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This article investigates the experiences and challenges of RMIT media graduates entering the labour market whilst shedding light on the relevance of internships, networks, skills, and changing perspectives on ‘career’ notions as they progress beyond university. We report findings from a survey of five years of graduates from RMIT’s ‘Bachelor of Communications (Media) course. In the face of industry uncertainty in broadcast and traditional media, increased competition and technological advances that disrupt and propel media business models, this study focuses on the pathways graduates have pervaded in this present-day media landscape.
Abstract
Introduction
Changing Industry Context
To better understand the conditions that affect graduates and job applicants, we must consider the trends in the labour market and the wider political economy. Twenty first century media convergence and its transformative, disruptive nature constitute, to a large extent, the conditions of the labour market that media graduates must navigate. Media convergence, defined by the ‘Australian Communications and Media Authority’ is the ‘phenomenon where digitisation of content, as well as standards and technologies for the carriage and display of digital content, are blurring the traditional distinctions between broadcasting and other media across all elements of the supply chain, for content generation, aggregation, distribution and audiences’. Media and communication industries are inextricably affected by technological developments as their very nature is dependent on these technologies. As technological development in computer software, to ICTs, digital content, social media applications accelerates, as does the cultural uptake of these advances. Communication industry practitioners are faced with an endless climb to learn and adapt to the technological zeitgeist. What this means for graduates is that the manner in which they find media roles and work in media is in a constant state of flux, requiring them to reinvent and adapt their techniques, lest they become obsolete in a ever growing and competitive industry.
Political Economy
The forces at work in our present-day political economy are affecting the way practitioners access jobs, the way business operates and the disintegration of traditional company hierarchies. A pivotal determiner of landscape is the disruptive nature of the so-called ‘technological revolution’. It is a central motif in this new economy signified by speed, youth, buzz, ubiquity of tools and connectivity (Thrift, 2005). The rise of this ‘technological age’ is recognised under many titles, such as the “digital economy”, “creative economy”, “networked economy”, “enterprise economy”, and “weightless economy”. This is marked by changes in ‘organisational structures, logics and employment practises in the media industries’ (Storey, et al, 2005, p1033). Thrift (2008) describes the cultural circuit of capital as “full palette” capitalism, that is achieved through “increasing the rate of innovation and invention”.
Creativity, as its prime commodity is in a constant “process whereby new products and services are created and existing ones improved” (Thomke cited in Thrift 2008). Traditional company hierarchies are disintegrating to compete with the agile, responsive market of startup companies and freelancers equipped with the technological literacy and industry foresight of innovation. Essentially what this signifies for workers in the creative sector is that business no longer operates under ‘nine-to-five’ pm sessions; it has moved online, become more casualised and access points are far more porous. As this article will illustrate, gaining access to the industry requires networks, experience, and dynamism of skill and adaption.
Australia at-large
On a local level, the breakdown of broadcast and print media, the casualisation and insecurity of work and oversupply of university enrolments in media are factors driving the conditions of labour market. The concurrent trend of industry disruption was further exacerbated by the the Global Financial Crisis, which saw a wave of redundancies across the biggest media corporations in Fairfax, News Limited and Network Ten, to name a few. Also, as was announced earlier this year, funding cuts at ABC and SBS will put further strain on opportunities offered to fresh graduates. In light of redundancies and shrinking pool of paid positions, these factors indicate precarious and limited employment opportunities for graduates seeking entry into these well-established companies.
Enrolment over-supply in communication courses has also headlined industry commentary. Several studies indicate that communication (media, journalism & marketing) degrees are booming in demand, whilst the labour market is unable to offer positions to meet this supply.
