Emma's Graduate Story

Find out how studying at the University of Birmingham helped Emma achieve her career goals.

Graduation year: 2022

Degree Title(s): BA Drama and English

Job title: Library Services Officer // Co-Artistic Director of Kickback Theatre 

Employer: Buckinghamshire Council // Freelance

What does your role involve? On a day-to-day basis, I work on the “shop floor” of the library, helping customers find and reserve books. Sometimes, I will be asked to perform tech support for customers, and answer questions relating to the local community such as bus times. I have been tailoring my role to include a lot more events planning and social media marketing to expand my portfolio within this job. On the side, I also run a theatre company (Kickback Theatre) with some other new graduates, and that role involves leading meetings, networking, writing funding applications etc. I pack a lot into my days as I’ll often come off shift at the library to clock on at home for Kickback!

Can you describe the journey you went on to get this role? Having a theatre company was always something I knew I wanted to do. I was having a conversation with my friend about things we wanted to see in the industry, and we just turned to each other and said “we could be the thing we want to see!”. It spiralled from there! As for my library position, my mum sent me the job advert as I’d worked there before university, and I applied. At this point, I’d been applying to various other schemes without success and had been undertaking career mentoring from the university. If I’m totally honest, working back at the library wasn’t high on my list of jobs I desperately wanted, but when my application was successful, every other uncertainty started to click into place. I realised it was what I needed at this stage in my career, and the requirements were not in conflict with my aims as a businesswoman with Kickback. Now, only a month into my job as a Librarian/Businesswoman, I absolutely love it. It has reconnected me to my local community and reignited my passion for reading, both of which benefit my work with Kickback.

What do you enjoy most about your job? I love the customers. That’s the main draw of being a librarian for me. The library is situated in this new leisure complex, so you get a huge variety of people using the library. It’s mainly the elderly and parents with very young children, but this provides such a variety of interactions on a daily basis. You can be chatting to kids about their favourite dinosaurs, to recommending books to parents that explain topics such as divorce or bereavement to children, to being given life advice by an elderly couple. Each day is always different, and the people who use the library make it that way. On the Kickback side of things, I love stretching my creative muscles. We’re a tiny company right now, so budgets are tight and we have to look for sources of funding or make choices that mean we stay under budget. It’s like a huge puzzle that needs fixing on a daily basis and I enjoy finding ways to make it work.

How did your time at Birmingham help prepare you for this role? I didn’t do anything directly related to libraries, but I undertook an internship at the Birmingham REP theatre. I worked as a summer school assistant and gained practical skills in planning and running young theatre exercises, as well as understanding the business side of large theatre buildings. I also was active in Guild Drama, being president of Live Art Society and working on lots of productions in any way I could! All this helped to develop my self-confidence primarily and enabled me to make the leap to setting up Kickback.

What advice would you give to students interested in getting into your industry or role? I guess for libraries and cultures, having a working understanding of how libraries operate is key. Knowing roughly what the Dewey decimal system is is important. But honestly, understanding the needs of the local community is probably the most important part of it. Libraries are houses of free information that anyone can access. They’re warm, safe and welcoming places that come at no charge, which is rare these days. If you can understand how a specific community needs to be served by its library then you’re well on your way!

As for theatre, the best piece of advice I was given was to make your own opportunities. Jobs are fairly few and far between, but if you can demonstrate that you’re a self-starter then people are more likely to hear about your work. Also, if you’re networking and your contacts don’t have any leads for you, email them an update about what you’re doing! Keeping people informed about your work is key, and with enough persistence, eventually, you’ll get to where you’re going. The tide is turning though, more big companies are agreeing to Open Hire agreements that make finding jobs within theatre easier for those who don’t have mates already working on the inside. Sign up to mailing lists, Facebook groups, anything to keep you in the loop, apply as much as you can to as many things and just do your own thing! This isn’t a code I’ve cracked at all, I’m still learning the ropes myself, but ultimately it all boils down to having confidence in your own work. With that, you can do anything.

How did the University of Birmingham help you on your career path? I was part of the LGBTQ career mentoring scheme which was brilliant. I was mentored by Helen Coy, who comes from a completely different sector from me. That insight was really helpful, as it covered a lot of my blind spots with regard to CV writing and cover letters. I also completed the PSA Advanced award, which included interview practice and lots of application tips. I genuinely use the stuff I learned on that course in applications I write now! Career’s Network is also great for alerting you to openings too – I’d found a couple of positions on their email bulletin that I applied for that I would not have seen otherwise.

How did studying at Birmingham inspire you in your graduate path? I’ve been very lucky in the fact that I’ve always sort of known what I wanted to do with my life, but uni really gave me the confidence to accept a non-linear career path. Particularly within the Arts sector, careers are more varied and take what feels like forever to really get going. As someone who loves to plan things, this fact was something I really struggled with at first. I was applying to all these breakthrough opportunities and was getting rejected. I got to feeling quite down, and self-conscious of whether I was good enough to actually have a shot at achieving what I wanted. But a combination of talking to my course mates, lecturers, and careers talks from industry professionals made me realize that most people won’t just leave university and start their dream job. Arts careers especially are a lot more varied, and it can be beneficial to take some time working on yourself and doing what feels like a totally unrelated job to start off with before you break into your chosen sector. Birmingham inspired me to take a more holistic approach to the job hunt, celebrating the little wins and focusing on my own art in and of itself, instead of comparing it to my peers or industry leaders. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but one that has given me a more positive outlook on careers. I would say it’s more peaceful, but the amount of work I’m putting into developing my own art is making me very busy at the minute!

Why should someone considering their university options come and study with us at Birmingham? I think Birmingham more than any university values its students and their desired career paths. I particularly saw this in the Drama department; every lecturer is a working professional, and they actively want to help you succeed and achieve your aims. Because the drama cohort is so small, they not only know your name but your style of work, your aims etc. It’s a really supportive community. Plus, Birmingham is such a theatrical powerhouse, there’s always something going on that’s new and fresh and industry-leading. The university is so connected to these big companies such as the RSC and the REP that you, by extension, feel connected to them. It’s a fantastic place to make the first moves of your career.

What was your favourite thing about studying at the University of Birmingham? I loved the variety of modules on offer. I would have never imagined studying Bridget Jones’ Diary at university, but the genre course I took for English did just that. If you’re passionate enough, Birmingham can help you make anything academic, and do it in such a way that doesn’t feel silly. I guess in summary, it’s the “yes, and” nature of the place I loved the most. By that, I mean that if you want to do something academic, or extra-curricular, Birmingham is a university that will say “yes, and what’s next?” to your idea. That’s what I loved about it. Also, Old Joe. I can’t not mention Old Joe.