Opportunities to further your career within the Creative industry

Good news: The Creative industry has continually grown from strength to strength. Teams have noticeably grown in size and skills. With demand for Creatives dramatically increasing, team size is having to mirror that, which means more available positions and headcount across brands and agencies.

With the digital, tech and software world taking over more traditional organisations, there has been a big shift and lift in digitally focused roles across UI, UX, CX, product design, and service design. “Creative” now spans across print, brand and digital in both contract and permanent basis.

As a Creative talent, you will always have an element of being hands-on, no matter your seniority. When you reach the “Manager” level, that doesn’t always typically mean people management, but project and strategy management.

Recent Changes

The Creative industry is constantly influenced by innovations and new ways of thinking.  One result of this influence is that self-employment and freelancing is at the forefront of the Creative market. More precisely, there are not many other industries in which the self-employment rate is as high as in the Creative industry. Particularly, a lot of young people prefer being portfolio workers and self-employed.

Future Prospects

Currently, it is prime time for Creative professionals with the right experience and skills as creative agencies have been growing, and companies have been investing more money in their creative departments. Recent noticeable changes in the market supports this trend, and the demand for creative directors, UI, UX, and product design experts will particularly increase over the next couple of years.

Salt’s advice for getting a job in the Creative industry

• Employers’ Requirements

  Since the Creative industries became more and more digitalised, it goes without saying that employers expect Creative experts to be natives in everything that is digital. This might range from online distribution, website and customer journey optimisation, and end-to-end UI of a mobile app to the creation of online banners. You will be expected to know your strengths; even an impressive hybrid UI/UX designer will be heavily weighted to one of those aspects. The continued growth of Creative means roles and opportunities are becoming more specialised.

• CV Requirements

  In the Creative world, CV translates to portfolio. A portfolio of your work is a must and typically, most hiring managers will look at a showcase of your previous work before reading a CV. It’s important to show off your greatest projects, so always keep this up to date.

  There is one particular keyword which is a must-have on every Creative professional’s CV: mobile. Having mobile design experience is a huge benefit for every Creative as responsive design for iOS, Android and co. is considered as a key prerequisite by all mobile users, but it is sometimes not that easy to implement as mobile platforms are constantly updated and changed. Two other crucial skills are website design and development. Nowadays, websites are more often visited than an actual store, which is why the online shopping experience must be perfect. Unless you are a mobile or website developer or designer, you are not expected to master these skills but to have a basic understanding of them.

• Interview Preparation

  During an interview for a Creative role, interviewers tend to have a close look at the applicants’ portfolio and ask relevant questions about their work. Besides portfolio questions, they might also ask you the following in order to get to know you better:

  • What was your favourite project and why?
  • What technology tools do you use regularly?
  • Could you please describe your design style.
  • What is your opinion about our creative materials?

• Educational Requirements

  A bachelor’s degree in a creative-related field, such as graphic design, television production, advertising, and publishing might be seen as advantageous by some employers. However, what really matters in the Creative industry is the professionals’ portfolio. An excellent portfolio is usually worth more than any degree, which is why Creatives start working on their portfolios as soon as possible and rarely do a postgraduate degree.