Media commentator, lecturer and researcher on skill shortages and education policy, Dr Alan Montague (2014) reported on this precise issue, expressing doubts that many journalism students will not find journalism jobs. It is difficult to obtain data specific to media graduates as their employable skillset can pervade across a variety of roles and industries including corporate public relations, copywriting, internal communications, to ranging positions in creative sectors, journalism and social media. However, to illustrate this challenge of oversupply, figures obtained by Crikey found, “while difficult to quantify the labour market need for journalists, or even the numbers working in the profession’s many dimensions, a spokesperson for the professional body known as the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance estimated that 10,000 people were employed as journalists, with 6000 media journalists working in freelance, casual and part-time positions.” Enrolments increased from a “rough” figure of 1150 in 2007 to 1750 in 2012. “Assuming that there are 10,000 working journalists, the prospect of absorbing 1750-plus graduates in one year is a statistical stretch; even more so given the recent redundancies among the mastheads.” (Montague, 2014)
“Would you like fries with that?”
Goes the well-rehearsed joke that arts and humanities graduates find themselves in hospitality roles or “McJobs”, unable to find work following their degree. It poignantly attests to the widely acknowledged challenges encountered from graduation to employment. Yet, despite this academic meme, there is little empirical evidence that specifically tracks the progress of graduates in the media field. A similar study by Bridgestock and Cunningham, found, “the Graduate Destination Survey, conducted far too soon after graduation, is worse than having nothing at all, as it tiresomely reiterates the fact that graduates from the arts and humanities take longer to find their feet than those whose career paths are much more tightly aligned to the established salaried professions.” Whilst data on enrolment figures and availability of industry positions, can illustrate the imbalance of supply and demand, it fails to capture the alternative pathways graduates are taking to find work. Pathways such as freelancing, startups, crowd-sourcing funding for projects, and internships.
Broadly speaking, the traditional methods of gaining entry to work, through cadetship programs run by companies such as The Herald Sun, or Fairfax are hastily shrinking. Commentators reiterate the baffling paradox that ‘young people are still interested in communicating for a living but the industry seems incapable of supporting this interest with suitable employment.’ (Bossio. D, 2012, The Conversation) However, the promising feature of this obstacle is that “students make their own jobs”. Diana Bossio, Media Communications lecturer at Swinburne University, regards, “they are already using a mix of traditional, online and social media to research and disseminate journalistic work.” Graduates have a distinct advantage over experienced applicants because they live in the ‘digitised, networked social environs’ (ibid). So despite industry uncertainty, graduates are enabled by the diverse skill set in multimedia literacy, a native understanding of the networked economy and they are situated in an environment which welcomes enterprise and experimentation.
With these factors in mind, this article addresses process graduates have taken to secure employment. In surveying a range of graduates within a five-year span of completion, we are interesting in the pathways they pervade amidst an industry cast as competitive and entrepreneurial. Our investigation pertains to the relevancies of the course to their work, the methods and challenges of finding work, with retrospection upon their degree in preparing them for this insecure labour market.
Aims
Research framework
This research highlights the way in which graduates have navigated the cultural and creative sector. What we are interested in is the way graduates connect with people and businesses to access pathways into the job market in light of the aforementioned changes. For this focus we have interviewed past RMIT media students about their current careers in order to investigate future pathways and discover any potential trends created by recent graduates in the media industry.
We executed an interview that pertains to four main themes of questioning.
Firstly, in finding work. We asked how graduates have found work, what they did, where they presently worked and through what means have they accessed this role. We were also interested in the rigor they had set out to find work and its particular level of difficulty.
Secondly, the graduates were asked how work has challenged them, what skills they have had to develop, and whether the degree was adequate in preparing them for their labour force.
Thirdly, we were interested in how they viewed their position as a media practitioner in the future. We asked whether their career expectations have changed and whether the reality of work changed their perspectives on the future.
Finally, we were interested in a retrospection on the assets and pitfalls of their studies on their careers: How does one carve out their career in this industry? The purpose of this article is to divulge the cultural workplace trends and the interplay of economic conditions that graduates face to better inform our own understandings of industry operations.
Through this investigation we want to get a better understanding for the following steps to come. We believe through the research we will understand the key elements that may come to play in this industry such as; the skill sets required technically and theoretically; setting a right mindset to be a successful player in the industry; and the proper values and attitude required towards the work. Through this we intend to raise a set of questions that would highlight, confirm or expand these ideology to enable us future media graduates an upper hand on obtaining a job in the industry.
