media with Media Practices (2017)
Ignite Future LTD:
-Good communication, organisational and time management
skills
-Promotional video for Nottingham Festival of Science and
curiosity showing off the fun educational activities that the
festival provides for young people- trusting your own creativity
and judgements throughout the process.
-37 hours spent creating the video and taking time to develop
editing skills and learning new techniques to make a creative
video for Ignite Future- timings for how long you wanted to
spend each day, multiple shots, time for breaks, planning out
what you want to include in the video
-Stay on top of the communications. - Check out the video Scott
made @ (www.nottsfosac.co.uk)
Anwyn Williams- Media with Popular Culture (2013)
DHP Family:
-Local marketing for shows- including ordering posters and
flyers for events and venues, printing, setting up and monitoring
online adverts and marketing plans for shows.
-National Marketing for tours- creating National advert
schedules, detailing budgets and marketing activities such as
adverts in the newspapers like ‘The Guardian’, liaising with
many terms internally and externally to DHP family.
-Helping with the Dot To Dot Festival; heading up D2D
marketing team, working with other teams in various cities,
implementing local and online marketing and on site
communications and social media on the day.
-Beat the Streets Festival; in aid of homeless people (similar role
to above)
-Women In Music; events to promote gender equality in the
music industry, helping to organise panels and events

Anwyn Williams- Skills, Confidence and Communication

Exercise 1: Person Specifications
Person Specifications:
In today’s lecture, there were lots of important qualities that students and potential job searchers are
going to need when looking for a job, whether it just be simple things such as attendance, dedication
to work hard, ability to learn new skills or develop skills that they already have.
We decided to pick these as the top 3 most important things to think about when applying for jobs;
‘Has ability to remain focused and see a project through to completion to a high standard’ - It’s all
well and good completing a project, but if the quality you have produced is awful, then what’s the
point. Being 100% focused and dedicated on tasks is something that employers want to see, so we felt
that this was definitely in the top 3.
‘Is dependable and takes responsibility for own actions and keeps commitments’ - This is especially
true when working in a group and you have been assigned a task to do; worst thing is to let the team
down and not turn up to scheduled meetings/arrangements etc.
‘Shows evidence of good planning and time management, self-organization and self-discipline’ -
Also another key skill when in the workplace as you need to show that you can manage your time
wisely, and if there are multiple tasks to complete that you prioritise them in the order that they
need to be done in, as well as giving yourself a sufficient amount of time to complete the task in.

Exercise 2: What employers want
Researching what skills the employers want?
-Had to work in a group of three and allocate a job role to each team
member; (Researcher, Scribe and Feedback to the group)
We were given the job industry of ‘Numerical, IT and Technical Skills’
which is a very vague industry and pretty much every workplace has a
numerical/literacy or IT and technology department but we came up
with definitions for what each of the terms means. Numerical is
numbers and data, IT is the computer aspect,
programming/hardware/software and then the technical side is the
knowledge and abilities needed to transfer information across a
computer network.
We also had to list some examples of where each of the skills would
come in handy, examples of where we have used the skills during our
degree so far, and also to research and reference some websites where
we would be able to develop any of the three skills even further

Exercise 3: Skills employers are looking for
An ideal job placements for me would be in places that are more creative or related to Social Media. More
recently I have been interested in vlogging/blogging and would be intrigued to know more about this
industry and help produce some promotional content (videos/photos) for a charity or organisation.

Exercise 3: Skills employers are looking for
The next task was to start looking for other potential jobs/placements. I went back to
Indeed.com and started looking for Vlogging jobs. At the beginning of the module I
wasn’t sure if there would be any promotional/vlogging placements, but thought I would
have a look. Some of the job results that I got were Executive Assistant and Student
Events Manager which aren’t exactly the jobs I was looking for but gave me inspiration
for some of the companies I could potentially work with.

