Media, creative and cultural sectors

The creative and cultural industries cover a broad range of areas including: performance, publishing, visual arts, music, gaming and creative IT roles, film & TV, journalism, cultural and heritage organisations. Manchester is a significant broadcasting and cultural centre thanks to the Manchester International Festival, major arts and music venues, orchestras (e.g. the Halle and BBC Philharmonic), independent production companies and the BBC and ITV, which have production bases at Media City in Salford.

There are a variety of job roles, from support, planning and strategy to more creative ones. While you may not need a related degree to work in these areas, relevant work experience is usually required. Having a postgraduate qualification linked to the area you want to work in may put you at an advantage, particularly for journalism and heritage, museums and galleries.

Popular areas within this sector include:

Want to explore other creative careers?

Getting in and getting experience

  1. Unpaid internships and working for working for free are common in the creative industries, from gaining experience in the media to DJing at a local pub. Our guide on unpaid internships will help you understand your rights. Also check details of our work experience bursary.
  2. Many people will work for themselves, read more about starting your own business or freelancing
  3. Short term contracts are common which means you’re unlikely to stay with one employer for a very long time.

Starting out

  1. Gain experience while you’re a student by getting involved in Manchester’s student media, hospital or community radio, a student society and volunteering. Consider generating your own content for social media including writing a blog or producing a vlog.
  2. Seek out entry-level paid opportunities in organisations related to your area of interest. Work as an usher, in the box office, behind the bar, anything to be in the right place at the right time for spotting opportunities. Help people, be useful and get yourself known.
  3. Build new skills that will add to your CV. Creative screenkills trainee finder offers traineeships in a variety of areas such as film, games animation etc. Our Online training resource links to courses that will develop your digital skills
  4. Many opportunities in the Media, Creative and Cultural sectors aren’t prominently advertised or indeed advertised at all. For this reason, we would recommend reading the Job Search Strategies section of our website and engaging with employers through their social media where they may promote their opportunities. LinkedIn has an alumni search function for The University of Manchester which allows you to find former students working in these sectors with whom you can connect.

Media, creative and cultural Graduate JobSearch

Targeted searches

Job sites