Do you have experience jobseeking in the UK Music Industry?

April 28, 2006 11:02 AM

please help me help my girlfriend get a job in the UK music industry

my lovely girlfriend has left me and gone to london to try get a job in the music industry. she has a BTEC Merit diploma in music management and also ran a non-profit royalty collection agency for 2 years, as well as other band promotion type stuff.

i wonder are there any fellow mefites who have experience in this area? she isn't going into this for the "star-struck / celebrity" aspect of it, rather a serious job that pays well (£28k+), with career advancement

any info on recruitment agencies specialising in this area is welcome. bonus points (6!) for any closet record label bigshots lurking here, willing to give out jobs!

many thanks snail

posted by snailer to media & arts (5 answers total)

Handle has a lot of music jobs. She should also read the jobs sections of Music Week (no registration needed for jobs section) and Record Of The Day.
posted by gfrobe at 11:16 AM on April 28, 2006

Hmm... BTEC diploma, £28k+ salary? Nothing springs to mind immediately.

I work at a university in the uk, for a faculty running Music Industry Management degrees. Most of our graduates will be lucky to find an entry level job at significantly less than £28k (more like £20 if they're lucky). With a BTEC I think your girlfriend's chances of landing that salary from the start are slim to none.

As someone who worked in the music business directly for many years, and is now glad to be out of it and working in the techie / support side of academia (and earning a LOT less than your gf is hoping to get), can I just get the customary "it's a shit business - you'll learn" out of the way now? Thanks :|
posted by coach_mcguirk at 12:34 PM on April 28, 2006

Networking. Networking. Networking.


In London you can barely get a job in retail without knowing someone in the business (maybe a slight exaggeration).

Jobs in music are in high demand, and just turning up with a BTEC and a few other bits and bobs isn't going to help a great deal.

I'm no expert, but it's going to be a case of working to the top, from the lowliest levels.
posted by iamcrispy at 2:20 PM on April 28, 2006

Wow. I wish you could get 28K US here with my Recording Industry Degree. All I got offered was 7/hr 'intern' positions (read: getting coffee and makin copies).

If your girlfriend can live with that, tell her she could move to NYC and have a slightly less obscene cost of living.

I'm going to law school, myself. Perhaps your girlfriend should look that way, as well. I have no idea what a BTEC degree means, though, so that may not be a good idea.
posted by plaidrabbit at 5:22 PM on April 28, 2006

plaidrabbit, a BTEC is basically a pre-degree certificate. It wouldn't be enough to qualify her to get into a university, if she only has a 'merit' pass.

Bearing in mind the UK graduate job market is overrun with university graduates bearing first-class honours degrees in media studies and other music-industry-related areas, I'm not sure snailer's girlfriend is realistic if she is looking for an entry-level job paying £28K without a degree.

I was a music journalist a long time ago and started off having to work for nothing a couple of days a week whilst making a living as a temp elsewhere. I doubt much has changed since then in the music business.

I wish her luck, but she needs to be a little more realistic about her dream job.
posted by essexjan at 12:41 AM on April 29, 2006