Inspirations for placements relating to ‘Vlogging’
Inspiration for initially looking at placements related to Vlogging were from one of my online
friends Jack Ben Edwards; who is a Blogger/Vlogger and social media influencer. He has worked
for student friendly companies including UniDays; which is an app to help students save money on
items in and around their area; whether it be discounts on food, drinks, clothes or stationary. I
would interested in joint collaboration projects like this so that I can work with new people and be
left alone to work on a task, and that they have a video project/vlog that they are happy with at the
end of my work placement.
Other inspirations include BambinoBecky and Sam Carr (who are friends of Jack) who like Jack,
have similar passions and are social media influences online. Becky has been on several panels at
the YouTube event Summer In The City (both in 2017 and 2018) at the ExCel Centre in London and
Sam has also had some promotional/collaborative work with various companies and been
nominated for ‘Best Male Vlogger’ as well.
If I was unable to find a placement that suited my needs relating to photography, videography,
promotional related content or Vlogging/Blogging then I could directly contact YouTube London
and see if there are any opportunities to go back home and help out with
filming/editing/promoting/marketing/photography based work as I have been to the YouTube
space for several events and gigs (including Maggie Lindemann), and it seems like a chilled out
environment where I would be able to work on individual or group projects.
BECKY. SAM.

Another inspiration for working in the creative side of the media industry was because of one of
my friends, Daisy Maskell who has been lucky enough to do presenting for the past few months.
Since Secondary school she wasn’t interested in the media industry but somehow developed a
passion for presenting and entertainment/news shows. She began working at ‘Trending Live’
which is a similar programme to ‘MTV’ but on a smaller scale. On the show they do challenges with
other presenters, interviews with celebrities, singers, actors and people from television
programmes including Dodie from YouTube, Four of Diamonds from The X Factor UK and Louisa
Johnson, the winner of The X Factor 2015.
< An extra in a music video with
The Vamps ft Maggie
Lindemann for their single
‘Personal’ filmed October 2017.
Nikki Lilly, who was born with
facial impairments won ‘Junior
British Bake Off’ - I’m friends
with her sister Natasha Christou
(who goes by the online persona
of Natasha Natalia Mia) >

(Continued) Another reason I believe that a
videography/Vlogging type placement
would be something interesting to partake
in, is because I have been studying Creative
Media/Media Studies since Year 9 in
Secondary school and have created and
completed a lot of individual projects
including Photography work books, Short
films, Having several YouTube accounts
and networking with other like-minded
people through the site.
YouTube is a platform where I can express
my thoughts, opinions and views on
particular topics, collaborate on videos
with my friends (both in real life and
online) and be able to tell stories in a video
format rather than just blogging (writing),
or taking pictures.

(Continued) Whilst searching for some more vlogging/videography related
jobs, I wanted to broaden my search so typed into Google ‘Creative
Spaces in Nottingham’. In Kings Cross, London; we have the
YouTube Space where creators who have over 10,000 subscribers
on the platform are welcome to go in and work on their projects,
whether it be collaborations with their friends/family (who they
are allowed to bring in as guests), or whether they just simply
want to go in there and work on electronic projects/emails/listen
to music etc.
I found a company that hosts a creative space in London called
‘The Creative Quarter’ who are said to be ‘becoming Nottingham’s
1st choice destination for students, businesses, investors, locals
and visitors to work, learn, live and have fun’ - and they use the
#CQNG to help spread the word about their available spaces.
As you can see here, this is one of the many events that they run at
the space. This is an open mic night which unfortunately I was not
able to attend, but I have their notifications turned on so I will be
alerted of any future events that they hold.

WEEK 15:
Finding Work
Experience

Aims for the lecture:
-Reflecting on the focus of the last two weeks (personal
skills and attributes that skills employers want) and using
this to feed into your search for work experience.
-Exercise today useful regardless of whether you have found
a placement or not
-Developing material for this weeks entry in your CDP
anwyn.williams@dhpfamily.com
(Dot to Dot Festival)

I was interested by the opportunity of working at the Dot to Dot festival so I sent over an email to Anwyn
Williams, a student who studied the ‘Working in the media’ module several years ago. I also found a link to
upcoming festivals/gigs happening in Nottingham in November/December 2018 and early 2019.
http://www.songkick.com/metro_areas/24549-uk-nottingham

Exercise 1: Finding Work Experience
‘Look at the list of placements below that are available currently on InPlace’
Out of all the available placements in this list, there are 4 main ones
that I want to have more of a look into.
(1) Dawn of the Unread/DH Lawrence Memory Theatre -
Digital Editor/Film Editor/Instagram Video Editor
(2) Mansfield Town FC - Camera Operator
(3) NHS Hospitals Trust - Communications Intern
(4) Simbrix - In House Creative Journalist/Video &
Podcast Content Producer/Editor
Whilst looking at some of the possible placements on InPlace, these were some of the ones that stuck out for me
straight away but felt I would be restricted if I just decided to confirm on one of these as my chosen placement. I decided
to make note of the companies/charities and the job roles available and do some of my own research into each of the
job roles to see which ones would suit my work style. Out of the 4 placements I have listed, the most interesting one is
probably the opportunity at Simbrix; helping with creative journalism, videography and podcast content
producing/editing.

