What about the Creative Industries?

Creative industries' outputs are marketable products and services whose economic value lies in their intellectual property, leading to job and wealth creation. It is the second fastest-growing business sector in Britain today and worth £67 billion a year to the British economy. The creative industries play a major role in building and sustaining economically vibrant communities.

Creative industries are based on people’s creative skills, but technology can also play a vital role in turning business goals into reality. With the massive growth of new technologies in game design, film, TV and interactive media there has never been a better time to work for this sector. Irrespective of whether you are a scientist, engineer or artist the creative industries will reward you with an exciting job often worlds apart from other industry sectors.

Typical Activities

The Creative Industries are not a single sector, but rather a loose collection of activities and businesses. It is therefore very hard to make generalisations about the type of activities someone working in the sector might undertake, but they could include:

producing graphic, animated, audio and video content
designing websites, advertisements or everyday appliances
recording, mixing and/or broadcasting video or audio material
3D modelling, often using CAD and animation software packages

Getting in

The hardest part of finding work on the creative side is knowing where to look and how to network. Working in the creative industries has always required a good deal of resourcefulness partly because, unlike other fields, there is no standardised method for applying.

soundboard © Photographer: Natalia Yakovleva | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Rather than focusing wholly on applicants’ academic criteria, many recruiters place great emphasis on relevant work experience, a good CV, and some knowledge of the overall sector. Many people get into television, for example, through working as production runners, then researchers. This means that a creative and competitive approach, as well as full use of any contacts gained through networking, is a must.

For many creative jobs, large doses of enthusiasm and talent are just as important as any formal qualifications. For more technical posts, there are however many university courses such as sound engineering or web design which will help you develop skills appropriate to specific creative industries.
People working in the creative industries are frequently self-employed. In addition, the industry is dependent on people having 'portfolio' careers i.e. holding more than one job down at the same time.

Typical Employers

Appropriately for an industry which is based on developing innovative solutions to creative problems the creative industries cover a broad range of organisations. Most firms are relatively small, but larger employers exist: