“Try reaching out to some founders”

Creative Career Conundrums is a weekly advice column from If You Could Jobs. Each week their selected panel of professionals from the creative industry answers your burning career questions to help you navigate the creative journey.

This week’s question:

“I know there are many jobs out there, but it is hard finding them. I know what sort of roles I am interested in, but I don’t know lesser-known companies that provide them. For example, niche job boards have job listings from smaller companies, but I don’t know how they find these companies, and that would be useful for me, as not all companies post their jobs on search engines such as Indeed or LinkedIn. I have seen companies and members of companies advertise a vacancy on their LinkedIn page, but not on LinkedIn job listings, which makes it hard to find these jobs unless you already know the company or are familiar with it.

How can I find niche and lesser-known companies that are hiring for entry-level or trainee schemes?”

Alex Bec, co-founder of It’s Nice That, Creative Lives in Progress and If You Could Jobs:

You’re right, sometimes finding new roles and opportunities at the smaller employers can be a bit of a challenge; but here’s a few quick tips to start the year.

Our sister company Creative Lives in Progress (CLIP) has some great parts of its platform for just these kinds of requests. Firstly, its Opportunities Board is focused solely on entry-level and junior opportunities across the UK – so I’d start there. In addition, it also has a very handy directory of creative employers too – loads of which are small and less well-known so again, that’d be a great place to spend some research time. Also, keep your eye on the events page, all our events there are free, and a great way of meeting industry contacts for the first time.

The other, slightly more proactive thing I’d recommend is researching great studios you love; finding projects you really love that are being promoted on Instagram or Linkedin, and start following those companies. Then if any opportunities come up, you’ll make sure you won’t miss them. If you’re feeling brave you may also try reaching out to some of the individuals like those founders who you think might be able to give you some guidance or advice, and start getting on their radars.

Sorry that was slightly self-promotional, but these kinds of requests are exactly the reason we created, and continue to invest some much time and love into Creative Lives in Progress, so I hope the platform is impactful for you.

Best of luck!

In answering your creative career conundrums we realise that some issues need expert support, so we’ve collated a list of additional resources that can support you across things that might arise at work.

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