If you're a videographer and you're looking to get that job, you're in the
right place. As someone who's worked in TV someone, who's worked as a freelancer
and now someone who owns a global business who now employs videographers
I'm going to show you the top tips and secrets on how to get that job as a
videographer. Coming up!
So I'm Mark Brown and I'm the company director of EditorsKeys and although I used to work in TV
over ten years I've run Editors Keys and
we constantly use videographers to film YouTube content to film video content
and to also create commercials and ads so recently when we put out a job advert
but our new videographer role we had over three hundred and eighty people
apply for the job role and I've got to be honest only about 10% of those CV's or
resumes really caught my eye so I want to help you get that next job role and
looking for all of those CV's I'm gonna help you and avoid some of the most
common mistakes so these are my top eight tips on how to get that job as a
videographer so number one is to make sure you read that job post you see
videography is a little bit different to any other type of admin job role you
know it's hard to see the details and how good someone is just from reading a
paper CV so often employers like myself will put extra questions in there to
help get a bit more out of that CV so in this job post I put three questions in
bold and it was the first one was to apply let us know what cameras you own
or what cameras you've used secondly was what YouTube channels do
watch if any and thirdly it was what social networks do you use or view the
most often now the thing to remember here is that most employers myself
included don't really care if you own a super high-end camera or if you watch
ten hours of YouTube a day what we're looking for here is the details so you
don't actually own a camera it doesn't really matter all I want to see is that
you have the experience with at least one or two cameras so you know how
cameras work so if you've used different cameras at film school or you need or
you can borrow some put that in there and just
what you've used maybe what lenses you've used and they've got microphones
have used the same goes for YouTube I don't really care if you watch a hundred
channels or ten channels what I really am looking for is I'm trying to see if
you are self educating and by that I mean are you watching people like PA
McKinnon or Gary Vee or someone that can teach you how to improve your camera
skills on a daily basis someone like potato jet is pretty cool that goes
through the camera reviews and things like that so I just want to see you're
actually investing in yourself by watching at some of these YouTube
channels and remember these questions were in bold and many many people didn't
even respond to these so if you're the sort of person that just glides through
a job post and don't actually apply to the bolded questions especially all the
highlighted questions you're probably not gonna get that callback that you
want so make sure you look out for those bolded or highlighted questions and they
are really important they help us find the details number two is your CV or
resume now out of the 380 I've got sent only around two of ten or twenty I
actually designed really nicely now when you're applying to be a creative person
or videographer I think this is something that could really help you
stand out so if you take a look at most TVs that we get
they're just big blocks of text big Microsoft Word or Google Docs documents
that just list paragraph after paragraph after paragraph there's nothing really
there that stands out for most people so how to think about designing your own CV
or buying a template to help you lay out your CV in a much better way think about
a nice header you can include maybe a nice sidebar with a photo of you it
helps sort of shine out that your personality include links to your social
media obviously include bullet pointed lists of places you've worked and the
experience you have and don't forget the links to your videos and as you can see
from this little example we've done here what do you think of these two different
types of CDs the one on the left here the standard boring one isn't really
gonna stand out whereas the one on the right really catches your eye let us
know what you think of that in the comments below number three don't waffle
on your job application you know at school and in university we're taught to
say that we keen players that we work great as
individuals or with teams and dye the weekend I love a coffee on a Starbucks
and I like to read Shakespeare and all this sort of stuff don't bother with
that it's kind of a bit tough now going from someone who's to apply to jobs to
now being the person reading all these CDs honestly everyone puts the same
thing everyone puts an individual I work great on my own or a greatest part of a
team and it just doesn't mean anything everyone puts that same thing so think
of more inventive ways that you can say the same thing so maybe say recently I
worked on a project of 12 other cameramen or sound people and the
project went like this and this is how we resolve the problem you're kind of
saying the same thing you're saying that you can work really hard that you can
work to deadlines and you can work as a bigger member of a team of course there
may not be 12 cameramen I'm not sure why I said that but just talk about the
project that you're working on even if it wasn't a camera job or a videography
role it may have been a business an e-commerce business and they have been
just working at McDonald's but if you can explain why you work better it's
part of a team and relate it to the job that you're applying for it's always
gonna come across it better than just putting in those standard sentences that
we were all taught to say at school or unique so don't waffle okay so the next
one number four is a really really important one I saw this one a lot over
about 90 times and it's so frustrating and as someone who's reading the ECB
somebody wants to employ you and it's a little line that people are putting in
so imagine this you're applying for a videographer role or creative role it
might be a design role and you put at the bottom portfolio can be supplied on
request why would I want to read through 300 emails of Dip people different
people CDs or resumes and then have to email you to say can you send me a link
to your video I just don't understand that and I know that I've done that in
the past too so don't worry it's not just you that's being silly I've done it
as well but just think about it logically I know it sounds like you're
trying to be professional and you want to get them to get back in touch with
you but trust me it's so frustrating if you apply to be a videographer
make the links so nice and clear and have a nice link to your YouTube channel
your Instagram channel you feeds all those kind of
things never never say you can have a look at my portfolio or videos on
requests because I can tell you people aren't going to request it they're just
going to skip and throw out your CV and go on to the next one so make sure you
include those video links number five so this is quite a big one quite a common
