CV writing

I currently already have a CV but I created it on my own without looking at guidelines and things so I have decided to look into some tips for a successful CV and create a new one,

Here is my current CV:

Although I think my CV is okay I am going to do some research and change it a little bit :

1. Keep it real!

Usually a CV should be no more than two pages – and that's two pages of A4 paper! Employers spend, an average, just 8 seconds looking at any one CV, and a surefire way of landing yourself on the no pile is to send them your entire life story. Keep it punchy, to the point, and save those niggly little details for the interview.

2. Tailor it

We've all done it. Whizzed the same CV out to lots of employers to save time... Stop! Take the time to change your CV for each role that you apply for. Research the company and use the job advert to work out EXACTLY what skills you should point out to them. They will appreciate the obvious effort.

3. Include a personal statement

Don’t just assume an employer will see how your experience relates to their job. Instead, use a short personal statement to explain why you are the best person for the job. This should be reflected in your cover letter as well.

4. Don't leave gaps

We are a cynical bunch and leaving obvious gaps on your CV immediately makes employers suspicious – and they won't give you the benefit of the doubt. If you’ve been out of work it can be a worry but just put a positive spin on it. Did you do a course, volunteer work or develop soft skills such as communication, teamwork or project management? If so, shout about it! 

5. Keep it current

You should keep your CV up-to-date whether you’re looking for a job or not. Every time something significant occurs in your career, record it so you don't later forget something that could be important.

6. The error of your ways

Employers DO look for mistakes on CVs and if they find them, it makes you look really bad.

7. Tell the truth

Everyone lies on their CV, right? NO! Stop! Blatant lies on your CV can land you in a whole heap of trouble when it comes to employers checking your background and references. The last thing you want is to start work and then lose your new job for lying. You also may get caught out at the interview stage when you suddenly can't answer questions on what you claim to know. And that can be VERY awkward!

8. The maths

This may sound dull but by backing up your achievements with numbers it makes selling yourself much easier. When writing your work history, don’t just say that you increased sales; tell them you increased sales by 70% over a six month period. Get it? Big numbers are especially good (although don't forget point 7 of our list!).

9. Make it look good

We live in a world where image is everything, and that also goes for your CV. Take some time to pretty it up... Use bullet points and keep sentences short. Use the graphic design trick of leaving plenty of white space around text and between categories to make the layout easy on the eye.

Sourced from


I think these tips are really helpful I am going to put these tips into my new CV:

Body Language

I already know quite a lot about body language as we learnt a lot about it when I studied Acting before coming here. I decided to research into a bit more, I think this is a good thing to look into because I will be working with the general public a lot and stylists and what not so I should know about body language.

• The closer they are, the warmer they are thinking of you. If you move slightly closer to them and they move even closer to you, they probably really like you or are very comfortable around/by you. But this could also mean that they have a special comfort with you. A strong friendship or they consider you a member of their family.
• Overly tilted heads are either a potential sign of sympathy, or if a person smiles while tilting their head, they are being playful and maybe even flirting.
• Lowered heads indicate a reason to hide something. Take note if someone lowers their head. If it is when he is complimented, he may be shy, ashamed, timid, keeping distance from the other person, in disbelief, or thinking to himself or herself. If it is after an explanation, then he may be unsure if what he said was correct, or could be reflecting.
• It should be noted that some cultures see this as a sign of respect.
• Tilted heads mean that they are confused or challenging you, depending on their eye, eyebrow, and mouth gestures. Think of how a dog slightly tilts its head when you make a funny noise.
• People who look to the sides a lot are nervous, lying, or distracted. However, if a person looks away from the speaker, it very well could be a comfort display or indicate submissiveness. Looking askance generally means the person is distrustful or unconvinced.
• If someone looks down at the floor a lot, they are probably shy or timid. People also tend to look down when they are upset, or trying to hide something emotional. People are often thinking and feeling unpleasant emotions when they are in the process of staring at the ground.
• Some cultures believe that looking at someone in the eyes is a sign of disrespect, or is only done with intimate friends or family, so this could explain why someone is avoiding eye contact with you.
• Dilated pupils mean that the person is interested. Keep in mind, however, that many substances cause pupils to dilate, including alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, MDMA, LSD and others. Don't mistake having a few drinks for attraction.
• If their eyes seem focused far away, that usually indicates that a person is in deep thought or not listening.

