Jingyun Qiu

Country of origin: China

Placement: VICE China

I changed my major from Media and culture studies to Project Management in my second year but I was still interested in both management and media related areas. During my first summer vacation, I took my internship as a TV director in a TV station and it was during this short term experience that I realized how work experience was important to me. I thought a placement year would help me realize my capacity and give me a better understanding of my future career options.

VICE is a media company mainly promoting youth culture, which has more than thirty branch offices around the world. VICE was developed from a free magazine brand to a global media company with reports, articles, news, creative videos and documentaries updated on VICE websites operating in more than twenties countries. I worked as a production assistant in video production department in VICE China Beijing office. Throughout the year, I acted as production assistant, researcher and translator for both local and global teams for producing documentaries and creative videos. I also wrote articles for the Creators Project and did research and interviews for editorial department. At the end of 2014, which was the 20th anniversary of VICE we held parties in both Beijing and Shanghai and I was responsible for the overseas artists reception.

My placement year was extremely meaningful to me. I now have a much better understanding of how to make documentaries and about everything that goes on behind the scenes to produce a successful operation. A Researcher should be sensitive about social aspects and pay attention to the inside stories and a video producer is the project manager for the operation who needs to be able to cooperate with different departments and prepare for everything which may be required during shooting. There is always something unexpected that happens during the process and I have learnt to be aware of accidents and always think of back-up plans.

The VICE Beijing office is not that big, around thirty colleagues, but VICE is a global company and I regularly had the chance to work with various teams from different countries. This placement gave me a lot of chances to try different tasks such as being involved in music events and managing social media platforms all of which have given me skills which will be beneficial for me when considering future career.

After completing my work placement I now have a better understanding of the working environment and I also feel that I know myself better. I am planning to continue studying and take a postgraduate qualification in documentary making, which could help me combine my project management skills and media related experience together for future career.

The LUMS Careers Team guided me on how to write CVs, Covering Letters and how to prepare for interviews, they were successful as I received three placement offers during my second year! The Placements Team were also very helpful in assisting me on how to look for the unexpected roles that may not always be advertised. The OWT250a course in the summer term helped me develop my skills in working under pressure with a limited time scale and the presentations from the previous placement students for The Alison Tasker Award encouraged me and helped me build up my confidence for applying to placement positions.