Exercise 1: Finding Work Experience (CONTINUED)
When looking at the Simbrix website, I can see that it is a
company specialising in ‘bead creations’. Without context
or a purpose, this company doesn’t relate to my course
at all, but to help the company, I could potentially make
them some promotional vlogs, do some photography
when the kids are making their creations or film some
other tutorial videos for them, similar to what is already
on their website - E.g ‘Making Yoshi/Captain America’. I
decided to message them to find out where they are
based and ask for more information and if they would be
interested in ‘collaborating’.

This is the message I sent to the company:
‘My name is Brandon and I am currently a 2nd year
student studying Media at Nottingham Trent University.
I'm very interested in the creative media industry and
specifically interested in videography, photography and
vlogging (as I also have several YouTube channels)
where I like to post some of my content (or
collaborations.
I am currently working on a module called 'Working in the
media' and we have to individually look at some
placements to experience work and gain new skills (paid
or unpaid), and I came across your company through the
InPlace website. I have had a look at some of the work
on your website and would be interested in coming to
some of your events and taking pictures or making some
tutorial videos similar to those already on your website
(including Captain America and Yoshi). I was hoping to
merge the two projects together and not only help with
creating videos/taking photos but also promoting it on all
my Social Media Platforms and raising awareness of the
company.
Hope this sounds like something you could help me with,
and I'm excited to hear back from you soon’.
I decided to send an email to the company to see if they would be interesting in collaborating on
any projects. I let them know of my experience and the fact that I have a passion for the creative
side of media, specifically videography and photography. I made sure not to use the word ‘passion’
because a lot of people use that phrasing and as a student, these employers are not likely to want
to take you on as an assistant or allow you to join their placement scheme. I have already been in
contact with other companies/charities including LTA (The Lawn Tennis Association), The Mix (a
charity in place to help teenagers and younger kids), had a look at various upcoming festivals in
Nottingham and other various media-related placement opportunities.

In addition to searching for Vlogging/Videography jobs, I also
wanted to look at a different aspect of media that I was
interested in; and have a look at more inputting data jobs
such as Data Entry Clerks, Assistants and Administrators. I
have always been lucky to have a fast typing speed, with 99%
accuracy, and I feel that I would be good at turning paper
based or orally given information in a typed up format. I am
also extremely proficient with Microsoft Word, Excel and
PowerPoint and would be interesting in developing these
skills further, and putting my skills in a real life working
environment. This is one of the first job vacancies that I found
from a company called ‘Cherry Professional’ who are looking
for Data Entry Admins to begin working from November 2018.

Confirmed Placement:
After searching for a placement for
several weeks, I finally got my
placement with Simbrix. As you can
see, I have filled out all of the
required information including the
agency name, address, business
email and relevant contact details.

Confirmed Placement: (CONTINUED)
Summary of my work placement at Simbrix so far...
***I will have a separate document with a detailed description of what I
have been getting up-to***
21st November: This was the first day that I did my placement and I met
Assim (the owner of the company), and Jared (the creative assistant/graphics
designer, who works with Assim in the office). We began working on a
Christmas project where they are asking for nominations of children who
deserve something this Christmas - winners would receive a gift set of beads.
We went to market square to take some panoramic shots, recorded some of
the nominations and filmed some Christmas scenery around Nottingham. I
also spent the afternoon collating the clips and images together, editing one of
the promotional videos. I had to also import the sound seperately as there
was wind from the original sound, and Jared helped me by putting on the
finishing touches which included the company logo and some graphics.
28th November: Started working on a Christmas showreel and had to edit
some telephone interviews that Assim did with some of the parents/carers of
the nominations, collating the important parts. In addition, I had to add in
some Christmas footage and pictures that weren’t used in the previous
promotional video to show how the campaign has evolved so far. I was also
tasked to help out with some of the social media (mainly Twitter and
YouTube); where I uploaded the showreel video as unlisted, in case it needed
to be re-edited or changed in any way. On Twitter, I had to help promote the
video to other children’s charities/individual people who could benefit from the
campaign. With the tweet, I added on some important hashtags including
#ChildrensCharity, #CharityTuesday, #CharityWednesday and
#SimbrixGiveAGift.

