Creative arts and culture : Typical employers

Big players

• Graduates can work in the creative teams of large companies and agencies, across a range of sectors. This is more typical for designers and those working in the advertising field.
• The BBC has established graduate schemes, as do the larger publishing companies and advertising groups. Generally there are few major graduate recruiters in this sector who offer training programmes and a settled career development pathway.
• The Arts Council England  is a big player in terms of funding and it provides significant investment in arts grants, reading programmes, festivals, awards, advisory bodies and more.

Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

SMEs are organisations with fewer than 250 employees and an annual turnover of no more than £44million. Working for a smaller company can be rewarding because you are more likely to forge a path for yourself within the company, although opportunities to try other departments may be limited.

• The largest companies in this industry are major orchestras and museums as well as theatre, opera and ballet companies. Most will have fewer than 250 employees and you are more likely to find large numbers of graduates working together.
• There are a number of small theatre companies, musical ensembles/groups or other performing artists who work together as part of a company. In many cases the same people will be members of several different groups, each company existing for the duration of a project or performance. Technical, marketing, financial and management staff are also employed in these areas.
• Local authorities employ graduates in community arts outreach work but only in small numbers and usually on a session by session basis. These are mainly supported by specific project funding and do not offer structured career progression. One project may lead to others, which develops your professional profile and portfolio of work.
• Graduates may work for local authorities, either within a specific school or as part of a peripatetic service. This way of working occurs commonly in music and may occur in other areas of the performing arts, although such posts are then more likely to be funded through specific project money. Additionally, most local authorities employ one or two graduates as full-time arts development workers.

Careers services should have listings of jobs with small firms; see also Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) .

Self-employment

• Self-employment is the main way of working within this sector. In the initial stages many people combine self-employment with other paid work for financial security. It is also common for in-house employees to move into self-employment as a form of career development.
• Designer-makers sell their work (e.g. ceramics, jewellery, glass, textile pieces) directly to the public from their studios, stands at festivals or take commissions.
• Musicians play in a band, work as soloists, singer or copyist on a freelance basis.
• The majority of writers and photographers are self-employed, working for a range of clients from mainstream and specialist media, in-house departments, public and private sector or for advertising, design, public relations, marketing companies or publishers.
• Actors, dancers or performers may work on long projects or with theatre companies for short periods of time but will also be predominantly self-employed.
• For designers and craftspeople who need fully operational studios, sharing premises and running costs can be an ideal arrangement.

Find out more about self-employment.