I Got to Be Part of the BBC Bitesize Careers Tour
Yesterday was one of those days that reminded me exactly why I love what I do, and why talking about it to young people matters so much.
I was invited to be part of the BBC Bitesize Careers Tour alongside a BBC host, a member of the BBC careers team and a technician from McCains as part of Bitesize’s Technicians Make a Difference, and together we spent the day doing four talks across different year groups, from Year 7 all the way through to Sixth Form, answering questions about our careers, our journeys and what our day to day lives actually look like.
The questions they askedThe structure was the same across each session, questions about job titles, organisations, day to day responsibilities, how we got started and what we love about what we do, but what made each one feel completely different was the age group, and honestly the Sixth Formers had some brilliant questions at the end when the floor was opened up to them.
You always get a few questions about money, which is completely fair, and I actually really enjoyed being honest about how it works as a sole trader, because it's not as simple as a monthly salary, you only get paid when work comes in, and there are times, whether that's illness, a quiet patch, or just needing a break, where that can mean less coming in than you'd like, and I think that's an important thing for young people to hear before they romanticise freelance life too much, it's brilliant but it comes with real responsibility.
One question that made me smile was someone asking how I split my business profits, and my very honest answer was that I now have an accountant who sorts that side of things out for me, because knowing your limits and bringing in the right people is just as much a part of running a business as the creative work itself.
One of my favourite questions across the day from the host to the panel was if we always knew what we wanted to do at school, and the honest answer for most of us was not really. For me, I took a very long and winding road through fashion, costume design, various job roles in retail and hospitality before I got here, and I think that's actually a reassuring thing for young people to hear, that it doesn't have to be linear and it doesn't have to be decided at such a young age.
What I hope they took awayI talked about what a typical day in the studio looks like, and how subjects like art and textiles gave me a foundation I still draw on now, even though I came into graphic design by teaching myself rather than through a traditional design degree.
If even one person in those rooms went home thinking that a creative career was something they could actually do, that their route didn't have to look like anyone else's, then the day was absolutely worth it.
It was a brilliant thing to be part of and I'd do it again in a heartbeat 💜
