The Honest Filmmaker
Are you about to leave Uni with a filmmaking degree? Or want to change careers and work in a creative industry? We want to give you the tools you need to enter the real world of production or freelancing. Honest and open career advice from people in the business.
We also talk to those in other creative industries to discuss their careers, the potential cross over with film production and practical tips for a successful and fulfilling career.
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The Honest Filmmaker
How to Kickstart your Creative Career with Sam Hornsby from ERIC the Creative Career App
#filmpodcast #creative #career
This week on the podcast I'm chatting to Sam, one of the founders of the ERIC Creative Careers App. The App is aimed at people from ages 16-25 - once registered the app will serve up thousands of internships, bootcamps, events, courses, podcast and anything else that will help you kickstart your creative career.
We chatted about the App, who it's for, how it can help you, some of the opportunities, success stories and CV tips. I also asked if Sam thinks it still worth going to University.
Find out more about the ERIC App here: https://www.meet-eric.com
Read the BFI report: https://www.bfi.org.uk/industry-data-insights/reports/bfi-eric-screen-careers-research
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HONEST, OPEN ADVICE ABOUT YOUR FILMMAKING CAREER
Are you about to leave Uni with a filmmaking degree? Or want to change careers and work in a creative industry? We want to give you the tools you need to enter the real world of production or freelancing. Honest and open career advice from people in the business.
We also talk to those in other creative industries to discuss their careers, the potential cross over with film production and practical tips for a successful and fulfilling career.
Join the community: http://www.thehonestfilmmaker.co.uk
[Music] hi Jim here and you're listening to the honest filmmaker podcast career advice from people in the business this week I'm speaking to Sam she's one of the founders and creators of the Eric creative career app now the app's aimed at people from the ages of 16 to 25 you can download the app put your details in and it will serve up thousands of internships boot camps events training schemes courses all sorts of Articles podcasts anything that's going to help you kickstart your career in a creative industry so in this chat we talked about why the app came about how it was created who it's for uh if you're in that 16 to 25 year old bracket this is really good if you're looking for a career in the creative industry we talk about some of the opportunities that have been up on the app and some of the sort of success stories Sam's had and we also talk about CV tips and tips for being more confident enjoy right so obviously I'm going to ask you about the Eric app in a minute but first of all can you tell me why you created it give me like your Founders Story how did it happen oh my gosh okay yeah well it goes back decades literal decades so my business partner and I met when we were eight years old um we became best friends very quickly our whole relationship was built on the fact that we were both Creative Kids um as we progressed through life we had our own creative Ambitions May wanted to work in fashion I wanted to be a ceramist I wanted to be a Potter um and then basically at some point fast forward however many years we're still best friends you know we always have been best friends May ended up becoming a charted accountant rather than designing shoes which is what she actually wanted to do yeah um and then I ended up working in like the tech startup world I didn't actually go to UNI um and so I kind of I guess I just stumbled into whatever job would have me um and it just happened to be startups that seem to be most sympathetic to people that don't have degrees so um so yeah so and then um that is the foundation of Eric we both failed to get into the creative Industries ourselves so at some point we decided we were just going to stop other young people from falling into the same traps that we did um when we actually got out into the Working World we began to realize that there were actually loads of creative jobs out there for lots of different types of people but generally on the whole young people aren't being told that that whole world exists and so that's why we quit our jobs basically to start this thing that we called Eric um it's been through a couple of different versions of what it is but fundamentally the mission has always been the same to democratize access to the creative Industries for every young person everywhere fabulous and it's it is amazing how like I've downloaded the app I had a good look at it and it's amazing how many things pop up there and I'm and I'm looking at them thinking probably with my daughter we'd probably find that two months after it had happened and go oh that would have been good you'd have liked that you'd have done that so it's perfect um so so give me the so who who is the app aimed at what's the age range what who's the person yes so the app is aimed at on the whole 16 to 25 year olds but anyone can actually download it um but 16 to 25 year olds all seem to share a common problem if they're trying to get into the creative Industries which is exactly as you just described you're never in the right place at the right time to find an opportunity and it always feels like everyone else seems to get access to these things and you're like how did you find that like where did that come from um and actually it turns out that there are thousands of things out there that can help young people get into the creative Industries whether that is to gain skills gain skills sorry build experience um maybe build confidence as well build networks and ultimately get a job it's just they're currently being promoted on like every possible area of the internet that you could ever imagine the weirdest you know Corners that you would never think to look in and so that's what our app does it basically