Research Questions
1. What sort of organization do you work for?
2. What is your role in the organization?
3. How did you get this job?
4. How long after you graduated did you get employment?
5. How prepared did you feel to enter this role?
6. Where did you look for jobs and did you find what you were looking for when searching?
7. Have your career expectations changed since you entered the workforce?
8. What do you value most from your degree?
9. What have you had to develop most from work?
10. Did you complete any internships/placements, how was this helped you?
Methodology
Approaches to Research & Methodology Theory
Due to the nature and intention of this report we opted for a qualitative approach to our subjects. It proved more fitting to undertake a traditional style of interviewing ; that is, a conversational interview. A few participants were overseas, thus some members called them whilst others interviewed using online mediums or face-to-face.
Qualitative research is characterized by its aims, which relate to understanding some aspect of social life, and its methods that usually generate words, rather than numbers, as data for analysis. We based our structure of the interview process on Martin Wood’s 'Interviewing For Research And Analysing Qualitative Data: An Overview'.
For researchers more familiar with quantitative methods which aim to measure something, the aims and methods of qualitative research can seem imprecise. Common criticisms include:
1. Samples are small and not necessarily representative of the broader population, so it is difficult to know how far we can generalize the results;
2. The findings lack rigor;
3. It is difficult to tell how far the findings are biased by the researcher’s own opinions.
4. Triangulation is one method for increasing validity of findings, through deliberately seeking evidence from a wide range of sources and comparing findings from those different sources. For example if you have done interviews and focus groups, compare the findings from each. If they coincide, that strengthens our faith in having identified important issues.
5. Though it is deemed to be less ‘reliable’ by some researchers it is equally as valid. Instead of asking about sheer numbers, we seek to know ‘who, what and why’.”
We applied methods outlined by Martin Wood’s ‘Interviewing For Research And Analysing Qualitative Data: An Overview’. After we acquired the participants and organised dates, time and location, we equipped ourselves with a recording device; a Zoom H4n or phone recording. This is, to accurately transcribe the findings later on.
Since we chose for participants to remain anonymous,, there was no need for consent forms that have to go through RMIT and have our questions approved. This also elevated the level of confidentiality.
We chose to conduct the research this way so that the participants would not hesitate to speak their thoughts as the purpose of the qualitative approach is to attain a personal view and interpretations of one’s experience. We were aware of the possibility that some of the participants might not be too fond of their experiences.
As researchers who were looking for personal insight, we had to approach the participants patiently and kindly. According to Martin Wood, to optimize the answers, it is best that the interview be conducted in a quiet location. In addition to this, we must always let the participants speak until the end, cutting them off halfway with a question might cut the flow of the ‘conversation with a purpose’ (Wood, 2011).
Interview parameters
There were a number of procedural measures employed to maintain consistency and ethical aspects of this data collection. For example, we were required to explain the purpose of the interview , why the participant had been chosen, the confidentiality of the information credibility by note taking or voice-recording.
In conducting the interviews, we approached the session by using open-ended questions. Despite preparing pre-planned questions to ask during the interview, we allowed questions to flow naturally, based on information provided by the respondent. In fact, the flow of the conversation dictated the questions asked, and those omitted, as well as the order of the questions.
Quality Control
To ensure that the quality of our questions and answers were consistent, we followed the rule that the interviewer must always make the interviewee comfortable, appear interested in what they are saying and avoid ‘yes/no’ and leading questions.
It was decided that biased questions, questions that assume what they ask, double-barrelled questions, questions that do not directly relate to what we want to find out and confusing or complicated questions should be excluded.
Analysis of Results
When we had reached the end of an interview, we read through the responses and looked for patterns or themes among the data. We looked for a variety of themes, codes, and possible categories that will provide the beginnings of analysis, and/or ideas for future interviews.
For example, we had found different answers throughout the varied graduates. Some had a great experience while others did not. Responses were affected by a number of factors, whether it be age, ethnicity, culture, international or local student and otherwise. After each interview we referred back to the previous ones in order to improve the following interviews, or which areas to pursue, etc.