WEEK 17:
Applying for Work
Experience

Applying for Work Experience - Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Here’s a screenshot of
my most recent CV. In
the session, Julia Bristow
helped us to analyse our
CV’s to make them more
developed for when
applying for jobs or
placements.
On my CV I have 4 main
sections; Key Strengths,
Education, Work
Experience/Placements
(most recent towards the
top) and Hobbies and
Interests.

Applying for Work Experience - Curriculum Vitae (CV) (CONTINUED)
At the beginning of the CV, I included my personal information
including my Nottingham address and contact details (phone number
and email address). On the first part of my CV, I have included a little
introduction paragraph about myself being a student with a brief
description of some of my skills and interests and some of my best
achievements. I have also added some of my ‘Key Strengths’ which I
will probably rename to ‘Key Skills’ and add an example when I have
used each of them in a real working/voluntary environment.
In the next section, I have focused on my ‘Education’ and put my order of
education from the most recent to the oldest - University, Secondary School
and Primary School.
For this section I am going to write which modules I have currently studying
at University, as well as the modules I have picked for 2019, as well as
simplifying the GCSE’s I have achieved and focusing on highlighting the
media subjects (Creative Media and ICT, as well as English and Maths).

Applying for Work Experience - Curriculum Vitae (CV) (CONTINUED)
In the next part of my CV, I added my ‘Work Experience’ in order from most
recent to the oldest. For each of them, I briefly explained what some of my
main tasks were at each of the different placements. I had four main
experiences of work:
- JLGB (Jewish Lads and Girls Brigade)
- Associate Mentor at NCS (National Citizen Service)
- Temporary Teaching Assistant (Eversley Primary School)
- Assistant Tennis Coach (Hazelwood Sports Club)
For the final part of my CV, I decided to include some of my
‘Hobbies & Interests’ as I thought this would be a good way
for future employers to understand what I enjoy during the
leisure time away from studies/working. At the end of the
CV, I stated that references are available on request. I think
I will just update this section with of my other hobbies as
there were some things I didn’t include on my CV.

Applying for Work Experience - Curriculum Vitae (CV)
In the lecture, we also did
a short CV Quiz as to what
we already know about
CV’s and what important
things we should include.

CV: After reviewing and making changes
After Here is a screenshot of my updated CV. As you can
see I have made changes to the initial paragraph trying
to sell myself as I had other passions and
achievements that I hadn’t already mentioned. Other
changes included:
-Naming ‘Key Strengths’ to ‘Key Skills’ and explaining where each of them
were executed
-Simplifying my GCSE’s to focus on English, Maths, Languages and my
media based subjects
-Updating the modules that I am going to be studying over the next few
months
-Updating my ‘Work Experience’ and placement section
-Updating my ‘Hobbies and Interests’ section with more recent activity and
changed hobbies.

CV: After reviewing and making changes (CONTINUED)

WEEK 19:
Job Interviews -
(Interview Practice)

Interview Tips:
In the session today, we focused on ‘first impressions’ for
interviews, and these were some of the qualities that are needed:
-Make sure to turn up about 10 to 15 minutes before interview
is due to happen
-Try avoiding online interviews (such as Skype or other web
software)
>Often problems with Wifi connections/signal
-Wear smart clothes/smart casual (based on organisation)
-Focus on a firm handshake
-Interview prepping, including;
>Company Name
>Date, Time and Address of the company
>Travel arrangements to the venue
Preparation - Yourself:
-Key Skills/Selling point
-Why do you want this job
-Why should the company select you
-Strengths and Weaknesses
-Read the person specification/job description
Types of Questions:
-All About YOU
-Competency
-Big Picture
-Scenarios/Hypothetical questions
-Strength based
-Technical questions (specific knowledge)
-’Nasties’ (weaknesses and how would friends describe you).

