Meet Emily, 24, from Belfast, who works in London as a festival production manager. Part of our Bitesize world of work series.
Emily:
I'm Emily. I'm 24 and I'm a festival production manager. As a festival production manager, no two days are the same. A lot of time I spend on sites from day one till the very last day, building the shows, running them live, being coordinator for all of our staff. BBC Music Introducing Live is for young people who are really passionate about getting into the music industry, focusing on advice, seminars, feedback sessions, practical classes.
The sort of things you might see me do today are coordinate sound checks for live stages, deal with any technical difficulties that might happen in a seminar session, opening doors to the public is a massive part of our job. Working with volunteers, security teams, ticketing agencies to get people into the show. There is a little bit of admin, preparing documentation for clients and budgeting for an event. My dad actually does a very similar job to me, so just following him around the gigs at the weekends, I grew to really enjoy it. Whenever I was old enough to start working, that's all I wanted to do. I left school at 16 with some good GCSEs. I didn't go to university. I felt it was better for me to train from quite a young age and get the experience.
The best thing about my job is just the – conferences, seminars, major festivals, and public events. It takes a lot of hard work and extremely long hours sometimes. But, overall, it's really good fun.
The best thing about my job is just the variety – conferences, seminars, major festivals and public events. It takes a lot of hard work and extremely long hours sometimes. But, overall, it's really good fun.
- Emily decided further education wasn't for her and she wanted a hands-on job
- Most of the year, Emily works on site at events, but she also spends some time in the office to plan them
- Emily uses maths and English skills every day for keeping track of costs and communicating instructions to the wider production team.
What to expect if you want to be a production manager
- Production manager average salary: Variable. You could be self-employed/freelance.
- Production manager typical working hours: 38 to 40 hours per week, including evenings and weekends.
What qualifications do you need to be a production manager?
You could get into this role via a university course, a college course (such as a Level 3 Diploma or a T-level in Media, Broadcast and Production - England-only, from Sept 2023), an apprenticeship, volunteering, working towards the role by starting as a runner or an assistant in the production office, or through one of the new entrant training schemes that broadcasters and film bodies offer, such as BBC trainee schemes.
You can find out more about working in live music production through Creative Choices
Sources: National Careers Service, GOV.UK
This information is a guide and is constantly changing. Please check the National Careers Service website for the latest information and all the qualifications needed and the GOV.UK website for more on T-levels.
For careers advice in all parts of the UK visit: National Careers Service (England), nidirect (Northern Ireland), My World of Work (Scotland) and Careers Wales (Wales).
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