Before my placement I did my best to lay out a good plan as to what I wanted to do in my future as I was still stuck trying to figure out what it was that I wanted to do after my graduation. I considered many options; from working as a mastering engineer, going into the live music industry, to working in a studio recording new music. Then I heard about the lack of technicians in the industry with relevant skills to do the jobs that were being created for them, and I was instantly hooked on wanting to learn about everything inside all the equipment that we take for granted as a working structure and how things could go wrong inside them, as well as how I could go around fixing them.

 

Shortly after this breakthrough in my passion for a new sector of the industry in the latter part of 2023, I heard about a local company who said they could maybe take me on for some work experience. Shortly after I began to pursue this, due to unforeseen circumstances, I was no longer able to be taken on board at the company for experience which really kicked my motivation for working in the industry. I was still, however, driven to apply for as many placements as possible to do my best until I was given an opportunity to work inside of the university that I was currently attending, being UHI Perth (formerly Perth College UHI) as the head of theatre was quite busy at the time and mentioned that he could use an extra set of hands. This immediately caught my attention and as I researched what his job entailed, I wanted to hop onto the placement as soon as I could, beginning the placement in February this year.

 

Additionally, prior to my placement, I have already attained some minor experience with repairing and doing otherwise work on equipment as I have a family who have extensive experience within the field of electricity. Having a dad who can solder, he often helped me out and oversaw home projects I have worked on in the past, such as working on changing parts out of guitars. I often would begin some wiring on them, before pestering him to come out and help me again, which showed me that I can learn to be the one who may need to show others how to do a specific job in the future.

 

After the completion of my placement, I was very happy with the portfolio of tasks I had carried out, and I even had a lot of fun doing a lot of the tasks that were handed to me. as an oversight, I felt as if the write up would be a breeze compared to the actual work experience section of the module, and pushed it to the side for a while as I was working on the other modules which in hindsight felt like a far more prevalent portion of the final grade.

 

Due to the fact that the placement was mostly just myself and the present tech, it really made me feel like I was learning a lot more as learning one on one just gives me that motivation to learn new things and acquire new skills increases drastically. I felt as if I had a colossal boost in my motivation to become a real part of the industry and actually make an impact to it respectively. While I have been opening up to people a lot more now, I can still be afraid of standing out in front of a crowd. Because of this, I am very appreciative of the fact that I was given an opportunity to learn in a very small enclosed off environment as it made me a lot more comfortable and allowed my drive to apply myself and learn more to flourish.

 

Another small part to mention is that while I was on placement and after I had already become as proficient as one can become after learning how to properly solder for only a few days, I was tasked with teaching a first year how to repair cables as well as Charlie was called off to a meeting and I had some spare time and I was helping out in the theatre doing odd jobs. This helped me learn what it is like to teach someone who isn’t as experienced as I am. They did get it eventually which made me proud of myself as I felt like I taught them a valuable skill as that was a part of their course that they would surely encounter at some point.

 

When I began the placement at UHI Perth, I was aware that some areas of the job would require some skills and techniques that I had not previously learned at the time, but I had come to accept that there were simply some things that I couldn’t learn from pure research alone, but rather learning them ‘in the field’ while I was on placement. That said, there were some skills which I had already attained prior to beginning the placement, such as knowing how to do basic soldering and being able to follow chains of signal to find a fault, but even though I knew what I was doing, there was certainly more room for improvement.

 

It was pointed out to me during my time on the placement that, with the skills I already have, I already have so many options as to what I could do with my life if I am struggling to find work – like making my own cables at home in my garage and selling them online as this was taught to me in the first week of the experience. This was most certainly an eye opener as at the time I still felt as if I was nowhere near as qualified as I needed to be to actually get into a position where I could earn any money within this field of work. After learning how to do one cable, I was then taught how to repair other cables/make them from scratch.

 

I was additionally given an insight into working around different atmospheres that I will most likely encounter in the future when I begin working on my own, such as working in theatre, studios, and live settings. This showed me the different environments that I will have to adapt to when the time comes – so that when it does come, I will be infinitely more prepared to deal with it.

 

Post completion of my work experience placement, I feel significantly more comfortable and confident with where I stand with my level of skills within the industry and I feel as if I were a great help to the staff who don’t get enough recognition at UHI Perth, giving that extra set of hands where they otherwise wouldn’t have had them if I weren’t there to offer them. And while my skills were undoubtedly more refined after spending a few days acting the role of a AV technician, it was absolutely shown to me that where I stand, before the placement and after, is already ample enough to become at least a little part of the industry that one day I truly hope I can become a far more ubiquitous part of.

 

I really enjoyed my time being spent learning what I wanted to learn as opposed to something that I was required to learn like in high school was a real eye opener to how motivated I could be to do something if I really wanted to do something. I never felt like there was a single moment during my placement where I felt as if I couldn’t ask about something if I didn’t know about it and every single time I did ask something I was far more interested in what I was being taught than if it is something taught to a group of individuals such as in a classroom.

 

Even post-placement, I don’t have any doubt that if I were to have any further queries about anything within the industry, I can absolutely contact Charlie, or anyone else who I worked alongside and ask away and I am certain that they would be more than pleased to teach me anything necessary to put my mind at ease.

 

As for the conclusion of my reflection, I have to say that I feel very good about how I performed throughout the last year of my studies at UHI Perth within my professional development module; learning many life changing skills, such as:

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• How to write a powerful CV that stands out above others

• How to approach companies asking for work

• The Process of how to go about repairing a piece of equipment which isn’t functioning properly

• How to have a structured and organised portfolio

• Creating a website to keep my portfolio available to people who wish to contact me about opportunities in the future.

 

The experience of attaining new knowledge on how to compete in such a narrow field of an industry has truly made an impact on how I feel about my future.