Interview Tips:
Competency Based Questions - Using the ‘STAR(R)’ method:
S - Situation.
When and where was it?
T - Task.
What did you have to achieve?
A - Action.
How did you use the competency to complete the task?
R - Results.
What was the outcome?
(R) - Reflection.
What have you learnt, and how would this help you in the role
you’re applying for?
End of Interview:
What to ask interviewer
-Ask them what they do
-Current projects (showing an
interest in the company)
-Typical progression route
End of Interview:
What NOT to ask interviewer
-How much holiday you get
-How much your earning (salary/rates)
-What the company does
-How long to become managing director

Exercise 1: Seminar - Interview Simulator
-Log onto InPlace and look at the placement opportunities available
(if you haven’t already found a placement)
-Identify a job/placement you would be interested in applying for and/or intending to apply for
www.ntu.ac.uk/emponline

The ‘Interview Simulator’ was almost like a quick fire of
questions, to see if we would be answer them in a set
amount of time. Obviously most interviews are done in
real life, so we are ignoring all of the spelling
mistakes/bad grammar because that wouldn’t be
relevant in a real life or online interview. The first thing
that I had to do was choose some questions I wanted to
answer within the 60 second timeframe - The interview
could either be done in a written form, voice form or
video form but for the seminar, written was the easiest.
For the actual ‘Interview’ I had 60 seconds to answer all of the questions
before the box was blacked out (the first screenshot with the question
about strengths and weaknesses). For each of the questions I had to think
as carefully as possible as to what information I would want to give to a
potential employer. In total I picked 8 questions including several of the
ones that you can see above; ‘What are your strengths and weaknesses’,
‘Describe a situation where you had to adapt your working style’ and
‘How do I handle criticism’. I feel like these are three important
questions that people should plan answers for when going for an
interview so the interviewer knows what you are good at and where you
can improve, whether you can adapt to different working
environments/tasks and if people were to be negative about your work
that you wouldn’t be personally offended or feel like you couldn’t do your
job properly.

One of the questions that I decided to have as part of
the online interview, was what my ideal job is. Being
from a media and musical background (Nan was a
singer, my cousin is a west end stage performer and
I’ve been studying media since year 9) - I have always
wanted to go into a job in the media industry whether
it be photography, videography, vlogging, presenting,
creating/making/editing music videos or something
else along those lines. When answering this questions,
I only had 60 seconds so I pretty much said I would like
to be freelance as opposed to having a full time job or
working in an office/for someone else 24/7. I added that
I wanted to go into something more video/photography
based as I have been passionate about it since school,
but made sure I backed up my point here with some
examples of why; instead of just using the word
‘passionate’ which quite a lot of people use on CV’s or
in interviews and it gets boring after a while.
Another one of the questions that I decided to add into the
interview was whether I could handle criticism and in all
honesty, my truthful answer is ‘Yes’. Back when I was in
school I used to get really offended if someone said
something negative to me, or didn’t like a piece of work I
was working on, but I have got older and matured, I feel that
I would rather someone be honest with me and tell me that
the project I am working on is bad so that I know what to fix
in future projects, rather than being told that’s it’s amazing
and then coming out with a low grade. That’s pretty much
what I was able to write in my answer about this question.
Another point that I read in the ‘DO’ section is that you
should listen carefully to criticism and take time to think it
over, rather than feeling offended with the bad news and
stressing out - taking time to work out why the project
didn’t work, or why the advice that you have been given is
relevant to the project in order to make it better in the
future.
Another question that was part of the interview was whether I
could adapt to different working conditions. The main
example where I have adapted is when I was working at an
office for a Jewish kids charity, and we had to run DofE
Expeditions for children with special needs, so the ways in
which we taught them how to use the equipment was slightly
different to how we could teach a child without special needs.
The other major difference with these children is that their
tents were already set up for them at the campsite as we didn’t
want the kids getting stressed out. It was definitely an adapted
working environment that I had to work in. but was very
rewarding when the children finished the expedition with a
massive smile on their faces as it made myself and the other
staff feel as if we have accomplished something, and the
parents were flooding us with compliments. Different
approaches need to be undertaken in different situations
because you can’t expect everyone to learn in the same way.
The final question I wanted to focus on was my
‘greatest achievement’. For this question I was a little
bit unsure what to say as I have had numerous
‘achievements’ including my Gold Duke of Edinburgh
Award, Grade 8 in LAMDA and Grade 8 in Rock & Pop
Drums. For something to class as a ‘great achievement,
it would either have to include the development of my
team building skills, the ability to take part in a new
type of challenge or task or be something that not a lot
of people can say that they have achieved. I believe that
most of my achievements are either media, music or
team based; which all link pretty well to not only the
course that I am studying, but also to the working
industry that I want to go into; the creative side of the
media industry (including vlogging, videography,
photography, modelling and possibly presenting- (if I
was to gain more knowledge about the role and what
benefits I would get out of having the job role).

