“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” A degree does not guarantee you a job in the new media!!!
These statements do not come as a shock when relating them to new media job searching. Observing new media workers it is obvious that they “move away from traditional notions of career to more informal, insecure and discontinuous employment.” This means that sites like Linked in, About.me, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are used to help gain employment opportunities. This also makes it easier for recommendations to be passed along. For example if someone wants to recommend you it’s as easy as sending a link. What does this really mean for us though? It means that making connections and networking with those in whichever fields we are interested in is absolutely vital if we wish to gain and maintain work in the future.
These statements do not come as a shock when relating them to new media job searching. Observing new media workers it is obvious that they “move away from traditional notions of career to more informal, insecure and discontinuous employment.” This means that sites like Linked in, About.me, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are used to help gain employment opportunities. This also makes it easier for recommendations to be passed along. For example if someone wants to recommend you it’s as easy as sending a link. What does this really mean for us though? It means that making connections and networking with those in whichever fields we are interested in is absolutely vital if we wish to gain and maintain work in the future.
Statistics showing activities taken to enhance career and employment prospects
With all this talk about networking being the key to my dream job, I was starting to wonder what use a degree will be anyways. Gill (2007) made me breathe a little easier when stating that “new media workers are extremely highly educated, with the majority of participants in this research being qualified up to or above degree level.” Learning is obviously a common factor within new media work with Elisha, Megan and Gill’s Informality is the New Black article all mentioning it.
The recipe for success in new media is different for everyone, but two vital ingredients are networking and continuously learning new cutting edge skills to make you stand out.
Tusing, P. 2011. Adoption of Social Media for Job Serach Soars in Australia. Accessed 2 May 2011 http://destination.com.au/blog/2011/03/24/adoption-of-social-media-for-job-search-soars-in-australia/
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