Scouts the internet finds everything that is out there that can help that profile of young person get into the creative Industries and then we bring it all into one place so you can just rather than having a million tabs open in your browser and spending you know weeks of your life trying to find stuff you can just open an app yeah and also I notice you you set up a profile and you select the sort of things you're interested in so you get served fashion film so it's all kind of sorted out for you that's marvelous um so looking at um young people obviously experience is important what do you think uh what are the barriers for people getting into that apart from trying to find those uh work experien jobs well I think to be honest like you know I don't want to talk about the same problem that I've just spoken about but like Discovery is the fundamental biggest barrier I think um because we also hear it from the in you know the company sides of things you know where all of these organizations create these opportunities are designed for young people and they're like why aren't we getting enough applicants which is a wild problem in this day and age you know um and so I genuinely do feel like Discovery is actually the fundamental issue when it comes to gaining entry gaining access um to any industry not just the creative Industries um and so you know that kind of is the the number one problem um really in my eyes and a lot of the other problems can be solved if we solve that problem first yeah absolutely and do you see any um with the sort of opportunities to pop up are there any Trends within certain sort of sub creative Industries is there lots of this type of thing happens in fashion and this type of thing happens in film what's the sort of score there yeah so I mean essentially the creative Industries it's so the reason it's called the creative Industries right is because they're all quite similar in the way that they operate you know they're very creative they tend to have lots of Freelancers working in them like all of these things and also they all tend to share similar problems so whatever fashion is experiencing will probably be being experienced in other Industries like film and TV um I think um on the whole like the creative Industries in general as a collective area has been relatively lazy about like helping young people gain access and I don't necessarily mean you know creating opportunities and things like that just in terms of you know they'll create an opportunity they'll tweet about it which you know young people AR on Twitter for example and then they'll be like but why isn't anyone applying and then they don't really give it that much thought because historically it's always been a like over subscribed you know area to go into and they're kind of I guess slightly resting on their Laurels there and kind of you know I'm riding off an um an old I guess inherited um uh um reputation um I also think it's fascinating in all of these creative Industries how out of date the knowledge is still about what happens in the creative world and I think again that's Testament to the fact that the creative Industries doesn't really do that much effort to update people to communicate with people outside of the creative Industries it's just kind of you know there's a whole world of problems there I suppose but yeah I like everything that is happening in one creative industry is most likely happening in all the others yeah absolutely and it's part of the reason for the honest filmmaker as well is trying to break down those things that you're embarrassed to are ask or worried that you don't quite understand um and the two fun enough so I've done a previous video with two big myths one of them was uh it's not what you know no it's not what you know it's who you know um and the other one is the right place the right time got be in the right place the right time so obviously the app solves that do you think the it's not what you know it's who you know still counts or not um well yeah I mean I think it's still a big issue but I do think that you will you're more likely to know the right people if you're in the right place at the right time um and that's why I always believe that actually the fundamental root of the issue is that if you can't be in the right place at the right time there's absolutely no way you can know the right people you know um so yeah no I I think you know it does help certainly but you know you can make your own networks whereas you can't necessarily be in five million places all at once yeah yeah definitely um and I noticed you uh so youve done that report for the BFI what's stopping young people from uing careers in screen Industries it's a big report uh I'm not expect you to give me the whole thing but what were kind of your key takeaways from it um number one I think is how out of dat everyone else outside of the screen Industries is about like when it comes to knowing what the actual screen Industries is for example I think I think the number one like thing that hit me was the fact that young people kids do not even know what the term VFX is like you know VF effect is for anyone that's listening who doesn't know what that is don't worry guys you're not alone because clearly I did that came out in the report but it stands for visual effects and every young person that we interviewed had seen multiple videos of green screens and like they knew what a green screen was but they had absolutely no idea that that was an entire industry and that it was part of an industry that is called VFX um and I think that speaks volumes about the fact that people you know young people are seeing these things all around them all the time they are plugged into the way that these things you know the way that the creative Industries operate but they don't even necessarily connect that in their minds with that is a career option for me or like that is something that is an industry or wow that's a term that I can search for VFX careers like they would never think to do that and that to me was just wild yeah yeah VFX not so