Creating a Professional Twitter Account

I've always been really fond of Twitter and love to post pointless and silly tweets all times of day, and fill my page with fandom content. However, I realized recently that Twitter is actually a really amazing networking tool, especially within the esports community. While I really wanted to get involved in this, I felt my account wasn't really appropriate. Because of this, I spent some time making myself a new account with a far more professional image to it.

In the future, I plan to keep all memey and fandom tweets on my old, personal account, and anything more interesting or esports-related on my new one. Below are screemshots of my two accounts to compare how different they are from each other...

Korean in Esports - Learning a New Language for Employability

One of my priorities I focus of for my own employability is have small things that set me apart from other applicants and make me memorable. Within esports, I wanted to come up with something that would give me this small edge. Something that I've wanted to do for a long time is learn a new language, and this fit really well with the current state of some sides of the esports industry.

Certain esports have a huge Korean player-base, and from this, a huge Korean fanbase. This can be seen when just looking at this table showing the amount of Korean players in Overwatch League (one of the largest scale esports leagues) teams from the first to the second season...

Source: reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/9pk53b/owl_teams_korean_players/

From this, I surmised that even knowing very basic Korean could be a huge benefit to me when applying for community and marketing jobs in esports (as, the chances are, I'll end up communicating with Korean clients/customers/fans at some point). If I can state on my CV that I could write a few basic Tweets in Korean to connect with a companies Korean fanbase, it could be the small factor that makes me memorable.

I decided to teach myself with the assistance of the Duolingo app (as this was the most recommended option to me when I asked online), as well as maybe getting into Korean music and TV (just so I'm a little more used to how the words I'm learning sound in practice. However, once I get a full time job, I intend to pay for one-on-one tuition from a native Korean instructor.

So far (as of 6/5), I am about half way through learning the alphabet fundamentals of the language (something that is crucial before moving onto the basic conversation), after having practised for at least 20 minutes per day, everyday, for 3 weeks. I am now beginning to understand how sounds and vowels are represented in each hanja, and I'm actually really enjoying it and finding it very exciting!

Dealing With Someone Using My Work

This morning I woke up to a message telling my that one of my photographs had been used without my permission or credit by Red Bull, to advertise a game event that they are organizing with the Digital Institute London.

Whilst I am flattered that my work was good enough to be used this way, I'm upset that I wasn't notified in any way. Part of the reason I'm uncomfortable with this, is because that photograph was a WIP that I intended to edit and clear up once I had more time.

I was very confused where this image had been found, initially. I've only ever posted it on the class Facebook page to promo my work, but the image they used seemed too high quality to have been taken from Facebook. I then realized that I had sent the image to a colleague a few weeks ago for an entirely unrelated project, and that I had heard she had been working with the Digital Institute London. Because of this, I decided to email her to see if I could clear anything up...

Family Photo Shoots - Building My Portfolio

With me wanting to get back into photography, I've been taking on some of the shoot requests my family has been asking me for. As well as this, I've been looking for casual event photography opportunities that I don't mind doing for free. I realised my cousin was organising a Christening for her son, with no photographer, so I sent her a message offering to help out...

(UPDATE: 3/5 - My cousin said she'd love it if I could photograph the christening, that she adored my photos and that she had intended to ask me anyway!)

One of the family requested shoots that I recently took on was a photo shoot of my sister and her partner. I really wanted to get more practice with portrait photography, so this was a good situation for me. Some of the photos I took can be seen below...

Union Team Member Process - Applying and Being Interviewed for a Marketing Job

Whilst eating at one of the uni venues one evening, I noticed an advert on the display screens that the Students' Union was advertising for applications for a few jobs around the university. While I was interested in working in the Union venues casually, I intended to apply in September when I knew more about my schedule whilst on my Master's. But then I noticed one of the positions they were advertising for was marketing for the Union. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to get more real world marketing, design and SM management experience, whilst helping to fund my Master's. The application deadline was that night, so I had to rush through my application, but I luckily still had my partner to proof read it for me. 

Below, you can some screenshots from my online application...

The next week, I had an interview. Something I always struggle with with interviews is what to wear. I, of course, want to come across very professional and put-together, but I think it's very important to maintain a sense of self in my interview outfits (especially when applying to work for a fresh, youthful company like the Union, or a lot of the companies I am looking to for the future). Below is what I went for - a formal blazer, slim fit dress trouser, brogues, but paired it with a casual plain, black tee and some funky makeup...

During the interview, I was extremely nervous and felt I rambled a bit. Because of this, I found myself apologising a lot. Luckily, my interviewers were very kind about this, but in the future I intend to be more aware of this when going into interviews. Other than this, I was very happy with my pre-interview prep, as a lot of the questions I had practised and rehearsed answers for came up. I also did some research on the Union beforehand to make sure I knew who all the relevant people there were for me. I was also very lucky that I could use a lot of things I'd learnt from my SCA job to inform my interview answers. 

Something that did come up was that - although I was applying for the general marketing position, not the graphic design one - I had experience in graphic design. Because of this, one of the interviewers asked me if I could send them some examples of my work after the interview. Because of this, I had to quickly update my portfolio (shown below). I also reworked my CV before the interview (to include my new experiences and career goals), in case it was requested...

UPDATE: I found out today that I got the job! In the job offer, I also received feedback saying that I interviewed very well. I look forward to starting my new job in the next few weeks!

Emm's Wedding - Negotiating Event Photography

When I was younger, I did a lot of event photography, particularly wedding and christenings, and this is quite widely known in the small, country town that I grew up in. From this, I had an acquaintance of mine message me on Facebook asking if I was still available to do this, as she'd seen my previous work through a friend.