Practice Interviews - 200 word reflection
During the session, myself and Indi wanted to practise some interview questions
and answers to help find each other's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to
interview situations. We decided to initially practise with the STAR technique that
we had been taught by Julia in one of the lectures. It helped us to understand how
to properly structure answers for an interview in order to sound more
professional and logical. Working with a friend/friends on a practice interview
helped us to see each others body language and eye contact, and build from any
weaknesses. It was a little bit daunting at first and we didn’t take it too seriously
to begin with, but we were able to focus and build up a simple interview style set
up, giving us that extra confidence when getting interview in a real life
environment.

WEEK 20:
Social Media
Makeover

Exercise 1: Digital footprint
During Week 20, we were working on our
social media platforms and trying to make
them as professional as possible. In the
session we went over what should and
shouldn’t be on our social media, and that in
some circumstances people may want to
have multiple social media accounts (a
personal and a professional one).
On the sheet you can see, there were a list of
different questions that we had to fill in
answers for, including a brief summary of
what we managed to find about one of our
peers online, a description of what we
found, analysis of the impression given from
what we have found and any
recommendations toe future actions to help
improve this person’s online identity.
On the next slide, I went more in depth with
what I did for this exercise, but I was given
quite positive feedback.

Exercise 2: Analysing your digital footprint
For this exercise,we had to talk to someone who we didn’t know personally and I was paired with
Edward Pearce. We had to do an initial background search to see if either of us had a ‘digital
footprint’. From the search, Ed managed to find one of my old Media slideshare documents back
from when I was back at school after searching ‘Brandon Boyd Nottingham’. Slideshare is
connected to LinkedIn, so links to my social media accounts were actively present for people to
have a watch of, if they came across the document. There was nothing found of me on Google
Images or Google just by searching my name ‘Brandon Boyd’.
To analyse my online social media presence, I haven’t got any bad or offensive content that
comes up about myself, but instead I have a group of social media accounts where I only post and
write professional content (with the occasional bit of character when you catch me on a good
day). Most of my social media platforms are there to help me engage with content I look up-to or
just to network with other people in the media practice industry such as Vloggers,
Videographers, Photographers, Models or Presenters/Interviewers.

Exercise 3: Signing up for LinkedIn
The next exercise that we had to do was to make an account for LinkedIn. Luckily, I
already had an account so I just made sure that I filled in all of the required
information to complete my profile. In my bio, I just included that I was a 2nd year
student studying Media; including some of my main hobbies/interests which include
the more practical skills including videography, photography and vlogging. In my
profile, I spoke about some of my main strengths and a short paragraph trying to sell
myself as to why I could potentially be hired for a job. I included some of my main
achievements including my music and drama grades.
I also decided to add my work experience both paid or unpaid, along with any other
projects that I have been working on. These included being part of the music video for
The Vamps’ video ‘Personal’ (featuring Maggie Lindemann), a variety of group projects
whilst at University including ‘I Am A Camera’, and a variety of YouTube related events
including Summer of the City; a networking event where I was lucky enough to meet
other people who are part of the online/social media industry such as vloggers,
bloggers, YouTubers and musicians who use YouTube as a platform to promote music
and network.
The final things that I added onto my profile were my education and school life as well
as my ‘brand name’ that I am beginning to use a lot more now on all of my social media
accounts and gives me a stronger competitive edge as not a lot of people will do this
when applying for jobs or placements.

Exercise 4: Looking for LinkedIn examples
For the next exercise, we
needed to find specific
people to connect with. I
had already created by
LinkedIn account before
starting University as I
thought it would be a good
way to connect with other
students who were studying
the same courses as me. I
thought it would also be
beneficial to connect with
teachers and tutors for
places that I have attended;
including sports club,
teachers from Primary and
Secondary school, as well as
coaches from any extra
curricular clubs.
Here is a screenshot of some of the
people I have already connected with
on LinkedIn. In includes several
people I have worked with
previously in an office based
environment. I have also connected
with some University Graduate
students (from NTU and Cambridge)
as well as some second and third
year students on the same course as
me. LinkedIn is a professional social
media network to connect with
people who may not only have the
same passions as you, but could also
benefit from your personal skills and
traits. My aim is to connect with as
many people in the media industry,
including YouTubers, freelance
photographers/videographers,
presenters and people who aspire to
go into the industry like myself so
that I can explore as many different
communities and therefore meet
more people.