I found these point really helpful, I found them at -    http://www.wikihow.com/Read-Body-Language 

Networking

When researching networking I found a website that I found helpful Website here

What is networking?

• It is not just WHAT you know, it is also WHO you know that counts!  Networking is all about building mutually beneficial relationships and talking to people with a view to discussing topics that are of joint interest
• Every time you make a new contact you are effectively then tapping into a new circle of people, so you can gradually build up a list of contacts who can help you

Why do it?

• It is generally agreed that about half of all job vacancies are never advertised publicly and employers often fill them instead with people who have approached them directly. Obviously there is less competition for these vacancies than for those that have been advertised widely and research shows that a referral generates more success than a ‘cold call’ because people usually trust the source of the information
• Some people do a speculative 'mail shot' of the same CV to hundreds of different firms. What they are effectively doing is sending employers junk mail, with a likely return rate of only around 1 or 2%. Applications of this nature work when they are more targeted and well researched to meet the employers' needs.  You might find the selling your skills on paper information helpful as you produce your CV 

 What can you get from networking?

• Establishing what a job is really like – Asking someone about their job, or industry they work in, should give you a better idea of what is involved in a role.  In addition, your contact may be able to organise a visit to their company, paid/unpaid work experience, work shadowing (ie unpaid work observation) or mentoring
• Helping you look for work – Your networking contacts can also give you an overview of the range of jobs within their given field and the level of competition for vacancies; look through your CV and suggest improvements, provide information on experience or qualifications and recommend other sources of information and advice, including their own contacts. They may also be able to tell you which journals and recruitment agencies to use when looking for vacancies, give you ideas of other employers to apply to and let you know about current vacancies
• Researching companies and tailoring your applications – Contacts who work for organisations that interest you could be invaluable in your research.  They can provide insight into company culture, recent company news, and a deeper understanding of the job and even the role of the person who is going to interview you
• Some people are afraid to use contacts. Typical comments include: 'I don't know anybody who could help me', 'I wouldn't want to bother them', 'My uncle could help me get a job, but I want to do it on my own', 'It seems unfair to take advantage of who you know'
• It is possible for everyone to find somebody who can help. In fact most people are actually flattered to be approached for advice and are happy to help.  In addition, there are many existing networks that you can tap into for advice.  Professional bodies are a particularly useful source of contacts as they often publish lists of members.  It never hurts to contact someone (tactfully) for help - they can always say no. Bear in mind that contacts alone rarely get you a job - you'll need to prove you have what it takes. Finally, if you do not make use of networking, you could lose out to others.  That's what makes networking powerful - not everyone does it

What are the rules?

• An important concept in networking is reciprocity (or give and take). Do not only focus on your own needs. If you are looking for information or ideas from someone, you should expect to give something in return. This could simply mean sending them a piece of information, eg a link to an article you have read, volunteering to do some work or introducing them to one of your contacts at university
• You should show a genuine interest in the people you meet and always follow up when you say you will do something
• You should be prepared to share ideas and the skills, ability and experience you have
• Remember, even if the person you meet cannot help you it is quite likely that they will know someone who can

How do you do it?

Preparation:

• Before you go to a networking event ask yourself ‘who do I want to meet and why'? You also need to be prepared and confident so that you make a good first impression, so practise describing yourself in under 30 seconds. It is vital that the person you are speaking to gets an accurate picture of what you do and what makes you relevant to their needs 

What do you say?

