Can You Compete?

Typical Friday Night?

The rapid development of technology means the new media industry is proportionately evolving and securing stable employment is becoming increasingly difficult. Research on obtaining jobs in this industry conducted by Gill (2007, 26) indicated that “the entire economy of [new media] work opportunities operates through contacts”.

Unfortunately, this confirms my fear of working in the media industry. As Hannah and Erin acknowledge in their blogs; new media networking is an around the clock job. Is that translation for sucking-up to successful media people instead of relaxing at home and watching a sitcom? This idea of ‘working after work to obtain more work’ doesn’t appeal to me.

Sure, not all networking occurs outside office hours, but the thought of constantly engaging in it overwhelms me. I wish I was a very motivated, confident, ‘good-at-small-talk’ kind of person; I would put all my eggs in one basket and pursue a career solely in the new media industry. Naturally however, I can be awkward, attempting to fill silences with rambling – a trait I don’t think would assist me professionally while attempting to gain a career contact.

While I love the new media industry and would love to make a living working in it... I love financial security and stability more. So here’s to hoping my double degree in media and communication, oddly combined with accounting enables me to dip my feet in the new media industry, but keeps the rambling at bay!

References

Event Crowd. 2010. “Event Organisers Networking Drinks and Nibbles”. Image. Accessed 28^th April, 2011. http://www.eventcrowd.com/events/event-organisers-networking 

 

Gill, Rosalind. 2007.  "Informality is the New Black". In Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat? New Media work in Amsterdam a decade after the web. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures