By Natalie Whitehouse
A love of music and a ton of hard work has seen recent journalism graduate Rachael Scarsbrook land a job in the industry she has strived to be in for years.
The 21-year-old graduated last summer from De Montfort, and has secured a position with Renegade Music as a Promotions Assistant – but it wasn’t without a lot of hard work, commitment and perseverance:
“I worked closely with Renegade whilst I was music editor of The Demon for the last two years of my degree,” she notes, “and upon graduating, I merely enquired as to the possibility of an internship or a part time job. It took a few months for something to become available, but I was contacted for an interview in September and was successful, and I’ve been there ever since!”
At first Rachael’s position at the promotions agency was part time, working two days a week and also being employed at a coffee shop – meaning sometimes she was working an incredibly tiring seven days a week just to get by.
Although she admits it was tough, it has definitely been worth it for what she states is a job in a industry she has been striving towards working in for a number of years – especially since her position became full time at the start of this month.
And her experience prior to graduating from DMU is something that helped her stand out as a candidate, with her degree in journalism also playing an incredibly vital part:
“My experience within music journalism certainly gave me a massive advantage. A lot of my work is signing new clients and so I need to have a really good grasp on all sorts of genres and what is happening in the world.
“My degree is probably the biggest help, as it taught me how to work in a professional journalism environment and a lot of the practices I learnt over the course of my degree are things I use day to day.”
In terms of these day-to-day tasks, Rachael focuses on processing reports for her record label clients so that they can examine the effectiveness of their campaigns. She also suggests new labels and artists that her company could benefit from working with, as well as assisting on projects at Renegade:
“I am involved quite heavily in all of the projects that we run, but in particular I am involved with a small rotation of bands that I have signed up to the company and are firmly on the up and coming lists of all the music blogs, which is a very exciting thing to see unfolding.”
The perks of the job are also pretty great for such an avid music fan:
“I think the most exciting thing so far is all of the gigs and events that I now have access to. A sold out gig is no longer an issue and the new vinyl or CD releases always come our way first. I am really enjoying all of it, but first and foremost as a music fan there is nothing better than free gigs and vinyl!”
Grateful to be employed in a role that is “certainly along the lines” of her dream job, Rachael is now looking at how she can use this as a platform for the future and a stepping-stone for the next steps in her career:
“I feel very lucky to have more or less landed straight into where I want to be for the future, and I’m building up lists of contacts that are invaluable for future career prospects.
“My plans for the future centre around working at a specific record label to manage some of the bigger bands, and maybe move in to actual band management.”