Qualitative research results in copious amounts of richly detailed data that is contextually laden and subjective. Some results may not apply to all of us but it is a story unique to the people that have experienced them, nonetheless there is always something to learn from other’s experiences. (Bricki and Green, 2007) This data usually originates from interview transcripts and/or observation notes and must be reworked or ‘reduced’ to represent major themes or categories that describe the phenomenon being studied. (Woods, 2011)
This process depends upon the nature of the research, and especially on the chosen analytical approach.
Approaches to the findings:
1. Thematic analysis
2. Grounded theory
3. Discourse analysis
4. Others
Results
Qualitative Data Analysis
For charts and full responses click here
1. What sort of organisation do you work for?
The great variety of responses testifies to the job opportunities in different kinds of organisations and positions including: social media, production assistance, photography etc. It was evident in the research that opportunities to work overseas and work as a freelancer arise. Similarly, the answers revealed the numerous job opportunities within single businesses. The significant number of graduates working freelance highlights the growing freelance market in Australia. Particular graduates have worked in freelance and moved on to working for a business. This knowledge positively reflects the media industry, which recognises freelance work as a legitimate experience to qualify one to work for businesses.
2. What is your role in the organization?
The vast number of roles suggests the media industry is ever-changing and constantly establishing new titles/positions on new platforms. These answers attest to the broad opportunities offered by undertaking the bachelor of communications (media) degree, which is an adequate prerequisite for jobs under the umbrella term: ‘media’.
“Officially I am a producer, however I have worked as a director, editor and camera operator on a number of projects.”
3. How did you get this job?
The consensus proved the notion that one must begin ‘”small and build networks and clientele over time”. Following their commencement of university, the graduates used their networking resources/ contacts to attain positions. Thus, they heavily encouraged reaching beyond ones comfort zone so as to approach new contact and establish future prospects for work. One particular graduate “cold emailed” the Melbourne International Film Festival, to which they responded and thus resulted in a job which they continues to occupy. This exemplifies the effectiveness of contacting organisations, despite lacking direct connections.
“Networking, small jobs, building up clientele that led to more jobs.”
4. How long after you graduated did you get employment?
There was a diverse range of periods between graduation and getting a job. Some chose to undertake a gap year whilst others took the initiative to begin vigorously searching for a job immediately after graduation. Accordingly, the collective answers suggest the possibility of attaining a job is heavily dependent on the initiative of the individual.
“I didn’t really search for jobs, because of timing of finding employment after postgrad. I missed out on 6-month unemployment ‘buffer’.”
5. How prepared did you feel to enter this role?
The majority of answers led to the reasoning that one cannot be wholly prepared for a new job description that they have not experienced, (despite having had some knowledge of the job from university). Many felt the bachelor of communications (media) course was rather broad instead of centralising on a specific job.
“I felt pretty confident when entered. You think you’re prepared, but you’re not really, on set you want to help but you’re not sure where to. The course prepares you as much as it can hands on and theoretical wise. But there’s something you can only learn from the experience of being on set.”
6. Where did you look for jobs and did you find what you were looking for when searching?
An immense number of graduates searched for jobs on ‘seek’ website. This suggests a heavy reliance on Internet applications for recent graduates. Equally, many of the graduates found jobs through RMIT graduate networks, attesting to the asset of maintaining relationships with university colleagues.
“I turned to Seek, Loop, Pedestrian, Facebook groups such as RMIT grad jobs website. It’s about getting coffee with different people. 'Keep your ear to the ground'.”
7. Have your career expectations changed since you entered the workforce?
Approximately 70 percent of graduates said their career expectations changed since entering the workforce. The main opinions led to the advice of having to ‘compromise’ and undertake certain jobs you do not particularly have any interest in. Those who responded “no”, justified this answer by regarding that they had a specific/measurable goal they desired to achieve since having graduated.
“I realized that I have to accept where I'm at right now, in order to get to where I want to be. My mission now is to learn as much as I can in this field, to use this time as a learning experience, and to work my way up.”
