Animation Relaxation
[Animation At Ulster University Second Year Blog]
By Matthew Kane
Portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/matthewkane
Showreel: https://vimeo.com/matthewkane


Week 9 :Chris Shannon Enterprise Centre talk
Throughout the talk Chris talked about how to set up clients and how create a stead flow/ stream of work if you are working as a consultant / freelancer. You also have to find clients and ways of making money when starting up your own company you can get help in doing so and can apply for funding and special grants to help you business get off the ground and he went on to explain how you would go about doing this. He also suggest about working for some of these people in the university starting their own business and use it as an opportunity and for potential employment on a short term basis while getting paid. Sell yourself and use your creative skills, technical knowledge and abilities to design and developing work for them as they cannot do it themselves hence the reason you are being hired to fill in that role and you would be paid for your time which sounds great, but seems like abit to much at the moment with all the work. Chris and his team help out young entrepreneurs and students wanting to branch of into business and help you with anything business related including questions and showed the different pathways you can take to be self employed and create your own business stating up your own company from scratch or helping someone who is doing so.
making some money by doing some freelance work for them and gaining the experience of getting involved and use the experience on your CV for reference of work you have done outside uni for a real client.
They help provide opportunity with freelance work and help establish a client base and getting your first paid job and also provide support for students up to a year after graduating from the Course/ University.
He advised the class to get involved and to enter any competitions to meet people and to win prizes and to make a name for yourself and to meet people and broaden your horizons.
Competitions:
Invest
Santander Enterprise Award
UUSU Shark Tank
They also provide programmes that can act as another degree like communication and business etc. This would help when writing a CV and would be more appealing to employers as you would have knowledge and training in other areas and not just a singular field. They would therefore shortlist you as being more qualified and would put you in a desired application category for candidates they are considering in hiring for the role. Have other experience in other fields showing you have other interests and hobbies making you more interesting and desirable.
Chris also told about the unique arts shop which they set up several years ago and is still run today by students for students to exhibit there work and even sell them.
Contact : Chris Shannon for help for enterprise and extra apprenticeship Programs if that is what you want to do. They have helped to support 47 business and established 91 businesses. They have ran 32 skills workshops along with 3 enterprise programmes in the past and created 3 student companies across
27 campus each hosting and attending these events/ competitions. There has been 16 Senior finalists and winners in these competitions ranging from Freelance Photography to app design and even Finance.
Start-up competitions: Get invited
They will provide you with the best support while in or competing in these challenges and will help you learn and develop essential skills.
Reflection :
This lecture and Cathy's helped broaden my scope for the range of opportunities in the workplace hat can be used or going into after university and conveyed the different kinds of help and support i would receive from the university when leaving university to go on placement and when i completed my course. However at this movement and time i am solely focused on my work and will consider the opportunity if i ever have any free time next semester to get the experience under my belt and to earn some money on the side. I have done business studies back in school and worked with Cathy Moore on several occasions in the school and at events with my school on similar projects but not as complex or industry standard. I plan on developing my work further and when i reach a level i am content with i will then start to look for work as there is to much going on this semester and there isn't enough time as it is.
I am interested in perhaps showcasing some of my personal work in the Art shop but i still need to be better with my time management skills to allow my self some free time to do my own work. I am however more technical and more driven to produce 3d work rather than producing prints and such as i have done in the past but i still view it as a networking opportunity that i can seize in the future if i change my mind or find something else that is more suited to my goals.
