Reflecting on my Career Opportunities

 When beginning my research into different career opportunities, I knew that writing and illustrating a children’s book was something I wanted to do in the future. My number one goal is for my work to be published by Penguin Random House and everything, in the 5-year plan I created, will hopefully lead me to this goal.  So, I began looking into different creative writing courses, the most appealing to me was created by Oxbridge. It was an online course that spanned over 12 months but normally would take students up to 4 months. I knew this would be a perfect option for me as I could spread the hours over a longer period. 

As well as this, I also started looking into a Masters in Illustration, I looked into a few, but I liked the look of Falmouth the best, and if I didn’t want to leave Staffordshire, I could do a 2-year course online.

 However, as I investigated a masters further, I knew I didn’t want to commit to another 2 years at university at this stage in my life. I wanted to start working for myself which is when I became interested in Etsy and other online shops. This is an opportunity that has always intrigued me since year 2 or university. I have always wanted to be self-employed and have my career to be my hobby. 

Although, I’d want this to be my career full-time, I know that if I want to be an illustrator, I will need a job that I equally enjoy, to help fund my passion. For example, I would love to be a High School teacher in Art and Design. This is because I love to help others and education. Before applying to different job roles, I’d need a PGCE. I have found courses in Stoke-on-Trent that last for 9 months, the most relevant to me would courses that have a QTS with them. I found one managed by Staffordshire University and another one in Ormiston Sir Stanley Mathews. These are both appealing to me as they are close to me and so would be the placement schools too. 

 As well as being a part time online shop owner and an Art Teacher, I’d like to still pursue my career as being an illustrator for clients. So, I will need to find an agency to represent me. A respectable agency would be the AOI. It would be £170 a year, and that would include Portfolio discussions, contract licensing and more business information. This would be incredibly beneficial to me and a very likely option I will take in the future. 

Some possible clients I’d like to work with in the future would be Bloomsbury publishing, if I wanted to I could always apply to an apprenticeship made by them and become a level 3 Apprentice Art Worker. However, I more likely prefer my book to be published by them one day. I’d also like to do illustration work or Aquila Magazine, it is a children’s magazine that includes facts about science, history, and general knowledge. This is an area which I love to go into in illustration, as I've previously mentioned I love what education can do for children and I’d like to inspire more to want to learn. And finally, another client I’d want to work with one day is the Folio Society. I believe that my artwork could be an effective way to illustrate these classical books, especially the one targeted to children. Although I have many more clients I’d like to work with in the future, these will be the starting point and the clients that I will make sure I work with.