creativecareers.ie
This month one of our skills exchange members talks about setting up their website.
The idea to set up CreativeCareers.ie came to me fairly easily… I was looking for a job in the arts. That sounds a bit odd… looking for a job in ‘the arts’, (you can’t get more general than that) but I always had a nagging voice in my head telling me to “chose an interesting job, you’ll be doing it for the next forty years”.
I had studied English Literature and Philosophy and was deeply interested in it. At the same time I was aware that an Arts degree wasn’t really a qualification for anything in particular… What’s my dream job I thought. And what am I actually qualified to do. Read! Wouldn’t it be great to read for a living? The closest thing to this is publishing so I started volunteering for a literary journal ‘The Stinging Fly’. Reading. Ok now how to get paid for this.
My initial jobs searches for work in this, or any related field, were not very fruitful. There seemed to be few arts admin jobs about and no one website that advertised all arts jobs in all fields. Only various resource sites for individual art forms advertising the odd job in a single field . Surely there was a gap in the market for a site like this…an idea sparked, gestating in the very back of my mind.
In the meantime I studied the MA in Arts Policy & Practice (Arts Management & Admin) in Galway. During the course we were asked to develop an business plan for an arts event, festiva or organisation. The idea for a jobs and opportunities website came back to me and I went with it. As soon as I finished the course I went about setting up the site. Luckily my brother is a web designer! The ability to get something for nothing, or almost nothing, is invaluable in the arts. Now I’m able to offer the service for nothing, but make a little something of advertising. Hopefully I’ll be able to re-invest that some every now and then to keep improving and expanding the service. Good will and word of mouth have gone a long way to making the site a success. The website doesn’t bring in a full wage, but thankfully my long hard road to a full-time job in publishing brings in something close.
Creative Careers is Ireland’s leading jobs and opportunities website for the Arts/Creative Sector, www.creativecareers.ie, It recently redeveloped and relaunched with an improved and extended service.
CreativeCareers.ie covers a diverse range of creative practices, including Theatre, Music, Performance, Film, Television, Literature, Arts Management, Visual Arts and Design/Digital Media. The site initially launched in May 2008 and received over 50,000 unique visitors over a twelve-month period.
Due to its success, the site was able to reinvest earnings to add to, and improve the site so that the service is more user-friendly. Other new features include: a Careers Chat Forum, Classifieds and an RSS feed for the latest jobs and opportunities. The site is now fully automated so users can place adverts and see them online in a matter of seconds. Jobs and opportunities will also go directly into the site’s new RSS feed.
Log on to www.creativecareers.ie to see the latest jobs, competitions, residencies, commissions, internships, exhibition opportunities, seminars and training opportunities.
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