8. What do you value most from your degree?
Personal network development was highly valued by the graduates; they were appreciative of the opportunity to have potential future colleagues. During the final semester of the degree, all the graduates had undertaken the ‘Personal Networking Report’ assignment, which they felt pushed them to practically approach industry members and develop new contacts.
“The flow of connections (industry wise) but I put a high value on the people I met: friends and "colleagues".
9. What have you had to develop most from work?
A majority of the graduates’ answers encouraged communication skills in the workplace. They encouraged professionalism (attire and attitude). Professionalism seems to be interpreted by the graduates as appropriate behaviour in the work environment, however ensuring to maintain a kind/friendly personality with colleagues.
“The big lesson is being professional while still being yourself. Professional isn’t being grumpy, reclusive. You can still be happy, genuine, yet do your job really well.”
10. Did you complete any internships/placements, how has this helped you?
Most graduates undertook a minimum of two internships, thus encouraging multiple internships; not only for their potential job prospects but also for the skill sets they develop. One particular graduate regarded, “I worked a few internships in editorial, website administration and at a music label. These all helped me experience different industries and get a feel for what I wanted to end up doing”. This comment illustrates the importance of internship from the perspective that they enable experiences of different jobs within the media field. The graduates emphasized their career perspective change. Evidently, the graduates’ internships enabled these perspective changes through offering practical experiences. Despite the positive opinions on internships, a few graduates have yet to occupy a paid job within the industry; some having graduates over two years ago.
“I did an internship at HRAFF, Startup Smart. I Learnt the behind-the-scenes of festivals, marketing and distributing collateral. Although it wasn’t something I want to pursue, but at least you know what you don’t want to do.”
Discussion
Bias and Scope
Due to the scope and methodology of our research, this study has a number of limitations and inherent biases that need to be discussed in order to contextualise our results.
Firstly, because the study restricted the source of our sample size to the graduates of RMIT media course, generalisability of any results to other courses, fields and universities cannot be assumed. The process of collecting contact details for the alumni was also limited to independent networks which may have also restricted the selection of the samples thus also making it unlikely for our sample of participants to be representative of the RMIT media graduate population.
Secondly, as the research takes a retrospective approach through an interviewing process it meant that participants were asked to recall experiences from their degree and professional development up to half a decade prior to the interview. We can then assume that recall of such events and experiences may contain some inaccuracies especially for the later graduates and with lines of questioning that pursued specific details.
Thirdly, in some cases the interviews were conducted by researchers who may have had past or current relations with the participants therefore potentially biasing the responses given by the participants. Lastly, because interviews were conducted by a team of different researchers there may have been variability in the structure of the interview, thus also affecting and potentially skewing the responses from the participants. The potential of this last shortcoming was minimised to an extent a the set list of questions. The sequence and structure of the questions however were to remain flexible, allowing the researcher to guide the interview with the flow of conversation.
Limitations of context
Before looking at what implications this study could have in a broader context we must first realise the tremendous lack of related study in this specific area, as Stuart Cunningham and Ruth Bridgstock state in their first line of their study titled ‘Say goodbye to the fries: graduate careers in media, cultural and communication studies’
“There is a radical paucity of systematic data on graduate careers in the arts and humanities in general, and more specifically, for our purposes and for readers of this journal, in media, cultural and communication studies”(2012, p.6) and that “there is almost no long term career tracking research of graduate outcomes in australia” (2012, p.9).
Nicole Matthews also reinforces this issue by stating in her paper ‘Transition or Translation: Thinking through Media and Cultural Studies Students Experiences after Graduation’ that “there are very few published studies on the experiences of media and cultural studies students and graduates” (2011, p.37). The aforementioned articles are two of the most relatable pieces of research as the context of their goals and methods bear a strong resemblance with this study.
