Upon leaving and hopefully qualifying I will be pursuing work in the local area as a freelance technician.
I have already become a part-time technician at ‘The Dukes Playhouse‘ in Lancaster as well as being on ‘call’ for a local PA and venue company and a lighting company.
This is on top of my regular bookings at Camp Bestival and Bestival, Solfest and Monster Monster.
Upon competition of the course I’m planning on contacting local theatres with an updated CV and covering letter, this will be done via our normal mail system not electronically.
Recently I have updated my CV which was required to apply for my desired role of Lighting Designer at our FMP along with a covering letter. These are essential pieces of paper work, The CV is a working live document which will constantly be updated. A future employer will look at this document to see if you have the necessary skills for a role as well as to look at past employment and any further training you may have received. To support this a covering letter is also vitally important, this letter is often the first thing a future employer will see, and within it it is necessary to highlight the strengths you have that you can bring to the role, if the employer isn’t impressed by this I feel that it would be unlikely that they’d even look at the CV attached. You can also use this space to highlight more specific areas in greater detail than a CV allows. So if a job is wanting something specific e.g. working knowledge of a piece of hardware, this would be an opportunity for to highlight this.
Matt Cooper Covering Letter FMP wordpress
I have also recently purchased some business cards and produced a portfolio.
All of these documents will be constantly kept up to date as I am involved in more projects. I will also begin top produce specialist portfolios depending on the type of work that I’m applying for.
I have also produced an Invoice template and Tracking spreadsheet. This a particularly helpful document to have as a freelance/self-employed person at will need to do my own tax returns. Each job would have its own row/s and would enable me to keep track of what I’ve spent on a given job, If I’ve received my invoice, when I sent my invoice. I will need to ensure to keep my receipts for expenses as these would need to be submitted at the end of the tax year. Within this spreadsheet I also keep what the rate of pay is, I find this the best method as it is very easy when working for multiple companies to lose track of what the rate of pay is for any given job.
SMART TARGETS
Through the rest of my time at college I want to:
- Gain further experience in lighting design.
- Understand the planning and preparation into this role.
I want to achieve these targets as it is an area that I have done small amount of work in this area. It is something that I would like to do in the industry too.
Matt Cooper 