not knowing the terminology or even what to look for even though you've seen that stuff and thought oh that looks cool I'd like a career in that um yeah so where from that report what were the sort of recommendations what were you saying they should do to get more young people in so okay yes so industry basically just needs to be better connected with education and I think um there are basic things that can help with that um one of the other things that we discovered from the report was that like employers who wanted to get involved in education were searching for different terms as to how you could do that right um than education we're talking about internally so like employer engagement for example is actually the term that the education space uses but the employment space does not use that term so much so like there are like literal very small basic things like that where like terminologies are essentially acting as a massive barrier for um you know this the line of communication and that is that has a disastrous effect on how connected industry is to education and actually you know that's really what needs to happen in order to solve this problem industry just needs to talk to education more and then everything else will probably fall into place yeah yeah yeah that's interesting um so uh give me some ex examples doesn't matter if they've passed now but give me some examples of the sort of opportunities that pop up on the app yes oh my God yeah we use this term opportunities as like a really broad term for like anything that can help you like I said before like gain skills experience confidence and networks um because it it is nowadays it's not just about getting a job you have to gain experience in order to get a job often which is super unfair that's a problem in itself but like what we can do at Eric is we can help people get access to that kind of stuff um easier so we have things like you know everything from internships to apprenticeships to work experience those more like tangible industry linked experiences through to like accessibility schemes like mentoring programs um we've got free training we've got um careers events we've also got loads of competitions and grants like the amount of creative competitions that are out there like again is like mad and that's such if you win a competition what an amazing thing to be able to put on your CV um so we've got all of that kind of stuff out there so it's loads of things that can like yeah like I say help you build that kind of CVM portfolio um and hopefully get you better connected yeah and something you've hit upon there which is a tough one for anyone of any age but in particular when you're leaving school college or uni is CV so any tips for your CV what what what's your top tips for that um yes oh my gosh okay because I think this is a really interesting conversation in itself you know CV is very dependent on who you're sending it to like we as a tiny startup you know we have eight people working at Eric it's which is really not many in the grand I mean it's amazing for us because it used to just be me and may but like in the grand scheme of things that's a very small company and we love it when people send over CVS that are kind of like creatively that look very creative because we are you know creativity is at the heart of what we do um but if you're sending a CV to a massive employer like a big company like let's say Warner Music they tend to have like um uh software that sifts through CVS for specific keywords so my best bit of advice would be to do research on the company like and put them in a category of small medium or large think about whether they're like to get loads of applications all the time and will they be using software um and you know start thinking about the that kind of thing who is the person that you're sending it to what would they want to see yeah absolutely and also even with your covering letter it's all about explaining why you'd be an asset and why you want to work there and not definitely not going I'll have a go on that I'll enter that I just chut my CV at them because you won't get anywhere you've got you got to tailor it and sort of get in there the right way um yeah what are some of the have you got any sort of success stories that have come out of the app sort people who've spoken to you said oh I did this amazing thing so use the app yeah oh my gosh loads we've got we've got stories for days um the one that really stands out to me is um there was a girl who basically had been through care the care system um and she had had a really she'd been dealt a tough hand in life she really had and at one point she was homeless she did have access to her phone um and she managed to basically get a training scheme bya the app and then she eventually got employed by that um company and that basically her story is essentially she used the app and it got her off the streets which is just like that is beyond May I's wildest dreams that we would ever be able to have that much of an impact on someone and when you know like it makes me a bit te thinking about it like it's just crazy the impact that you can have because you don't expect to have that much impact on someone's life you know it's huge but um yeah we've got stories that's that's the one that just always like I just can't believe that happen you know yeah I guess you're as well you're in contact with these people at a really important moment in their life that's going to kind of shape their Destiny so yeah of course you're going have these um great stories of successes um what's what's in the future for the app have you got plans to do anything more with it than it does at the moment yeah so I mean well it's it's so exciting we've got like 110,000 users which is wild like so many people and so like we're at a point basically where we can expand we want to which is really exciting um but the way in which we expand we haven't really confirmed what that is yet because um we could go in a number of different directions like we could make sure that we are you know covering the UK more