Now that I’m about to start my Masters degree, I realise exactly how much I didn’t do in my Bachelor. At the time, I was all about “me-time”, and “taking a break”, and “I’ve done enough”. I looked at the uni-is-life types as 80s movie nerds, became happy with my distinctions, and left it at that.

Now, looking for full-time work, I see that I missed a shitload of opportunities. I get down on my knees and scream at the sky, “I have a degree!”, like, twice a week. I’m still at 57 applications and only one interview at the time of writing.

Creative degrees are hard, but getting a permanent position in the industry is harder. If I had known at the start of my degree what I know now, chances are I might not be working in hospitality still. Here’s the biggest take away I’ve gotten from countless meetings with family friends who work in the arts, lecturers and employers. Enjoy, my pretties.

#1 Build Your Folio As You Go

I fucked up with this one. I fucked up hard. I didn’t do anything except what I did in class for my entire degree, and now I have cystic acne, male pattern baldness, and a tertiary degree worth the same as the contents of my sanitary bin.

Holidays are probs the best time to beef up the old f-squizzy, and if you’re all like, “holidays are for fun social times, not folio building times”, then you’re wrong. Youth allowance doesn’t last forever, and you will 100 percent thank me when you’ve actually gotten a job with annual leave.

#2 Network As You Go

With pretty much every facet of every job in the arts, networking is more important than literally anything else. Networking is more important than talent. Networking is more important than basic hygiene and human needs.

Jump on LinkedIn and add every single person you’ve ever met or emailed. After that, jump on sites like Meetup and go outside into the world and meet people in similar fields to you, then add them on LinkedIn. Most cities have industry nights and events, which are fantastic for networking. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Dad was right.

#3 Learn What Skills Are Actually Employable

Unfortunately, not many people want to hire you to do your avant-garde art style for their corporate ad campaign. I majored in stop motion animation, and its defo the least employable animation skill there is. Your art is wonderful, and perfect, and incredible, but you need to branch out. All the jobs are in corporate stuff and advertising stuff.

#4 Upskill During The Holidays

The more software you know, the more technique you know, and the more industry shit you know makes you all the more desirable. If you aim to learn one new thing that you can pop on your resume each break, then you gon’ be an unstoppable force of a salaried position, hunty.

#5 Build A Website Early

The first thing a potensh employer is gonna ask for is your website. If you wait until you graduate to start, it’s gonna be a long couple of months before you can start actively looking for work. The more profesh it looks, the more likely you are to be taken seriously. The more regularly you update it, the more ding-ding-ding! Winner winner, chicken dinner results you’ll get.