• This is often very personal and can be planned to some extent, but here are some ideas.  If you are approaching a person you could smile and offer your hand, introducting yourself clearly and confidently.  You can then develop the conversation by asking relevant questions.  Most people will be happy to talk and will respond favourably to someone who is genuinely interested in them 
• If you are apporaching a group, remember to check body language.  If it is obvious that they are in a deep/personal conversation, don't try to butt in - find someone else to talk to and then come back
• To close the conversation and move on, you should again be polite.  Share your contact details if appropriate and agree future actions before saying that you are going to have a walk around to talk to other people

Follow up

• When you close the conversation or meeting, ask how they would like you to follow up. Write down the action points on the back of their business card
• Take immediate action, eg send them an email to say how much you enjoyed meeting them and send the information you have promised, even if it is something simple like a telephone number, coursework or a website address. You can also remind them of what they have promised you, but do remember to thank them for their offer, and when they respond, thank them again for doing it. Above all, set a reminder for yourself to complete what you have promised and do it on time
• It is also useful to create a contact list of people that you meet, with a few notes about what they do and any other helpful information you have picked up about them.  You can use Microsoft Outlook to manage this task by producing contact business cards

My Own Personal Blog

I decided to create my own blog after doing the session on blogs, I've decided to create it on Tumblr just because I am more used to using that, I've chose a minimilstic layout so that all the attention is on my posts, here is a preview of my first post:

I've decided to only write short posts so that people don't loose interest in my blog, I will start posting some of my work on it and then start posting it on to my other social networks. 

Copyright

For me copyright is a very daunting thing, I'm always worried that I could be stealing some one else's idea and it is a big worry when it comes to doing work for college. I decided that after having this session on copyright I would look further into it myself .

1. Who owns the copyright on photographs?
   Under law, it is the photographer who will own copyright on any photos he/she has taken, with the following exceptions:
   • If the photographer is an employee of the company the photos are taken for, or is an employee of a company instructed to take the photos, the photographer will be acting on behalf of his/her employer, and the company the photographer works for will own the copyright.
   • If there is an agreement that assigns copyright to another party.
   In all other cases, the photographer will retain the copyright, if the photographer has been paid for his work, the payment will be for the photographer’s time and typically an allocated number of prints. The copyright to the photos will remain with the photographer, and therefore any reproduction without permission would be an infringement of copyright.
   Examples:
• If Bill Smith asks Peter Jones the photographer to photograph his wedding. Peter Jones will normally provide a single copy of the prints as part of the fee, but any additional prints Bill or his family and friend want must be ordered via Peter as he is the copyright owner and controls who can copy his work.
• If Bill Smith engages the services of XYZ-Photos for the same job, and Peter is an employee of XYZ-Photo who instruct Peter to take the photos, XYZ-Photos will be the copyright owner and control how they are used.

I already understood that the photographer owned the copyright if he/she took the photo but I didnt know that if they worked for a business it was the business that owned the copyright!

1. Marking your work
   The two primary reasons for marking your work are to ensure that those accessing your images are clear that copyright exists and that they know who to contact to obtain permission.
   1. Contact information
      We often receive enquiries from individuals and organisations wishing to use specific photos, but who are unable to trace the owner. It seems that many images are marked as ‘copyright image do not reproduce without permission’, but that the photographer omitted to include their contact details. This is frustrating to the person wishing to use the image and also means that the photographer may miss out on reproduction fees and exposure.
   2. Copyright notices
      We do recommended that you mark your work with a copyright notice, as this makes it clear that copyright exists, and helps to deter infringement. Please see our fact sheet P-03: Using copyright notices for information on wording you notices.
      For traditional prints, it is customary to use a stamp to mark the copyright notice and the copyright owners contact details on the back of the print
      If you display your photos online, you may choose to use photo editing software to place a simple copyright notice across the image, (typically this will appear in the bottom corner). Ideally it should include the address of the web site so that it is clear where to go to find contact details.
      For electronic images, it is also possible to include the copyright/contact details in the file properties. Under Windows for example, right clicking on a image will allow you to bring up the properties dialogue where you may enter details about the file, (though this will only work with certain file types). More typically, your image software will provide a way to insert comments into the file; this is preferred as these are harder to remove.
      Watermarking may be worth considering if you have a lot of valuable images on your site.

