Jared Schiller’s Job Ladder

 FREELANCE PRODUCER (2010–present)
I make audio and video for cultural institutions, specialising in artist interviews. Most recently I have directed four films for Tate and Channel 4 about the Turner Prize, and produced an interactive audio panel for the Fourth Plinth exhibition in Trafalgar Square. I became freelance as I wanted to experience life outside a big institution. We also recently had a baby, so it seemed like a good time to say goodbye to job security!

TATESHOTS EDITOR Tate (2008–2010)
At Tate we realised that video content was not just a way of marketing ourselves – it could fundamentally support our mission. I started as Production Assistant having made the leap from the ticket desk, but soon my role had evolved to include interviewing, directing, writing and commissioning. It was a small team and I worked very closely with the Creative Director and Director of Tate Media, as well as the curatorial teams across all four Tate sites. Good relationships with artists, curators, PRs and commercial galleries were vital in this role, and I also developed my technical skills.

VARIOUS RESEARCHER ROLES Endemol, BBC, ITV Productions (2005–2006)
I was lucky enough to leave university with a job lined up, but before that began, a friend who had been working on a television programme asked me if I’d like a week’s work as a runner. I ended up getting Gordon Ramsay’s coffee during the first series of ‘Hell’s Kitchen’. Thus started a series of increasingly bizarre jobs in reality TV: babysitting ‘Big Brother’ contestants, logging the antics of celebrities pretending to be holiday reps and, worryingly, devising family-fixing activities for a good parenting show all formed part of my repertoire.

PICTURE EDITOR Virgin Mobile (2004)
My first job in digital media was for an outfit providing a new-fangled mobile WAP service for Virgin Mobile. The idea was to make a magazine people could read on their phones and I worked alongside some brilliant journalists all creating witty copy to be read on advanced (for the time) internet-enabled devices. My job was to source appropriate pictures and use Photoshop to reduce them to a miserly 200×200 pixels. In the end the real Internet came to phones so this project was flawed, but it was interesting to be working on something so ahead of its time.

MEMBERSHIP AND TICKETING ASSISTANT Tate (2002–2007)
When I was studying History of Art at Goldsmiths, I picked up a casual job manning the ticket desks at Tate. Even after I left and got work in TV, I kept this position, going back to it in between contracts. The reasons I enjoyed it were the art (of course), the customers (in the main) and the other staff, but also the opportunity it gave me to learn about the organisation. It’s not easy to work your way up from an entry-level job like this, but it gives you an amazing view and the opportunities are there if you have the confidence to take them.