Teeside University Retrospective

At Teeside University, we watched a presentation hosted by two students. Each of which specialise in the same area of the media industry, although one was a freelancer, with the other being hired by a company – being LADbible. The freelancer spoke of what his career choice entailed, with experiences working with broadcasting companies such as Sky. The area in which they both specialised in was journalism, although the requirements of the job roles varied due to their different circumstances.

The freelancer described the difficulties of acquiring a one-off job, although the eventual reward can be higher than that of a full-time worker. The full-time worker described the security of a full-time job, in comparison to the one-off gigs of the freelancer – although this involves working under the orders of someone else in contrast to being your own boss.

Working under someone else results in you having a lack of control over your working environment – however this may be more reliable than managing your own time, which is another important aspect of being a freelancer.

If you are not well experienced in time management and do not trust your own judgement, the option of freelancing may not be suitable – whilst a controlled and stable environment may be more appropriate, in the form of a full-time job under an employer. Both students expanded on how the university encouraged them to pursue these job opportunities and presented such unique options to them in the first place.