one I was contacted quite a lot of times from people applying for the job well
saying what kind of videos would you like to see what kind of video should I
submit and you know this is kind of a tricky one but what I would say is if
you're applying for a job role special within a commercial company or service
based business you really want some examples of product based businesses or
service based businesses you want videos that show those kind of things off so
many people and especially the younger people you know if you've come straight
from the University or film school probably the only thing that you would
kind of professionally have is a short film that you made at the school or
university and while you may be proud of this as to be honest it's probably gonna
be in the grand scheme of your life it's probably probably gonna be one of the
worst things that you've ever made and if that's the only thing you're
attaching to your resume or CV as examples of your work it's not great and
it's not great for a few reasons because number one I went to university ended
media production I know that it's not just you who's filmed and edited that
it's a load of people you've kind of been guided in what you should do and
not do to be able to stay quite long as well most uni films or school films like
45 minutes long no employer is gonna sit there for 45 minutes and watch one of
your films so my advice is simply make a trailer if you can of that short film if
that's the only thing you have make a real fast trailer make it maybe in a
couple of different aspect ratios like a portrait mode for Instagram that that
kind of thing and secondly is I think you should really get out there and grab
a product so look at some products you may have at home you may have an Apple
keyboard you may have a phone make a little product video about that product
just try and do the best job you can because most ecommerce businesses retail
businesses service based businesses they will want that kind
example most of them and don't or haven't done media like I have so most
of them want to see how your videography will promote their business if all you
have is a short documentary film it's not going to connect with them and
someone else who has that kind of examples of work is gonna trump you
every time so just in your spare time or before you
apply for that role make sure you've got some product based videos in your CV or
your links if you haven't feel free to call the company up and say look can you
send me one of your products on loan and I'll do a quick video and I'll send it
back to you within the week just create something short sharp 15 30 seconds
something that would go on to social media trust me that will help you stand
out from the crowd okay so this is tip number six we're
slowly getting there so this one is create social media videos and what do I
mean by that well as I said in the last example a lot of people only put short
films they've made or quite long films they've made and a lot of businesses and
service product ecommerce any business is gonna be on social media most
businesses or personal brands even are on social media and this means they're
on YouTube they're on Facebook they're on Instagram and they're on instagram
stories at least if you don't have any examples that show that you can make
these short sharp videos it's really gonna help you kind of get lost in the
crowd because out of 380 maybe only 10 or madding is around 10 people had those
types of videos and it's really impressive actually when someone does a
really good Instagram story video because you know they're in portrait
their film differently they have a different feel to them and if you can
show a nice little catalog of videos that cover all different types of social
medias in their native form that's gonna really help make you stand out from the
crowd so tip number seven make sure the links to your video section are easy to
find you may already think that you've put the links in there but have a look
where on your resume or your email is your link listed is it kind of in the
footer is it at the bottom is it a bit hidden within a paragraph of text just
make sure that if you're redesigning your CV which you should do you put a
nice link down the side to your your Vimeo your YouTube or Instagram
make sure they're clear and concise because someone needs to be able to scan
your application and then whenever within a second be able to click that
link and go directly to your videos you want to make sure as well that when
you're linking to your video page especially if it's a YouTube channel
that your channel trailer is the best video that you can do or the best video
that you can produce and if you're applying for lots of different roles
over a period of weeks just make sure that you are take that channel trailer
if you're applying for a business like ours where you're doing product videos
make sure your channel trailer is a product based video it'll just connect
much better if you're applying to actually get a job in TV making
documentaries make sure your channel trailer is a documentary channel trailer
it'll really help you stand out and it'll just instantly help you connect
now tip number eight is a big one because I saw a lot of people saying
that they haven't had much experience that they don't have a lot of videos to
show they don't have a camera so they only have one or two videos to show
don't let that be your Excuse iPhones can film fantastic videos just check out
this video here by Andy - I'll put a link to his channel in the description
below but just check out this crispy cool fudge how cinematic does this look
and this was only filmed on an iPhone antenna I believe so if Andy can do this
and what an amazing job he did then you can do it too get your iPhone out get
cheap gimbal and just film some shots around where you live locally film the
local city you're in like Andy's done here and it will really help you stand
out from the crowd you know there's no excuse anymore maybe five years ago yes
and I found four or five the video footage would have looked terrible but I
found tens the net later Samsung's the latest Google pixels can all film in 4k
they can all do a fantastic job so don't let that be your excuse for not
having a video in your CV or your application get out there and film so
there we go I hope that's helped you improve your CV and your job
applications going forward if you're applying for a job let me know in the
comment section below I mean how many of these things were you actually doing I
know you might have been doing some of them but why are you doing them all let
me know has it helped you and if applying for a job at the moment as I
mentioned I employ people so I'm more than happy to help you answer your
questions you know if you're applying for a job and you're not sure what you
should say what you should apply leave a message for me below and I promise I'll
get back to everyone so thanks for watching and make sure you subscribe
make sure you really smash that subscribe smash that notification bell
and you can see more videos on cameras more videos on video editing filmmaking
and things like that thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video