Cunningham and Bridgestock report the findings of a ten year survey from the graduates of the Queensland University of Technology's courses in media, cultural and communication studies in relation to the benefits of such education on society and their effect on the levels of public and private ‘good’. Cunningham and Bridgestock also draw further insight into the specifics of the benefits within the courses concluding that they deliver “capabilities, skills and orientations that are themselves strongly aligned with the kinds of transferable generic attributes that facilitate transition into the workplace.“(2012, p.6). This statement originates from a question in Cunningham and Bridgestock’s survey which enquires specifically about the different type of special skills that the graduates valued, categorising them with qualities such as written communication, the ability to apply theoretical knowledge practically, critical and analytical thinking, media-related disciplinary skills and verbal communication skills. Although our study contained a similar question with ‘what did you value most from your degree?’ If our research was to continue or be repeated it may be beneficial to and connect our investigation of skills and attributes in a similar fashion to Cunningham and Bridgestock’s project in order to better breakdown and categorise such attributes.
Cunningham and Bridgstock’s report also created a system that categorizes graduates work roles as either ‘specialist’, ‘embedded’ or ‘support’ with the aims to aid the researchers in measuring the creative workforce. Our study examined all the same details of the jobs graduates had acquired such as company, position, basis of employment, length of tenour, weather the job was concurrent or overlapped with another etc. Yet if our research was to be continued in the future to include these key kind of defined sub categories it would have allowed our research to better be able to map and predict the trends of the job pathways in our field. In this light it may also have been beneficial to define if the graduates became employed in either the public or private sectors as this point is a common data point used in many other quantitative surveys.
Matthews combines and compares the results from two smaller research projects which involved surveying media and cultural studies graduates from both Liverpool, England and Sydney, Australia. Matthews uses these two small qualitative studies to examine how the notion of ‘instrumental progressivism’, a term created by communication and cultural scholars Frank Webster and Kevin Robins which is recontextualised by Matthews, can be used to explicate “the relationship between the discipline of cultural studies on the one hand and educational innovations and the people who seek to promote them on the other.”(2011, p.29).
Interpretative Framework
An Instrumental progressivist framework informs many contemporary educational policies, is defined by Mathews as the notion that “on the one hand, humanist and progressive educational ideas about student empowerment and life‐long learning, and on the other, the idea that higher education should serve the economy.” (2011, p.29). Webster and Robins initially described as was the notion as a “symptom of a wounded and collapsing educational system.”( 2011, p.29) yet Matthews challenges this and warns of the dangers of using instrumental progressivism by highlighting its internal contradictions. In doing so Matthews draws on the responses of recent graduates to provoke the effect of instrumental progressivism on ideas such as skills gaps, youth transition periods, the value of ‘soft-skills’ and the effect of cultural and personal capital on employment. Part of Matthew’s study also challenges the terminology in working to re-phrase the term ‘transition’, arguing that the term is no longer relevant due to its implications of linear and one-way career trajectories.
Matthews study provides a poignant point of comparison and improval to our own, most notably in the way Matthew engages a similar, albeit larger, line of research with the deeper theoretical concepts of instrumental progressivism. Perhaps if our research was designed to investigate a preexistent theory from the beginning the results and responses of our interviews may have also been able to be tailored to have greater significance, broader implications or prevalence to a particular academic theory. Furthermore investigating the socio-economic details of the graduates may have also given an important perspective in relation to their employment, as a Mathew’s proposes there is a relationship between the amount of cultural and personal capital a graduate poses and their level of preparedness for employment. Graduates from lower ranked universities are then less likely to gain employment than those from the middle class university as they have not yet cultivated the right amount of personal,social and cultural experiences. Although this would have not been fully applicable to our research as it was focused on a singular university it might have proven an interesting if we were to replicate this study to have a variety of universities or personal demographics to use as a point of comparison.
Brenda Johnston’s review of research in graduate employment in the UK argues that there is a wealth of quantitative data that can provide macro picture of employment patterns and educational trends yet despite this glut there is an exceptional lack of empirical evidence on graduate employment experiences utilizing longitudinal and qualitative methods. This discrepancy makes it is difficult for researchers to investigate topics such as the development of graduate pathways and other complex processes so Johnston then argues that many researchers “overinterpret the evidence which is available on transition from higher education to employment because reliable information is not available about long- term career trajectories are based on data gathered six months after graduation“ (2003, p.422). In australia this could be compared to pieces of research such as the 2014 Graduate destinations report from the Graduate Careers Australia institute offer larger, more general statistical data and results yet lack in depth and specificity on the area of focus for media graduates, and as such provide little relevance or point of comparison for this study.