extensively like you know location wise we could expand we could go into another country I suppose at some point as well if we wanted to um we do get lots of requests for expanding the age range so making a kind of version of the app that is for older people so we could like you know kind of extend that age limit um we could expand into different Industries as well we don't have to keep at the creative Industries because like I said before you know the discovery the discovery issue is not an issue that is necessarily exclusive to the creative Industries yeah so I guess like we don't know but there are a number of different things that we could do and so like yeah get in touch guys if anyone wants to suggest which one they like card love it um yeah the other thing I was going to say that I've seen in young people that they struggle with is confidence have you got any thoughts on tips on confidence yes um I think basically it's so difficult because you know I I can't say anything that will immediately build your confidence like that you know and that's not something that anyone can do really but what I can reassure you in is that you are not alone like you're the reason you feel or one of the reasons that you may feel a lack of confidence is because you feel like you're doing something wrong because it's a struggle to get a job or you know like you're the only person that is experiencing rejection like you are absolutely not and you are doing your best and you know the climate is tough at the moment in any industry it's really difficult but I can promise you you are not the only person feeling that feeling and that you are definitely not alone in this um and that I think that if I was if I was a young person now sadly I'm not young anymore um but if I was and if I was feeling that lack of confidence I definitely remember that I felt I think that's what I would have wanted to hear yeah absolutely and I think also from the people I've spoken to so far and people I speak to in the industry no one has a there's no if there was a cookie cutter way of getting in you wouldn't need the app so everyone goes on this weird kind of Journey and to find their creative career um and also sometimes it's the confidence to even say that that's the career that you want because it's not you know it's not something that immediately people think is going to pay very well or you know oh there be everyone wants to do that you never get a job doing that so having that confidence to kind of Say Yes I want to be a film director or something along those lines um so what I was going to ask you now was some of oh was going to ask you one what I'm going to call this a controversial question which I can cut out if you don't like the answer is it worth going to University still oh that is a really tough question yeah honestly I cut it out if you don't want want want to answer it I'm just interested in your perspective on that no I don't I mean I am you know an open book honestly um oh that's so tough because I think it is and it isn't and I think essentially what we need to get away from is thinking that University is the only way in that's that's how I'd like I guess diplomatically answer that question um I didn't go to UNI and I'm absolutely fine say living proof well I mean debatable but uh living proof that like you are able to survive if you don't go to UNI but you do also have to accept that you may have to take alternative you know I guess kind of Well Roots in right like you have to hustle a bit earlier which is fine sometimes a degree isn't actually easier um for example when I started working by the time my friends had come out of uni I had three years of experience on them you know and I knew exactly how to talk to adults and I did I wasn't riddled with debt I had you know a full CV like there are it's I think we we need to start talking a bit more about the fact that you can gain stuff from not going to UNI and that kind of shifts the conversation a little bit the other way which which is healthy um I also am a really big champion of like degree apprenticeships or you know a kind apprenticeships in general I just feel like um being paid to learn on the job or at least reducing the amount of money that you have to spend nowadays on going to UNI is is not a bad thing you know um and and I think some things you don't need a degree for like I would definitely this is controversial I have a very controversial opinion on this but like some of the creative degrees I don't think are actually necessary because I think that they could either be learned on apprenticeships or they could be learned better on the job because they're a bit more practical learning the theory of I don't know um marketing isn't always I'm not saying it's never helpful but it's not always helpful and I don't think it necessarily needs to be a three-year degree um but that's coming from someone whose opinion is slightly weighted in one way because I didn't go toi and I'm well I like to think I thrived you know yeah um but yeah no I I don't mind that question at all and to I find yeah it is interesting and I think I'm in I'm in two minds because I went to UNI studied film but I would say the majority of my learning was the year I left uni and decided to make a film and I learned everything making that film the other stuff the to me the uni part that I enjoyed was going out into the world having your own place you live in having to kind of be an adult um but it is an interesting one and a lot of University students unfortunately have to work anyway so you know work full-time and get a degree so is a important question maybe that will change maybe things will uh change but yeah is a it is a tough one and something worth thinking about um not automatically thinking I've got to go to university there might be an alternative path for you hope you enjoyed this week's episode if you want more advice from industry professionals who are out there at the moment working or you just want to listen to some cool stories from film sets from around the world then please do subscribe[Music]