I already watermark all of the images I put onto my business facebook page, and I do have a copyright note in the sidebar. 

Model release forms

An individual has certain rights to control the use of their image. The specific details will vary from one country to another depending on national legislation, although the general rule seems to be to protect a person against defamatory or offensive use of their image.

If you intend to sell or distribute images that include people, then it is worth getting your subjects to sign a model release form as this will protect you against any comeback.

I already make sure that all my models fill in a model release form I also have forms for my makeup artists, hair stylists and clothing designers to sign for any of my shoots. 

All information taken from

Research and Blogging

We did a session this week on Research and blogging, I found this very useful as I knew I needed to improve my research skills.

The main thing I took away from this presentation was this Jim Jarmusch quote that I absolutely loved!

Image source here

I just found that every word he said in this quote was true, So although I think I need to read more books to research, I'm wrong, research is all around us!

The next part of the presentation was on blogging, I have used blogs for many years but only for personal use not for a professional view.

I found this presentation useful as I had only worked with tumblr in the past and obviously I am now using Blogger and find it efficient in what I want to use it for. I also wanted to find ways in how to get my blog popular, If I am to create a blog to showcase my work I want it to be popular and for people to visit my blog, this presentation helped with this.

There was a mini task at the end of this presentation to take a couple of minutes to think about your own blog, as I previously said the blog I use at the minute is just for personal use it isn't a platform to my business so for me, I've set myself my own mini task to actually create a blog of a professional standard and start posting about my work in it.

Video - BBC - What Artists do all day - Polly Morgan

In this weeks session we watched a BBC documentary about the Taxidermist Polly Morgan.

Watch the documentary here

"Taxidermist Polly Morgan, described by Banksy as 'Britain's hottest bird stuffer', is one of Britain's most high profile young artists.Her macabre and unsettling works, including a coffin bursting with open-mouthed chicks and a rat asleep in a champagne glass, have won her celebrity fans including Kate Moss and considerable media coverage.In the second of this series of artist profiles, this film offers an intimate peek at the strange and wonderful art of Polly Morgan and asks what her reputation reveals about the relationship between art and celebrity."  

I found this documentary so interesting! I had no knowledge what so ever of Taxidermist's so to be able to get an insight of how much work goes into it was riveting.
In the documentary we see that her studio that she works in is actually in her home, this proves to be very useful but also bad as she never knows when to stop working with it being right in her home. She gets most of her dead animals through the post, which I found very weird but I liked how all the animals died of natural causes so none where actually harmed or killed for her art pieces. 

Although many people in my class found her work to be 'disgusting' I found it extremely beautiful, the way she lays the dead animals out and covers them in a glass dome I find beautiful. I also love how a small chandelier is put into most of her art pieces, here is some of her work:

Images sourced from:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=polly+morgan+taxidermy

Skills Audit

This is my skills audit, I have only included the skills that where put in as examples, I find I can carry out research to a good standard but to increase it to a very good standard I need to start looking at more books instead of just relying on the internet.
I find my verbal communication to a very very high standard, this was one of the main reasons I was elected for student rep, I find I can get my words across very well but in comparison to my written communication I think I lack a little bit as I sometimes find it hard to write what I am trying to explain.
Although I can work independently, I find I like working in a team a lot better, i'm definitely a peoples person and find when working alone I get bored quite easily compared to working in a team.
I think my presentation skills could do with a little more work just to bring them up to a professional standard..
Again speaking in front of others isnt a problem to me and I can carry this out to a very high standard.
My organisational skills have improved from first year a lot but I still feel I could brush up on these a little bit.
Again my time management is good but could always be better! I'd like to be able to hand my work in a few days before deadlines and not have the mad rush I seem to always have.

PPD File - SWOT

After doing a session on SWOT's I decided to find my old one from level 4 and compare how I have improved and changed in a year.