Although our research addressed some of these issues by investigating our participant’s pathways from graduation until the point of the interview, it could have also benefitted, had the resources been available, from taking a more consistent longitudinal approach. This would mean that instead of interviewing graduates from a time period of one to five years since graduation that we would interview all graduates over a consistent duration of either five or ten years to be better able to track their career progression.
Conclusion
The purview of this research is to understand the multifaceted factors which affect graduates as they enter the workforce. Examining a range of primary and secondary sources, and conducting independent research, we have found a correlation of trends and practises, signifiers of the ‘creative economy’.
Graduates’ responses shed light on three main factors shaping their entry into the work field. Work experience, networking and freelancing were dominant themes addressed in how they found work, the value they place on the degree, the skill set they developed and how they see their future pathways.
Despite mandatory work experience, most graduates feel under prepared and out of depth in entry level jobs. Whilst they felt the degree equipped them with a broad range skill set that enables them to enter a wide range of roles from social media management, copy writing, public relations to filmmaking, production and editing, they felt moving into workforce illuminated gaps which only hands-on experience could fill. As one graduate responded,
“The course prepares you as much as it can hands-on and theoretical wise. But there’s something you can only learn from the experience of being on set. There’s a gap between the end of your degree and being a professional DOP, that’s experience. It’s not RMIT's fault, it’s possible to get this experience while at university.”
In a recent article by Probert and Alexander, on preparing students for work in the twenty first century, they mark several generic qualities essential for navigating the outside world. ‘Most will need skills in analysing and interpreting a world flooded with information, and dominated by digital forms of communication’. Generally speaking, in communication roles ‘we need graduates who have disciplinary depth as well as a broad range of generic capabilities’. So this broad range approach to the degree, may not necessarily be a disadvantage for graduates.
Probert and Alexander suggested that the ‘boundaries between educational institutions and the outside world need to be far more porous… Students will need opportunities to experience work environments as part of their learning’. The capacity to garner experience through internships was strongly affirmed in the interview responses, as it offered students opportunities to experience the realities of work, learn in a ‘hands-on’ way, and build networks with businesses and individuals. Work experience had in a few cases led to paid work, or applications that valued the quality of their CV experience.
Overwhelmingly, the broad consensus of graduates suggested that the most valuable asset of their degree was the connections and networks they had made. Many responses referred to university as a hub of friendship circles but also networks for collaboration, and job opportunities. The graduates stayed connected online through facebook groups, administered by the university to stay “in-the-loop” with job opportunities.
The prevalence of freelance work, was not unexpected in light of industry trends. The downturn and corporate redundancies, cuts to public broadcasters and limited offers of paid positions testifies to the broader political-cultural factors that encourage work at innovative start ups and freelancing. Furthermore, the broad-range skills equip graduates to enter freelance with an agility to perfuse a variety of roles; from networking with clients, website management, copywriting, photography and film production. Albeit, limited in experience and industry shortcuts, they have still managed to enter these roles and build up a professional body of work.
Examining the broad range factors that constitute the work environment, graduates who were driven to explore avenues, network and build experience found numerous pathways to internships and paid roles. Those graduates who exhibited tenacity for work developed a ranging portfolio, professional experience and from that, contacts and networks that led into more opportunities.
Entering the media industry has its own handbook of obstacles and challenges. What this study has found is that opportunities can be found, but they can also be self-generated. Cold-calling, working experience and self-initiated work offer an abundance of avenues fresh graduates have at their disposal. Despite the competitive nature of the industry, and the oversupply of communication graduates, individuals are equipped with broad range skills that are vital to fields which depend on this literacy of the networked/digital economy. The essential lesson to be taken, is graduates’ success rests in their quality of work that builds their follow-on opportunities, agile to adapt to varied roles, and opportunistic in ‘keeping their ear to the ground’.