Exercise 5: Analysis of chosen LinkedIn Profile
The profile that I wanted
to focus on was Joe
Binder, who is a
University graduate from
Cambridge, London. I
have been connected with
Joe on other social media
platforms for a while now
and always watch the
work that he does. He’s
also got a YouTube
channel where he creates
business related content
and speaks about his
growth as a young
entrepreneur and how he
was able to create his own
business from scratch and
his advice for people who
want to become their own
brand.
Just by looking at his LinkedIn profile from a quick glance, you can see that his
profile picture and banner follow the same theme of a cream pink colour with
white to accompany. When I looked at his name and title, both of them are
professional and it explains clearly what his job role is so he is easily identifiable.
The fact that he is trying to build personal brands means that he pretty much
works for himself and trying to connect with other people who are willing to work
with Joe on other projects.
Another big advantage that Joe has among other entrepreneurs out there is that he
is from London, which is the main capital for work and there are jobs in almost
every industry centred in and around London. By looking at some of his previous
work experience and paid work, he has been working on his YouTube platform for
just under three years so far (beginning back in July 2016) and has over 21,000 loyal
supporters/subscribers who watch his content.
He doesn’t post on a regular schedule but whenever a business concept or idea
comes into his head, or he becomes passionate about something new, he often
makes a video about it; including 5 of his favourite business books, a Q&A about
being a young entrepreneur or collaboration videos including Cambridge Vs
Oxford University and which one is better for example. I have been following his
journey for just over a year so far and it’s incredible to see how quickly Joe’s life
has changed, and the fact that he has been posting as much as he can on all of his
social media platforms has inspired me to get on top of it all, so when I apply for
jobs and placements that I have experience with using and developing my social
media online presence.

Exercise 5: Analysis of chosen LinkedIn Profile (CONTINUED)
I scrolled down on Joe’s profile to see if he had been endorsed for any skills that he
has, and quite a lot of interaction has been made with his profile. I decided to
endorse him myself for ‘Marketing Strategy’, ‘Strategy’, ‘Facebook Marketing’ ,
Social Media Marketing’ and his use to use Microsoft Office programmes’ as I have
been very active on his profile and he uses all of his accounts effectively. The great
thing about LinkedIn is that you can see who has endorsed you for each of the
particular skills of knowledge you have, so you can always ask someone to send
written or photographic proof for if any future employers or placement providers
ask for evidence that you are good at using Microsoft Word for example.
I also took a quick look at some of the companies, groups and schools that he was
following, and there was a wide variety. The obvious school that he follows was the
University of Cambridge, where he graduated, as well as the Boston Consulting
Group (BCG), the Universal Music Group and Forbes. Above is a screenshot of just
a selection of some of the other companies that he follows, including Tesla,
YouTube and Freshminds Talent. It’s better to connect with and join as many
communities and companies as possible to widen your network range, and you can
potentially meet a lot more people by being part of different little groups and
working on smaller projects, as it could always lead onto bigger and better things.

Visitor Talks: Sandish Shoker, Tom Walters and Rebecca Morris-
Buck
Short talk: Including Social Media (mainly LinkedIn)
Tom:
-Building your own personal brand. Building a brand without a
company/business. Building a client’s brand.
(Experience Nottinghamshire). Included a lot of social media
work/PR/Communications.
Sandish:
-Twitter: Trending topics, what people are talking about, Posting own stories. Self
promotion. Interactions.
Rebecca:
-Networking. Interview content. Live tweeting/pictures/videos. Multiple social
media accounts.
-Complete LinkedIn profile based on feedback given
received during the profile review session.
-Create and add screen shots (about 6 to 10 in total) of
the LinkedIn profile and add screenshots to each slide.
-Write 200 words about your LinkedIn profile and
discuss how you intend to use LinkedIn in the future;
include mention of what you have learned from the
Alumni fellows (Look over previous slides).
Evidence of:
-Identification of potential careers and future strategies
for employment
-Career skills development and awareness throughout
the portfolio (CV, LinkedIn profile, social media
platforms, online ‘footprint’

