Despite having a burning passion for film, I’d be lying if I said the prospect of working in the industry didn’t horrify me. The idea that most career paths didn’t have job security, and that it was all about who you know more so than your academic background. So I wanted my work placement to be a strong first step through the door. Georgina Gregory (2008) perfectly incapsulates why this first step is so important when she said

“There is nothing more convincing, at interview or application stage or when pitching for work, to have positive proof that you can do the job – and great work experience can give you this proof”

I’m going to adapt Borton’s reflective method to look back on my experience of finding work placement and my process in starting my work experience with Ecko. Borton’s reflective technique can be simplified to three parts. What? The description and retelling of the events. So what? The deeper analysis and evaluation. Now what? How I would change my approach going forward and how I will apply my learnings. This model is highly effective because as Jessica Robinson (2022) states

“Borton’s reflective model is one simple model of reflection that focuses on three questions to help individuals reflect on their experiences and better understand what happened, why it happened, and what can be done to improve things in the future”

When I first started my search I had a very clear mind of what i wanted. I wanted experience on a real set, whether it be fiction, documentary or any other area of the film industry. For me not only would this give me the exact experience I would need going forward but it would give me the connections I needed to which is just as valuable if not more so.

I looked everywhere I could for this experience. I looked online. I emailed nearly every single company on the document of companies that Queens University Belfast supplied us. I went to in person QUB events for work placement and while I spoke with most guests, it was the producers I had the greatest interest in.

I was set on my vision and was doing everything I could to achieve it. However, worry began to sink in when not only did most companies not respond but all the production companies that did respond came back negative. This was crushing. Only one ever company came back with interest. It was one of the companies I wrote off at Queens work experience event because while I could see the connection to what I wanted to do, they did not fit my very narrow minded visions. This company was Ecko.

Ecko presented themselves to me as a multimedia company that had a mission statement to help aspiring artists. This included helping stage events, work with established artists on their goals and host online classes/workshops. While these concepts aligned with my love for film, I wanted to be one of the people they were helping. Not the one hosting the event.

Eventually I had no choice but to say yes. I was short of options, and I felt as if time was running low.

Looking back on my experience, I backed myself into a corner. I set my goals too high, not allowing myself to accept anything less than best case scenario. I didn’t allow myself to contact interesting companies working on amazing content because it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. The only reason things worked out with Ecko in the end was because they were the one to contact me. Otherwise, I don’t think I would have contacted them. I was too narrow minded and didn’t let myself dip my toes into the far corners of the film industry.

Looking back I think it’s clear what I should have done differently. I needed to broaden my horizons and let myself seek out interesting opportunities that would still give me valuable experiences but just in a new and possibly interesting way.

As mentioned previously, once Ecko reached out to me asking if I would be interesting joining them as an intern I agreed. The process was easy. I started planning on drafting a CV and thinking about what I would need to add but they specified they didn’t need nor want one. Rather Ecko was my interested in personality based hiring, they wanted people that were passionate and that they knew would put in the hard work whether they had experience or not.

My first official meeting with Ecko was over a zoom call, it was with Darren who is Head of Communications. The call was very informal and it was simply Darren asking me fifty rapid fire questions. These questions ranged from business aspirations to what my favourite song was. It seemed to give him a clear understanding of my character which was his goal.

Looking back i’m very happy with how the interview went. Not only did I give answers that I feel truly represented who I am but I feel like I didn’t hesitate to answer any questions which showed confidence and understanding in myself.

The recording of that call was then sent to JP McCorley, who is the CEO of Ecko. He was happy with the results of my time with Darren and requested a follow up call between just the two of us. Knowing he was the CEO, I was understandably nervous. However, to my surprise the call went well. JP spoke exclusively in a casual manner with me and he only spoke about business to help me gain a better understanding of the many things Ecko does. The call was mainly for JP to understand what I was hoping to achieve from this experience and him reassuring me with methods on how he planned to help me meet these expectations.

I spoke to JP about my love in writing and I even sent him one of my screenplays which he seemed to be really impressed with. I wanted to make sure he understood my goals in the film industry and what my dream career path is.

However, I wish I was more upfront with how I presented my love for writing. I didn’t want to be too specific because I learnt from the job searching process that that didn’t work well for me. However, in this case broadening my horizons by simply telling him that I loved any form on writing. This resulted in a lot of my early time with Ecko being spent on copywriting emails and newsletters and not the creative fiction writing that I was hoping for.

My starting experience with Ecko wasn’t ideal. I understand that work experience is not always going to be exactly what I want. Even if I got experience on a film set, I would most likely be running coffee instead of manning a camera. However, when I started with Ecko I was editing Instagram Reels and researching emerging artists for an instagram account with virtually no followers. All the work I was doing seemed to be leading to nothing. I couldn’t see myself in the future interviewing for a job with a production company and showing them my work experience which was me adding captions to a clip of Steven Spielberg accepting an award from twenty years ago.

However, as time went on I became more grateful for my work as I began reading between the lines. I was helping organising zoom classes with oscar winning screenwriters and grammy winning musicians. I was interviewing some of the most promising upcoming Northern Irish musicians. While these better pieces of work were few and far between the seemingly useless projects I was spending most of my time doing, I became grateful. The work experience itself wasn’t always amazing but I was networking with industry professionals I could only imagine meeting otherwise. As they say, it’s not always what you know. Its who you know.

In conclusion, my experience with finding and starting work experience was an experience of highs and lows. Using Barton’s method of reflective analysis I understand that my mindset when looking for work experience was counterproductive because by trying to find the perfect work experience ended up resulting in my limiting myself and not being able to find an opportunity that would be more personally suited to my skills and desires. Furthermore, I realise that I need to learn to speak up and voice my personal interests because not only does it result in a more satisfying personal experience for myself but for Ecko’s benefit it allows me to produce better work as it strongly aligns with topics i am more passionate about. Lastly, through my time with work experience and my reflective analysis on this blog post has allowed me to become grateful for my experiences even if they aren’t the dream scenario I hoped for.

Bibliography

Georgina, G (2008) Careers in Media and Film : The Essential Guide, SAGE Publications, Limited

Robinson, Jessica (2022) ‘All-inclusive Guide to Borton’s Reflective Model’:
Exploring Different Types of Reflection Models with Examples