Dipping my toes into a freelance way of working in Collaborative Future’s supportive environment

Jane shares with us her learnings about confidence, skills and different ways of working gained through the Collaborative Future work placement programme.

JAne, Tell us a little bit about yourself..

Jane: Originally from Manchester, I’m currently living in Leicester. I graduated from UCLan in 2020. During my time at uni, I studied a bunch of things, made a lot of short films and fell in love with animation! (see Jane’s portfolio here!)

What was your situation before joining Collaborative Future?

Jane: Before joining Collaborative Future I had been unemployed for around 6 months, since graduating. The number of job applications I had sent out was almost reaching triple digits and I was finding it really hard find creative work, or any work because of COVID. After a lot of application rejections and a few interview rejections, I was feeling really demoralised about job hunting.

What were your reasons for applying to the work placement programme?

Jane: When I applied, I was really keen on the idea of working with lots of different businesses and gaining more practical work experience, and I was especially excited at the prospect of getting to do varied creative work. I also thought I would get a lot out of the training and mentoring on the programme, as being unemployed had really knocked my confidence in myself and my skills.

How did you find our application and interview process?

Jane: The application process was totally different from anything I’d experienced before. The questions really prompted me to think about my experience and skills in a different light, and I actually found it quite hard because of this. In the interview, I thought having a task was fantastic because it meant that I could actually show my skills rather than just talk about them, and as someone with anxiety I really appreciated having the interview questions beforehand.

tell us about the work placements you completed on the programme?

Jane: I worked with Collaborative Future, Graphic Change, Reply, Impact People & Change, Kintro, Dot Project, Tech for Good LIVE, and Woodgate Consulting, all in a space of 6 months. I did a LOT of different things including: animation, design, illustration, research, video editing, copywriting and marketing.

I loved the animation work I got the opportunity to create with CF and Graphic Change. It was really fun getting to explore my style and having a lot of creative freedom with the CF project, as well as practising my skills in responding to briefs and working in an already established style for the work I produced with Graphic Change.

Janes animation for Collaborative Future, illustrating the programme opening doors for young people (source)

Janes animation for Graphic Change, celebrating their Graphic Recording live sessions (source)

A task I found particularly challenging came up during my work with Reply. My role on their inhaler research project mostly consisted of transcribing, synthesis and analysis, but Bex and Mille encouraged me to undertake a couple of interviews with research participants. Although I was initially hesitant, they went well and I was glad I pushed myself to do something that felt a bit intimidating.

Jane’s 1st illustration for Reply’s Inhaler Research Project

Jane’s 2nd illustration for Reply’s Inhaler Research Project

How have you found working with such a mix of people (other interns, cf team, solo freelancers and small teams) ?

Jane: Working with such a variety of people was great, it let me try so many new skills and exposed me to a lot of different ways of working I hadn’t experienced before. Particularly, it allowed me to dip my toes into a freelance way of working in a supportive environment. Working to briefs, communicating with clients, receiving feedback, and multitasking on several different projects at once, but still having a lot of support and guidance from the people I was working with, and from the CF team.

You created connections with businesses outside of CF in your time on the programme 🥳 - how did you find this?

Jane: Exciting and challenging. It was a huge confidence boost to get the opportunity to do work outside CF with Reply and Woodgate Consulting, and really exciting to have the opportunity to set up some professional relationships I could continue beyond CF.

Also, although I had done a small amount of freelance work before starting at CF, it was super helpful to go through the process of setting up these relationships in an environment where I could reach out for support and ask loads of questions.

What was your highlight from the last 6 months on the programme?

Jane: Getting to know such an awesome group of people has been a huge highlight, whether that’s been working with people on projects, chatting to people over Zoom and Slack, talking during workshops or meeting people outside of work. It’s what I’m going to miss the most about working at CF.

What aspects of the programme did you value most?

Jane: Obviously getting paid a London living wage was nice, it made me feel valued for my time and work. Also, having flexible hours was great - initially, because it allowed me to take care of my wellbeing during COVID, and later in the programme because it gave me the opportunity to take on freelance work alongside my Collaborative Future hours.

Most of all, I valued the variety of business and people I got to work with. During the programme I worked with eight businesses on so many different things, including animation, illustration, design, research and marketing. Some of it was tasks I already had experience of, and some of it was totally new to me, and as someone who doesn’t like sticking with just one thing, this was perfect to try loads of new things out, develop skills, and (attempt) to figure out what I like about work and what I want to continue doing in the future. I really tried to embrace just saying yes to things on this programme, even if they were outside of my comfort zone, and I think the range of work I’ve been able to do has been a really unique experience.

Did you find out something new about yourself?

Jane: One thing I found out about myself, which coaching with Asma helped me recognise, was how much I value who I'm working with, sometimes more than the actual task that I'm working on.

do you have any thoughts on the additional support via coaching, training or mentoring?

Jane: I got so much out of having you as a mentor, plus Prisca and Tess for extra support. Having someone to answer questions, help navigate new relationships with businesses, give advice, bounce ideas off, problem solve, and just generally be lovely to talk to and catch up with every week has been such an unexpected and valuable part of this programme for me.

The two sessions I had with Asma were really constructive. She was fab, and got me looking at my experiences and thinking differently. I tried to go to every training workshop we were offered - having time almost every week over six months to learn (and be paid for it!) was fantastic, and not something I’ve experienced at work before. I especially liked the mix of things we covered, from practical stuff on being self-employed, to having an intro to a new industry like PR, to talking through personal challenges like imposter syndrome.

You can get in touch with Jane for your illustration and animation needs via:

Website : https://www.tallsocksanimation.co.uk/

Instagram : https://instagram.com/tallsocksanimation

Email : hello@tallsocksanimation.co.uk

Inspired by Jane’s story?

You can support our work by joining our next work placement programme, purely focussed on young creative talent in Nottingham. Find out more by emailing hello@collaborativefuture.co.uk or by booking in for a chat here. Or, you can always buy our team a ko-fi!