My LinkedIn Profile
Here are some screenshots from the current look of my LinkedIn profile. In the first screen shot you can see that I
have a clear job title in my bio, the placement I am currently working at (Simbrix Ltd). I have also included my ‘brand
name’ in my profile (IsThatBrandon) and have kept that as a consistent theme on all my social media platforms. In my
introduction paragraphs I have just summarised some of my main skills and some past work/events and projects that
I have worked on as well as some inspirations for why I want to be in this industry. I wanted to try and sell myself but
also as it will be the first thing that people will see if they stumble across my profile. In the other screenshots you can
see a list of previous work experience (paid and unpaid) and my current work placement that I am currently doing at
Simbrix Ltd in Nottingham and an example of some of the work that I have done.

Making changes to my LinkedIn Profile - (Peer review by Holly Hubbard)
In this session we had to review someone’s LinkedIn
profile and my partner was Holly. She wasn’t able to
complete the full review form, but gave me an
overview of what she thought about my profile. She
said my profile looked professional and that I had
included a lot of information which was good, but
just needed to make use of posting previous tasks,
work experience and examples of other work so that
other people working in similar industries would be
able to find and network with me.
The majority of the feedback came back positive but
she marked my overall profile as not giving a good
impression, so I decided to change my title,
summarise the paragraphs about myself and to also
include my previous work experience in my
summary.
She also ticked the ‘No’ box for ‘Appropriate email
address’ and the reason I didn’t add my email or
phone number is that I don’t often use those
services when connecting and networking, but make
use of my social media accounts instead; including
Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and/or LinkedIn.

Career Development Portfolio - (Peer review by Keavy Gales)
‘Like the photo,
nice addition
most people
don’t have that’

‘Like the comparison
of profiles: Maybe
talk about why? For
instance you enjoy it,
you do YouTube?’
‘Could have included
the jobs best suited
to eagles.
Maybe a sentence or
two to briefly
describe the other
two would be helpful’
‘There’s quite a lot of
these slides, I would
try to condense this
to 2 slides, otherwise
the Power Point will
be very long’

Exercise 1: Career Development Portfolio (Peer reviewing Eleanor Alderton)

Exercise 1: Career Development Portfolio (Peer reviewing Eleanor Alderton)
(2) I feel like Eleanor has critically analysed and
reflected well throughout her portfolio and
explained one of the roles that she could potentially
see herself going into; social media assistant;
explaining some of the main skills that you would
need in order to survive in the working
environment.
(3) - By looking briefly at the portfolio, I can see that she
has pretty much covered everything within the module.
Her attendance throughout the module has also been
very good and even when she was unable to attend the
session, she also made sure that she was checking NOW
for what was required for that particular week.
(1) After looking at Eleanor’s Career Development
Portfolio, I can see that she has a clear structure and
a consistent theme of background style. One main
thing I could suggest as an improvement is to state
which week you were working on as it is difficult to
see the split between weeks. I can see that she has
clearly included information and pictures that relate
to what she is speaking about.
X
X
X

Exercise 1: Career Development Portfolio (Peer reviewing CONTINUED)
(4) In the portfolio she covers a variety of job roles
that she would be interested in doing including the
social media assistant I mentioned before, audience
researcher or any advertising and marketing job
roles. She continues to say what her strengths are
weaknesses are, as well as some of her main skills
that she could bring to any specific job role/work
placement that she applies for.
(5) In relation to her career skills development, she has
clearly identified her strong skills, and things that she
she is still working on to this day, including confidence
and ability to take initiative when it comes to tasks. She
also explains that the CV session helped her to develop
her CV and focus on trying to sell herself through any
past work experience as well as any hobbies or interests
that could help to get her a role. After the session on
how to do well in an interview, she also put this into
practice as she had an interview with a company and
made sure that she put her skills to use and didn’t mess
up under pressure. The end of her portfolio (at the
moment of peer assessing 22/1/2019), summarises what
she has learnt so far and the fact that some of the
speakers that came in to speak about their different
experiences helped her profile stand out. The final thing
she spoke about was the fact that her LinkedIn profile
how now been created and that she has found it
beneficial to find jobs and network with people that
have similar interests to her.
X
X

Career Development Portfolio

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