Level 4 SWOT analysis :

Strengths:

• I feel I have a lot of enthusiasm for photography and to learn more about the photography industry. 
• Because of me studying performing arts and working on a reception desk in the past I feel I have a lot of confidence with speaking to people which is a strength as I wont find it hard to speak to clients.
• Having my own studio is a strength as I can do photo shoots in there instead of relying on the Uni's studio.
• I'm very confident with computers and other technology which is always a strength as computers are a big part of digital photography. 

Weaknesses: 

• Although I have used Photoshop when studying for my A level in photography, I wasn't very confident with it and that was 3 years ago now and I haven't used it since.
• I'd not even heard of capture one or light room before I started here, I feel I need to learn about these programmes and extend my photoshop skills. 
• Although we did use dark rooms to process some film while a college we only did it a few times, I really like the outcomes you can achieve with shooting in film so would definitely like to improve my knowledge of this.

Opportunities:

• From talking to some level 5's I have found out that there is sometimes photo shop workshops offered, hopefully this is the case as I would benefit a lot from this! 
• From the help of other class mates I have already learnt a lot of new photo shop skills so this is a very good thing! 
• I find group crits are a very good opportunity to get other people opinions of your work and get tips from other people and the opportunity for this to happen is obviously here.
• Getting the chance to help out on other peoples photoshoots is a great opportunity to learn new things.
• Entering competitions are a great opportunity to get your name out into the photographic industry and Uni let us know when there are competitions being ran.

Threats:

• Working alongside other people that are wanting to make a career in photography is obviously competition but I just have to find a way to make myself different and stand out.
• Photographic equipment is expensive, I'm going to need to get a part time job to afford certain things I want/need to progress. 
• At the minute the thing that is holding me back is my lack of knowledge in photo shop, hopefully this can become a strength as I learn more about it. 

Level 5 SWOT analyis:

Strengths:

• I still have lots of enthusiasm to learn more about photography and I also now have a lot of enthusiasm to finish my course and start working free lance.
• My confidence has rose higher and higher because of working with new clients and organising shoots, Im really thankful of having this confidence as it will help me a lot in the future. 
• I still have my own studio and although I use the Colleges studios as much as possible to do my college work, I am getting freelance work and using my own studio to get even more experience. 
• Although I was technology confident in first year I feel after completing that year I know a lot more about the programmes I need to use to progress. 
• My time management has improved a hell of a lot since completing first year, not only getting work completed on time for deadlines but also getting photos all edited in a reasonable enough time for clients. 
• I became student rep of my class at the beginning of last year, I wasnt sure what that role entailed but I got voted to be it anyway. I'm so glad I became it as it has made me much more level headed and I now know im approachable by other class mates, which is where the leader strength comes in, being a student rep has given me the confidence to know I am a good leader but also a brilliant team player as well. 
• My photoshop skills have improved massively and I feel confident enough to sit and edit a full shoot of photos without the help of others.
• I'm also now Capture One confident and love being able to shoot my shoots tethered using Capture One.

Weaknesses:

• Thankfully Photoshop and Capture One are now not my weaknesses but I am still left with Lightroom as a weakness, I don't actually see this  as bad thing though as I am simply not interested in learning any more than the simple things about it as I know I wont be using it in the future. 
• After completing first year I noticed I need to be a lot more careful with my money management, as much as I want a new camera or a new piece of equipment I need to realise I can go blowing all my money on it and I need to save up for it. 

Opportunities: 

• It's brilliant being able to have 20/30 other peoples help on your projects and I know that when I leave college that I will 100% miss having the help of my other classmates and having their oppinions on my images. 
• Now that I feel confident in my own work and my own shoots, it's nice to have people ask me if they can assist my shoot, it takes a lot of the weight off. 
• Now that I have added so much knowledge of photography to my self I can now start looking at the job opportunities for the future. 

Threats:

• I still have the same two threats as I did in first year, this is because they still stand. There is always going to be the threat of other competition as of now I haven't found what makes me different to the other people in my class other than that I have my own studio and after finding that money management is one of my weaknesses the funding has never looked like more of a threat to me.

After looking and comparing my SWOT's I feel I have come such a long way since first year, I feel these work really well into looking at what you need to change about yourself and I feel I will use these in the future.