It’s interesting how things seem to always happen in clusters. Several students this week were all wanting to have their CVs checked for jobs in creative services.

So what are creative services exactly? Creative services are a subsector of the creative industries. The creative industries include film and television, fashion and textiles, and design. Creative services offer creativity for hire to other businesses and can also mean a department within a company that does creative work such as writing, designing and production. Examples of creative services include design and production agencies, marketing firms, public relations firms, advertising agencies, communications work, graphic design and web development. Some common job titles include print production assistant, marketing manager, mobile developer, brand manager, web designer, talent agent, graphic designer and communications specialist. An interesting website you might like to look at is: http://www.thebigidea.co.nz

I thought I would have a look at one of my favourite sites, the Guardian Graduate, to see what sort of tips they might have for job applications in this area. There I found an interesting article titled “Applications to the creative services industry: the seven deadly sins”. The key point to remember is that although your application needs to stand out (it is a creative service after all), it needs to stand out for the right reasons. This is what they found to be the ‘sins’ that candidates seem determined to commit over and over again:

• Targeting the wrong people
• Forgetting who you are looking to work for
• Going through the wrong channels
• Not paying attention to detail
• Over-stepping the mark
• Being too pushy
• Not being pushy enough

For tips on how to avoid these seven deadly sins, read the full article: http://careers.guardian.co.uk/seven-deadly-sins-creative-application

Good luck!