As I haven't done a wedding in almost 4 years, this took a bit of thinking. I am always very wary of deciding what to charge because, while I'm not a 'professional' photographer, weddings are really stressful and take a huge amount of planning, editing and sorting. Luckily, I remembered the way I used to organise wedding pricing, which was giving 'module options' - so, offering a variety of parts of the wedding that people usually want photographed, and letting the client pick and choose which bits they do and don't want. This can be seen in the screenshots below of my conversation with Emma...

We are currently organising a time to meet up in person so I can get all the details and make sure we're on the same page. From here, I'll draw up a basic contract agreeing upon the price and the content they will receive and how/when. I intend to take a 20% deposit upfront. This is something I've never done within photography before, but want to get in the habit of for my own security.

UPDATE: 4/5 - Emma contacted me enquiring if she could pass my details onto her cousin who is getting married next year!

McCree + Lifeline - Pin-Up Games Zine Artwork

As part of our fundraising for our degree show, my classmates and I decided to produce a zine centred on video game characters in pin-up poses. I volunteered to produce two pieces for this to help fill out the zine a bit.

To make sure my pieces added the most to the zine that they could (as I was worried they wouldn't be the best, artistically), I decided I had to consider what would sell best. Because of this, I chose two of the more popular games at the moment that I noticed were missing from the zine (Overwatch and Apex Legends). I also decided to do one male piece and one female piece, with entirely different themes, so as to appeal to the most people possible.

Below are my two final pieces for the zine...

After finishing these, I found out that the class were still looking for someone to produce supporting pages for the zine (back cover, inside cover, contents page). I volunteered to do this to give me more graphic design practise. I also wanted to draw sexy Pacman...

The Big Read

Recently, I produced artwork for a collective artbook to encourage teens to read. For this, we had to create art showing our favourite book when we were that age. I chose Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell. My artwork is fairly simple compared to others', but as this brief was not too specific with design, I decide to work to my strengths. I also modified the fonts I used in this piece to make them more suitable...

Today, we mounted our pieces for the Big Read project for a public exhibition. This was great as, not only did it give me more experience with mounting and displaying my work, but it also put my work in a public place (with quite heavy foot traffic), getting my name out a bit.

PhD Research

Now that I've been offered a place on the Esports MA, I started discussing my longer time future with my boss. Something that came up was the idea of pursuing a PhD. This has always been something I've loved the idea of, but always felt I was being unrealistic to aim for. I really enjoy learning and researching and I think by choosing to go into the esports industry, I've put myself in a position to do some research that could actually have a real world impact (as esports in so new and not as thoroughly explored as other sectors).

As this is just a thought at the moment, I decided to make some early inquiries just to see if it's a good idea for me. Firstly, I looked up the details of what PhD programs Staffs supports/encourages and found that for 2018 entry, they were interested in students who were looking into community and diversity in esports. I found this quiet funny, as those are the two areas I'm looking into, career-wise. I also found out that the alumni discount may still apply to me (even though I've already received it once), and that there are 5 scholarship spots for games-centered PhDs.

After this, I decided to ask people with real world experience of PhDs. This included emailing Games and Esports lecturer Dr Ying-Ying Law (who's thesis centered around diversity in esports), and then casting a wider net by asking for opinions on the open student forum site, The Student Room...

Professional Meeting - Progress Tracking with VC Prof. Liz Barnes

Today I had the really great opportunity to sit in on the progress tracking meetings Prof. Liz Barnes had with the Marketing and Comms department at Staffs Uni. Not only was this invaluable for networking reasons (allowed me to get to know everyone in Marketing and Comms (a department that's obviously very relevant to my career goals), and to talk to Liz more, who I've only had brief conversations with in the past), but it also gave me insight into how the marketing department worked in a large company like the university. I was able to see how issues were identified and dealt with, how different areas of the department worked together, and the stats that showed the real world impact of the marketing choices made by the people in the department.

I found this really exciting and interesting, and hope to have more experience with the Marketing and Comms department in the future, whether it's through my position of Student Comms Ambassador, or by organising work experience placements in the summer.

EDIT: Whilst I was in the meeting today, I proposed to my boss the idea of me working serious over Clearing period to get some realistic experience of being a social media manager in a large company during a busy time. She loved the idea and said she'd work to get some hours set aside to allow me to do it.

Digital School House - Photographing an Overwatch Tournament

Through the connections I made during my work with the Esports Events Society, I found out about an external event being held in Staffordshire University's Esports Hub. Digital School House is a company that runs esports tournaments for high school-aged kids. I volunteered to do some photography for this, as I really wanted to get some experience photography players, as I've been mostly photographing the casters/hosts/behind the scenes during SEES events.

I found this was a really great experience! Although it was super tiring to be on my feet for 13hrs, I really enjoyed the test of trying to anticipate the players reactions to be in the right position to get the best photographs. Through this event, I also managed to get talking to some of the organisers of DSH, which was a great networking opportunity.

Unfortunately, due to the fact the players were under 18, I'm not allowed to share the photos. But below are some 'non-player' photos I managed to capture at the event (all unedited)...

Game of Thrones Dragons - Producing Artwork for a Non-Profit Cause

A work colleague of mine messaged me in a panic looking for artwork to be produced as part of a fundraiser she was running for her course exhibition.

At first, I decided it would be the most sensible option to offer this to the rest of my class before I took it on, as my priority was that Hayley got the best artwork out of it as was possible. However, when I asked the class, no one was able to do it within the tight schedule (5 days), and once I talked to Hayley a bit more about what she was after, I thought I would give it a go, as it was more fitting to my style than I expected. Below shows the process of me creating the piece through the conversations I had updated Hayley on the process...

Overall, Hayley was really happy with the artwork! She even shared it on her course Facebook page to promo their fundraiser...

Here's how the artwork turned out in the end...