Welcome back to another Events Space blog post! This week, I had the pleasure of chatting with Holmesglen alum Cat Cardilini. After graduating in 2018, Cat began freelancing in operations and production on events like the Australian Open, White Night Ballarat, Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF), Adelaide Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, just to name a few. During our chat, we reflected on her time studying and Cat’s colourful career in events thus far. Before we get started, I just want to say a huge thank you to Cat for so kindly taking the time out of her day to have a chat, and imparting some awesome advice and support to us.
Since graduating, Cat described her career working in events as ‘hard work, ever-changing and worthwhile’. You’ll hear these words pop up again and again during this post, because she couldn’t have described her journey any better. Let’s start at the beginning.
In 2008, Cat attended her first Big Day Out Festival when she was 15, she recalled how smooth and well-run this music festival was, she knew from that moment she wanted to be apart of it in some capacity. Fast forward to 2011 where Cat landed her first paid role working at Falls Festival that she described as ‘insane...that was my first taste of behind the scene stuff’ and her love of events just continued to grow.
After graduating high school, Cat secured an office job which she realised pretty quickly, just wasn’t cutting it. Enamoured by events, and her passion to pursue a career in a vibrant ever-changing industry, she started studying at Holmesglen and the rest is history!
When I asked Cat what has been her most memorable event, it was impossible for her to choose between the longest running contract, being The Australian Open and her ultimate event goal, Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Yes, you heard that right! I probed a little deeper, interested in what it took to work at Edinburgh Fringe - which is no small feat. Cat worked as a Roving Technician, which resulted in her unbelievably running 80 shows over the festivals four and half week run! You’d be right to think my jaw dropped when she told me.
Edinburgh Fringe was written on Cat’s bucketlist as a student, and through hard work, determination and well, lots of networking, she achieved her goal. I asked Cat what steps she took to stay on track and land one of her dream jobs, here’s how it went...
- Chosing Holmesglen to study
- Reflected during her studies on what she wanted to do next in terms of learning, which in her case was getting a Cert IV in Sound Production
- Through Holmesglen, she did placement on MICF - networking, networking, networking
- Placement at White Night, and of course networked some more
- (Stay with me!) From there, her connections from White Night Melbourne landed her a paid role as Stage Manager for White Night Ballarat where she continued to work her butt off (see a theme here?)
- After completing her studies at Holmesglen, upskilled her tech knowledge and took a short course at Box Hill Institute
- Volunteered for Dogapalooza and ran their site operations - more networking and hard work
- Reached out to MICF from her connections made previously and secured a job
- Landed a job at Adelaide fringe - here’s an interesting twist. The owner of Dogapalooza was friends with the event organiser for Fringe, she consulted her friend on whether she should hire Cat and the Dogapalooza owner couldn’t have recommended Cat more highly - thus, she scored the job!
- Worked her butt off, yet again at Adelaide Fringe, network, network, network and low and behold she met people who had worked at Edinburgh Fringe who then gave Cat the direct email to apply. So, that my friends was her road to Edinburgh Fringe!
Now, what did we learn from this coincidental 10-step plan? Cat’s journey exemplifies the importance of networking, hard work and a positive can-do attitude, but I think Cat summed it up best.
‘Even if you don’t think it matters if you’re a bit slack on one job, you don’t know how it’s going to affect you on the next one...When you’re starting out, you need to push to make sure you’re noticed...Having an attitude definitely doesn’t get you anywhere, because everyone knows everyone’
Of course, applying and a lot of planning is required to successfully freelance, but networking is vital to stay in the game (a.k.a. EMPLOYED). Cat accurately defined it as a social skill, one she has mastered and explains that...
‘...The more people you work with the better you will get at being social...Networking is such a big thing and I started doing it when I was volunteering, more than half the jobs I’ve had have been from people recommending me or saying ‘hey you know my mate…’
With every success, comes it’s challenges and lessons. I asked Cat what’s been one of the hardest lessons she’s learned since entering the industry.
‘You’ll never be perfect, no one is perfect and there’s always room for personal growth but it’s hard to accept that you’re not the best you can be and you need to ask for help...we’re humans and we don’t want to be wrong, but sometimes we have to admit that and it’s super important to keep learning off others and evolving your work style’.
Cat left us with some advice for us students - take note people!
- Take every opportunity.
- If you have the capability and backing, do short courses. That will make your CV really stand out.
- Constantly update your CV and keep it fresh (it gets easier the more frequently you do it)
- Make your dream event list and update that too
‘Good luck, stay motivated and focused. Hopefully, I’ll see you all out there!’
Thank you again to Cat for sharing her story and giving us some food for thought!
Leave a comment below and let me hear your thoughts