Blog Posts

The Traditional, The Risky, The Unpaid & The Ugly: life after redundancy

Arts Professional
4 min read

In the wake of the NPO funding announcement last Wednesday there will be organisations up and down the country saying goodbye to staff who they’ve had to make redundant to match the government’s desire to slice up the arts in the name of saving money. Add to this the most recent stats released by ONS state that unemployment amongst 16-24 year olds has hit the highest levels seen since 1992 and you can be certain that some of those caught up in this decimation of the arts are the young. Young people, like me, who are only at the very start of their careers. Young people who are now staring into the redundancy abyss, trying to work out where on earth they go from here. So, what exactly are your options if you are a young person who’s been made redundant from your first (or even second) job in the arts?

 

You’re young, you’re armed with your P45 in one hand and your official redundancy letter in the other standing in front of a career signpost pointing in 4 different directions: the traditional, the risky, the unpaid and the ugly. All can be equally tempting & rewarding in their own way, once you get over the hurdle of feeling a little out of your depth.

The Traditional

The traditional option means joining the queue at the dole office with everyone else and desperately applying for any (and every!) arts job that’s going. This is the standard option for anyone being made redundant as a result of the cuts, regardless of whether they’re working inside or outside the arts. However, it can be helpful if you come from a family who have no concept of freelancing. The challenge with this option is making the person at the dole office understand that working in the arts is valid career choice and not a cop out – I suggest you pack nerves of steel & a bucket load of patience with you for that one.

The Risky

The risky option is to launch yourself headlong into the terrifying but exciting world of freelancing. This has lot of perks, especially if you have a clear passion for a particular art form or role within the arts. In my case, this is my choice as it gives me a chance to do the thing I do best (project management) and focus on the area of the arts that I’m most passionate about (youth & community engagement). The disadvantage of this is that there’s no guaranteed income stream if you choose to freelance full time and time off will rapidly become something that only applies to other people.

The Unpaid

If you’re one of the fortunate minority, you can always join the world of internships. This can have some clear advantages in terms of bulking out your CV and putting you in a prime position to make connections. However if you have pesky things like bills to pay, it’s probably one that’s best left to part-time only. Even if you are fortunate enough to be able to afford the cost of interning full time, it may not be best to pin all your hopes on it given the uproar at the current intern system.

The Ugly

The ugly option is to swallow the Government rhetoric about the arts and step away from the sector altogether into the corporate world. On a part-time basis this can be a useful way of keeping a roof over your head, so long as you can juggle it with your arts related ambitions – you don’t really need sleep, right? The full time version can only really be recommended if you can potentially stomach giving up your career in the arts for the next 5 years.

Whatever you choose to do with the aftermath of your redundancy, be sure that you know what your getting yourself in for before you start and remember, we’re all in this together – apparently.